traffic was surprisingly light, we hardly saw any cars on the roads. we got to binbin's place by noontime. a letter from the utility company was tucked inside the door with a handwritten note saying to pay the bill ($1200) otherwise they were going to cut off service. the car was gone, my sister had it towed back to the dealership last month. that allowed us to take out the step ladder and replace the broken garage lightbulb. i went through the house making sure everything was okay and adjusting all the lamp timers.
we left before 12:30pm, arriving at the burlington market basket a few minutes later. we were there for half an hour, gathering cafe supplies for this week. we left by 1pm and got back to belmont by 1:30pm. my mother made some wonton soup for us for lunch.
even though the outdoor temperature and indoor temperature were the same (79 degrees), it was a humid day and i closed the windows and turned on the living room AC.
my parents harvested half a dozen more bitter melons. the largest one was nearly half a pound while the smallest one was a quarter of a pound.
elsewhere in the garden:
home depot called me today, an automated message telling me my fridge delivery window tomorrow would be from 11am to 3pm. they'd tried texting me earlier, but because i didn't respond, they called. later they also sent me an e-mail confirmation. it's still a little hard to believe that by this time tomorrow i'll have a new fridge.
i watched as the sky grew increasingly cloudy. around 4:45pm my father started grilling the drumsticks we bought earlier, since if we waited any longer the downpours might start. my mother had the chicken marinating for a few hours, but hindsight they probably could've used a longer soak for deeper flavors. midway through the barbecue it did start to rain, but a light drizzle, nothing that a big umbrella couldn't remedy.
we grilled some homegrown zucchinis but they tasted bland. my mother made some pickled radishes with the ones i gave her today, half of which had already gone bad because i bought them 2 weeks ago. my father slathered some sweet and spicy sauce onto the drumsticks and cooked them on low heat before bring them inside.
my father gave me a ride back to cambridge around 7:15pm. by then the rain had grown into downpours. after a shower, i sat in the living room, occasionally listening to the clatter of rain drops beating against the air conditioner. midway through the evening i suddenly remembered i left my thanksgiving cactus outside. i quickly went out to bring it inside. cactuses don't like the rain, the soil has been so soaked that some of the cactus stalks have started to rot.
i finished watching the latest episodes of ted lasso and reservation dogs.