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the day didn't start out so bad, with temperature in the 60's and no signs of forecasted rain. i arrived in belmont by 11:00 and had some leftover lamb stew for lunch.

i recaulked the spigot on the black rain barrel yesterday with some silicone; today i tested it to see if it'd leak again. before he left, my father had set up a hose connection between the single rain barrel on the southwestern corner of the house and the 3 adjoining rain barrels (one of which was the black one). since the southwestern barrel was almost to capacity, i used it to channel water into the black barrel for testing. i filled it to above the spigot line and waited to see if it'd leak. when it didn't, i turned on the spigot again so the two barrels would equalize. next i connected the black barrel to the 2 adjacent barrels and diverted the water so they were all equal.

i was in the middle of planting some seeds (peas in RB1; korean cucumbers and cypress vines in RB4) when the sky suddenly clouded over and thunder rumbled in the distance. it still wasn't enough to get me to go back inside, and i took another turn on the lawn weeding for dandelions. when it finally started raining, that's when i finally went inside.

i of course welcomed the rain, since it'd allow me to see the rain barrels in action. it was only a very light drizzle at first so there was only drops of water coming from the downspout.

later the rain got a little bit stronger, enough so that their was a steady trickle of water coming from the downspout. normally i'd have my motorcycle covered during any kind of rainstorm, but i didn't this time because i wanted the rain to wash off the dirt and pollen on the bike.

for the first time the carrot seedlings have emerged. i don't think i'v ever seen them before, so i didn't immediately recognize the thread-like leaves emerging from the ground. carrots and beets take a long time to mature, i think around 70 days.

the rain stopped by late afternoon and the sky even began to clear up a bit. the trio of rain barrels were almost to capacity. the dry soil in the raised beds were properly soaked (good for the plants).

my sister again had nanny duty tonight, but before she left at 6:00, she made some roasted chicken for dinner. it was around that time my parents called from beijing, just to let me know what they were doing (about to take a plane to urumqi in xinjiang).

in the early evening (before sunset) it began to rain again, this time much heavier. since all the barrels were already at capacity, the overflows took over. the barrels on the southwestern and southeastern corners had hoses that fed into outlets to the underground septic tank. the overflow for the 3 rain barrels however just snaked away from the house to the center of the lawn. later i connected the overflow hose to a length of downspout just so i could divert the water farther away.

i was going to ride the motorcycle back to cambridge but decided to take the car instead. that being the case, i took the opportunity to bring back some transplants and a pot of rosemary for community garden planting.

i left belmont by 8:00. since my sister would return in a few hours, i didn't feel bad leaving the dog home alone. before i went home i stopped by market basket to get a few grocery items for the cafe tomorrow morning. the supermarket closes at 9:00 on saturdays, so there was plenty of parking. it's a nice time to go food shopping since there aren't too many people. they had a very busy girl there wrapping made-to-order flower bouquets for mother's day tomorrow (i think she was happy it was close to closing time).

victor was already in the living room watching game 3 between the heat and the celtics. boston won the game to send the series to 2-1 (miami advantage). that wasn't the amazing part. that came when rajon rondo got knocked on the ground by dwayne wade and bent his left elbow in the wrong direction. watching the replay actually made me sick to my stomach, seeing a human arm bending in a most unnatural way. everyone who saw the video probably figured rondo was done for the season. but moments later he comes back out from the locker room, ready to play. he dislocated his elbow and the trainer was able to pop it back into place. even then, he played like he only had one good arm (which was true), and was surprisingly effective.