i saw the news when i checked reddit from bed this morning: josh gordon was taking a leave of absence from football to concentrate on his mental health. at first i didn't understand what he was saying, but then i realized he would be off the team. later i read he was declaring his departure to preempt the league announcement that he'd once again violated the substance abuse policy and would be put on indefinite suspension. i wasn't surprised given his past history, but it was still a shock. the pats are already on shaky ground this season, in danger of missing a bye and eking out a conference championship despite carrying a 3-5 losing road record. with gronkowski looking like a wounded animal on the field and the overall ineffective offense, this doesn't look good for new england going all the way to the superbowl this year. but we can't complain too much, given our past successes.

the first thing i did this morning was put the newly charged battery into my motorcycle and move it to the front of my house. it was warm, with temperature in the 50's, but i opened the choke anyway, just to give it a little boost. it didn't start on the first try, but the second time the engine finally turned over. all was right with the world, until the battery dies again. but the temperature looks to be warm over the next few days at least, with the weather being in the 60's tomorrow on the first day of winter.

after some scrambled eggs + kielbasa + decaf french vanilla coffee for lunch, i rode to the cafe to bring my mother and 2nd aunt to the wellington circle plaza to visit ac moore and ocean state job lot. we left sometime after 1pm. my mother was confident we'd get back in an hour, 2 hours at the most, but i told her chances are we wouldn't return until it got dark around 4pm.

while they went shopping at ac moore, i made a quick stop at pet supplies plus to get some fish food. they had a decent selection but many of the containers were large and i just wanted a small one for my tetras. i had a 20% off everything coupon which was completely wasted because i didn't get anything else and the fish food cost less than $3, so i ended up saving like a quarter. i tried to buy more - like dog food - and called my sister asking what brand hailey eats, but i couldn't find it, and she gave me so much other info that i got overwhelmed and left with just the fish flakes. i went to ac moore to find my mother and aunt. they had a 60% off one item sale today, each of us with a coupon on our respective phones.

we drove to OSJL and stayed there for more than an hour. even though they had 4 registers opened, the cashiers were slow, especially the one we had, who had to chat with every customer. my aunt got a small suitcase for her trip to taiwan next month along with some biscotti cookies as gifts. i got some vegetable seeds for indoor spring planting and some rug underlays to replace the ones i currently have which are nearly 2 decades old and slip and slide around.

i was ready to give my aunt a ride back to her place, but she left some stuff at the cafe so we still had to return to the shop. we got back by 4pm, my aunt ended up taking the bus home instead. when sunset finally came i went outside to get some photos of the cafe for the website update. yesterday was the better night to do with a brilliant magenta sky, tonight was just cloudy. i also should've waited longer, as the sky turned a prettier dark twilight color while i was riding home.

i replaced all my old rug underlays. it's still possible to move the rugs, but better than before. later i went outside and covered the motorcycle in anticipation of the all-day rain event tomorrow. for dinner i finished the last of my spaghetti.