because i couldn't make it to the autumn community garden workday a few weeks ago, i took up some leftover garden work: trim the asters and irises from the front common bed and rake the leaves from the garden sidewalk. i worked for about an hour. even though temperature was only in the lower 40's, the sun was intensely bright in the morning such that i could work comfortably in only short sleeves. some creepy guy came into the garden to make a phone call then was watching me work. fortunately i was holding a pair of very sharp pruning shearers so i wasn't too worried. i saw marilyn - who lives next door - who jokingly told me to save some work for other people. she offered me a free apple which i happily accepted, even though i'm kind of an apple snob and only eat honey crisp and nothing else.

i returned home before noon, where i ate the final piece of leftover pizza along with a mooncake my 2nd aunt had given me a few days ago.

i rode the bike to haymarket in the afternoon. i had nothing particular i wanted to get, but left with a box of fuyu persimmons for $6. i was a bit sore from riding the bike yesterday, felt it in my glutes and my back. i'm sure this longer ride probably isn't going to help. i stopped at my house briefly before continuing to the cafe, where just my father was there, as my mother and my sister's godmother went to boston. i also dropped off one of the chromecasts which arrived this morning. my father packed me a dinner box with some cafe leftovers. unfortunately it flipped during the ride back and all the juiced spilled out. i also brought back a soft pretzel my sister got me yesterday.

i set up the google chromecast v3 on my bedroom HDTV. i actually don't watch this television too much, so i might end up giving the chromecast to my sister if she wants it. but if i do a lot of work in my supposed bedroom office, i might use it more.

before i went to sleep i saw the news of president george h.w. bush's death at 94. bush was president during my 4 years of high school and a bit of college. i didn't care much about politics at the time, so for me he felt like just an extension of ronald reagan. i remember he took us into the first gulf war, which ended just as quickly as it started. i only read about his other accomplished many years later after he was out of office. like his even-handed approach to the end of the soviet union and the fall of the berlin wall, if some other american president was in office, things might've ended up differently. but bush with his diplomatic approach meant that america wasn't accidentally dragged into the melee. looking back now, it would be a dream to have him as a president again.