so much for 48 hours of having the house to myself: around noontime today i heard someone walking up the front steps and then proceded to go upstairs. the new tenant - david - had arrived a day early. i missed him when he went inside the house, but finally saw him when he came back out. it wasn't the black guy i saw a few weeks ago, but rather a tall and thin man in his mid-to-late-20's with a frizzy sideshow bob hairdo. i watched from my living room window as he slowly moved his things from a minivan parked a few cars down the street. he did a weird thing where he'd lock the door every time he left the house then unlock it when he came back in, that seemed overly cautious.

i left for chinatown a bit before 2pm. i bumped into david because i was getting my bike and said his name as he was coming out of the house, which surprised him. turns out he was already living in cambridge - on spark street - but decided to move to a place where he could live by himself because of the pandemic. i did notice he was wearing a KN95 mask. a little strange, since the pandemic feels like its soon winding down as more people are getting vaccinated. today was even the first day of lifted mask wearing outdoors if you've already received your shots.

david didn't think he could afford a new apartment, especially one for just a short period of time (this summer), but said he lucked out when he found this place. he decided to dip into his savings so he could live on his own. it makes me wonder if he doesn't know paul and steve, or at least a referral from a friend or family. i also wonder if he's not getting a discount. i was surprised when steve told me they'd found a tenant to rent out the place for the summer, so maybe this was a personal referral. renting it out for some money is a better option versus leaving it empty all summer and not earning any income.

david did ask me if he was being too loud with his moving. i said no. he didn't have much stuff, just some backpack and duffle bags stuffed with clothes. i did see him bring in a small cycling exercise machine though, and he asked if he could put some stuff in the basement as well.

by the afternoon there were intermittent breaks of sun. it was warm but very windy (gusts of 50mph), i wore a fleece jacket which kept me comfortable, but by the time i reached the boston garden, i was hot enough to remove the jacket, where i had a long-sleeved pullover underneath.

i visited c-mart first, where i bought the bulk of my groceries: korean rice cakes, bok choy, long horn peppers, ginger slices, package of nongshim korean ramen. while outside organizing my groceries, it was so windy one of my canvas grocery bags nearly flew away, and i nearly tipped over a few times. from there i went to c-mart to get some deer brand sour mustard greens and some watermelon seeds.

i left chinatown by 3pm, pedalling across downtown crossing and post office square to haymarket. i came hear for the oranges. the place i bought last time had upped their prices, now it was just 6 oranges for $2. a nearby vendor was selling 9 for $2 so i bought from him, $4 worth. he told me i could pick 19 oranges. i also bought 3 boxes of strawberries ($1.50/each) and i told the guy i'd gave him $5 if he added a few plums in my bag, which he did.

i left haymarket by 3:30pm. my two rear racks were full and so was my messenger bag, where i carried the strawberries so they wouldn't get bashed during the trip home. there was a strong head wind and i think i swore the entire way home, pulling down my mask on a few occasions to breathe better, like pedalling in quicksand. passing by whole foods, i saw david walking and called out his name as i passed by, scaring him again.

i finally made it back by 4pm. out of curiosity i weighed myself, down to 151 lbs. i think by next week i can finally get back to the 140+ lbs. range. i finished the rest of my celery and hummus as a late afternoon snack.

i thought our april 2021 production would be much higher. however, after a prolonged period of drought, this past week has been very rainy, and that cut into our final monthly production number. nevertheless, we did break the 1000kWh milestone, which has never happened before in april, and typically occurs in the summer months. next month will be a challenge: may 2020 was our highest monthly production during a long stretch of abnormally sunny and dry weather. i don't mind the sun, but if it can somehow only rain at nights (when the sun has already set), that would be much appreciated.

for dinner i made a bowl of emmymade luxurious spicy korean ramen with a broth consisting of 1 raw egg, 1 tbsp of mayonnaise, 1 tbsp of gojuchang, and all contents from the spice packets. i added some lettuce just because i had some on hand, as well as some sichuan pickled radishes. it was very filling and i drank all the broth despite it being very spicy. once again i forgot to add the tofu, and i also didn't remember to chop some scallions.

i checked my grow closet in the late evening. i have a few squash pots that have double seedlings, i have to move out the extra ones soon. i checked the weather for next week: though daytime temperature will hover in the 60's, there seems to be a few cool nights where temperature dip into the lower 40's, still too cold to transplant my tomatoes and eggplants.

a test of whether an upstairs tenant is good or not is to see if they're noisy. for the most part david was a light stepper, not a stomper like paul and steve. he watched some television in the living room and i could hear a tiny amount of muffled audio, but enough to be annoying, and certainly not as loud and paul and steve. he also didn't watch long, maybe an hour at most. he used the second floor bathroom a few times because i can hear the pipes rattling in my walls whenever he flushes the toilet. the last time was around midnight, after that it was quiet. so he seemed to have passed that test, at least for his first night.