i woke up this morning at 9am. i called my father to let him know i'd get to belmont on my own, that i didn't need a ride. then i spent nearly 2 hours replacing my front bike wheel. the bike was covered in salt stains, so i decided it'd be a smart idea to rinse the bike using a spray bottle of water. of course everything turned to ice immediately, as temperature outside was in the 20's. i was going to work outside but realized it was just too cold. instead i removed the front wheel so i could work on it indoors.

first i rinsed the wheel in the tub, washing off all the salt stain. i dried it with paper towels before taking it to the back of my kitchen where there was some sunlight so i could remove the tire and inner tube. that took a while, the tire was pretty stubborn, took a lot of elbow grease to finally remove. the good thing is the wheel i bought is the exact same as the one i had before (just cost more: $25 versus $65). putting the old tire and inner tube on the new wheel was much easier. once i inflated the inner tube, i took the wheel outside and mounted it onto my bike. it went on without a hitch. originally i was going to do a test ride, but it was almost noontime, and i had to get going.

instead of riding the trek utility, i took the ebike instead. i just prefer taking the velotric because it saves me time. instead of going straight to belmont, i made a stop at the cafe to defrost some food items for tomorrow. little did i realize my parents had already been there and defrosted a bunch of stuff. earlier my mother went to a doctor's appointment and afterwards my parents went on a quick market basket supply run.

i ended up making it to belmont before my parents. when my parents returned home, my mother told me the mysterious itchy & painful rash that showed up on her face yesterday was actually the shingles. her doctor prescribed some valacyclovir AKA valtex. apparently it's used for treating herpes, and the chickenpox/shingles virus just happens to belong in the same family. my mother had gotten the shingles vaccine a few years back, so hopefully she won't get anymore symptoms besides the small face rash. taking valacyclovir (1g dosage) will also hasten her recovery.

we ate some leftover burger king cheese burgers for lunch. i watched some winter olympics coverage on tv. i tuned in to a recording of the freestyle skiing event featuring our favorite turncoat eileen gu. i already saw the results and knew she only got the silver medal. it was a little boring, so i turned to a live broadcast of women's big air snowboarding. japan had 4 athletes competing in a field of just a dozen. japanese kokomo murase ended up winning the gold, after receiving the bronze in the 2022 beijing olympics. there was a sense of camaraderie as the other snowboarders lifted her up and threw her in the air to celebrate. the silver winner was 24-year old new zealander zoi sadowski-synnott, who is amazingly pretty. actually, there were a lot of cute snowboarders. 18-year old japanese momo suzuki could be a model.

i went down to the basement to water the plants. i only watered the orchids, pennyworts, and pepper plants. everything else can wait a week. next weekend i plan on doing a Bti soil drench. i realized the reason why i still seeing fungus gnats is because i'm not making a strong enough Bti solution. the mosquito bits instruction says to combine 4 tablespoon of granules per gallon. later in the evening i ordered 1/4 lbs. of gnatrol powder ($27), which is concentrated Bti. it's more cost effective than using granules, which is more designed for controlling mosquitoes in a pond setting.

for dinner my mother made some steamed eggs with ground pork.

i biked home afterwards. temperature was in the low 20's, which is relatively warm, but i was still bundled up. i thought i lost a glove but found it by my ebike. riding the ebike allows me to ride in the roads on occasion since i can go just as fast as cars. one thing i really enjoy are the disc brakes. they stop so effortlessly, and ride super quiet (maybe because the pads are still new). if i ever get a new normal manual bicycle, i'd prefer disc brakes over rim brakes. i haven't had the experience of replacing disc braks yet, nor had to do any maintenance so far.

when i got back home, i put the ebike away in the basement and removed the battery to charge. i forgot the battery had been out in the cold all day, so when i tried to recharge it, it actually flashed some warning lights and didn't allow me to charge. i charged it a few hours later, when the battery warmed up.

