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i went to the harvard square post office to buy some stamps today. i was surprised to discover that they no longer have those stamps vending machines anymore. that was the whole reason why i even went there, just so i wouldn't have to wait in line to buy stamps. faced with no other alternatives however, i ended up waiting in line, 7 customers deep. there was a scruffy looking college-aged kid sheepishly pushing a stack of boxed packages with his legs. "hi, i like to mail this," he said to the clerk, putting a guitar case on the counter. if i disliked him before, i really hated him now. fortunately there were other clerks on duty, so it didn't hold up the line that much. regardless though, it was still too much waiting for me as i left the harvard post office and made my way to the porter square one, closer to my house and normally a lot less crowded.

turned out i gambled wrong, as there were just as many people in the porter square post office. dispirited, i got in line. a hairy young asian man (hairy because i saw the back hairs creepy out of the neck of his t-shirt) was ahead of me in line, asking about a lost package. the woman behind was trying to cut the line. first she made comments about how there was only one clerk working. "is this normal?" she asked. i shrugged. then i could see she was so impatient to get ahead that she was actually pressing up against me. "can you pay with a card?" she asked, looking at the credit card in my hand. "yeah," i said. that was followed by her asking me, "are you in a hurry?" without looking at her, i answered back, "i'm just buying stamps." if she'd only known what trouble i went through just to buy some lousy stamps, she'd know better.

after that little ordeal was over, i headed to nearby city paints on mass ave looking for more deck cleaning chemicals. hopefully i can have a little chat with my upstairs neighbor tomorrow morning and figure out a strategy.

earlier i'd planned on going to the middlesex fells for a spot of naturing to finish out the week and to take advantage of this final day of good weather, but that's before the temperature suddenly cooled and some overcasting clouds blew into town. it was getting late anyway (3pm, not even time for me to go out and come back before i hit rush hour traffic), so i decided to just stay at home. i went down to the basement to organize some used paint cans for recycling and inspected the deck a little bit to figure out what needs to be done. i also watered the garden. later i walked to the dollar store to get some candy, one the few guilty pleasures that i can still afford with my meager budget.

for lunch i finished up the leftover vodka sauce pasta i made a few nights ago. i fell asleep watching the red sox game (they lost to tampa bay in extra innings), but woke up later to make some ramen and catch the latest episode of BSG.