there was 3 people ahead of me in line but it went quicker than i expected. my father called me while i was waiting, having already arrived at my house so we could go down to the everett costco to get the tire replaced. i told him to meet me at walgreens and we could leave directly from there. when it finally got to my turn, the pharmacist told me the prescription hadn't gone through, and that they'd contact my doctor, while i should get in touch with them again on monday.
we got to costco by 11:30am. the saturday after black friday, i was expecting the place to be insanely crowded, but it was less people than i'd imagined, your typical weekend crowd. half the parking lot of completely full, while the other half was empty. there were a few people ahead of us in line at the tire repair shop and we waited nearly half an hour before we got serviced. even then, they told us to come back in an hour before the car would be ready.
so we went shopping at costco while we waited. we were finished with shopping after an hour but the tire service still hadn't called us yet to let us know the car was ready. but from the garage we could see our car with the new tire. the mechanic must've saw us looking through the window and opened the door to drive out the car. he said the batteries in the tire pressure monitors were dead, which shows up as a generic "check engine" light on the dashboard. he said this was fine, but at some point the batteries should be replaced (maybe the next time we get new tires).
we drove back to cambridge so i can grab my things before heading to belmont. we got to my parents' place by 1:30pm.
it felt a little late for yard work so we postponed it until either sunday or monday. the electronic mousetrap underneath the kitchen cabinet was flashing green again. this time we did catch a mouse, unlike yesterday. i dumped it outside in the ivy patch. not sure how the trap triggered yesterday without catching a mouse, up until yesterday the electronic trap had a 100% success rate when triggered, the only other was when the batteries were dead, but these were new batteries.
i had some leftover turkey rollups for lunch. i also picked up a large box of david's pecan meltaways at costco. my father never had them but was instantly addicted, he and my mother finished a whole quarter.
the only constructive thing i did today was replace the battery in our remote weather station. the batteries were not only dead, but for some strange reason the remote temperature sensor and the base were set at different frequencies, so it's a miracle they even worked together in the first place. we replaced the sensor with a fresh set of AA duracell batteries. the protection plastic box around the sensor on our maple tree had cracked from years of weather exposure. i patched it up with some duct tape, hopefully it can hold on for another season.
my bn-link smart plugs arrived today (early pre-black friday sale of $18). it's the third time i've ordered these brands before, and probably the 5th time i've bought smart plugs overall. they're just super useful. their advertisement no longer lists energy monitoring, which is one of the things i use these plugs for. so i quickly took one out and tested it, and was relieved to find it still had energy monitoring even though it was no longer advertised. it's strange that they did that, it's one of the most useful features.
my mother's wool socks arrived (35% wool, 29% cotton, 36% polyester). they were so good, she ordered 2 more sets as potential gifts for my 2nd aunt and godmother. i think these socks are okay, i've been similar in china, but they don't last very long. my mother did want thick wool socks, and didn't want them riding up too high, so this thin material was just right.
we ate most of the turkey, what was left of the carcass my mother turned into turkey stock for broth noodles for dinner. we at while watching the news, then turned to the alabama-auburn game - the iron bowl. the score was 10-0 in auburn's favor all the way into the 4th quarter. alabama finally scored a field goal, and with seconds left in the game, managed to get a touchdown for a tie and overtime. i'd never seen college football overtime before, but it's based on alternating challenges. the game went into a 4th overtime, but alabama managed to win.
around 7:45pm my father gave me a ride back to cambridge.