my father came to pick me up at 11:30am. we stopped by the cafe to put away the tea eggs and rice while grabbing a few supplies before heading to belmont. i refilled the birdfeeder but didn't have time to clear the snow off the solar panels, which were all buried underneath 3 inches of snow. despite the blocking, enough light managed to get through the snow that we were still generating a very small amount of electricity.

i inspected the barley jiuniang and saw that all the jars that used my 2nd aunt's yeast balls were moldy inside. that explains why all her jiuniang turned moldy as well, bad yeast balls. the two jars that used angel rice leaven powder were still good, no mold at least. we ended up taking out the moldy jars from the styrofoam insulation box, so they don't contaminate the good jars.

we left for joyful garden close to 1pm, where we were meeting my aunt and matthew as well as my sister for birthday dim sum. despite the cold, i left my winter jacket in the car because i didn't want it to smell of greasy restaurant afterwards. the place was packed (a sign of good food), but we only waited about 5 minutes before we were seated shortly after my aunt and matthew showed up. my sister came 15 minutes later, when we were already eating. we sat in a weird area of the restaurant where the pushcarts didn't seem to come. i had plenty of tripe and chicken feet. my aunt always treat on birthdays so my father decided he'd treat today.

after we finished eating, my father and i returned home while my mother and sister went shopping at the next door target. as soon as we got back, i changed into my waterproof outfit and went out into the backyard to clear the snow off the solar panels.

with only 3 inches of powdery snow, cleaning wasn't so bad, but it was still tedious work. some time of spent shoveling at ground level so i could have space for the extension ladder. because it was so cold, there was no melting, so there was a lot of powdery snow still left behind on the panels. i'm hoping another sunny day tomorrow will quickly melt that away. in total i spent 40 minutes cleaning. when i finished, my arms were aching from grappling with the 24ft extension pole.

while up on the ladder, i was thinking about if the patriots won the super bowl tonight, what the parade schedule would be like. would they have it on tuesday or possibly wednesday? would i need to take a day off to go see the parade? then i caught myself: new england hasn't even won yet and i'm making plans for the parade!

my mother had returned. i already knew she was home because she was doing laundry and i could smell the exhaust from the dryer vent.

there was about 2 more hours before the super bowl would start. my mother was going to grill some ready made buffalo wings in the air fryer for dinner, but my father wanted some burger king. armed with with a family meal coupon, he left to go get the order while i waited for the game to start.

usually i'm very animated when i'm watching these games, but tonight i was very quiet, simply because there wasn't much to cheer about. a few defensive plays got me a little vocal, but the rest of the time i stayed silent, worried that the patriots might possibly lose. both defenses were making it hard to either teams to score. patriots offensive line was positively porous tonight, leaving drake maye with no protection, and zero time to throw the ball. patriots kept going three-and-out, could not get a first down. seahawks weren't making any gains either, but they did manage a few field goals, something new england wasn't even able to do, and was held scoreless in the first half. the score was 9-0 going into halftime, but might as well have been 21-0 given how ineffective patriots' offense was.

i asked my father to give me a ride home during halftime. things didn't look good for new england, no point watching it at my parents' place when i can watch the heartbreak at home. i grabbed my replacement front bike wheel while i was at it.

i managed to catch the end of the half time show with bad bunny. was that lady gaga with a surprise cameo?

the second half started. seahawks scored another field goal, while the patriots once again couldn't score in the third quarter. even then the score was only 12-0. two touchdowns could win the game. but given how poorly the patriots were playing, that was a tough ask. in the fourth quarter the seahawks scored the first touchdown of the game. new england followed by scoring their own touchdown. at least we won't be the first team in super bowl history to be shut out if we lose! it was also an impressive in that we scored with just three possessions, which meant drake maye was still very good if only he had enough time in the pocket to find his receivers. the score was now 19-7.

seahawks kicked another field goal to make it 22-7. it was still a two score game, but needed a 2-point conversion to tie. patriots had a glimmer of hope, but with 4 minutes left in the game, drake maye was sacked and fumbled, with seattle scoring for a touchdown. 29-7. that's when i called my mother to tell her the bad news. patriots managed to score another touchdown with 2 minutes left, but couldn't make the 2-point conversion. they lost the onside kick. the final score: 29-13.

