there was some faint drizzle when i went to the cafe this morning. i wore my rain jacket but there was barely any precipitation. yesterday because of the rain was a slow day at the cafe, so they didn't use up too much supplies. today looked to be much the same, with just a slow yet steady trickle of customers throughout the day. my parents portioned out some zhajiang noodle sauce and made a new batch of veggy buns in the late afternoon. my father made some handcut noodles for lunch, served with some zhajiang sauce and laoganma chili crisps.

my father and i spent the morning moving boxes and furniture in the basement, so the plumber can get access to the water main. we moved everything into the small storage room that my sister hired guys last year to clean up the mold and whitewash the walls and ceiling. city of cambridge said we had a leak in our water main. the plumber didn't see it at first, but when he checked again he could dripping inside the wall. if the leak is out on the sidewalk the city will fix it; if it's inside the building we have to fix it. some city guys came as well, my sister went to go deal with them. when she came back, she said the city determined the leak is our issue and we have to pay $9000 to get it fixed.

the same city guys who came today also did some work elsewhere on the street. i didn't see what it was because i was too distracted by a real weird ebike parked right outside the cafe. i'd never seen anything like it, very industrial, like a frame made out of a steel i-beam with bike components attached to it. closer inspection revealed it wasn't actually an ebike but an electronic motorcycle. i did some research and it's a cake ösa modular electric utility motorcycle. it originally cost upwards of $12,000, but the swedish manufacturer went bankrupt, and an american liquidator called EMOTO (based on florida) but up all the remaining motorcycles and now selling them for half the price. even at half price they're expensive, but the motorcycle is so weird looking, it doesn't even look lik a real vehicle. this one was a two seater, with a belt drive, and a large 3.5kWh battery (50.4V 70Ah). i thought maybe it belonged to one of the contractors and was hoping to run into the owner. unfortunately they left before i could catch them.

it was supposed to rain today, and the weather was overcast for the most part, but we only got a few passing showers at best, nothing torrential or substantial. by the time we closed, it started to rain again, a light drizzle. once more i put on my rain jacket. they still haven't fixed garfield street - still milled - so i ended up riding on the sidewalk.

i made korean rice cake for dinner again. there was nothing good to watch on television, so i streamed next stop wonderland (1998), a romantic comedy set in boston. it's got a wonderful cast, filled with actors i've seen before. hope davis, philip seymour hoffman, holland taylor, robert klein, roger rees, just to name a few. it's also fun seeing the various greater boston landmarks. unfortunately i couldn't quite get into the movie. it moved at such a slow pace, i got bored.

the weather forecast last night said it wouldn't start raining until 11am-12pm. that gave me a window to bike to my 9am MGH appointment and back, and i wouldn't have to take the slow red line replacement shuttle bus. i left the house around 8:30am, taking the trek allant. i brought my rain gear just in case, for the trip back if the forecast changes and it's pouring rain.

the ride was a little cool with the temperature dip but no rain. there were other cyclists, and i even managed to pass a few on the faster allant. approaching kendall square, i had to once again pause for a train crossing, second time in as many days. i didn't see any red line shuttle buses until i got to the longfellow bridge. there was a convoy of about half a dozen, slowly making their way outbound. i made the right decision taking the bike.

i got to mass general hospital with more than 10 minutes to spare. i only waited a few minutes before a nurse took me back to take vitals: height, weight, temperature, oxygen, and blood pressure. my pressure was low - 117/78 - probably because i biked over and my heart was still beating fast (pulse rate high).

they placed me in one of the windowless exam rooms. i don't know what the rules are when i comes to exam room assignments. do you get the window room if it's an annual physical? or is it completely random?

my doctor saw me a short time later. he asked how i was, i said okay. i told him i biked here, i asked him how he got to the hospital today. he said he took the red line shuttle buses yesterday. they were comfortable, plenty of buses, but because they driving on regular roads, they're very slow due to traffic. it took him about an hour to go from alewife to MGH/charles. he said he wouldn't do that again, and had his wife drop him off at medford where he took the commuter rail to north station. that was something i considered, grabbing the commuter from porter square. but the trains only arrive every hour and the schedule wouldn't work out. he said two patients actually cancelled their appointment today because they were worried about the rain.

my doctor asked if he could take notes on his phone. i said sure, i wasn't adverse to technology. that got us talking about AI, which seems to be a hot topic these days. he told me something shocking: in 5-10 years there won't be any general practitioner doctors like him anymore. a nurse can just as easily see patients, guided by AI treatment plans. he showed me an AI search engine called open evidence. it's for medical professionals only, but it pulls data from reputable medical journals, conference transcripts, etc. and collates everything into an easy to digest summary. this is something a normal doctor could do on their own, scouring the data, but this saves them time. he did a demonstration where he searched for "asian male 50+ hypertension treatment options" and it quickly gave him a comprehensive summary that was almost a near match to the treatment he's giving me.

he's seeing the AI revolution first hand and he's worried about his job. he can imagine the hospital easily reducing their doctor staff and resorting to AI instead. his wife writes medical reviews for drug companies, kind of an audit before they submit the drug for FDA approval. it involves pouring over the data and writing up summaries, very objective reporting that AI excels at. he warned her that her job could be in danger, and that she should use AI to help her research. her answer: "we get paid by the hour, so the longer it takes, the more i make." but the danger is some other company might undercut them, offer cheaper service thanks to AI.

i've always thought the medical profession was safe from AI intrusion, because who would trust a computer to diagnosis their problems? but apparently that's not the case. even surgeons - who can replace them? - are in danger. imagine AI robot surgeons that can work more efficiently with zero mistakes, knocking out surgeries like a conveyer belt assembly line factory.

the final thing my doctor told me was the proliferation of patients coming in with independent full body scans/tests. apparently there's a burgeoning industry where rich people pay out of pocket to get a full checkup. this is done to catch diseases - cancer is a big example - that a routine physical might miss.

finally we got to why i was there in the first place, my biannual followup. i showed him my blood pressure data from the past two days. he didn't see anything that seemed troubling, so no change in my medication. the one thing he could do would be to up my thiazide dosage, flush out more salts from my body. if that doesn't work, he might put m on chlorthalidone, which an even stronger prescription diuretic, but i would also have to take potassium supplements.

i had three questions for my doctor. first question, i have these mysterious chest pains that come and goes. there's no pattern to it. i spoke with my doctor before, and i had a full scan of my heart a while back but they found no abnormalities. my doctor suggested i try popping an antacid tablet whenever i get these pains. it might not do anything, but at least we can rule out heartburn. second question was my itchy feet. i don't see any signs of athlete's foot, yet they continue to itch intermittently, and never in the same place. i asked if it was some kind of drug interaction, or a nerve issue. he said it has to be athlete's foot, which is the most common reason for foot itch. he told me to use the foot cream for 3 weeks not just 1 week and see what happens. my third and last question is what are my options regarding my thinning hair. my insurance wouldn't cover it, but my doctor would be more than happy to prescribe something. the two most common treatment is rogaine and finasteride. rogaine comes in a cream but also a pill form. it will regrow hair, but you basically have to take it forever, since once you stop, your hair starts falling out again. rogaine has an added benefit in that it was originally designed to lower blood pressure, so it might help with my HBP issue. finasteride works by inhibiting testosterone. common side effects are low libido issues. i told my doctor i'd think about my options.

