with just 2 more weeks left before he leaves, my roommate has finally settled on a daily routine. he leaves for work around noontime, and comes home in the early evening. it was embarrassing last night when we had a local blackout around 2:00 (embarrassing in the fact that he'll probably go back to china and tell everyone how backwards we are that we still experience intermittent blackouts). i don't like the fact that my roommate seems to be competing with me to see who can stay up the latest. not only is at home in the mornings, but he's also eating into my nightly quiet time, when normally no one else is up. he won't be here this weekend though, which is good, and he won't be back until monday.

first i went to the ATM to cash a check from client S. it's not much, but will cover the cost of groceries for a few weeks at least. i guy parked his bike outside and came in. i noticed he had 3 different headlights. one was attached to a dynamo that no longer worked, another was a white reflector with a few LED's, and the 3rd was a planetbike rebrand from EMS sports - the same one that i have. he was telling me how great it was and then began to lecture me on how legally you're required to have a headlight on a bicycle if you ride at nights. maybe he failed to see the motorcycle helmet i was sporting.

i rode out to the somerville home depot to look for some supplies. i wanted to get the kind of reflectors you nail to a tree or a mailbox, but attach them to the milk crate on my bicycle. if you want to know, they're located in aisle 18, along with the house numbers. i bought a pair of red and blue ($2/each). next, i wanted to find a saw that can carve out the small pieces of shingle shims i needed for some backyard repair work. i have a compass saw but the cuts it made were too rough and i needed something with a little more control and finish. recalling my days in 6th grade industrial arts class (AKA wood shop), i kept on thinking "jig saw" in the back of my head. i ended up getting a coping saw instead ($7), with a packet of replacement saws ($3).

assembly square road - the route i usually take to go back home - was closed due to construction (ikea construction that is). i ended up going down mystic avenue and getting back onto mcgrath highway by going underneath interstate 93. with temperatures in the 40's, the weather was cold enough that my hands felt cold for the first time this season. i kept taking them off the handlebars and clutching them to bring back the circulation.

i headed to the cafe, to drop off some flashlights for my father. i almost got into another motorcycle accident at the intersection of vassal lane and walden street. it was another one of those cases where a car decided to cross in front of me. i had the right of way but it means very little had i suffered through another crash. i squeezed down on my brakes to avoid hitting the car. as my motorcycle swerved and fishtailed, i saw the face of the woman driving by. she looked angry for some reason, even though it was entirely her fault. i didn't stop to look but sped off. had the roads been wet, i'm pretty sure i wouldn't have made it out unscathed. from my motorcycle class training, i know that in an emergency brake situation, the trick is to keep the bike straight. but had i done that, i would've plowed into the side of the car. regardless, swerving on the motorcycle is a strangely disconcerting sensation. you're pretty much helpless as the bike skids to a halt. hopefully i learned a valuable lesson.

when i got home i tried some video chatting with my parents before i went out into the backyard to do some carpentry work. the coping saw was just what i needed to cut a few pieces of shingle shims to replace the gap below my back porch light. i just need to paint them first before hammering them into place. later i went down to the basement and put a pair of red reflectors on the back of my milk crate. talk about reflective overload! i probably only need just one. i'll save the other one for a future milk crate project.

i finally stopped for lunch around 3:00, ate some more turkey leftovers. my roommate's telephoto lens arrived from J&R (that was quick, it shipped out from new york just yesterday). his camera shipped from a nashua (new hampshire) factory this morning as well, so maybe he will receive all his photo equipment by the time he leaves for his weekend trip early saturday morning.