i'm disappointed the patriots didn't win, but i'm not devastated. new england was pretty much playing with house money, nobody expected them to make it to the super bowls, not even the most diehard fan. this season has been a cinderella story, and tonight we finally turned into a pumpkin (sorry for mixing up my metaphors). i'm happy for sam darnold, that's a feel good story, that guy's been through a lot in the NFL, he deserves to win. i'm also happy for kenneth walker III who won the MVP, the first running back to do so in 28 years. that guy was amazing, patriots had no answer for him. new england fans should be happy for a magical season. yes it didn't end in a super bowl victory, but we're back to being contenders and looking forward to next season, bigger and better i hope.

by this time tomorrow we will know the winner of superbowl LX. will it be the seahawks or the patriots? i wish i could find out now, so i won't be stressed out and anxious tomorrow night. new england fans have been very lucky to have the patriots be in so many super bowls. that we're nervous whether or not our team will win tomorrow is a problem many other teams would dream to have.

it was already snowing this morning as i prepared to leave for the cafe. i decided to risk it and take the bike. i shoveled what little snow had already fallen on the sidewalk then carved out a path into the backyard, before riding the bike. i kept to the wheel wells, riding in dirty powdery slush. i kept coughing from inhaling snow through my mouth. sometimes i'd ride with two legs off the pedals, bracing myself for a potential fall (didn't happen). when i finally arrived at the cafe, i parked the bicycle on top of a snow bank.

i was surprised to find the rear door unlocked, because i didn't see my parents' car in the parking lot. my mother was inside preparing for the day, while my father left to go pick up my 2nd aunt. i had half an hour before we opened to mop the salt stains from the floor. i did this realizing i'd have to mop the floor again after work.

we got an ubereats order before we even opened. the app gave us 3 minutes to prepare an order of beef noodle soup. there was also no pickup time. i added 5 more minutes. when we had the order ready, it took several minutes to find a driver. when a driver did finally match, it said it'd take 20 minutes before he could arrive.

we didn't have actual paying customers until noontime, when a trio of very tall girls came and ordered a bento and 2 beef noodle soups. from that point on we had sporadic bursts of business. the light snow that was falling this morning continued to accumulate, to the point where we got about 5 inches.

my 2nd aunt filled us in on her flushing trip. my niece's condo is only one bedroom, so my 2nd aunt slept on the sofa. she said the house was a mess (particularly the bathroom, like nobody cleaned it). she was particularly struck by the fact that there was no microwave, so cooking was very inconvenient. what was convenient was living in the heart of flushing, with a large asian supermarket just around the corner. my niece treated my 2nd aunt to korean barbecue one night in murray hill (she didn't think it was very good), while another night my 2nd aunt treated my niece to raw marinated crabs (never had it before, sounds the opposite of delicious). my 2nd aunt reported that my niece - who was very overweight the last time i saw her - had lost 10 kg. but living in flushing surrounded by so many delicious asian foods is hard to lose weight.

i watched NBC's olympic broadcast. today it was the luge men's singles run and men's snowboard big air. there were a lot of other interesting events, but i no idea how to watch them, or if NBC was even broadcasting them (maybe on their paid peacock platform). the broadcast also has the annoying practice of shrinking the event screen and showing a larger screen with commercials right next to it. sometimes it felt like i was watching a show about commercials with tiny bits of olympics.

esmei came to the cafe today while my sister was digging out her car. i thought i saw her shivering, which is impossible, because she has two coats of fur. my sister ended up putting esmei inside the car while she continued to shovel.

the snow ended by mid-afternoon, but then continued again. at this point it's just a nuisance. unless it's snowing in feet, just a few inches of snow is nothing. my father came back to the cafe in the late afternoon. he drove my 2nd aunt home before coming back to pick up my mother. there were two customers still eating, they didn't leave until 4:15pm. by then my parents had already left, leaving me to lock up and mop the salt stains from the floor before leaving around 4:30pm.

