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after finishing off a leftover barbecued corn, i rode the motorcycle to belmont in the late morning for a day of yardwork.

after wheeling out the gas mower from the garage, i lowered the mower height 1-1/2 position. before i started mowing, i pruned the yew bush and weeded any crabgrass i saw on the lawn. for the sidewalk grass i used the mulch setting since i didn't want to keep any of the contaminate grass/soil. i then started to mow the grass. the mower was low enough that it cut close to the roots so afterwards the lawn looked a bit yellow instead of green. at one point my sister brought home hailey because she said her dog was barking at home all day. hailey continued to bark in the backyard while i finished mowing the front lawn. once i moved into the backyard so stopped barking, unless i went into the front yard, in which chase she started looking for me and would start barking again.

since i was cutting 1-1/2 position lower, i ended up collecting a lot of grass, enough to fill up half the compost bin. afterwards i dug a hole in the center so the compost could at least breathe since there was too much grass for me to properly mix everything.

next came the dethatching. i heard they have machines that can do this, but i do it the old-fashion way, manually with a rake. even though i wore gloves, my vigorous raking made a blister on my left thumb. thatch is a good source of "brown" material so i collected all the dead grass and added it to the compost.

during that time hailey would wander around the backyard, occasionally lying in the sun, or in the shade, and every once in a while go inside, only to come out again a few minutes later. also one of the backyard neighbors is having their house planted, so i kept hearing the clanging of ladders all day.

we're expecting some rainstorms tomorrow night, so i didn't have to worry about conserving any rain barrel water as i watered the backyard, including reseeded grass patches and garden beds. i wanted to water the front yard as well but i knew if i left the backyard hailey would start barking again so i didn't.

i was finished by 3:30pm so decided to do some drone flying to get some photos of the garden from above. using my mother's old samsung S9+ i didn't experience any problems. the compass might need to be recalibrated though, it had my location set incorrectly, but that's an easy fix to make. the only problem i had was when i tried to land: hailey kept wanting to chase after the drone. i tried to grab ahold of her with one hand while trying to land with the other. i ended up trapping her between my legs as i quickly landed the drone. it was already giving me the low battery beeping warning.

i knew i couldn't leave hailey home alone since she'd bark, so i had my mother ask my sister to come and pick up her dog before i left. i also took the leftover barbecue from yesterday, while my sister delivered some freshly baked scallion bread.

i was about to leave when i couldn't find my motorcycle key. then i realized it was still in the ignition, i never took it off. while meant the headlight had been on for nearly 5 hours. i tried to start the ignition but everything was dead. i went back inside the house and grabbed the jump starter. i was glad to see the mechanics didn't remove my jump starter wire. i couldn't start it at first, until i discovered it's better to connect the leads to the bike first before attaching the battery. i managed to start the bike a few times but the engine always died after a few seconds. on my last attempt, i revved the engine to few times to trickle enough electricity into the battery to keep the engine running. i quickly put everything back and rode home.

once i got back, i removed the battery so i could fully charge it indoors. the mechanics really tightened the screws on the battery leads, they also look new, maybe they replaced them.

i had an early dinner, at around 6pm. i had some scallion bread along with the lamb steak. this particular piece was thicker than the rest, so it was rare at best, which is a polite way to say certain parts were still raw. i ate what i could but spit out a few pieces because it wasn't edible.

later in the evening - after 10pm - i got hungry so i made myself an indomie mi goreng. i poached an egg and boiled the noodles for 3 minutes. i also chopped some cilantro and scallions. it took me all but 30 seconds to eat the whole thing, it's not really a meal, more like a snack.

some news today: norm macdonald passed away today at age 61, after quietly living with cancer for the past 9 years. he had his moments, but i don't know if i'd call myself a fan, he had a weird comic style. california governor newsom defeats recall vote by a factor of 2:1, showing that california is very strongly democratic. finally, in boston's mayoral race, frontrunner michelle wu won, while annissa essaibi george captured the second position, for a november runoff. both andrea campbell and kim janey conceded. i wonder if they didn't split the black vote, having two qualified black candidates (actually three if you also include john barros). i'm not a big fan of essaibi george, she seems fake. looking at her old photos, she's undergone a total makeover, from losing a lot of weight to going from brunette to blonde to enhance her whiteness while at the same time identifying as a minority (arabic). she also plays up her boston accent in her political ad: "i'll be the teaCHAH, and the moTHAH, and the maYAH." i'm surprised she didn't throw in some "pAHK your CAH in HAHvAHD YAHD" while she was at it.