since a sleet storm was arriving by the afternoon, my father came to give me a ride this morning (9:30am) while he was picking up my sister's dog. when i went to go get in the car, i saw hailey was actually sitting in the front seat. i got in the back and set up the gopro to take a timelapse video. i thought i'd have an awesome video but when i checked the footage when we arrived at the house, i realized i didn't record anything. what happened was i hit the wrong button, instead of turning on the camera, i hit the instant record button. when i went to go press the record button to start recording, i actually turned off recording. i should've known, because i saw a number on the front facing screen. when it does that it's not a countdown but rather telling you what video number was just recorded. so it was a rookie mistake, i'll make sure it won't happen again.

since it was still early, i didn't eat until closer to lunchtime. i brought over 2 leftover everything bagel and some everything bagel seasoning and sriracha, so my parents could enjoy one of my special egg-ham bagel sandwich. hailey hovered around watching my parents eat, before eventually going to sleep on the couch. if she was at my sister's place she'd do the same thing, but at least at my parents' house we can let her out into the backyard to use the bathroom. later on my mother made me a bowl of christmas ham broth noodle soup.

eversource has a $40 rebate program for energystar-certified air purifiers. i was thinking about getting another purifier for my parents' place; not so much to combat the coronavirus, but rather to get rid of cooking smells and keep down the dust level. however, my parents already have an air purifier, the honeywell 11520 enviracaire i picked up off the curb in-box practically brand new almost 10 years ago. it doesn't have any features, it's essentially a glorified circular fan that draws in air through filters. it just has 2 settings, low (1) and high (2). my parents have another purifier, a holmes HAP240 that they originally got for my grand uncle. my mother's been running it in the bedroom she says to get rid of my father's stink, but i question the effective of that purifier, which is small enough to sit on a dresser top. we opened it up and saw the filter inside, which was nearly black and clogged with dust. i looked up the filter model (HAPF 30) and there's just one place that still sells it, so we got one ($15) from amazon. i was surprised it uses an HEPA filter. there's also a built-in ionizer, but the wire snapped off at one point, so it no longer works. the filter's not due to arrive until the second week of january.

as promised, around 1pm it started to snow. not the soft snowflake kind, but rather more like ice pellets. so typically the first snowstorm of the season is when i put my motorcycle away for the winter, but this snow would eventually turn to sleet then rain, and will be washed away by tomorrow morning. i took hailey out into the backyard because she likes to play in the snow, but she hardly noticed the ice pellets. a male downy woodpecker was feeding from the suet feeder earlier. the daikon radishes are still thriving underneath the row cover, and the few growing outside of the row cover are surviving too, though not as well. i'm curious if there are actually radishes underground or is it just leaves. these were daikons that'd be growing in the raised bed for 2 months with very little action; only now, in the cold winter, with chicken manure mixed into the soil, under protective row cover, are they now doing well. could they possibly survive through the winter into the spring?

i took some measurements of the bottom of the tent stove. one thing it's missing is a small try to hold the falling ashes. i saw at 9x13" baking tray at the dollar store that could possibly fit. unfortunately it's slightly wider than 9", so it won't fit inside the stove.

in the basement grow room my father pruned off some thin cactus branches. learning from last season, these branches are useless. better to prune them off to conserve energy, and then move the cactuses out in late spring, when the heat and sunlight will produce larger and thicker branches. my father also pruned some jasmine branches. something i noticed about the pileas: they're doing very well in our grow room; instead of growing tall, they grow compact, the leaves are healthy and large. they're also growing well enough that at least one of them is making more pilea babies.

i went outside again at 3pm to check the snow conditions. it wasn't cold enough to be all snow and there was just a fine layer of sleet on the lawn. i set up the gopro so i can get a time lapse video of the accumulating snow/slush. it was weird putting the camera outside without a case, but the gopro is designed to be waterproof. 1-1/2 hours later i went out to check the progress. i was surprised to see the gopro battery still had a 45% charge. when i went out again at 5pm, there was still 29% charge. i guess time lapse videos don't use up the battery as much as a continuously recording video. there was still nearly 30% charge on the battery after 2 hours out in the cold, which is pretty impressive. my old action camera, maybe an hour at best (from what i remember). the final time lapse video wasn't anything special; not enough snow accumulation and around sunset the sky turned from grey to blue to black.

in the afternoon i roasted some hazelnuts in the toaster oven and my parents fried some instant spring rolls. i also peeled a pomegranate using the submerged underwater method. for dinner, some egg & bokchoi stirfry and some tofu & garlic chive stirfry.

my father gave me a ride back to cambridge. i set up the gopro to take a time lapse, making sure it was actually recording. i didn't even bother changing out the battery, used the 29% charge one from before. i was worried it wouldn't be able to see anything because of the dark and i thought about turning on the interior light, but the video turned out okay, illumination from passing street lights and cars was enough to give intermittent lighting.

there was supposed to be a handful of NFL games on saturday, but due to covid protocol, they all got postponed with the exception of the patriots-colts game at 8pm. from the start it didn't look good for the patriots. jonathan taylor was an unstoppable running force, seemed to be rushing for yardage at will, and the colts scored first on a running offense, a taste of what the patriots did to the bills a few weeks ago. then a new england kickoff was blocked for a touchdown. first half, 17-0. it didn't get any better in the second half, patriots didn't score in the 3rd quarter either, the score was 20-0. if there was something positive to be had, patriots offense managed to score 17 points to bring the score to 20-17, with a chance to tie and go into overtime. however that wouldn't be the case when jonathan taylor burst through new england's defense to score a rushing touchdown, putting the game safely away. it was actually an easy game to watch once i was resigned to the fact that patriots would probably lose tonight, ending their 7-game win streak. everything else after that was a bonus, especially if they came back to win, which they didn't.