the ride home in the snow wasn't too bad. i stuck to the tire wells, went slow. my new front wheel arrived yesterday and my parents brought it to the cafe, but it wouldn't fit in my rear basket, so i'll get it some other time. when i got back, there was so much snow heading into the backyard, i couldn't get my bike inside without first shoveling. after that i shoveled out the sidewalk for the second time today, before shoveling a path to the rest of the backyard. i didn't finish until 5:30pm.

after a hot shower, i had a leftover pastry from 2 weeks ago. i played cyberpunk until 9:30pm, before making some kraft macaroni and cheese for dinner. i used a big cube of butter and some heavy cream (didn't have milk). it tasted pretty good, but mostly because there was so much fat. one of these days i'm going to make a fancier macaroni & cheese, one that doesn't use so much processed ingredients.

i woke up a little bit early and went to market basket (MB) to get a few supplies. this was my first time riding to MB since the 2ft snowstorm, so i wasn't sure about the road conditions. it was fine for the most part. a few of the side streets were a bit narrow and i needed to stop and lean onto the snow bank in order to let cars through. i was there to get bean sprouts and pad thai noodles. they didn't have any pad thai noodles but did carry vietnamese pho noodles ($2.99) which i learned was the same as pad thai noodles.

i pedaled to the cafe afterwards, got there around 9:20am. i was mopping the salt stains off the floors when we finally opened. my mother told me that my 2nd aunt successfully boarded the 8:15am flix bus leaving flushing back to boston. she's due to arrive in boston (south station) by 12:10pm.

from 11-1pm we got slammed with customers. throughout the day my mother also managed to sell a few knitted hats. today was just as busy as wednesday, and we already made enough that we just need another $60 in sales to equal last week's earnings.

during the afternoon lull my mother made a spicy pork & tofu & cilantro stirfry that we had for lunch. i replaced the tempered glass screen cover on my mother's samsung S21. esmei made an appearance, watching us intently from the back of the car, looking for any signs that we might give her some food.

my father also cooked the barley he'd soaked overnight. they don't taste half bad once cooked. the hard husk turns soft, like eating a bigger sized version of brown rice grains. once the cooked barley cooled down to 90 degrees, we split the portion and added angel rice leaven powder to one half, and crushed jiuniang yeast balls in the other half. we're not sure how successful it'll be, having never fermented barley jiuniang before. my aunt showed up briefly and told us that her third attempt at making jiuniang once again turned moldy.

there was some light flurry when i arrived at the cafe this morning, and flurries throughout much of the day. in the late afternoon the flurries had surprisingly transitioned to a drizzle. not enough to melt any snow banks, but enough to give already cleared surfaces a light rinsing. i was afraid there'd be a lot of black ice going home, but road conditions were actually pretty good.

i did a load of laundry when i got back home before jumping into the shower.

for dinner i had some leftover fermented long beans with ground beef on rice. i ate while watching last night's episode (4) of a knight of the seven kingdoms.

afterwards i played cyberpunk until 11pm.

my neighbor's heat pump compressor was driving me insane last night. i couldn't sleep with that incessant humming sound. the problem is the colder it gets, the more it runs, and we're in store for some record breaking cold temperature this weekend so that compressor will be running overtime.

my father cooked some okra he got from my 2nd uncle when he went over his place a few days ago to pick up some supplies my 2nd aunt ordered for us. he made a stir fry with eggs. later we went online to look for more okra cooking ideas. one promising recipe is to make okra tempura.

i made myself a matcha latte with some soon-to-expire whole milk. i haven't had it in a while, so i forgot it makes me go to the bathroom soon afterwards. luckily we have that new heated bidet in the cafe bathroom. in the past going to the bathroom during the winter was unpleasant because of the freezing toilet seat. now not only is the toilet seat heated, but it also features a warm water bidet for cleaning. now i love going to the bathroom there.

