i ran few errands this morning. i took a short walk to star market to tag a pokestop. coming back, i dug through the small pile of stuff one of my neighbors threw out after i saw them moving out a few days ago. there was a barely-used cast iron griddle when i carried back to my house. i then returned for the real prize: a plasma globe! 
i've always wanted one ever since seeing them at the sharper image stores in the 1980's. unfortunately there was a good reason why it was thrown out: it didn't work when i plugged it in. there was also no brand or label for me to do some online research. it came with a separate power supply stamped with "taiwan" at the bottom so most likely it's circa 1980's. i'll need to open up the power supply and dig around to see if there's anything i can fix.
i went in the basement to check on my hot water heater. i'd set it to low yesterday, and now the hot water is the perfect temperature that i don't need to fiddle with the cold water to cool it down. i checked the catch bucket underneath my bathtub drain, there was some water but not much. finally i labeled my new hot water tank, wrote the date of installation (9-24-2020) and what unit it belonged to (#1), for future reference so i'll know when to replace the tank again.
i left for my parents place by 11am, taking the motorcycle, saddlebags packed with the groceries i bought from malden super 88 yesterday afternoon. i had an egg sandwich for lunch, along with a mug of mocha cappuccino and some orange slices.
in the afternoon we went to binbin's house, it's been over a month since our last visit. my parents just recently found the house keys so we're no longer dependent on the keypad lock, which we always feared that the battery might die one of these days and we won't be able to get into the house. i replaced the battery in the automatic lock for the garage entrance. my father cleaned up some corrosion on their basement pipes. my mother was upstairs pilfering bathroom supplies because she said binbin didn't need them.
we left by 3pm, then drove to the burlington market basket. it was crowded, but empty by somerville market basket standard. we were there primarily to look for diet IBC root beer for one of the cafe customers, but there seems to a supply chain issue as we've visited nearly ever supermarket in the area and they seem to be all out of IBC products. they did have stewart's diet root beer, we grabbed 2 4-packs to give it a try.
we returned to belmont by 4pm. around 5:30pm my father started grilling the taiwanese sausages on the barbecue, having to change out the propane tank when it ran out. i was busy watering the aquatic plants as well as the parched lawn.
i returned home after dinner. there was a lakers-nuggets game but i wasn't interested, the main event is tomorrow evening, game 6 between the celtics-heat. later in the evening i took apart the plasma globe's power supply. there seems to be a corroded transformer on the side, but i don't know what's the part number. there was a label on the transformer but i think it's just a serial number, when i searched for it online i didn't find anything. i told my father earlier that if we can't fix it, we could give it to xiaoxu, who might be interested in playing with it. even though there's no label or branding, it seems like a rather substantial piece of equipment, the globe itself at least a foot i diameter, so not like the smaller versions currently selling online for cheap. maybe at the time this unit probably sold for thousands of dollars.
i did some research on replacing the battery on my current late-2013 retina display macbook pro. i noticed it doesn't hold a charge for very long anymore, 2 hours before the battery is drained. also when i check the battery menubar, it tells me to service the battery. i'd thought about getting it done at the apple store, and could combine it with a fix to the display (which is peeling, a common problem with glossy displays from this vintage). the last time i brought my old computer in for servicing, i remember they had a special secret cost, that if you had more than 2 things that needed to be fixed, they would repair it for a fixed batch price, something like $800. i've replaced batteries on apple products in the past, from macbook pros to iphones, so it's not like i've never done it before. the cost for a new DIY macbook pro battery replacement kit is just $100, while sending it to the store is $200 (out of warranty battery replacement). the cost to deglaze a retina screen? unknown, but i wouldn't be surprised if it's $500+. a while back i saw a place on ebay that would do it for $100 but it seems like a risky proposition sending away my computer to some stranger i found online.