my doctor did a quick checkup, listening to my lungs with a stethoscope and looking inside my ears. he noticed a bit of earwax in my right ear and asked if i wanted one of the nurses to flush it out for me. i said sure. with that i bid my doctor good bye and waited for the nurse to show up.

ear irrigation basically involved me holding a container below my ear while the nurse gently squirted some warm water with hydrogen peroxide into my earhole. a tiny bit of wax came out, but there was still some blockage. she ended up using a long tweezer to carefully pry out the earwax.

i went to reception to book my next appointment 6 months out. the receptionist kept telling me it couldn't be done, and that they'd just send me a reminder next year to make the appointment. she kept telling me they can't book appointments a year in advance. i had to tell her it was for 6 months a few more times before she snapped out of her trance and finally gave me my next appointment for february.

i went down to the 5th floor to get my blood drawn. usually the place is crowded, but maybe they just opened, because there was only one person ahead of me in the waiting area. my phlebotomist was named fatima, she's never taken my blood before. it was quick and easy, i left after a few minutes.

by the time i left the hospital a little after 10am, there was some very light rain, felt more like a mist. i got on my bike and quickly pedaled home.

back at home, i took a shower and had lunch in the form of a blueberry croissant cheesecake my sister bought from costco.

i spent the rest of the day sorting my photos. that involved downloading them off of my dSLR camera and phone, fixing the dates (they get messed up during the transfer), then sorting them into dated folders. the sorting part could probably be done using a script of some sort, but i was afraid something might go wrong and the photos disappear in the process. it's safer when i do it manually even though it takes a long time.

when the rain finally fell, it wasn't too bad. there we puddles on the roads but the street didn't flood like last time. i even had my living room window open to let in the cool breeze.

my blood work results came back, everything seem to be normal, at least within normal parameters. my doctor wrote me a letter soon afterwards, explaining the results. he said my numbers were very good. thyroid function norma, prostate cancer screening normal, kidneys, electrolytes and liver normal. my A1C is 5.1%, which is also in the normal range (thanks to the two cholesterol drugs i'm taking, atorvastatin and ezetimibe). he said my cholesterol numbers are excellent with an LDL of 66. the only stray number was my fasting glucose which was 105, outside of the 99 cutoff. between 100-125 is prediabetes, but since all my other numbers are good, it's probably an anomaly but something to keep any eye on.

my sister contacted me in the early afternoon. asked if she could drop off esmei at my place around 3:30pm, and then come back and pick her up by 7pm. i would feed esmei her dinner while my sister go out for some brazilian barbecue at the burlington mall with the chinese grad student living above her. i wasn't sure at first, but esmei would probably be sleeping most of the time, so i agreed to do it.

i cleaned up my house a bit, put away any food esmei might be able to get ahold of. i waited and waited but my sister didn't show up until after 4pm. esmei spent some time exploring the house, sniffing all the new smells. i pulled out a sofa chair so she could sit on it and look outside, which she did for a while before she got bored. she slept on the floor, then in the foyer (the mailman dropped some letters on her head), finally on the couch. i had all her toys out but she wasn't in a playful mood.

at 6pm i fed esmei. unlike our old dog hailey who seemed to have a clock, esmei has no idea when it's dinnertime. in fact, she doesn't seem the least bit hungry, and i had to wake her up so she could eat.

my sister texted me around 7pm, said they were still eating. i kind of had a feeling she wasn't going to keep her promise. knowing that somebody taking care of esmei, she felt no rush to get home early. i was hoping for esmei to leave before i started dinner but i had no choice but to start cooking. esmei was sleeping but followed me into the kitchen to watch me cook before falling asleep on the kitchen floor.

i had korean rice cake for dinner. quick and easy, really hit the spot on a damp night. esmei slept on the couch while i ate. she's not one of those dogs that watch you eat and guilt-trip you into sharing some food with her. i felt kind of guilty because it's been more than 4 hours and i wonder if esmei needed to use the bathroom. but she wasn't making any fuss, just quietly slept.

my sister didn't show up until almost 9pm. instead of scolding her, i quickly gave her all of esmei's stuff she they could leave. she gave me a present she bought at the LEGO store, i asked her if she could return it because the last thing i want is to see her spending more money.

i vacuumed the living room rug and sofa, getting rid of some dog hair.

in my garden this morning i harvested one butterfly pea flower before watering my plants. i then went the wrong way on several one way streets to get to the cafe to start my tuesday shift.

3 passion flowers bloomed today. my father also showed me three passion fruits. for a plant that's not supposed to self-pollinate, that seems more than a coincidence, so makes me think that a nearby neighbor might be growing a passion vine as well, and by luck we managed to pollinate a few flowers. the sky was a bit overcast so i didn't bother watering the plants. besides, it's going to rain all day tomorrow, so they'll get plenty of water.

my parents brought the spearmint i harvested yesterday. i pulled off the leaves and made a mint syrup by blending everything with 200g of sugar plus 200g of water. i strained out the solids, saving the dark green liquid.

we were busy today but it didn't feel like it (we doubled our profit compared to last tuesday). we had a steady stream of customers (including our regular allen we came back from his cape cod vacation) starting from 11am and didn't end until after 4pm. we even had two big orders after 6pm when we preparing to close: a woman who phoned in her order while driving ("sorry, but i'm having a hard time hearing you," she said, while driving and looking at our online menu) and a boy and his father who ordered a bunch of stuff right at closing time, forcing up to open an extra 15 minutes while making their orders.

my father forgot to take his compost bin over the weekend, so there were fruit flies everywhere. i put out some apple cider vinegar traps but didn't catch any flies yet. i made a new batch of tea eggs and 2 batches of black soy noodles. i cooked new dumplings twice. we were nearly out of chinese sausage and when i went down to the basement to get another frozen box to thaw, i discovered we were all out. my father rendered the case of boneless chicken thighs we bought yesterday. he froze half as-is while marinating the other half for future deep frying. i roasted some sichuan peppercorn before pulverizing them into a powder for my father to use to flavor the chicken.

i brought my blood pressure monitor, took readings every few hours. my numbers were pretty stable. i think that's because i didn't really eat anything all day, so didn't have any sodium spikes. i hope my doctor will appreciate these more granular data points when i see him tomorrow morning.

by day's end my parents made some garlic chive dumplings for dinner while my father also cooked up one of the luffas. my mother sent me home with some leftovers from yesterday as well as some luffa.

i'm still debating as to how i'm getting to my 9am mass general hospital appointment. i've been following the weather forecast all day, looks like it's still dry by 8am. maybe i could bike to MGH, but the problem is coming back, where it'll be solid rain. i think it'll be a game time decision tomorrow morning. do i have an appetite to get thoroughly soaked? or can i just take the free shuttle (subway alternative) even though it'll take longer?

i woke up at 9am. after using the bathroom and a quick shower, i moved the weber grill down to the basement before taking the ebike to the community garden. i didn't water because i watered last night, but i harvested 2 butterfly pea flowers. i left via an alternative route, trying to avoid the heavily construction patched linnaean. i made it to belmont after 10am for a newton-needham supply run. i had just enough time to make a batch of sangria:

the only difference was instead of white zinfandel, i bought merlot instead. something new this time was the addition of orange juice to make it sweeter and more citrusy (besides all the citrus slices and the orange-flavored triple sec). we left it to refrigerate, should be ready to drink by the time we get back.