my father showed me his battery charging setup with the new wifi battery monitoring app for the shunt device. i don't really understand it because he's wired a bunch of batteries together into a complex configuration that only he seems to be able to decipher. the shunt only monitors the power usage, it doesn't have the ability to cut off power even if it detects an error. to do that, you need to get a relay switch, which was something the shunt advertised as an accessory, it didn't come with the switch.

we found a large bag of whole barley left behind by the astrophysicists when they left the upstairs apartment. my father was trying to find a use for them. we saw a video demonstrating how to cook them to eat: soaking fo 24 hours then simmering for another 45 minutes. we soaked some barley to test. then i discovered that people actually use barley to make jiuniang (called tian pei), particularly in the tibetan regions. so my father soaked half a bag. he also roasted some barley to make barley tea.

we had zero customers this morning. only around lunchtime did we get a trickle of business. we thought today was going to a bad day profit-wise, but customers did show up throughout the day, so that we almost made our daily average. we finally managed to use the two batches of black soy noodles i made yesterday. i ran the ice machine to make 5 boxes of ice.

my mother made a stirfry of our final batch of fermented long beans with some ground beef. both my parents ate at the cafe while i took home a bento after work. i went the long (safer) way home again. my upstairs neighbors sent me a text this afternoon, said they wouldn't be home until sunday. they also told me nobody would be staying upstairs while they were gone. i think they only did this to remind me to shovel the snow that's due to fall on saturday, to not rely on them since they're not here. heck, even if they were here, i doubt they'd shovel anyway.

i watched the NFL honors presentation after i finished dinner. i wanted to know who would win this year's MVP. i'd never seen the show before, but was surprised by how many athletes were thanking god. i wasn't sure if i was watching a NFL award show or some kind of conservative religious revival.

my alarm didn't go off this morning. typically wednesdays i have the day off, but because my 2nd aunt is still in flushing, new york, i had to work today. i set it last night but i mustn't have saved the setting. luckily i have a pretty accurate internal clock, and woke up at 8:04am. i still had 10 minutes to struggle out of bed before using the bathroom and taking a shower.

i made it to the cafe the same time my parents arrived. i locked the bike to the sign post on top of a snow bank. i started the day by mopping the salt stains from the floor. it's a sisyphean task because it's only going to get stained again today when customers come in tracking salt onto the newly mopped floors. but i clean it anyway, otherwise the floor becomes a real mess.

my father brought his newly-arrived DC wifi battery power meter. it has a USB-C port for a power supply. once it was powered, we managed it turn on the wifi and could adjust the myriads of settings. the color LCD display is a cluttered mess, but the wifi app (the same tuya smart home app we use for our smart plugs) is much better organized.

we were very busy today from 12-2pm. a pad thai order came in but my father forgot to tell us the customer had a peanut allergy after we already sprinkled peanuts all over the noodles so we had no choice but to remake it. i ended up eating the extra pad thai, which was actually something i've been craving for a while, always tempted to buy it from the nearby thai place but never doing so since we wake our own pad thai.

given how busy we were during lunch, we figured today would be a high profit day. little did we realize that after 4pm, we didn't see a single customer for the next 2-1/2 hours. i blame this cold weather, it's killing business. hard to navigate, no place to park, freezing cold outside, why even bother ordering any food?

i returned home with some more chicken cilantro stirfry over rice. i took the long way once more, just to play it safe. it's so scary riding at night, not knowing whether i'll slip in some slushy snow or black ice. i feel like it's only a matter of time before i fall off my bike. even worse is when i have a car behind me and i can't get any closer to the shoulder because there are no bike lanes and the streets are still narrow because of the snow banks. i should be happy that i can even ride to the cafe, definitely beats walking.

after a shower i ate dinner. after dinner i went to star market to get some snacks. that little stretch of road is like a battle field. i'm navigating over black ice on the sidewalk from gutter runoffs, then i'm scrambling over snow banks just to cross the road.

