after a matcha latte, after a bathroom break, i made an italian sub and rode to the cafe to deliver it to my mother. my outdoor weather sensor said it was 60 degrees by that point. i was also there to drop off my sister's godmother's apartment keys. xiaojuan stopped by as i continued on my way to belmont.

because it was such a warm day, i was at my parents' place to move all the house plants (except the cactuses) from the grow room out into the backyard so i could properly spray them with neem oil extract.

it wasn't that easy as some of those potted plants were heavy. to make matters worse, much of the backyard was still covered in snow, and i didn't want to put the plants on the snow (it'd be like putting them on ice), so i had to put them on the other side of the yard where there was grass. it was warm while the sun was out, but when the sun was obscured by clouds, suddenly it'd feel cold. i worked in just a t-shirt.

i mixed a half gallon of neem oil extract spray (1 tbsp of concentrated neem oil extract, 1/2 cold tap water) in the pump sprayer, mixed it thoroughly, before i started spraying. it was a lot easier to thoroughly drench all the leaves and easier to inspect them afterwards. the gardenia i sprayed several times, making sure to completely soak the flower buds. it has the most amount of mealybugs but they were easy to find and i squished all those that i saw. the singular jasmine had a few mealybugs, harder to detect on the jasmines, but look for clumps of leaves which is where mealybugs usually like to hide. the terracotta potted jasmine also had a small amount of mealybugs hiding underneath some lower leaves that i managed to spray and remove. otherwise, all the other plants seemed fine. so far this year i haven't seen any spider mites, which was a problem last winter. the neem oil extract also kills mites if there are anyway, so maybe that's why.

i left the neem oil extract to drip dry before moving them back into the basement. while i was waiting, it gave me an opportunity to do some drone flying. there were a few places i saw when i went on that walk with my mother that i wanted to revisit. there was the house by the park that had 3 different types of solar panels: solar water heating and 2 different brands of photovoltaic panels. it looked like a mess but the roof was perfectly positioned southern-facing, and the fact that they have solar water heating meant they were early adopters of solar technology. along that same street with two other neighbors with solar panels as well.

there was also the red chinese-themed house on a terrace road by the reservoir. i'd never flown up this way before because it stretches the limits of my signal strength, and i was at 2 bars the whole time here. i've seen this house since my middle school days, so back in the late 80's. i'd never seen the owners, but i believe they were white not asian, just had a fondness for chinese designs. the house is really cool looking - dragons and chinese characters adorn the fences, eaves, shutters - but could use some repairs. even the roof has asian decorations in the shingles. my mother walks by here often and she told me a chinese family lives here now. i wanted to drop down for a closer look, but i was already stretching my signal strength as it is, and i didn't want to accidentally hit a tree or powerline.

seems like every time i fly these days - even if it's just to send the drone into the air to take a quick panorama - the DJI fly app crashes on me. today i noticed the video streaming was stuttering and the app froze a few minutes. one time when i regained control, i lost my bearing and flew in the wrong direction, getting lost before i oriented myself to the horizon to find some landmarks. i had just 6 minutes left of flying time before the app froze for another minute while i waited. it crashed out, i restarted the app, i used a return-to-home command. stopping it from video recording which gave me a few more minutes of fly time and i managed to get back with a few minutes to spare.

after moving the plants back into the basement grow room, i left belmont by 3pm.

my covid test result from yesterday came back today, a little over 24 hours later. that's some amazing turnaround time. it was an e-mail with a link and registration code. after i filled out some info, they sent me another e-mail with a link to the test result and a confirmation code. it told me what i already knew, that i haven't been exposed to the coronavirus. i was actually kind of disappointed, i was hoping maybe i already contracted the virus without knowing it and never had any symptoms. i think it just shows i've been responsible during the pandemic, wearing my mask, social distancing, and washing my hands.

for dinner i made another italian sub. i've got enough ham to make 2 more subs, which will last me until thursday and friday, but i still have 2 extra sub breads. i may have to go back to market basket and get some additional cold cuts and make some sandwiches for my mother this weekend.