i heard if you hold the clutch when you start the motorcycle, you have a better success rate because it's less taxing on the battery. that didn't work this morning as i was forced to use the jump starter for the 4th time. when you need to jump start the battery every single time you ride the motorcycle, that's kind of a good sign to put the bike away for the season.

when i arrived in belmont i put the motorcycle away in the garage to wait out the snowstorm that's due to arrive later in the afternoon. final storage will be in the toolshed behind my sister's place (to make room for the garage), maybe move the bike later in the week if and when the weather clears up. i'd still like to wash the bike if i can, perhaps even change the oil even though that's more of a wishful fantasy.

my father had sprinkled lime all over the lawn as an end-of-season fertilizer. i was confused when i saw it because i thought the white powder was snow.

there was a lot of leftover turkey but i had leftover scallion pancakes for lunch instead. i also had some pecan delights, which is a knockoff of turkish delights, but with pecan instead of pistachios. the soft candy wasn't as soft as real turkish delight, but it packed a lot of flavor (maple, cherry, apple, peach).

earlier this morning my parents took tangtang to alewife to catch her go bus back to new york city. because she wasn't here, my sister was finally able to bring hailey to the house, and she left her dog here while she went on a nanny job.

my sister came back around 3:30pm. since it's her birthday tomorrow, my mother proposed we have an early dinner at spring shabu in brighton, the place we tried to go on friday night but was too crowded. we left around 4pm. large clumps of snow began falling by the time we arrived.

spring shabu was still crowded, but not so much that we had to wait to get a table. of course we were also there early, at a time not typical of the dinner rush. by the time we left there was a small number people waiting outside. the last time we were there was back in april, not sure the reason, i think maybe because my 2nd aunt just wanted to treat everyone. maybe because i'm gone there a few times, but it's lost its novelty. it's always the same things (even though there's a lot of it), and actually a little less, like they didn't have the mini chicken wontons. i think eating here just once a year would be enough shabu shabu. i was done after two plates of vegetables and tofu. i was so full in fact, at one point i thought i might vomit. even during thanksgiving i didn't feel as engorged as i did tonight.

we left around 6pm, shocked to see so much snow outside. our clothes reeked of shabu shabu smoke, my mother said next time to wear her worst outfit. at belmont my sister dropped off my parents, picked up her dog, and then give me a ride back to cambridge.

after a shower and a change of clothes (i changed into my thanksgiving clothes which still smelled of wood smoke but better than that oily shabu kitchen smell), i settled in to watch the sunday night football game between the patriots and the texans. new england lost, but had a sudden charge of offense that probably put the fear in the hearts of houston fans. i didn't think the patriots would go through the season with just one loss, but i didn't think it'd be against the texans, i thought that was a gimme for a win. this puts new england second in the post-season ranking, as baltimore vaults to the number one position even though they also have two loses, but they beat new england a few weeks ago. while watching the game, i made peace to the fact that maybe this isn't our year, just too many setbacks to overcome. our solid defense in the first half of the season seemed to flailing as of late, and our offense still isn't clicking with only a handful of games left in the season. here's hoping for a ravens lost and for the patriots not to lose anymore games, which can be a challenge, as new england faces off against the kansas city chiefs next weekend. at least we still have the celtics!

throughout the evening i heard the rumbles of plow trucks outside. i took a peek just once, didn't seem like there was too much snow, not sure what all the plowing was about, they probably been waiting all season, just some over-eager contractors trying to rack up the hours.

after the game, around midnight, i went outside and shoveled the slushy snow off of the sidewalk. there was probably about an inch of slush at most, and it was already transitioning into a light rain, though most of the stuff falling from the sky were clumps of wet snow from branches. the slush was heavy but thankfully not that much. there will be a brief overnight lull, but come sunrise it will begin raining again throughout much of the day, until the evening, when it will transition back to snow. i'm just hoping everything will get washed away tomorrow so i don't have to do any shoveling.