i played a few hours of cyberpunk when i returned home. i'm mostly taking photos and eradicating the occasional gang groups i encounter. they offer me an opportunity to test out the various guns i have in my collect. i'm at such a high level now, their weapons can't hurt me, just minor annoyance as i swap weapons and return fire. makes me wonder if i should play at a more difficult level. i heard the rewards are greater when you play at higher difficulty.

my father set up the DC wifi battery power meter on one of his batteries. i knew this because i could see the battery (and make adjustments) in the tuya smart home app. it has a nice charting feature that shows the charge status over time.

i rode my trek utility bike to the cafe this morning. it made all sorts of uncomfortable grinding sounds and the brakes could barely stop, but i went slow so it wasn't too much of a problem.

i mopped the wooden floors one more time with hot water, to get rid of any residue salt from my weekend mopping. it sort of worked, but the salt came back. the only good way to remove salt stains is to use vinegar.

i found a yeti insulated bottle sitting outside. i was secretly hoping nobody would claim it so i could keep it, but there was a name and phone number so i ended up texting the person to let him know i found his bottle. when i opened the inside there was a frozen cylinder of ice. it must've been sitting outside for several days. when the person finally did some to pick it up, it was a woman (maybe the mother?).

my father fried a batch of salt & pepper chicken this morning. this of course meant all our clothes would be saturated with fry oil smell for the rest of the day. when i went to go swap out the plug after he finished frying, i noticed the plug for the inductor cooktop had melted. still usable, but the plug sits a little funny inside the outlet. the issue was a 6-outlet wall tap that went faulty and started to melt. we tossed out the tap and plugged the induction plug directly into the wall outlet.

i cooked 2 batches of black soy noodles in the morning and a batch of tea eggs later in the afternoon. my father also marinated several boxes of raw charsiu pork and raw salt & pepper chicken.

business was slow and steady today. there was no lunchtime spike. the busiest period was actually in the late afternoon. we managed to make a little bit above our daily average, on a day that at first seemed like we'd barely make any profit since it started so slow.

today was the first time in weeks where the temperature actually reached freezing point (it'd been subzero prior to that). today was also the first time this winter where the sunset was after 5pm. every day the sun sets 2 minutes later, so by month's end, it will be setting at 6pm.

normally when i got home i go back the same route, which involves riding down the wrong direction on two one-way streets. it's not exactly safe, so today i returned home via a longer but more street legal route, one that doesn't involve going down the wrong way on one way streets. i also had my headlight set to high, so i could avoid any slippery spots.

for dinner my mother packed me some zucchini & chicken stirfry over rice. i warmed it upin the microwave and served it with a dollop of hot sauce. i ate while watching a mike vrabel interview with bussin' with the boys. afterwards i played some cyberpunk until 11pm. tonight i spent more time admiring the scenery, exploring the city landscape without any planned missions or gigs.

i finally ordered a new front wheel for my trek utility bike. i'd previously ordered one from amazon for $40 but it was out of stock with no estimated time frame. because of the tariffs, wheels are now more expensive. i was thinking maybe scoring an old used mountain bike and pilfering the wheel, but i don't need anymore bikes in my basement. so i decided to just pay the extra and get a new wheel. the cheapest one i could find was on ebay for $63. it should arrive next week, and i can ride my trek again without fear of dying because the brakes don't work on the busted rims.

i called my 2nd aunt this morning at 8am, who was already at the south station bus depot. flixbus sent me an e-mail that her bus to queens/jamaica would be a non-flix brand bus. afraid that the red line would have delays again, my 2nd aunt got to south station with 40 minutes to spare. there was nobody waiting for her bus yet. later i found out there were only a total of 10 passengers on that bus.

i couldn't fall back asleep. instead i finished watching episode 3 of a knight of the seven kingdoms and surfed the web from bed before finally getting up by 10am. my 2nd aunt was on her way to new york city, and my parents were doing a needham-waltham supply run, hitting restaurant depot, costco, and market basket. all i had to do was to get ready and leave for belmont around noontime.

