MA contacted me via e-mail with a special link for my sister's godmother to book her vaccine appointment. i had to coordinate with my parents who in turn had to contact my sister's godmother in connecticut. she was coming back early sunday afternoon, so any day next week would be perfect, the earlier the better. when i went to the website and looked at the appointment page (there were 4251 available appointments at the hynes convention center), all the day were booked up except for sunday, and no option to book beyond that. i ended up getting her a 5pm appointment. they're administering the pfizer vaccine there, my mother said she wanted the moderna, but the only places that were giving out moderna vaccines were outside of the city.

my father stopped by briefly to pick up some caulk to seal an unused rain barrel at my sister's place so he could bring it back to belmont and add it to our rain harvesting collective. when he came by briefly on monday there wasn't enough time to show him my grow closet. this time around i removed the mylar panels so he could see all 3 levels of growth. he was most impressed with my tomatoes, said they looked like store-bought ones, fat stems and not too tall. i also gave him back the 1000W luxauto grow light, i didn't need it anymore.

i wanted to do some cleaning since john might be coming up this weekend to do some house hunting, but i only made a small dent in the overall clutter. in aquarium news, the sick tetra finally died. i gave it a toilet funeral. in the past i've been known to bury dead fish in the backyard.

with torrential rains arriving for the next few days, i couldn't resist going out again this afternoon to admire the cherry blossoms before they're all blown away by the wind. i brought along my fuji 3D camera since it does the best job of capturing the multi-layering of blossoms. i had no destination in mind, figured i'd walk around and go where the colors take me. it wasn't as warm as yesterday but the sun was out so i just had on a sweater. i also brought along my drone just in case i find a secluded spot to launch.

on spring street is a grove of multi-colored peach trees. they're not at peak bloom yet but when they do they're going to look spectacular. if i were to lead a tour of local blossoms, this place would be a highlight. i'd never seen the owner around, would love to speech to him about his flowering trees.

nearby in conway park is a grove of yoshino cherries currently in peak bloom, like soft puffy pinkish white clouds. there was a pair of japanese mothers with their children, a rarity since i don't often see japanese people anymore (more often than not, if i can across an asian person, they're probably chinese).

from there i went up beech street to the round house. there was a large parking lot across the street and since there wasn't anybody around, it was the perfect place to launch my DJI drone. after sending it up 400ft, i did a 360° panorama before flying it a bit. i had steady connection throughout but on a few occasions i did lose signal for a few seconds. i flew towards market basket thinking it was union square for some reason. even though i had full signal, it got skittish and turn the drone around, flew it towards star market, which wasn't very far, just across the train tracks. i did a loop then returned to the parking lot.

i came down spring street, across pitman, then up belmont st. i saw a heavily blooming white cherry that looks to be yoshino but the deep maroon centers threw me off, can't be sure. there were also a few tall pink weeping cherries. i also saw a large cherry plum that had a really bad case of blackrot (i hope it won't happen to our krauter vesuvius plum).

this goes to show you that you don't have to go far to have a hanami, there are plenty of flowering trees just in the local neighborhood. the only bad thing is none of the trees are labeled so you're on your own when it comes to identification. my only regret is i didn't get a chance to go down to the arnold arboretum. i could go next week, but this coming storm is going to wipe out a lot of these flowers. in hindsight, i should've gone today. i'll try next week though, weather permitting.

they repainted the walls of the sacramento street underpass shortcut. some parts look like somebody had graffiti'ed over the fresh mural, but maybe they're just guide lines and it's still a work-in-progress. i liked the mural that was there before, "under the ground" scenes, but it was heavily vandalized and needed some sprucing up.

i replaced one of the props of my dji mini 2 drone. it works fine but there's a very small nick on the blade edge from some past accident. i wonder by replacing that one propeller if that might reduce the noise level. it was an original DJI propeller, i still haven't used any of the new knockoff ones i bought. i think the props are okay, it's the screws that worry me. if they're off even by a tiny bit, they could strip the threading inside the motor assembly. also when i applied blue loctite threadlocker, it was kind of a leaky mess, and i'm not sure if the tiny amount i managed to get onto the replacement screws is enough.

as a snack i had some blue cheese with water crackers. for dinner i made another bagel sandwich. i ate while watching the final 2 episodes of amazon's zero zero zero. it had a satisfying conclusion, a great series overall.

WWY told me she got vaccinated today through her work. i think because her company is a multinational corporation, it figured out a way to vaccinate its employees. it was a china vaccine, and requires 3 dosages spaced a month apart each. later in the evening she said she couldn't take a shower within 24 hours of getting the vaccine. i told her it was nonsense, you can't wash off the vaccine. she told me the nurse told her this. she also her she couldn't drink alcohol, eat seafood, no strenuous exercise, and eat a simple lunch and dinner. she told me people are getting vaccinated in china, that there are long lines at hospitals of people waiting to get the vaccine.