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my mother called at 10:30am, asking me to bring a few things from star market. i went outside and saw all the leaves on the sidewalk and decided to do a quick sweep with a broom.

i bumped into neil (who was also cleaning up his sidewalk), we chatted about thanksgiving. he's making a few pumpkin pies, spending the holiday in wellesley where he originally grew up. while he casually swept the leaves onto the road (street cleaning next week), i made a pile and collected the leaves in a barrel (already too many leaves on the streets).

i also bumped into paul. i knew they were home yesterday because i could hear them, but he told me that only he was back, while steve went to the island to clean up. we chatted about the tenants that'd been living in their place for the past 6 months. the romers told them there might be an uptick in the electricity bill because they were using the AC a lot, but paul told me there was a 300% increase. as for the jacksons, i told paul how the husband was an avid cyclist, going out for a ride every morning. paul was all dressed up. he told me he was waiting for an uber, and that he was attending the memorial of a friend's grandson who passed away at 23. paul didn't say what he died of, just said it was stupid choices, so i'm guessing it's probably drug-related.

so what was supposed to be a quick job took longer than expected. afterwards i finally went to star market to get a few things: clementines, sweet potatoes, grapes. back at the house i had everything already packed up. i put the produce in the back of my cargo bike and rode to belmont.

i arrived in belmont knowing that there was a breakfast bagel from linda's donuts waiting for me. my father had gotten it earlier this morning before going back to bed. my mother was watching some CCTV food shows streaming from youtube via chromecast before we switched to football, which immediately made her sleepy enough to go back to bed herself. my father woke up and did some work wiring the voltmeter so it could read the heavy marine battery.

my mother said my sister was going to come over and make dinner tonight, but it was already getting dark and late so she started preparing dinner. my sister finally did show up to make food but blamed us for not having some of the ingredients she wanted.

after dinner my sister got into a heated argument with everyone, storming off with her dog after saying she wasn't coming to thanksgiving and that she'd kill herself. seems like every thanksgiving there's always some drama with her. i don't think she does it on purpose, but there's something about thanksgiving that always sets her off.

after biking home i went about putting up a long strand of LED lights in my living room. i learned online that broken wires can be spliced back together by first sandpapering off the coating from the wires before twisting them together. i didn't have any sandpaper at home until i remembered there was a little piece of sandpaper in a bike patch kit. so i used that and managed to get the entire strand to light up. i put it along the ceiling moulding. it looked cool for a second before i found it kind of garish. the strand is long, taking up 60% of the circumference of the room.