i rode my ebike again. on huron avenue by fresh pond i ran into a mini snow excavator machine widening the bike lanes on the cycle track. when my parents finally returned home around 1pm, we had some costco danish for lunch along with some smoked sausages.

seeing that my 2nd aunt had arrived in queens, i called her. she was waiting for my niece's friend to come pick her up from jamaica and escort her to flushing. later when i checked to see where she went, i saw it was right close to the center of flushing. apparently my niece's condo is in a very prime location. i also helped my 2nd aunt buy her return ticket, which leaves from the front of the flushing public library friday morning, just two blocks from where she's staying. she'll be back in boston by noontime.

i went down to the basement to water the plants. one of our indoor pepper plants has dried up from lack of watering. i gave it a thorough watering but not sure if it'll survive. watering the other plants, i saw som fungus gnats. so whatever it is i'm doing does control the gnat population, but it's not 100%, so therefore they managed to keep on reproducing, but just not at an infestation level. the insect growth regulators have no effect, that's a failed experiment. the two potted jasmines at the far end of the grow room have started to get really dry despite having wet soil. i decided to lower them closer to the ground (away from the hot bright grow lights) with the hopes that might fix the scorching.

my father made fried breaded pork chops for dinner as well as a cabbage and meatball stew served with rice. the pork chop alone was enough, but combined with the stew and rice made me feel like bursting afterwards.

returning home, i rode gingerly, keeping my eyes open for black ice or the stray snow patch. i put the ebike back in the basement and brought out my default trek utility bike.

for the first time since last sunday when we got 2ft of snow, i went biking today. i got my ebike because i figured it'd give me more power in case i needed travel fast to get out of the way of cars coming up behind me. just getting the ebike out from the basement was a challenge because i'd only cleared enough space for walking. by the time i wheeled it outside, it was covered in snow. for the most part the streets were clear enough to ride. even on roads that weren't entirely cleared, i could still at least ride in the tire tracks left over by traveling cars. there was hardly any bike lane, and what little space there was was taken over by parked cars.

i wasn't just trying to avoid icy patches and snow banks; the frigid temperature (teens) also made it a challenge. for the most part i was warm, but my face and head were freezing. i was worried i'd get frostbite on my lips as icicles formed in my moustache. i looked for a place to lock my ebike when i got to the cafe. i ended up having to lift it onto a snow bank with a buried sign post i could lock the ebike to. just that little 30 seconds of working without my gloves made my hands hurt from the cold.

i went to the cafe to put away the tea eggs but also to mop the salt stains from the floors. it took me about an hour of work, raising the chairs, vacuuming the salt pellets, spraying with vinegar solution, dry mopping, then mopping a second time to rinse.

continuing onwards to belmont, i put on my pull over neck gaiter. that seemed to keep my head warm. i lifted my ebike off of the snow bank and rode to belmont. the whole time i didn't have any cars behind me. that stretch of newly developed cycle track on huron avenue was a challenge: the city plowed it but only wide enough for a single lane. luckily i didn't meet any other cyclists, otherwise we would've been both forced to stop in order to pass each other. it was almost 1pm by the time i got to belmont.

my parents already have lunch, saved me some leftover stirfry of hunter sausages, broccoli, cauliflower, zucchini, and a fried egg. my mother made me a mug of instant matcha latte. i went outside briefly to refill the birdfeeder. i also moved my ebike because birds were using it as a perch. i went out again later with the roof rake to remove some ice from a few solar panels. even just a small piece of ice can affect a panel's overall performance. my mother cooked up some sesame-filled glutinous rice balls; i ate four.

my niece in flushing checked herself into the emergency room because she has kidney stones. she went to see the doctor earlier - who sent her home - but she went back to the hospital because of the pain. she spoke to her grandmother - my taiwanese aunt - who then tried calling my 2nd aunt to tell her to go down to new york city to take care of her granddaughter. never mind the tremendous hassle of traveling 4-5 hours in the cold, then having to travers the snow to get to my niece's house when my 2nd aunt doesn't even have the address. anyway, my 2nd aunt was in church so turned off her phone. my taiwanese aunt then called my mother, who kept trying to call my 2nd aunt.

