Cav's Place

On September 19, after making and eating mamaliga at night, I obviously kept waking up to pee, but the workers were quiet, my back was also much better, and I strangely slept even as dad was getting ready to leave, only waking up again a little before 10:30 AM, after he had already left, at which point I saw something that made me get on the computer and send him an e-mail, and while waiting for a reply I played a little more Lords of Xulima. Then, after seeing his reply, a few minutes after 11 AM, I got back in bed, and if at first it was hard to get back to sleep, I eventually did, only getting up at 4:40 PM, though I’m pretty sure that I last woke up at 3:50 PM, my attempt to get back to sleep one more time after that failing completely. Then, after eating quite a lot of watermelon and lunch and doing the day’s squats, I left at 8:35 PM, with the recyclables with the deposit symbol, which I put in the machine from that new Carrefour Express. One wasn’t accepted and when I cashed in the voucher I asked whether they could give me the coin for that as well, but the cashier said that she couldn’t unless she had a factory to change it so the machine would accept it, shrugging when I said that at the large Carrefour stores you can hand in what’s not accepted. Either way, I then continued to the large Carrefour, finding that some Asian festival was taking place in the area around the stadium and I had to go around, after actually trying to go through but being stopped by a guard who told me that I couldn’t.
After putting the few recyclables picked up on the way, along with the one which hadn’t been accepted earlier, in the machine, I entered Carrefour at 9:10 PM, getting the cat food, cabbage and sour cream that I had gone there for plus some beer for dad that was at half price. Then, after needing to go to an employee and ask her to approve the sale of the beer, since they were all gathered in one place and chatting, I used the voucher received for purchasing the new TV and the one received for the recyclables and then saw that I did just have enough time to check Kaufland as well, so I rushed there, putting the purchases in a cabinet and entering the store just before 9:45 PM. And, while not as great as other times, there were some interesting evening discounts, so I quickly took some carrots, red onions, and white bell peppers, and then spent the remaining few minutes picking some grapes, having just started to weigh the products when the closing announcement came. But I still dashed to have a very quick look at those discounted products that are close to the checkouts, and then ended up asking the employee to help the woman who was using one of the only two working self-checkouts that accepted cash and clearly needed help. But I could eventually use the other machine, then retrieved what I had in the cabinet and rushed to that Mega Image as well, putting everything in a cabinet when I got there and grabbing some bakery products and the roes that were the only other product left that was also discounted by 90%. Then, after waiting in line for quite a while there as well, I retrieved my things, walked out, and then stopped at a bench to arrange everything. And on the way back I picked up some more recyclables, plus a label taken off a crushed one, and also had a quick look in the nearby Mega Image, the guard asking me to leave the bags when I entered with everything.
It was close to 11:30 PM when I got back, with over 13 kg, and when I spread out the purchases I saw that the carrots had sliced not only the bag that they were in, but the one that I had put that in as well, so I was surprised to find that I hadn’t lost any, nor anything else from that bag. Either way, I then cleaned the litter box and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, ate an apple, put some of the purchases in their place, making the cat food fit taking quite a while, looked through jams and moved a few into the fridge, put together something sweet and ate that as well, and went to the bathroom, to use the toilet and wash, when it was past 1:40 AM. I was done a few minutes before 2:30 AM, and then I washed what was in the kitchen, put the remaining purchases in their place, and ate dinner between 4:25 AM and 5 AM. I got in bed at 6:25 AM.

Well, just under four hours later I was woken up by that loud drilling from above, which seems to be the rule on Saturday. And dad started looking for his car key, so I helped him look for a while, though he was the one to eventually find it, in a small pocket of his backpack that I wasn’t aware of, since I had otherwise looked through it. Then, after he left, I started writing the review for Dungeons of Dreadrock, getting back in bed at 1 PM, when the noise died down to some scraping, which continued as I tried and failed to actually get back to sleep. At 3 PM, when the alarm rang and I got up to watch the Formula 1 qualifying and a friendly handball match, I initially thought that I hadn’t managed to catch as much as a little nap, but I guess that I probably did nap just a little bit, since it didn’t feel like I was awake for two whole hours. And the drilling resumed not long after I got back up… At least I managed to take a proper nap in the evening.
On the other hand, dad utterly infuriated me at night. He once again gave Liza a lot more food just before going to bed, doing so just as I woke up from that nap, so I initially left Liza’s plate in his bedroom, and later moved the food out of it, washed it, then put the food back and returned the plate there. But she still hadn’t touched it by the time I went to wash what I had used while eating dinner in my room and dad went to the bathroom at the same time, so I went there while he was in the bathroom, turned on the light and put the plate under her nose, so she started eating. I took it away and meant to leave when dad was done in the bathroom, so I won’t bother him, but he complained that I had turned on the light and supposedly woke Liza when he had supposedly gotten out of bed slowly just to avoid that, the fact that she actually was awake when I walked in being irrelevant, of course. And then he called the fact that I was bothered that he may end up throwing away that bit of food “shit”… And I really lost it. Went to the kitchen, waited for a few moments, holding that plate, then flew off the handle, banging things, though I managed to avoid breaking any, and then pacing back and forth and snorting for quite a while before going out on the still demolished balcony, with that plate, meaning to throw the food for some of the cats that are outside. But since none walked by just then and it was too dirty all around to just throw the food down, I eventually walked back in, put that plate back in dad’s room for a while, cleaned the litter box, tried to calm down to some extent, got ready for bed, and then, since the food was still there, I put it and one of those treats which he had left on the living room floor in something else and in the fridge, getting in bed at 5:20 AM.

