i called comcast this morning to get them to send someone to take a look at the downed cable. the guy i spoke with on the phone was nice, but it felt like a waste of time. nevertheless it was something i had to do, instead of assuming that my other neighbors had made similar calls. it also affected me more because the cable was right outside my house, and i had to anxiously watch the convoy of detouring cars.

i biked down to market basket in the late morning to get some groceries. it felt like a while since i've biked but actually i biked into boston and back last saturday for the pride parade. what was a long time was the last time i went to market basket, which was more than 2 weeks ago. i had a lot of leftover ingredients, karen left behind some food when she returned to mexico, and i went to several family dinners. i figured i'd be saving money but i spent nearly $50 today, almost like i was making back the 2 weeks i didn't go grocery shopping.

i actually made a lengthy shopping list but forgot to bring it with me when i left the house. fortunately i remembered most of what i wanted to buy. typically i spent around $20 a week on groceries. today i bought a bunch of sandwich meats and cheese after having a bite yesterday of the spicy italian subway sandwich my mother bought. i also bought some whole wheat english muffins, i could make egg sandwiches with any leftover deli meats that i don't finish in making my italian subs. there was a sale on paper towels and i got a 12-pak for $10. finally, some ingredients for making fruit smoothies with the leftover bananas i had sitting in the kitchen.

when i returned home by 12:30pm, i made myself an italian sub: toasted bread drizzled with apple vinegar plus melted provolone cheese and 3 kind of meats (honey ham, salami, prosciutto), topped with chopped lettuce and some banana peppers. it was good, but something was surprisingly salty (my guess the prosciutto). i shredded the lettuce (something i learned after watching them work at the sub shop) instead of layering big pieces of whole lettuce leaves like i normally do.

i went to belmont at 2:30pm because my father made another home appointment with a solar power consultant for 3pm. the person never showed up, which gave us more time to do yard work. my father and i worked in the backyard digging up some more bamboo. the underground rhizome mass is so big it's impossible to dig all at once, we can only slowly chip away at the edges. a shovel was ineffective, it was either the grub hoe or the shorter mattock. it's dirty work and afterwards i had to take a shower and change out of my muddy clothes.

back at home, i was disappointed to see that the end of my street was still closed, no progress had been made in fixing the downed cable. i went to the dollar store to pick up some baking soda fridge deodorizer and soap, the same things i tried to get yesterday. i also got a fan for my mother. when i got back, i realized i'd left my laptop in belmont. so i went back to my parents' place to retrieve it.

cambridge fire department arrived around 11pm. i'm guessing neighbors' complaints forced them to come take a look at the downed cable. they didn't have the resources to fix the problem, yet they still managed to solve it by hanging the cable up in a nearby tree so it wasn't dangling anymore. that visit was followed finally by the comcast/xfinity van around midnight. the service man was outside with his vehicle running for half an hour, going up on the cherry picker by himself, and making the repair. so the cable was damaged on a tuesday and it wasn't until friday that comcast finally did something about it.