after getting $40 worth of gas (only 10 gallons), we headed to newton. we planned on visiting the new newton asian market which is actually just another c-mart chain. it was easy to get to, once we arrived at newton center, we headed to the municipal parking lot. we had to pay, but my mother remembered my aunt said there was plenty of free parking, so we went looking. sure enough, behind the asian market was a large free parking lot. the rent on this property must be crazy.

the place was formerly a walgreens (so i've been told). produce front and center, fish department off on one side, walls lined with refrigerators and freezers, and several aisles of dried goods in the back. i think i even recognized one of the workers from the former boston c-mart. because there was so much refrigeration, it was kind of cold inside the store. it was very well stocked though the prices were moderate. you can't say it's cheaper in chinatown since there's practically no more asian supermarkets there anymore (they all migrated to quincy and malden, with h-mart filling in some gaps like cambridge, somerville, and burlington). the higher prices - whether you like it or not - are the new prices everywhere it seems. some of the produce on sale were good bargains though: lychees for just $1.98/lbs, and a remainder section where we picked up some guava, asian pears, and taiwanese melons for just $2 a bag. i thought the place would be small but there's more than enough space. it really is the closest option to an asian market for us coming from belmont, about a 15 minute car ride. by bicycle though, it'd still take about half an hour (5 miles) mainly on roads with no bike infrastructure.

next we continued to needham. we made a second stop, this time to baza gourmet food & spirits. my father and i first came here 1-1/2 years ago. it was really eye-opening, discovering all the myriads of slavic and eastern europe foods. we bought kvass and smoked sprats. that day we came the place was crowded, could barely find a parking spot. that must've been on a weekend, because today there were only a few cars in the parking lot. there were signs that said 10% senior discounts every tuesday and wednesday, and 15% discount the 2nd of every month (not sure the significance of that date). we were greeted outside the market with a bunch of flowering plants for sale, many of which were uncommon. there were potted angelonias and osteospermums, but the coolest thing we saw was an abutilon pruned into a small tree with pretty flowers that looked like hanging chinese lanterns (it was $80).

when my mother first went inside she tempered her expectations. she said the market was clean and had no funky smells. she checked out all the produce, as well as freezers full of various dumplings. she found some squash seeds and bought a package. it wasn't until she turned the corner and realized the place was way bigger than she realized. "we should've been shopping here earlier!" she exclaimed. never mind that every time we come through newton-needham we ask her if she wanted to visit and she's always said no. she discovered there was a deli, as well as a bakery. they also sell various wines. there was a lot to take in for a first timer. we bought some hunter's sausages ($7.99/lbs). we also got some chocolates with alcohol-based filling. there were many to choose from, but we finally found some familiar likernyes. my mother also got some calamari salad.

our final stop was restaurant depot in needham. when we got there there were a bunch of parkings in the indoor parking lot. by the time we left, the parking lot was virtually empty, everyone already finished with their supply runs and gone for lunch. we came here to restock our eggs. they had some cheaper large eggs last time (9¢/egg), but they only had extra large eggs this time (almost 15¢/egg) so we had no choice but to get them (costco large eggs are 13¢/egg). we also got pineapple juice, plastic takeout bento boxes, #8 cardboard takeout boxes, all-purpose flour, linguine noodles, and 20 oz. clear cold cups. there seems to be a supply shortage for those, even after the world cup and tail ship events. they only had a few cases left, in a generic brown box, with various signs alerting customers these are indeed the same cups, just different packaging. we were looking for kikkoman soy sauce packets but they only had more expensive gluten-free ones (looks like we'll need to be a baifu supply run next weekend).

we got on the highway and went to the cafe to drop off the supplies. by that point it was already 1pm. 3 hours had elapsed and we only went to 3 places. after we finished unloading (3 passion flowers today), we headed back to belmont.

my mother made fried eggs with hunter sausages for lunch. we had some slavic fruit pastry and the calamari salad. the salad was really good, very crispy with wood ear mushrooms, seaweed, and bamboo shoots. we drank some sangria which was good, but i think it can be improved with the right red wine (white zinfandel). it was sweet but not overbearing. the fresh fruit slices was just for show, i couldn't really taste them. i tried a slavic chocolate fig candy which was okay, full of crunchy fig seeds. my father cut up the taiwanese melons: they're mildly sweet and crunchy, reminds me more of cucumbers than actual melons.

i brought all the power tools i found yesterday, including the master mechanic 7-1/4" corded circular saw. it's very similar to the ones we have, except this one was hardly used and much heavier. why all that extra weight i don't know. this circular saw has one cool feature though: a laser guide! can't wait to use it for our next wood cutting project.

my sister came home with esmei. esmei never greets anyone when she comes, but rather heads directly to the kitchen looking for food scraps that might've fallen on the floor. i let her out in the backyard where she found a bamboo stick triple her size and ran around the yard with it before laying down in the shade. she also laid down underneath the shade of the sawhorses. this is a dog smart enough to not sit out in the sun, unless black hailey, who often lounged in full sun, panting like she was dehydrating. they left soon afterwards, my sister said she had diarrhea and couldn't take esmei out to the woods today.

i took a closer look at the ryobi corded router R163G. how exactly does a router work anyway? youtube videos came to the rescue. i realized it was missing some router bits as well as the 15/16" flat wrench uses to loosen and tighten the 1/4" collet. home depot still sells this model at $120, but a portable router seems much more useful. the ryobi 18v cordless brushless router sells for $130 without battery. it has variable speed (R163G is single speed only). i think i'd use a router to make keyhole slot for hanging stuff and also to carve out letters to make wooden signs.

around 4pm i went outside to mow the lawn. with heavy rain expected on wednesday, it's a good opportunity to mow and get a free watering. my father was watering the plants and pruning the vines on the trellises. rabbits dug up two new holes underneath the fencing. after patching them up, i sprinkled some cayenne pepper around the edges, hoping that might keep them out. the belmont butterfly peas have multiple flowers. instead of plucking them off, my father decided to save a few so they can produce seeds for next season.

for dinner my mother made a stirfry of sanyao, which resembles potatoes but have a slimy texture i'm not very fond of. my father made a simply stirfry with the first luffa gourd my mother harvested yesterday. it too had a slimy texture, but i didn't mind it as much. the luffa has a natural sweetness. my mother also made a stirfry of pork, tofu, and long horn pepper. this was the pepper i accidentally picked off friday morning. she didn't think it'd be spicy but it turned out to be one of the hot ones. my parents tried the new beer i got them from trader joe's, double parked by night shifting brewing (everett). it's a double IPA wth 8.5% alcohol. it's very hoppy and has a strong fruity flavor with a sweetness that made me think i was drinking a hard cider. my mother liked it, which was the original reason i got it in the first place, since i can't seem to find zero gravity buck buck juice anymore (double IPA).

i went home after dinner. i spotted a coil of garden hose on linnaean street this past weekend. i was hoping it'd still be there and sure enough it was. the hose was still very pliable, which is better than the last set of garden hose i found where the rubber had already hardened. it didn't exactly fit in my rear basket, so i had to ride with one hand, the other hand holding the hose in place. they milled garfield street this morning and haven't paved it yet, so i had to ride extra carefully on the super bumpy road surface.

jeff and michelle were coming back just when i got home. we chatted briefly, jeff said they weren't leaving (for the vineyards) until august 4th, so there was still some time to get together and catch up.

