i stopped at whole foods along the way to return a few things (two bottles of makeup for my mother, a shirt too small for me). a woman with two shopping bags worth of merchandise was using the return kiosk, and another woman waited behind me. "are you here to return?" a whole foods employee came out and asked us. since they figured there'd be a lot of people returning things post-christmas, amazon set up a dedicated return station right by the checkout aisles. it was much faster than using the kiosk.
i made it to mulan around 11:20am. there was no customers, just a group of employees sitting by one of the tables waiting for it to get busy. i ordered half a smoked duck along with 3 lunch specials. "do you want rice with that?" the man asked me. that threw me for a loop. "doesn't the lunch specials come with rice?" he told me because of new year's eve, they didn't have lunch specials today. the lunch special price plus the duck would've been about $55; it was now $85 and not even including rice. i called my mother asking if she still wanted the order. she said no, so i just got the smoked duck instead. because i paid cash, i even got a discount. it took them just a few minutes to give me my order. we wished each other a happy new year before i left.
i came home to grab my stuff before continuing to the cafe. i remeasured all the chair legs. i made a mistake yesterday but just measuring the chair leg covers, which i should've measured the actual chair legs instead. once i got the measurements, i rode to my parents' place.
there were swaths of cirrus clouds in the sky. i forgot what they mean, whether good or bad weather approaching. i even saw a rainbow cirrus cloud, when the sun hit the ice crystals just right.
my mother got me a costco hotdog with a drink. i wolfed it down in just a few bites. she told me that costco was empty today, and that they had plenty of eggs available, just more expensive ($15 instead of $11, which is already pricey compared to a year ago). my parents bought 4 packs. what i saw at restaurant depot was probably just restaurants gobbling up the stock before new year's eve.
i decided today would be the perfect day for me to finally put my motorcycle away for winter storage. it'd been sitting in my parents' garage almost 2 weeks, since we had that snowstorm. i could probably still keep on riding it, but why delay the inevitable? besides, we're heading into a cold snap next week, and it's no fun riding in the freezing cold, plus always worrying about when the next snowstorm will hit. today was the perfect day because we've had a few rainstorms that'd melted all the snow and more importantly washed away all the road salt. plus today was a warmish day (50 degrees), so i could wash the motorcycle one last night before putting it away in storage. it's no fun washing the bike in the winter when the temperature is freezing and puddles on the driveway change to black ice.
first thing i needed to do was fill up the tank. i went to the mobil gas station across from the belmont library. the tank was already half full, so it didn't take much to fill it. i added an ounce of star tron enzyme fuel treatment which will stabilize the fuel during storage. coming back is when i noticed the belmont library wasn't there anymore. apparently they tore it down to build a new one. the old library was a quaint brick structure; this new library looks like a borg cube and comes all the way up to the sidewalk.
back at the house, i washed the the motorcycle. i connected a hose to the outdoor faucet. for the most part the bike was pretty clean, but my chains were filthy, and i ruined two used sponges trying to clean off all that grease. i dried the bike with some microfiber towels before applying a layer of wax. once the wax dried, i polished off the wax with a microfiber cloth. the bike was ready for storage.
i had to get my father to help me. usually we put the bike in head first, but i wheeled the bike into the garage back first this time (so it'd be easier to move it come spring). once in position, my father raised it on the bike stand.
the next step was to turn off the fuel and run the carburetor until it was dry. i made a mistake by not turning off the fuel, so the engine was just sitting idle for 5-10 minutes. once i realized my mistake, the engine sputtered to a stop after about 5 minutes. we kept the garage door open and i stayed away from the inside due to carbon monoxide. i started the bike a few more times to make sure all the fuel was used up, until it wouldn't start anymore. i left the bike in the garage to give the fumes time to air out.
my father moved the cars back on the driveway. we turned on the air compressor and measured all the tires, inflating those with low numbers.
before dark, i returned to the garage to remove the battery. i thought about recharging the battery in the garage, but better to do it indoors where it's warm. i couldn't find the desulfator charger, so i used the old trickle charger instead. i also put the cover on the motorcycle, keep the dust out while it's in storage.
as inconvenient it is to be without a motorcycle, it's also a relief to put it away in storage. i don't have to worry about parking or whether it snows or not. now my only ride is the bicycle, and this past week i've biked to belmont and back enough times that i've gotten used to it.
for dinner my father cooked up the garlic scapes i got from chinatown yesterday, made a stirfry with smoked chinese pork. he also cooked up a bokchoi stirfry with the surplus of bokchoi we had from the cafe. my mother cooked up the last of the clams after i soaked them in salt water again to get rid of more sand. unfortunately the clams were still pretty sandy, we just needed to rinse the shells in the broth before eating. they were salty, not sure whether that's natural or because i soaked them in salt water a few times. as for the garlic scapes, they looked incredibly fresh and for some reason were straight instead of curly. but once we cooked them, they hardly had any garlic taste.
returning home, i enjoyed the final few hours of 2024. there was nothing good to watch on tv besides new year's eve celebration programming. there was a celtics game in the late afternoon that ended with a 71-125 beatdown of the raptors. i tuned into CNN's new year's eve coverage with andy cohen and anderson cooper. the alcohol restriction from last year has been lifted, after CNN realized people enjoy watching their hosts more when they're drunk. the best part was when ralph fiennes made a cameo. andy cohen was confessing how much he enjoyed fiennes' naked acting in the return. later fiennes performed a monologue from some influencer that had andy and anderson cackling.
with just hours to go, i suffered one final 2024 tragedy: i broke the crown on my dental implant when i accidentally bit into an unopened corn kernel. i knew right away something was wrong, as i fished out the broken piece of enamel from my mouth mixed with crushed popcorn. it didn't hurt, as that entire tooth is just an artificial implant. i cracked about a quarter of the molar. i can still eat on that side, it just feels weird when i run my tongue across the unfamiliar sharp contour. i'll need to contact doctor huang next week, see if he's still opened (if he hasn't retired), to make an appointment to get a replacement crown. this is a good thing, i can also get a dental cleaning while i'm at it.