i was all set to go to bed at 2am when i suddenly remembered that tonight was suppose to be peak viewing for the perseid meteor shower. earlier i noticed the sky condition was hazy, but after a quick look out the window and being able to see at least a few stars, i figured it was clear enough to catch some meteor shower action. so i got dressed, grabbed a spray bottle of bug repellent, and walked to the local park. i laid down on the baseball bleachers and stared into the sky in the direction of the perseus constellation (i was able to find it through cassiopeia). i've never done much meteor shower viewing during the summer, most of the ones i've seen have been during the winter, when it's so cold outside it literally feels like i'm in outer space. it wasn't like that tonight, balmy, an occasional breeze, a soft yellow-orange haze over the horizon towards the direction of cambridge and boston. i think i prefer the cold, even though it's uncomfortable. the air seems to be crisper when it's cold, and i feel like i can focus better. when it's all warm like it was tonight, everything seems fuzzy. i was out for about 30 minutes and only saw 6 shooting stars. 4 small ones near perseus, 2 bright ones on the western horizon. so much for a show, nothing like the leonid meteor shower back in november, big bright shooting stars that fizzled in the air and left smoke trails.

coming back to the house, i photographed some bugs congregating around the front door light. although i've seen them before, tonight i was able to identify "those green bugs" as snowy tree crickets.

american. telephone. and telegraph. how. much. i. hate. you. earlier, i was lamenting over my at&t bills. oh, i mean, legalized extortion fees. for my place in cambridge i use at&t for the cable, the cablemodem, and phone services (i also use at&t for my wireless - what's that smell? smells like a monopoly). when i got the bills for the first month, it wasn't too bad. expensive, but not crazy. two months later i get the latest bills, and it's outrageous, somehow my fees have doubled. things i thought were free now cost me money, unless i can find these stupid little rebate coupons they sent me a few weeks ago, and send them back with the bills. at&t you bastards! why not give me the discount automatically? why must i jump through hoops? and i don't get my rebates right away either, i got to wait something like 60 days. i swear to god, whatever it takes, cable theft, rerouting my cablemodem so my neighbors can get free internet access, steal digital phone signals, i will do it, because if at&t's going to rip me, you can be sure i'm going to try to screw them as well.




if you're unemployed and you're at home and you have a working television and you can get good reception on local fox channel 25, then you owe it to yourself to catch good day live at 1pm. tv guide describes it as a newsmagazine (based in los angeles, so i guess it really is live), but it's more like a crazy circus,
like what happens when you mix a few ditzy girls with a straight-laced anchorman and you let them go at it freestyle in the proverbial octagon. they do real news stories of course, but it takes then 20x as long to tell it because one of them will go off on a tangent and then they'll chitchat and laugh and remember they have a news story to report. like today's show, the usual hyperactive jillian barberie was paired up with special celebrity reporter carmen elecktra. between reporting, they'd compliment each other ("you look great on that maxim cover!"), say stuff like "these are real!" and then before commercial breaks the director will cue some music and the two ladies would start dancing while the anchorman sat there grimacing. you think i'm making this stuff up? watch it for yourself!

on a crazy hot day like today, i try not to do too much. the only other thing i did today was to pick up the rest of my lights from light and leisure in reading. i'm not spending the night in cambridge, it's just way too hot. besides, i can't cook yet because the kitchen's messy and i don't want to eat sheetrock dust with my food.

so i spent the night at the house.

it felt kind of awkward, sleeping with no curtains, but by the time i went to bed at midnight, my neighbors were already asleep (from the dark windows in their homes). the bed was comfortable, and with the windows open, it was cool and breezy, but i had a restless night nevertheless. i tried to think what i was doing earlier that day that could've disrupted my sleep, did i have any caffeine? yes, maybe. did i take a nap? definitely. i must've fallen asleep at some point, but it felt like i was up all night. it was also really quiet, which was surprising, i figured there'd be traffic noises throughout the night, but the only sounds i heard were the hums of distant air conditioners and the chirping of crickets (yes, crickets!). early in the morning, 5am, i noticed one of my neighbors was already up from the open lights shining through his windows. who wakes up at 5am in the morning? maybe he's got a long commute. or maybe, just maybe, he woke up to spy on me sleeping. i am so paranoid! i am so in need of some privacy! curtains...

this morning my father called from belmont, he was trapped at home without any mode of transportation (i had taken the suv to cambridge and there were no spare motorcycle keys in the house), so i went back to pick him up because he wanted to be there when the electrician came to inspect the place. jeremy arrived a few minutes later, nice young irish guy, seemed to know what he was talking about and what he was doing. he'll start tomorrow morning, i gave him a set of house keys (does anyone not have a set? let me know, i'll mail you one). he's pretty inexpensive too. the whole lighting project will take no more than three days, the hardest part being the 11 recessed lights in the kitchen. this will mean by thursday the lights will be all set. i also have to get a plumber to come visit sometime this week. afterwards, zuka can come by to patch up any holes, and i finally start priming, in preparation for the floor guys.

a week ago i thought the house would never get done, but now everything seems to be going smoothly.