with my physical follow-up appointment wednesday morning, i've been taking blood pressure readings all day, to make up for 6 months of neglect. i'm still trying to figure out how i'm getting to MGH with certain downpours during the morning commute. yes i could ride in full rain gear, but that'd a miserable experience. the best option seems to be taking the free MBTA shuttle bus, as the red line is still closed until the end of the month. yes it'll take longer, but at least i'll stay relatively dry. i just need to leave early, which won't be a problem.

i woke up this morning and went to the community garden to water my plants as well as molly's plants. it's the last day she asked me to water so i'm off the hook after that. there were at least one butterfly pea but it hadn't flowered yet so i left it alone. a man i didn't recognize came and water jen's plant. i wanted to ask who he was but didn't.

next i went to the cafe to put away the tea eggs and leftover rice, before watering the plants outside. i came in the morning because otherwise i wouldn't be able come until later in the afternoon.

coming back on linnaean street, there was a pile of stuff somebody was throwing out. i saw it earlier and thought it was just somebody working on their bikes outside as a i noticed a bike repair stand and several bicycles. what i didn't realize was everything was free for the taking. there were just two bikes left - a trek mountain bike and commuter bike. a stern-looking slavic woman had already claimed the commuter bike. i jokingly told her, "great find," but she completely ignored me. i wasn't interested in the bikes though, but more so the pile of power tools. there was a circular saw, what looked to be a router, and a dremel tool. just my luck i took the marin bicycle this morning that doesn't have any rear baskets, nor did i have my messenger bag (didn't think i'd need it). what i ended up doing was grabbing the router and the dremel tool - both in carrying bags - and i looped the straps onto my handlebar grips (one of each side) and pedaled home that way. it worked surprisingly well, thank god for tool bags.

after dropping off the two power tools, i grabbed my trek allant - which does have two rear baskets - and went to grab the other tools. the mountain bike already was good. the leftover power tools didn't find any takers. i grabbed the circular saw and something that looked like a powered staple gun. what i was at it i folded the bike repair stand and took that as well. the stand didn't fit on the bike. or it did but awkwardly, perpendicular to the bike, taking up the entire sidewalk. i ended up holding it in one arm while pushing the bike with the other hand. it wasn't long before i got tired. i hoisted the stand on my shoulder and carried it that way, which was more manageable. the walk back to the house took forever and i didn't have very much time as i wanted to leave for the puerto rican parade by 11am at the latest.

i put all the power tools and bike stand on my backyard deck before bringing them inside. i had 20 minutes to get ready, so i took a quick shower, sprayed on some sun block, then figured out what camera equipment i was going to bring. the canon dSLR with the 55-250mm lens, the fuji 3D camera, and the insta360 camera. i wore my dark polo quick-dry polo with my khaki shorts. i could've taken the velotric ebike - would've been much faster - but i wanted something lighter, more nimble. could've gone with the marin, but i took the trek allant instead because it had rear baskets in case i find more street treasures (you never know).

i didn't leave until 11:10am. google maps told me it'd take 40 minutes to get to egleston square in roxbury, where i normally watch the parade. i started riding but it wasn't until i almost go to the BU bridge did i realize i was going the wrong way. i was riding to jamaica plain, when i should be heading to roxbury. i made a detour on brookline street, crossed cambridgeport, to finally get onto mass ave. from there it was a straight shot to the mass ave T station passed symphony station and huntington avenue, to connect to the southwest corridor that would take me to egleston square.

i left the southwest corridor and rode onto columbus avenue by roxbury crossing since the police had already closed that road. this was the staging area for the parade. i had my insta360 recording as i passed all the processions.

my favorite place to take photos is on the bus island in the middle of columbus avenue, right outside the dimock center. it's basically the crest of a hill looking down columbus avenue as the procession comes up, the sun at my back. i locked the bike to a nearby signpost and waited. i had 15 minutes before the official start of the parade.

the head of the parade didn't get to where i was until 12:20pm, starting two fire engines blaring their horns (i wasn't sure if it was for sure or they were actually going to a fire) followed by a row of biker cops. behind them was mayor wu and her contingency. neighbors were stopping her left and right, asking for selfies, which she always obliged.

i only took a single photo with my camera phone; the rest i took on my canon 80D - 1634 photos. i shot in manual mode, 1/1600s f8.0 variable ISO. a bright sunny day like today, nearly every shot was clear, with an occasionally missed focus that was mostly my fault. even the wrongly focused photos were tack sharp. the weather was nice. even though the sun was out, it didn't feel very hot, and i knew the sun screen would protect me from getting burnt. i brought some ice water which was a relief, but i nearly finished it all before the parade even started (next time bring two waters). it was windy though, which made it seem cooler. i didn't come to the parade last year because it was rainy; the last time i came was back in 2024.

like in past years, we had child dancers, beauty pageant queens, suped up cars featuring obscenely large and loud speaker systems, prancing horses, and indigenous costumed dancers. there was a big goya contingency but telemundo didn't show up this year. besides mayor wu, i also saw edward flynn, boston district 2 city councilor, wearing an uncomfortable oversized dress shirt buttoned up to the sleeves. no senator ed markey or his challenger seth moulton. actually, i don't remember seeing any politicians higher than the mayor at this parade. i'm not exactly sure about puerto rican voting rights and their quasi-american status. can they vote in local elections if they're residents?

the parade was over by 1:15pm. while the procession continued to franklin park, an army of street sweepers were waiting patiently on columbus avenue, ready to clean the streets before the police open it back up to traffic. i rode the bike to jackson square before taking the southwest corridor to mass ave. passing by northeastern university carter playground, i noticed a dozen coeds sunbathing on the grass. i continued onwards, but later regretted not stopping to take some photos.

cutting through kendall square, i noticed a young man had his phone mounted on a tripod. young people with their tiktok videos and whatnot, i figured it was something like that. but as i continued, i saw more photo with their phone cameras out taking photos. what were they looking at? i turned and saw a slow moving train coming down the tracks. this was the grand junction railroad, that moves freight from north station to allston via cambridge. there's no public timetable as to when trains will appear, but for some reason these people taking photos seemed to know. i stopped as well, it's not every day you see a surface level train cut through kendall square. the flashing train lights were on, and the train honked loudly as it approached the intersection. a train operator jumped off the train to personally direct traffic, as the train made its way across the street. i don't think anyone minded the inconvenience. it's such a weird sight seeing a train suddenly appear on normal streets. the train procession wasn't long, just two cars. it seemed to be pulling a purple commuter train car.

instead of going home, i decided to take a quick detour to market basket to get some orange juice for my sangria recipe. i also got some limeade as well. leaving the supermarket, i came across another stash of discarded treasures on village street. glass jars, some sage smudge sticks, coffee filters, and a brita 27-cups large water filter pitcher ($35).

back at home (2pm), i cleaned out the ash from the weber grill. when i checked this morning it looked like there were still briquettes, but those had completely burned to ash and disintegrated once i jostled them. i swept the ash through the holes onto the ash tray then dumped out the ash. i then washed the inside of the grill and left it to dry. only then did i come back inside and take a shower.

i left around 2:30pm via ebike this time. once more i passed by linnaean street. there was even more stuff out on the curb, including a folding table stacked with books and a table lamp. a car had parked on the road while the driver and passenger rummaged through the free stuff. i stopped by the cafe for the second time today to grab an old bottle of triple-sec. when i came this morning none of the flowers had bloomed yet, but there was 2 passion flowers today.

