however, the branch itself wasn't from the locust tree. i skipped back some more and found out the real culprit: it was the lesbian from across the street. for some reason early this morning she dragged the branch which wasn't even in her yard but belonged to a neighbor and tossed it in front of my house onto the street. not even sure why she did that, and i almost wanted to throw the large branch back, but decided to be the better man. i do have a long memory though and i won't soon forget.
fortunately the branch were small enough that i could tear and break them down panda-style to smaller sizes and toss them out in the garden refuse bin. but still, kind of a dick move. while i was out doing that, i also decided to sweep all the oak catkins covering the backyard and alleyway. i hope this doesn't mean we're heading for a mast year again and the backyard will be covered in acorns come fall.
i wanted to set up my garden today but after that bit of morning drama and making an egg & kielbasa bagel sandwich for lunch, the weather went from sunny to grey. so i decided to do it tomorrow instead. i did go through the house and open as many windows as possible, as it was a bit stuffy and warm inside, but much cooler outside. there was a strong breeze which helped with the circulation. i put in my screen door, which i took off during the winter (so i can get more light for my houseplants) and put away in the basement.
i spent a good chunk of the day retroactively updating past blog posts with photos. i've been sort of neglectful of that for well over a month now.
in the afternoon i went down to walgreens to pick up my prescriptions. i'm now back to 90-day supplies again. for a few years my insurance didn't allow this, so i had to go to the pharmacy a few times a month, because i have three prescriptions all with different refill dates. this also bodes well if i ever go on a long vacation, i can have a 3-month supply of my high blood pressure medication.
while i was at walgreens, i asked about about free home covid tests. the pharmacist told me i can get 8 tests per month (which amounts to 4 boxes) for free, since most insurance will pay for it (this is on top of the 8 tests i can get from the federal government, which today announced each household can receive a 3rd round of free tests, which i signed up for this morning). so i grabbed my 4 boxes (binaxNOW, which normally costs $24/box) and went back in line to get my free tests. after "paying" (i went through all the same steps even though the tests were free), the pharmacist took the tests and said it'd be a few minutes before they were ready. ready? what, were they injecting them with covid-detection magic? i didn't understand what was going on but i waited. i ended up being at walgreens for over 20 minutes and my patience ran out so i went back and asked them when they'd be ready. i ended up waiting a few more minutes before they finally called my name. turns out the reason wasn't because they were "charging" the covid tests, but rather the pharmacist had to get in touch with my insurance company by phone and fill out all the paperwork before i can get the tests for free.
i quickly raced home, because i needed to be at the cafe by 4:30pm, so i can go with my father to pick up my 2nd aunt, who was coming back from taiwan via san francisco. i left the house by 4:20pm, pedalling my bike as fast i could, getting to the cafe in 7 minutes.
it was a bad time to be going to the airport, in the heart of rush hour. we were hoping since we were going inbound that there wouldn't be much traffic until we left the airport, but as soon as we got onto the turnpike from cambridge, it was bumper to bumper congestion all the way to fenway park. at first i thought it was because of the baseball game later in the evening, but turns out there was a medical emergency in the middle lane by the fenway, which caused the traffic jam. after we got beyond that, there was fewer cars, and once we turned off the exit to logan airport, it was almost empty.
however as soon as we got to the airport, traffic turned to a snarl again. it didn't help that my 2nd aunt's flight arrived nearly 30 minutes early, so she already called to let us know she was at the airport when we first got onto the turnpike. as we entered the airport, she called again, said she'd already retrieved her suitcases. we told her to wait outside and we'd find her when we got to terminal B (united). the main reason traffic at the airport was a mess was because they were redoing the lanes, which caused us to miss terminal B so we had to circle back and try again. the congestion was all at the merge splitting into the various terminals; once we got beyond that, traffic was light. my father parked at the pickup spot while i jumped out of the car and went in search of my aunt. i found her and helped her drag her suitcases to the car.
the ride back was a bit better. there was a lot of traffic, but at least we were moving, only getting stuck at the merge into the sumner tunnel, and the entrance to storrow drive. once we were on storrow, it was pretty fast. we had to stop briefly at the cafe because my father forgot to bring my aunt's housekeys (which she left behind, in case we needed to get into her apartment). he was going to pull into the parking lot, but i jumped out of the car once again, ran into the cafe to grab the key, and got back in the car right when the light changed to green, about 20 seconds.
after dropping off my 2nd aunt at her place, we swung back to the cafe, which was about to close for the day. we ended up eating dinner there, my mother had some chicken broth heating and we all ate chicken noodle soup.
i made it back home by 7pm, got ready for game 1 between the celtics and heat. the game didn't start until after 8:30pm. the celtics were firing on all cylinders in the first half, despite missing marcus smart (foot injury) and al horford (covid protocol). i'm actually surprised they'll still testing players, 
i thought the the NBA decided not to do that during the playoffs, as they couldn't afford to lose a star player if they had to be out for quarantine. in the second half however, boston sort of fell apart for some strange reason, as the heat totally dominated, seemingly able to steal balls at will, while the celtics couldn't score anymore. nevertheless, even short-handed, the celtics were within striking distance, and were just a few possessions shy of tying the game in the final minutes. as is tradition, i'm going to avoid all sports shows from now until thursday night, when game 2 begins.