woke up earlier than usual, thought i heard some trouble outside, like maybe vehicles were getting towed. turns out it was just a noisy garbage truck making its way down the street, blocking traffic and forming a column of waiting cars.

i went to the cafe to go use the copier. i went back home quickly to grab a replacement timer before coming back again to have some noodles for lunch. i went down into the basement to replace the busted timer and to check up on the seedlings. it's kind of amazing to see how in just 24 hours under the grow lights the seedlings have already turned green. for the life of me i have no idea what's emerging. the ones with the thin long leaves might be either cilantro or parsley, or maybe a pepper. the seedlings with the semi-circle leaves might be basil though, they look familiar. of course once the seedlings mature some more i'll be able to tell what's what.

after mailing off some letters at the porter square post office and getting some gas at the hess station, i went home. i thought about going out for a run (temperature was in the 50's) but the strong winds made me reconsider. instead, i repotted jesse's african violet plant and then changed the water in my two aquariums. each time i do a water change i refill the cistern, which is a fancy way of calling an 8 gallon plastic garbage can. i have this supply of water so 1) i can treat it with chemicals to remove the chloramine disinfectant and 2) this water i use to refill the aquariums will be at room temperature (instead of the much colder temperature directly from the tap). feeling a crazy cleaning kick coming on, next i did a load of laundry and scrubbed the bathroom floor. i then went out and tried to remove some rust on my motorcycle with some CLR spray.

in the late afternoon my mother called me asking if i wanted to return to belmont tonight for dinner, where my sister was making some sort of fish dish. never one to pass up on an offer of free food, i agreed and left for my parents' place. it's starting to become a family dinner ritual where we watch episodes of the dog whisperer on NGC while we eat, periodically looking at our own dog hailey and shaking our head while she whines to either be let outside or have somebody play with her.

the ride home was brisk with the temperature in the 40's, but we're in store for an 80+ degrees springtime heat wave this coming weekend, so i was enjoying this cold while it lasted. i haven't even noticed that i've turned off the heat in my house, since the room temperature is still a pleasant 64 degrees even at night (bear in mind that i normally set the thermostat to 60 degrees when i had the heat turned on).