i didn't get to my parents' place until 3pm. my mother asked me where i was, forgetting that i told her i was going to the puerto rican parade. if they were so worried, they never called me. she did check my location on the map, saw i was in roxbury. my father thought i was out buying more stuff off of facebook marketplace because i sent him photos of the power tools i found earlier. i couldn't bring all of them back, so i only grabbed the router. i thought it was a cordless ryobi, but it's actually corded. it looked practically brand new, just a smidge of sawdust. it's one of those tools we would never think about buying, but found for free? sure, we can play with it. my mother made some pan-fried dumplings. but because we were meeting my aunt and matthew for pizza at pepe's in watertown, i was only allowed to eat just a few dumplings.

using google lens, i took an inventory of my found power tools: a master mechanic 7-1/4" corded circular saw (model 134466). a dremel multi-max MM30 oscillating tool, and a powershot pro 9100 heavy duty electric staple and nail gun. out of all these tools, the only one we would have some use for is the circular saw. i thought it was larger than the one we have but turns out our old saw is also 7-1/4" size. as for the bike repair stand, it's a feedback sports sport-mechanic repair stand, which sells for $225. unlike the one i already own ($70), this stand has three legs (mine only has two).

my mother went out and cut down our first inaugural luffa gourd. she wanted to wait until tomorrow but my father insisted she remove it today, so the vines can divert resources elsewhere. my father also pulled up one of our kabocha squash vines. despite my best efforts to keep it free of vine borers, it finally succumbed to them. our of curiosity we cracked open the dead vine revealing 3 fat grubs and many smaller tiny ones. makes me wonder if the BTk injections had any effect. at this rate, i don't think we'll be growing any squash next year. just like how we don't grow cucumbers anymore because of the bacterial wilt. we'll find something else to grow.

we left for assembly row close to 5pm. my mother and i waited outside pepe pizza while my father went to find parking. he ended up parking at a 15 minute spot. we saw matthew, who told us my aunt was already inside. they reserved a table for 5:15pm but there was hardly any customers inside. the few customers that were there all sat outside. my father went out and moved the car after my aunt told him it wasn't a good idea parking at the 15 minute spot. my sister showed up a short time later.

my aunt wanted to treat my mother to an authentic pizza restaurant after my mother told her she's never been one before. all the pizzas we've ever ate either came from nearby greasy spoons or fast food takeout joints like domino's. we probably wouldn't even know what good pizza taste like even if we had it.

we got the 5 small pizza sampler for $80. two white clam pizzas, one pepperoni with hot cherry peppers, one fresh tomato pie, and one amanti della carne (meat pizza). i tried the foxon park kola, which tasted like doctor pepper out of the bottle, but put on ice it became an unidentifiable cola that was either coke or pepsi. my sister got the cream soda. matthew and my father both had a sam adams summer ale. my aunt and mother split a small peach sangria that arrived in a tiny pitcher. we also ordered a caesar salad with anchovies (on the side).

the fresh tomato pie came first. for a small (12") it seemed pretty big. the coal fire oven gave the crust some extra crunch. the pizza was still soft even that it needed to be folded before eating. the tomato pie was okay, but tasted like a vegetarian pizza. what's pizza without some kind of meat? next came the pepperoni with hot cherry peppers. that one was surprisingly spicy, not just the peppers, like maybe even the sauce was hot. i liked this one the best. the white clam pizza was okay. i know it's one of their famous signature pizzas, but it tasted like clams sprinkled on pizza dough with a clam juice sauce. maybe i just miss the tomato sauce. the fourth pizza was the amanti della carne. it seemed like there was too much meat. pepperoni, bacon, sausages, meatballs. one slice and you're already full. after we finished with the pizza, my sister insisted on ordering dessert. we got some kind of fancy caramel cheesecake that we all shared.

afterwards, my father told me aunt to meet back in belmont so my father can give them some luffa gourds. they also got a chance to see our backyard garden. my aunt ended up taking two luffas. i was showing matthew some of the stuff we were growing but my aunt wanted to leave because of the mosquitoes.

i left soon afterwards as well. i made a detour to the community garden to see if there were any butterfly pea flowers to harvest, but i forgot to bring my tiny plastic container. i also came with the BTk and injected one of the squash stems that i saw had some frass (meaning a vine borer had eaten its way inside). afterwards i watered the plants a second time today as they looked dry. anne marie was talking to the community garden neighbor, whom i also know. i waved to her and she told me i still look the same after all these years. heading home, i saw somebody had tossed out some plants so i grabbed them. one of them looked like a philodendron but later i did some research and it's possibility a 'cebu blue' pothos. the other plant was probably a citronella. citronella plants are actually kind of useless because they don't repel mosquitoes on their own, but their chemicals have to be extracted and processed into a repellent.

i've found so much stuff today! it's exhausting!

after a shower, i settled down to write a lengthy blog post. it's right now 1:20am. time for bed.

i woke up at 8am and got ready to go down to haymarket. i left the house by 8:40am, traveling via ebike. this was going to be an easy trip as i was only going to haymarket. i parked my ebike at a signpost out by the road. i went to the bank first to get some cash from the ATM. i wasn't looking to buy anything in particular except some cheap pineapples. my haul: 2 ripe pineapples ($2), 4 limes ($1), 6 lemons ($1), 7 navel oranges ($1), 2 lbs. bag of cherries ($5), 4 large sweet onions ($2), a strand of tomatoes ($1), 2-1/2 lbs. of longans ($10), sleeve of garlic ($2), 2 packages of baby cucumbers ($4). i got a bunch of citrus fruit because i was thinking about making sangria this weekend (last time i made it was all the way back in 2019).

coming back approaching inman square, i passed by a box of spices somebody had left out on the curb. i made a u-turn onto the sidewalk and went back to check it out. it wasn't just one box, but several boxes of spices, a treasure trove for anyone who likes to cook. cinnamon, peppercorns, thyme, a bunch of indian spices, rose water, bitters (for cocktails), hot sauces, salts, spice rubs, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, cardamom, saffron. some jars hadn't even been opened yet. i was trying to figure out how to take everything back with my rear basket already full with produce. i ended up strapping a box on top of my fruits and vegetables, and stuffing some jars into my messenger bag. a couple (white) of moving out and they kept bringing stuff onto the curb. i which i could've stayed and rummaged through all their stuff. they were moving to los angeles, that's why they couldn't bring most of this stuff. i asked if they were going to do a cross country trip, they said they already did it before, driving from LA to ohio (where they're from).

i continued onwards very gingerly, didn't want to jostle my haul too much, didn't want to risk anything fall out of the rear basket. since i had time, i went to the community garden to water my plants as well as molly's plot. i then continued to the cafe, bypassing my usual route (because of poor road conditions), instead taking a slightly longer way with better paved roads.

i got to the cafe around 10:20am, right when my mother showed up walking from belmont. my mother wasn't impressed with my treasure trove of spices, actually scolded me for bringing back trash. she was happy that i got some longans, which she'd been saying all week she wanted to eat. she brought some fresh basil today, chopped up a few haymarket tomatoes, and made a caprese salad with capers, mozzarella cheese, and balsamic vinegar.