my sister came home briefly with esmei. she complained that i didn't clear out a space for her car outside. i shoveled 4 days straight, from my home to the cafe to my parents' place, even on my day off i came and cleared the snow off the roof, and she has the audacity to order me to do more shoveling. my sister let esmei out into the backyard but freaked out when it appeared esmei escaped through a hole in the fence. it was a false alarm, esmei came running back inside the house when we called her a few more times.

for some reason they were running a marathon of sports movies on AMC. it was like catnip for me, and i ended up watching them all: moneyball (2011), followed by draft day (2014).

my father made braised fish for dinner. forgot what type of fish they were, but they had an earthy river taste to them.

i made this observation before, but going outside was liking going into outer space. dark, cold, and i had to dress up properly otherwise i'd freeze to death. i wasn't even thinking about the temperature, more focused on navigation and how to get myself home without slipping on any black ice. i made it home in one piece, left the ebike in the alleyway with a bike lock through the rear wheel in case anyone tried to steal it (i doubt it, nobody's riding in this weather).

my mother finally got in touch with my 2nd aunt, who decided she'll go down to flushing after all. i ended up buying a bus ticket for my 2nd aunt for tomorrow morning. flix bus now has routes that go to queens/jamaica and queens/flushing. the flushing bus would be perfect, but wouldn't arrive until early evening. so i got her a queens/jamaica ticket instead. it's still about 6 miles from flushing, but completely bypasses manhattan. one of my niece's friends will go pick up my 2nd aunt when she arrives in the early afternoon.

i thought i could ride the bike to work today but at the last minute decided it was safer to just walk. i took note of the road conditions, so i could try riding to belmont tomorrow.

my father dropped my mother off at work before picking up my 2nd aunt then returning home himself. my mother was busy this morning, already baking a batch of chinese sausages, roasting some charsiu pork, cooking the rice, and portioning out the curry chicken.

i ordered some heating oil for my parents. even though the price of gasoline has gone down nationally, heating oil prices continue to rise. currently i's $3.65/gallon. i only ordered 100 gallons this time, to be delivered on tuesday.

we were busy today - the last day of january - between 12-1pm and 3-4pm. all other times we barely saw any customers. during our afternoon crunch, i accidentally poured zhajiang noodles sauce onto a bento. we redid the two orders, and i ended up eating the zhajiang sauce rice for lunch, mixed with some shredded cucumbers and hot sauce.

my 2nd aunt brought some hunter sausages she got from the russian supermarket. i baked it for a few minutes in the air fryer but it was already cooked. it's a kind of polish smoked kielbasa flavored with spices like juniper. i like it, has a very rustic flavor, i could imagine a hunter out in the woods snacking on one of these.

i helped my 2nd aunt order some over-the-counter medication using her insurance card. i also helped her make her third weee order. we discovered on tuesday that even though weee advertises free shipping if you order a certain amount, they will still automatically add a handling fee ($2-3) and a tip without asking. i helped my 2nd aunt take off the tip before made her order.

my father came back before we closed and helped us clean up before giving us all rides home. my 2nd aunt was first, we dropped her off at star market because she needed to get some groceries. my parents were going to drop me off at home, but i opted to walk the rest of the way instead when my father stopped at cumberland farm to get some gasoline for the snowblower. it was weird coming home from the cafe via somerville avenue, i believe it's a first. there was a convoy of cars at the car wash.

i set up the wooden shelf i picked up yesterday to hold a bunch of my plants. now they're no longer on the floors and i can open my back door if i wanted to.

after a shower, i played cyberpunk for the next 4 hours. i stopped to get something to eat. i wasn't too hungry, just had a sponge cake my 2nd aunt gave me tuesday.