greet all other maskless people, as life slowly returns to normal. however, when we got there, 99% of everyone there were still in masks - young, old, men, women, people of all races - everybody had their mask on. all the employees were masked as well. the handful of people going maskless all seemed like trump supporters to be quite honest. i almost pulled out my mask because i didn't want people to think i'm one of those people! but i stayed maskless, even though it felt weird seeing everyone else with a mask. but if we're ever going to get back to normal, we need people like me, willing to go maskless, to act as post-pandemic guinea pigs. once people starting more maskless faces, they'll start feeling safer, and slowly we'll get back to mostly maskless.
costco was crowded, since it was the weekend and they're not open tomorrow (memorial day), so if you need to get some long weekend supplies, today was the last day to do so. there was a massive line that stretched nearly from one end of the warehouse to the other. but once they got a "traffic coordinator" to distribute the lines, it moved very quickly, and my father was trying to get our attention while he was already getting ready to check out (he didn't have his phone so couldn't call us).
we got to the cafe by 11:30am to drop off the supplies before heading to belmont. my mother made mini wonton soup for lunch. afterwards we tried the imei-brand 'brown sugar boba ice milk bars' we got from costco for $12.99 a box (12 bars). it was really good, reminded me of taiwanese pudding, got a very deliciously rich milk and caramel flavor with a soft boba interior. my mother immediately said we should buy more the next time we're at costco before they sell out.
a few of the remaining flower buds on the gardenia seem like they might bloom. at the very least two looked promising, the buds swelling up to reveal some white petals on the inside. but as has been happening since last weekend, the flower buds continue to fall, and one of the nearly-opened flower buds fell off today, so now there's just one.
today like yesterday, there wasn't a lot to do with so much rain falling outside. at least yesterday i took some photos, but when i went into the backyard today, there wasn't much more to photograph. 
forecast tomorrow says the rain will leave for the most part by the morning, so we should be able to get some gardening work done. plant some seedlings, and i need to reapply immunox fungicide on the grapevines. so far this season there hasn't been any diseases yet, although some leaves have holes in them, something's been feeding on the grapes. i also found some cherry plum leaves covered with aphids; my initial reaction is to spray with soap or neem oil, but i decided to hold up, as they're food for the emerging population of ladybugs and their larvae. i may try relocating some larvae onto leaves with more populated aphids.
i started my mother on mare of easttown last night and she had already finished 4 episodes by the time they came to get me this morning. she thought the priest was the killer, but by the time she finished episode 6, she thinks its self-confessed billy.
i went and took a nap around 4:30pm, waking up by 6pm in time for dinner. we had the leftover steamed egg and pork (added some salt as it was too bland yesterday), some stir-fried bokchoi, and a package of frozen trader joe's orange flavored chicken. after dinner my father gave me a ride back to cambridge.
i didn't think the nets-celtics game would start until 8pm so was surprised to see the game already in progress. i started watching it. it was a the first game with a full capacity garden crowd, but that wasn't enough to get the depleted celtics over a more talented nets team. boston was without kemba walker and robert williams, while the brooklyn's three-headed-monster of durant-irving-harden each scored 40 points. final score was 141-126, game 5 will be on tuesday in brooklyn.
i'm going to finish watching the last episode of mare of easttown before taking a shower then to bed.