we had 7 passion flowers today. a few buds from yesterday weren't fully closed yet so i was hard to tell which flowers were old or new until later in the afternoon, when the old flowers completely closed and the new flowers totally opened.

when my 2nd aunt showed up to the cafe, she brought along a bag of longans she bought from ming's market. i saw the same thing last week but didn't buy them because they were $9/lbs. she said the bag she got probably cost $30 easily. her longans were in nicer shape, fresher, compared to the ones i got.

we were busy during the first half of the day but not so much in the later half. which ended up being a good thing as my aunt and matthew showed up in the afternoon after returning from a bike ride into boston. my 2nd aunt treated them to some longans while they shared some nuts they bought from the store on charles street.

my father showed up close to closing time, right before my aunt and matthew were about to ride home. after we closed up, my parents gave my 2nd aunt a ride home while i went home with my spice haul.

first thing i did when i got back was finish restoring the 22-1/2" weber kettle grill. first step was cleaning. i sprayed with the BBQ degreaser but it didn't do anything, the grease/rust was too caked on. i had more luck with brillo pads. a lot of what i thought were permanent rust stains inside the kettle were actually just ash and carbon build up that i could remove with the brillo using some elbow grease. the brillo didn't work as well for cleaning the grill; the rust/grime was just too coarse, causing the brillo to lose fine steel wool hairs. i was hoping once the grill was heated up, i could use a metal brush to clean the grill. next i installed the ash sweeper blades. it didn't come with instructions, but i watched enough youtube videos to have a general idea how to install it. it fit pretty well, and turned effortlessly, but a little jarring since it's so shiny and new. the last thing i did was to install the ash catcher AKA pizza tray. only after i put it on did i see the tray had a small dent. not a big deal, not worth returning.

i got the chimney starter, filled it with charcoal, and made a newspaper donut underneath to lit. everything was ready for a weber grill test run. i just had to get the food first. i was already going to grill some pineapples and onions, but what's a barbecue without meat?

so i took the ebike to the allston trader joe's. i needed to come here anyway to get cheap red wine for the sangria. i ended up buying two bottles of merlot (later i'd find out that merlot is not actually the best wine for sangria). i was also looking for triple-sec but they didn't have it. fortunately we still have some left at the cafe. i ended up just getting some sweet italian sausages. they were a bit more expensive that market basket, but saves me the trouble of running to a second supermarket.

i got back home by 6pm and started the food preparations. i cut the pineapple and large sweet onion into cubes and poke them onto bamboo skewers that i soaked briefly in a tall jar of water. once that was finished, i went outside to light the grill. the newspaper donut caught on fire, heating up the briquettes in the chimney until they were white hot. it was smokey at first, but luckily it wasn't too windy today. it took 25 minutes of preheating before the briquettes were ready. i dumped them out onto the charcoal grate and put on the cooking grate. i put the cover on to allow the cooking grate to come to high temperature before i attempted to clean it with a grilling brush. i didn't notice much improvements. using an infrared thermometer, i measured 350 degrees on the surface of the grill - hot enough to start cooking.

i have an 18" weber kettle grill but i love the larger cooking area of the 22-1/2" grill. i was able to put all my foods on the grill. i dumped the briquettes right in the center, leaving the areas around the edges with indirect heat. the problem with cooking with coal is it's very difficult to control the temperature. i found that out when i went to go flip the sausages and pineapples/onions and they were burnt black. with a gas grill and temperature control, there's less chance of that happening.

i used the meat thermometer to make sure the sausages were cooked on the inside (160 degrees). i removed all the food, put the cover on the grill, then left it to cook off outside.

i didn't eat until 7:30pm. probably one of the most complicated ways to make dinner, taking up 3 hours, from fixing the grill, getting the food, heating up the grill, then finally grilling. the pineapples were juicy and sweet, the onions were sweet and smokey, but the sausages were just meh. i still prefer market basket's sweet italian sausage with fennel. or a nice kielbasa (they didn't have that at trader joe's). it was also my first time having a barbecue for just myself. barbecues are communal cooks, and i've only grilled food with guests, even if it's just one other person.

neil and his family came home a day early. hopefully they'll continue to water, but i doubt the plants need it, they're already soggy as it is.

i took a shower to get rid of the smoke smell.

i woke up at 7am to get to my parents' place by 8am so i can apply a 2nd round of sedgehammer herbicide on the lawn before i needed to get to work at the cafe by 9am. i went out the back to get to the basement and saw that jeff had left me a 4-pack of oak hill blend hard cider and a tiny bottle of fireball.

i ended up taking the ebike, probably the fastest way to get to belmont with all the morning traffic. it was actually kind of chilly - temperature in the lower 60's - and i even grabbed a long-sleeved pullover but then forgot to wear it.

my mother wasn't startled when she saw me, i must've told her yesterday i was coming. i used up the remaining half packet of sedgehammer granules, mixed it in the half-gallon sprayer. i had so much sedgehammer solution, i ended up spraying the small patch of lawn next to the driveway 3-4 times. there was so much sedge sprouts, it makes me wonder if the first treatment back in early june even did anything. my mother was already on her way to the cafe, left by 8am on foot.

after i finished spraying, i went to the backyard where my father was watering the plants. after that rainstorm on tuesday and the subsequent dousing late wednesday afternoon, the rain barrels are at maximum capacity.

luffas continue to grow, hanging from our EMT conduit trellises like long green lanterns. my father has become an expert at luffa growing after taking care of them all these many weeks. for one thing, the luffa plants on our sawhorse stands are no longer producing female flowers. it's like it knows it's made enough, and only had male flowers. he also noticed the luffas planted on the ground - like the ones next to the basement stairwell or the tall makeshift trellis between the quince and the lilacs - those luffas are much larger. they don't have large fruits like the others, but what they lack in luffas they make up for in healthier vines and larger and more abundant leaves. i suggested we drench the grow bag and potted luffas with miracle-gro fertilizer solution.

the grow bag kabocha squashes aren't doing very well. despite my best effort, they still got infested with vine borers at their basal stems. if it was just a leaf i could cut it off but there's nothing i can do once the borers get into the main stem. surprisingly, the few surplus squashes that i planted in the raised beds all seem to be doing very well. when i first planted them i wasn't sure they were going to survive, but now they fill the beds with lush squash leaves, and i don't even have to monitor them for borers.

a pair of butterfly pea flowers finally bloomed. i was going to pick them off for drying but my father wanted to wait and see how big they can get before we pick them.

i left for the cafe before my father, getting there right when my mother arrived around 8:50am. because of street milling, i didn't want to park the velotric out on the sidewalk, so i pushed it into my sister's backyard and locked the bike there.

i fried all the french fries i prepared yesterday, a large freezer bag full of frozen potato strips. i had to cook them in 3 batches because there was so much, at 7 minutes each batch. they were crispy at first, but turned soggy over time. i then fried them a second time, this time only needed 2 batches, at 4 minutes each. honestly, i could singlehandedly eat all those fries in a sitting, which is about 6 large russet potatoes.

only 2 passion flowers today.

something was wrong with our square ticket printouts: there was a tall top and bottom margin per ticket. it's a waste of thermal paper. square corp must've updated the software again. fortunately i found the setting for getting rid of the top and bottom margins. for some reason i can only be found in the iOS version of the square app, missing in the android version. but luckily it's the iOS tablet that does most of the printing, whether that's walk-in tickets or online tickets.

