i was kind of dreading today - wednesday - my one day off - because i had so many things to do. first thing i did was go down to walgreens to pick up my ezetimibe prescription. there were 3 people ahead of me in line. i felt like they were newbies because they didn't even know where to line up.
next i went to market basket. not to get anything, but rather to ask their lost-and-found department if they found my father's wallet. he hasn't seen it since this weekend. the last time he used it was rainy saturday morning when we came to market basket to get a few things before work. my parents already searched the cars and everywhere around the house, but still haven't found it. there hasn't been any suspicious activities on the credit cards, so it's not like somebody stole it. anyway, the woman working behind the counter said the only wallet was a red wallet that belonged to a woman. since i was there, i ended up getting some 9 oz. plastic cups to be used as pots for my pilea giveaway.
from there i rode into boston, to get some blood drawn. this is actually related to the ezetimibe i picked up earlier. it's a new drug i'm taking, and my doctor wanted to know if it was doing anything. i got to MGH after 10am, which is when the blood lab on the 5th floor wang opens up, saving me from having to go to the more crowded 2nd floor blood lab. cintia the phlebologist only took a single small test tube of blood. when she asked me if i'd been fasting (a requirement of a lipid panel), i said yes even though earlier i had a fisherman's friend cough lozenge. later i got a message from my doctor with the results. since being on ezetimibe, my LDL has dropped 25% to 75mg. he wants to see it around 70mg.
i got back home by 10:30am. i used the bathroom and took a shower. using an awl heated over the gas stovetop, i melted drainage holes into 40 plastic cups to turn them into pots. but the metal shank of the awl came out of the plastic handle. i was still able to use it, but i had to use a pair of pliers each time to pull out the shank.
i left by 11am for belmont, where i had a list of projects. i went via my fuji road bike so i could exchange it for my motorcycle. i'd already biked 6 miles round trip into boston and back, i barely had enough energy to get to my parents' place. my father was home, emptying the two snowblowers from the garage.
we installed the 6" round metal screens on our two blue rain barrels (facing the front of the house). they work much better than what we had before, which was just an aluminum louver that didn't have a screen so mosquitoes could still get into the barrel to lay eggs. as for the other barrel (the one i got from lisa), it never had a screen, i think we just put some mesh fabric over the 6" hole and hoped for the best.
after i pulled up a few more newly-emerged dandelions, my father mowed the lawn. it was our first time mowing using the mulch attachment, which is basically this cheap metal plug that blocks the grass collection chute so the clippings get redistributed back onto the lawn. the ego mower with the twin blades seem to do a pretty good job, i didn't notice any clippings on the lawn after my father finished. i also pulled up any creeping bellflowers (especially near the southern bed) and ground ivy (western bed). ground ivy are especially easy to identify right now because they have pretty purple flowers. i noticed a lot of violets, which means rabbits haven't gotten into our backyard recently (otherwise they would eat them all). the hyacinths i planted bloomed last weekend, but today i saw that some of the sundisc daffodils have also bloomed. they give the backyard a nice smell, and rabbits don't seem to eat them. our hope bines have also grown; they need some TLC this weekend, especially the post which broke last season.
it was finally time to replace the carburetor for our two stage craftsman snowblower. as noisy and smelly and bulky that thing is, it still works, and nothing beats it for clearing large amount of snow. it can be a real help during the winter after a blizzard. we never got the craftsman to work during this winter. we've never really taken care of it in any way, it's a miracle it worked for this long. a gunked up carburetor seems to be the issue. we can either clean up the carburetor (after watching a few youtube videos, doesn't seem that hard), or simply replace it (100% guaranteed success and less mess). it's been so long since i took apart the snowblower, i had to go back to photos i took in february to remember what i did. replacing the carburetor was actually pretty easy (using an 11mm combination wrench), took all but a minute. we didn't even replace the old gasket, which still seemed intact.
what took longer was installing a fuel shut off valve. the craftsman never had one before, which meant gasoline would just pool in the carburetor, unless we somehow drained it (which was never). i decided to leave the old fuel line intact, and instead cut a short piece of new fuel line to connect the fuel tank to the shutoff valve, then connect the valve to the fuel line going into the carburetor. now with the shutoff valve, we can turn off the fuel and run the carburetor to burn up what little is still left in the fuel line.
