i woke up at 8:30am for a day of president's day shoveling. the snow fell silently overnight, and would continue throughout the rest of the day, though most of the accumulation was already finished. there wasn't too much snow, just a few inches, and the light fluffy kind, since this was the first snow we had this season where it didn't transition to rain and sleet afterwards. after i used the bathroom, i got dressed and went outside to clear the sidewalk. people had already trampled through the snow, but even compacted it was still light enough that all it took was some gentle pushing for me to clean the sidewalk in a few minutes. i also shoveled into the backyard. i finally left by around 9:15am, walking to the cafe to meet up with my father by 9:30am. i left the heat on for sandy, who wasn't going into work today, and probably wouldn't be up until after 10am.

i didn't get to the cafe until 9:40am, right when my father was coming out of his meeting with the accountant. my parents decided to close the store today, partly because of president's day, partly because of the snow. while my father started with the snowblower from the back of my sister's place, i went to the parking lot to clear the edges (the areas where the plow truck can't get to) with a shovel. my sister was busy clearing out her car. at one point my father spoke with a contractor who said his crew would be willing to clear the snow for us in the future at $120/snowstorm. we finished in under 40 minutes, afterwards i went with my father back to belmont.

my father didn't shovel the house before he left but our next door neighbor cleared the sidewalk for us with his snowblower. while we were gone, my mother did a little shoveling herself, clearing the path to the house. my father and i spent a few minutes clearing the driveway before we moved to the back of the house to clean the snow off of the solar panels.

the snow rake made easy work of the snow on the panels. there was several inches of snow, but so light we simply brushed it off. temperature was hovering around freezing so actually the bottom layer of snow was slightly melted, making it even easier for the snow to slide off on the slick surface. we were finished a bit after 11am and went inside for lunch.

the snow also gave me a chance to figure out how rabbits were getting into the backyard. unfortunately the only tracks i saw belonged to a squirrel, but it did help me to locate a gap at the bottom of a fence where critters might be getting in so i plugged it up with a piece of brick. maybe the rabbits were waiting out the storm and might show up later.

i made some more changes to the LLC spreadsheet. my father said the accountant needed the credit transactions to categorized (supplies, repairs, etc.) in order to see what can and can't be tax deductible. there was no easy way to do it without going through each transaction and deciding what category it fits into. i made it easier by creating a popup selection in the cells. we also discovered my sister had been eating at more expensive restaurants than previously realized, racking up a bill of $2000 just last year.

i went out again after 4pm, after it snowed enough earlier in the afternoon for some additional accumulation. it wasn't much, less than a quarter of an inch, but our clear solar panels were now covered again. the snowflakes were also very distinctive, large and puffy. working by myself, i easily cleaned off the snow, though there was signs of melting and freezing such that the bottom parts of the panels were covered in a rough thin layer of ice that couldn't be removed. hopefully the forecast of sun tomorrow will make short work of the ice.

the final production tally for the day was just 3kWh. even after we cleared the solar panels by 11am, it was simply just too cloudy to generate any electricity. nevertheless, 3kWh is better than nothing, and it would've been even less if we didn't clear off the snow.

for dinner my parents grilled some t-bone steaks on the stove. afterwards my father gave me a ride back to cambridge, but not without first stopping at my 2nd aunt's place to fix her cable tv which hasn't been working ever since she returned from taiwan 2 weeks ago.

my 2nd uncle was out getting groceries so he wasn't home. there was the faint smell of oily fried fish. my father had already been to the apartment a few days ago to inspect the cable box but he couldn't figure out what was wrong. they could still receive programming and channel info, just no video or audio. the wifi cable modem was working just fine. i shuffled through the various input selection on the tv but there was nothing. i finally just unplugged the cable box and plugged it back in. it reset (showing the xfinity logo) then after a few minutes a channel showed up. so apparently that was the fix, just reset the box.

my father finally dropped me off at my house. i was expecting there to be more snow but whatever shoveling i did early this morning apparently was enough. there as still a light dusting of powder which i quickly cleaned off before going into the house. i found sandy in the living room eating korean noodles.

after a shower, i tweaked some of the spreadsheet formulas so they can dynamically reference another cell using indirects. the formulas themselves looking over complicated and messy, but they work, and i haven't noticed any speed delays. sandy told me she was waking up early tomorrow (7:30am), so i adjusted the heating schedule accordingly. after we finished watching the good doctor, she got ready for bed. i stayed up until 1am before going to the bed myself.

lying in bed, the light from the supermoon was so bright shining through my windows, i couldn't resist not getting my camera out and snapping some photos from my snowy backyard deck. it really did look like daytime at night.