we were busy today from 11-1pm, where we made the bulk of our profit. there was a small uptick at 4pm, but no further business in the evening, which isn't unusual for fridays. a lot of regulars, like the old man (老頭子) who always orders bentos on fridays via phone, and the guy in sunglasses who never says thank you (不說謝謝的). we had a handful of customers who opted to sit out on the deck, the weather pleasant again (warm but dry) like yesterday. one customer called asking if we saw a pair of sunglasses they lost; i used our webcam to confirm they still had their sunglasses when they left the cafe.

i cleaned the deep fryer in the afternoon. that seems to be my job, my father does the frying, while i do the cleaning. i found a new use for the portable waterpik, used it to clean the debris inside the oil tub's filter cage.

terrible news today: lebron james announced he's signing with the sixers. james - who earned $50 million a year with the lakers - will take a huge pay cut and earn just $4 million a year for 2 years. he said he made the decision after learning jaylen brown was traded to the sixers and deciding this team has a real shot at winning a championship. celtics fans everywhere are having a seizure right now.

esmei came to visit the cafe a few times today. besides a hard-boiled egg, we also fed her some french fries.

my aunt came in the late afternoon. my mother gave her most of the garlic chive dumplings they made yesterday. she also gave her some scallion bread she made this morning. my aunt - who visited the natick t-mart last weekend - said the place was very expensive and still at the soft-open stage so not everything is in stock. she said the one reason to go to t-mart is for their food court. everything else, the newton asian market is a better (and cheaper) option.

after work i went home with a piece of scallion bread and some leftover braised beef. my $30 enamel coated carbon steel ash tray arrived as well as my $9 13-1/2" stainless steel pizza pan. i strapped the boxes to the back of my rear basket and went home.

i stopped at the community garden to water. i didn't care so much about my garden except i promised molly i would help her water her plants, so i went there mainly for that. i managed to pick 2 butterfly pea flowers. dorothea was there, tending to her garden.

jeff told me this morning that his family is spending this weekend up in vermont. it's true he's only in cambridge until the end of july, but then they're spending a few weeks on the vineyard while steve & paul are on vacation. he told me he'd tell me about his job drama next week.

i wore my thermacell mosquito repellent clipped to my shorts before going back out again. i watered the back and front yard, before heading over to jen's place and watering their plants as well. honestly, she didn't need it. if anything, her potted plants have too much water and appear quite soggy. i have another day tomorrow to water for them but i'm going to skip it. after that, i think neil and his family return from wellfleet and take over watering duties.

back at home, i went out to the backyard to work on my weber grill. that watertown seller never did get back to me, so i figured he already sold his grill for $20. i watched a few more youtube videos about how to remove an old ash sweeper. the trick isn't to turn the handle back and forth, but rather twist it in place until it becomes loose. armed with my heavy duty plumbing pliers and a hammer, i finally managed to twist the handle after spraying the rusted parts with WD-40 again. i then used a hammer to tap out the handle rod. once the rod was loose, the whole rusted ash sweeper assembly just fell out. i didn't bother installing the new ash sweeper, i'll leave that for tomorrow. i might want to give the inside of the kettle grill a deeper clean. the other important thing was installing an ash pan. would the 13-1/2" pizza pan work? sure enough, it fit like a charm. once i get the grill properly assembled tomorrow, i'm tempted to grill something. i might go to haymarket tomorrow morning and get some pineapples and other vegetables for grilling.

i took a shower and had the scallion bread with braised beef for dinner.

i went directly to work this morning. i brought my 2.5 qt enamel cast iron dutch oven to show my parents. they both thought it was much larger from the photos i sent. my father was frying a new batch of salt & pepper chicken. afterwards he made a new batch of chicken curry. we left the deep fryer in place because i wanted to make some fries. i cut 6 russet potatoes into strips, boiled them until they turned soft, spread them out onto baking sheets, then froze them in the freezer. unfortunately by day's end nobody had any apetite for fries so we'll cook them tomorrow morning instead. i made a new batch of tea eggs and roasted a batch of charsiu pork (one piece in particular looked like a profile of trump). the passion vine had 6 flowers today, but later at the end of the day my mother discovered a 7th flower.

we were pretty busy today between 12-2pm. after two we went into a lull that lasted until the evening when there was another uptick. today wasn't as busy as yesterday but very close. both days beat the prior week's earnings. the only bad day was tuesday and i blame that on the weather. both friday and saturday look nice weatherwise, so hopefully our profit streak continues.

a pair of annoying customers sat out on the patio deck this afternoon. typically we don't mind - it's nice to have some customers outside as advertisement - except they had a terribly loud laugh. this went on for 3 hours, i was tempted a few times to run outside and tell them to shut the hell up.

i went home with some frozen dumplings my parents had made with the market basket ground pork i bought yesterday.

i went into the backyard as soon as i got home, to repair the ash sweeper on my found weber grill. the spare parts arrived today. the tricky part was removing the old sweeper. i flipped it upside down on the backyard table. unfortunately it was so rusted shut, i couldn't budge it. i even sprayed some WD-40 but it was no use. if i can't get the old parts off, then i can't replace them with the new parts, so this grill is as good as dead. i'll try again tomorrow.

last night i saw the exact same 22" weber grill for sale in watertown for $20. i checked again tonight and the post was still up. i messaged the seller owen, asked him if it was still available. if yes, i'll probably buy it, a lot cheaper than trying to salvage my found grill. replacement parts alone will cost me $40+. people are always selling their kettle grills. it's the first grill you get when you're getting into barbecuing, before you graduate to a gas grill or something beefier. but kettle grills have their fans, and they're so simple, with proper maintenance they should last a long time. the going rate for a 22" kettle grill seems to be $50. there's a bunch of them on facebook marketplace but they don't sell very well as i've seen some old listings (like 9 weeks). we're almost into august, most people already have their grill equipment. once we get into fall and winter, the grill market will drop.

for dinner i had some frozen dumplings, but not the ones my mother gave me today. instead, there was some old dumplings i had in the freezer that i ended up boiling.

i tried to read emily wilson's translation of the odyssey last night but couldn't get through more than a page. for one thing the formatting in my epub edition was all messed up. i also think most poetry is pretentious and hard to understand its literal meanings. instead i read stephen fry's odyssey written in prose, which was much easier to understand. it's actually pretty good, fleshed out some aftermaths of the trojan war, like the pillaging and raping and taking the women as slave concubines. i don't remember any of this from my high school iliad.

today was my day off and i wasn't able to sleep late, instead waking up early. i decided to go for a run. it took a bit to get ready because my spotif++ app wouldn't work anymore. i downloaded a newer version that required installing a CA certificate on my pixel phone. the app itself was still a little wonky but it worked, i could at least listen to my movie podcast while i ran. weather this morning was warm and humid. i don't mind the warmth, but the humidity made everything soupy.

i walked down to the river before discovering that whole section is now off limits due to construction. i had to walk on the side of memorial drive across from the river, down to the JFK bridge intersection before i could cross over. a dumpy indian woman ran passed me. i thought she was going to be slow but she ended up putting some distance between us. it's been almost a month since my last run. out of running shape plus the humidity made for a slow run today. after crossing the eliot bridge, i had to cross the street to the mount auburn hospital side of the road. even then eventually the road disappeared and i was on mt.auburn street. i took a shortcut through longfellow park, cutting through the lesley divinity campus.