the carburetor kit also came with a fuel filter but there was simply no more room to attach it. kit included new replacement buttons but none of them seemed to fit so we used the old buttons instead.
we tested the newly repaired snowblower by adding some fuel into the tank and running the engine. the craftsman never worked this winter, and we actually haven't ran it for many years since we had some recent mild winters. we primed the engine, put the throttle to high, opened the choke, and pressed the start button. the snowblower fired up without a hitch, my father had to adjust the settings because it was revving a little high. afterwards we closed the fuel shutoff valve and ran the carburetor until it went dry.
with the craftsman fixed, we moved onto the toro single stage snowblower. even though i bought a carburetor kit for the toro, we actually managed to get it running this winter. the problem? broken prime button. after i switched it out, it started working again. sort of. apparently the rubber paddles were so worn down, it could barely throw any snow. single stage snowblowers also use the paddles to propel it forward, but when my father used it, he had to push it because the worn paddles didn't even make traction with the pavement. we used the impact driver to remove the bolts securing the old paddles, but that turned out to be overkill, as the bolts can easily removed with just two 11mm combination wrenches. we removed one paddle first to see if we can install a new one, and that's when he hit a roadblock: the bolts couldn't fit through the holes on the new rubber paddle. my father thought about filing the holes to make them bigger, but i said we should consult youtube first before proceeding.
i installed the battery back into the motorcycle. i also attached the EC-5 cables, to jump start the motorcycle in case the battery fails. i reassembled everything and had my father help me lower the motorcycle down off of the jack. he helped me push it out in the driveway, and after a few minutes to allow the fuel to refill the carburetor, the motorcycle started up fine. testing the tire pressure, the front tire was only 14psi (should be 29psi), while the back tire still maintained 30psi. after inflating the front tire, i rode the motorcycle out of the driveway and parked it outside.
i helped my father move our collapsible picnic table from the garage into the backyard.
because i didn't water the grow room this weekend, i had to do it today. all the jasmines and wintering peppers were outside, but i had to bring them all back inside temporarily as tonight's temperature will drop into the 40's. jasmines might be able to survive that, but definitely not the peppers.
i brought out all my pileas from the grow room so i could repot them and remove the babies for gifting. i decided to gave them away at the mid-cambridge plant swap. from just 8 mother pileas i managed to harvest 30 babies. the scary thing is i have more babies to harvest, as i still have a dozen adult pileas with multiple offsprings. we'll give those away at the cafe.
i was finally finished by 6pm. my father made some food for me - fried egg and sweet congee - i ate the egg and a few spoonfuls of congee. i also helped my father get a new drive license online, $25 and it'll take 10-14 days. in the meantime he's driving illegally, but i found a photo of his driver license and sent it to him.
i motorcycled back to cambridge. the odometer read 17415 miles. not only was the handlebar clock still working, but it even showed the correct time. it was warm enough (70's) that i rode in just a t-shirt. riding a motorcycle is the closest you can get to feel like you're flying on the road, you just can't get that same feeling in a car.
my mother got slammed today at the cafe. it was another busy day. thankfully my sister was working today as well, with my 2nd aunt assisting.
when i got home i realized i left my keys at my parents' house. i had to go rummaging for my hidden spare key to get into the house. i had some houseplants on the porch that i brought in so they wouldn't freeze tonight. i noticed the new hyacinth beans i planted have sprouted. one pot had a single seedling while the other pot had two. i ended up transplanting the spare seedling and replanting it in its own pot. peering into the grow closet, i noticed a few more bitter melon seeds had germinated in my wet-napkin-bowls: one green (normal) bitter melon and 3 (supposedly) white bitter melons. i removed the shells and transferred them into pots.
the two things i didn't get to do today was go for a run and work in the community garden. i still have this week to make up my garden work time (maybe i can leave work early to do it, i figured some watering and weeding). as for running, i had over 10,000 steps today, not counting the 9 miles of bike riding, so i definitely got my fill of exercise.
for dinner i reheated the leftover pizza from last night. afterwards i watched episode 5 of andor.