i stopped by the community garden. the was still damp from yesterday's rainstorm so i didn't need to water. there was also no butterfly pea flowers so i left. walking home, i found a weber kettle grill somebody had thrown out. it was a little dusty but everything looked good. the handle on the grill was slightly bent and the plastic melted. this was a 22" grill, larger than my 18". i decided to noisily push it home.

after a shower i ate a pastry my 2nd aunt got for my from flushing. it'd been sitting on the kitchen counter for nearly 2 weeks, but it was slightly spoiled. there were a few mold spots (which i picked off) but the pasty itself tasted sour, like the milk or the egg had gone bad. i ate it anyway.

i went outside to wash the newfound kettle grill. the previous owner never cleaned out the ash, which attracted moisture and rusted the 3-section cleaning fins. the other thing missing was the ash pan underneath the grill. i went online to look for replacement parts. the cleaning fins cost just $12, but the ash pan was $30. i wonder if i can just use a large metal pizza dish since the clips are still intact, just missing the pan.

i took the ebike to belmont. i brought my two orchids, i simply don't get enough sun in my house to keep them happy. they'll have a happier home living outside underneath the shade of the maple tree with the other orchids. i replanted them in their pots as they were jostled during the trip. i grabbed one of the potted pileas for jen. if she wants more, i have plenty more, plus surplus tradescantia. i also wanted to reapply sedgehammer on the front lawn as i noticed some sedges reemerging. however i thought it was too hot, might come in the morning when it's cooler. instead i did some weeding in the raised beds, pulling up purslanes, wild morning glories, grasses, and some other weeds. while rummaging in the beds, i noticed the longhorn peppers already have a bunch of peppers ready to harvest. nobody noticed because they're low to the ground and green.

i stopped by the cafe. there were only 2 passion flowers today. the passion fruit continues to grow, it hasn't aborted which is a good sign. i noticed one of the leaves on my pilea in the rear basket was starting to get black from being sun scorched. my 2nd aunt was wearing a facemask. my mother said she my 2nd aunt has a cold and my mother also called me today to ask me to work so my 2nd aunt could go home. on top that, today was super busy compared to yesterday.

i went home and switched to my trek allant. i grabbed some plastic seltzer bottles to deposit and went to market basket. the sky was looking ominous. i remembered i had some prescriptions so i made a quick walgreens detour. at market basket i made 50¢ in deposit. i got some ground pork for my mother and some lemonade for myself. i bumped into victor who was videochatting with his son while grocery shopping. coming back, i bumped into him walking home. the sky continued to darken, and a check of the doppler radar showed a thin band of intense thunderstorms heading our way. i watched in real time as it started to rain, then downpour, then flood the streets. the storm drains were so full, they were spouting rain water lik geysers. it was a good thing i didn't apply sedgehammer today, otherwise it would've all washed away.

just as quickly as it started, it quickly ended as well. i was hoping the sun would come out, which would be perfect rainbow weather. it was bright but still overcast. i walked out onto beacon street and didn't see any rainbows.

after another shower i settled in with some thai-flavored chicken feet and a can of hard cider. i fell asleep briefly around 6:30pm, waking up an hour later to close the blinds.

for dinner i heated up some leftover beef noodle soup. not a great idea on a warm night, as i ended up sweating like crazy. turns out it was only warm inside the house (80 degrees), while outside it was in the 60's.

i ordered some replacement parts for the weber grill, should arrive tomorrow and friday. i got a dedicated ash pan but also a stainless steel pizza fan ($9) that might also work and save me some money. i want to try this smoked chicken thigh recipe once i get the grill operational.

i woke up early to start the work week. i had plenty of time to go down to the community garden. i probably didn't need to water since it'd rain later in the evening, but didn't like the idea of my plants baking in the sun all day. i was there more to harvest butterfly pea flowers, which there was one today. that makes a grand total of 4 flowers.

approaching the cafe, i saw somebody had thrown out one of those tumbling composters. i was going to carry it to the cafe, but when i checked the condition, it was missing the panel doors and a rat had chewed a large hole on the side.

i left for trader joe's (TJ) soon after i got to the cafe to get some supplies. i also went there to deposit a check for my parents. the young indian teller had a very soft voice, i could barely hear her despite wearing my hearing aids. at TJ's i got some baby cucumbers and bananas, enough to last us for the week. i was looking for the white chicory i saw last week but they mowed the grass so all the flowers are gone for now.

4 passion flowers today on the passion vines. my father noticed something special about one of the flowers: it was forming a passion fruit! even though they normally don't self-pollinate, occasionally flowers will fruit. or maybe a nearby neighbor has passion flowers as well and by luck we got a successful cross-pollination. currently the fruit is the size of a large olive.

i made two batches of black soy noodles and a new batch of tea eggs. i also ran the ice machine in the basement and collected 9 boxes of ice by day's end. other than that it was an easy day and as easy week as well since we replenished a lot of our stock last week. charsiu pork was a little low so we roasted a new batch. chicken stock also decreasing, will need to thaw them today, marinate tomorrow, and deep fry on thursday. and already i'm thinking about the weekend, thinking about where we'll go. most likely the needham restaurant depot on monday, might also visit the russian supermarket and the new newton asian market.

today was a slow day. we weren't able to make our daily average. a handful of delivery orders and a bunch of online orders. not a lot of walk-in customers. don't blame them, the weather looked like it might rain. original forecast said rain would begin around 1pm, but the latest update said not until 4-5pm, during the evening commute.

my mother made some scallion bread. i ate a few stuffed with braised beef.

i went home early around 4pm when it looked like it was going to rain. once it started it wasn't going to stop. i felt bad leaving my parents by themselves, but if it did start raining, we wouldn't have very many customers anyway. i left with some more scallion bread and braised beef. the rain had already started by then, a light shower, enough to dampen my clothes but not a soaking. i put the rain cover on my motorcycle when i got back. i bumped into the mailman and we chatted briefly about spain's world cup victory.

seems like i made the right decision to leave early, as the rain started to pick up, the sky darkened, then the downpours began. there was no way i could ride my bike under these conditions without getting seriously soaked. the heavy rain beating against the back of my air conditioner was deafening. this wet weather is much needed and will hopefully refill our rain barrels. will it save our lawn though, much of which have already turned yellow? that i doubt.

i fell asleep on the couch around 6:30pm, woke up an hour later. i had some dinner, then took a shower. i watched terminator 2 on pluto.tv. i recently read an article featuring the special effects guys talking about how they did the various effects. at the time it was the most cutting edge of visual achievements, bridging practical with the dawn of computer CGI. nothing like it had been seen before. nowadays, a home laptop could easily make those same effects. the movie itself is okay, but i don't like how they turned schwarzenegger's terminator from a killing machine in the first film to a neutered cartoon cyborg with all the funniest lines.

ever since the new christopher nolan's the odyssey came out (the first movie since wonder woman that i'd actually consider watching in the theaters), i've been in a very greek epic state of mind. i watched a youtube video where stephen fry talks about the trojan war. that then led me to an old interview with madelin miller where she speaks about her novel circe. she recommended the new translation of the odyssey by emily wilson. i ended up downloading a bunch of books: the two novels by madeline miller (worthy of a reread), odyssey by stephen fry, and emily wilson's translation. can't wait to delve into them tonight.