The alarm was set to ring at 1:55 PM, to watch the race, but after waking up just over an hour earlier and going to pee, I couldn’t get back to sleep, so a few minutes before that time I got up and turned off the alarm. Then I finished and posted the review for Dungeons of Dreadrock, did the day’s squats, and left at 7 PM, with the regular recyclables, which I dropped off in a recycling bin, some expired cat food, which I left for some stray cats I saw close to that recycling bin, and the recyclables with the deposit symbol, picking up some more on the way to Kaufland.
Going there was a complete waste of time, since the machine didn’t work, and after putting those recyclables in a cabinet, washing my hands, and entering the store at 7:40 PM, I didn’t see any interesting evening discounts and, while I initially picked up one product which I considered buying, I was uncertain and when I saw that a single self-checkout that accepted cash was working and there were people with many products using it, I eventually decided that it wasn’t worth the wait. So I just left it somewhere on the way back to the entrance and walked out, being about to use the entrance gate, which had just opened for someone else, when the information desk employee asked what did I want and what did I have in my hand, so I showed her the empty bag which I had just taken out of my pocket, just to make it obvious that I wasn’t hiding anything there. And the closing announcement came just as I was walking away.
At least the machine from Carrefour worked, even accepting a recyclable which had been left next to it, though it didn’t accept one which had been emptied by dad and, obviously, one which I had picked up and was mostly full, since I’d say that somebody tried to prank whoever picked it up because the cap seemed glued on and I couldn’t open it to empty it. So I put those two in a cabinet, but I forgot that I wanted to check the price of their cheap yogurt and didn’t find anything else to get, so I just cashed in the voucher and followed some other people out of the checkout area, so I wouldn’t have to go back to the entrance,
After retrieving those recyclables from the cabinet, I picked up some more and went to that Mega Image that closes at 10 PM, getting there pretty early but being unable to use that time to put in those recyclables, since the machine was having issues, the people who were ahead of me struggling to put in what they had, and the 90% bakery discount labels started being placed before my turn came, so I went there and took an apple pastry, though it was torn in two, and a plain bun. And those discounts were actually made rather early, because by 9 PM I was already waiting for the carts with the other products discounted by 90% to be brought, and when that happened I grabbed two things from there as well. And after waiting in line for a while I decided to go back and grab another one of those bug repellents for my parents as well.
I still had those recyclables when I walked out, the man who had been behind me when I went to take discounted products still struggling to put in everything he had and complaining loudly about the situation. So, after stopping to put the few other purchases, not including the bun and the apple pastry, in the backpack and passing by the Shop & Go from that area, I decided to try that Profi Go… Only to see that, while the display seemed to indicate that it was functional, the machine from there had a sheet of paper taped on it, not allowing anything to be put in, so I walked back out and entered this nearby Mega Image as well, seeing that the machine did work… But the guard told me that it was going to turn off at 10 PM, and when I told her that it wasn’t even 9:40 PM yet she pointed to the large bags that the guy who was using it had and said that she wasn’t even sure that he’ll finish in time. So, after having a quick look inside, I decided to continue to the next Shop & Go. But the machine from there didn’t seem to be working either, an employee struggling with it but seeming unable to get rid of the message that the glass container was full even though it wasn’t, which seemed to be the main problem at the one from that first Mega Image as well. So I eventually came back with all of the recyclables gathered after leaving Carrefour, plus those two which hadn’t been accepted there.
I was back a little after 9:50 PM. Then I cleaned the litter box, eating two of the plums sent by mother before going to drop a bag of trash down the chute, after which I also ate the apple pastry and put the purchases in their place. I went to wash at 11:10 PM and was done just before 11:40 PM, but it was past 1:10 AM when I went back out of my room and 2 AM when I took the first bite of lunch, which consisted of some slices of pizza brought by dad and which he had taken out of the box he had brought them in and placed on a plate, and the edge of one of the slices was also missing, so I wondered about that missing edge and just how clean his hands had been when he had moved the slices. Either way, it was 2:40 AM when I finished that lunch, and I also moved something that he wanted to take to mother into a jar that I thoroughly washed first, ending up eating dinner between 3:30 AM and 4:10 AM. And when I flossed before going to bed I definitely confirmed that the filling which was only replaced in June is loose again, and that area bled when I then brushed my teeth, waiting for the bleeding to stop leading to getting in bed at 5:20 AM again.

When I got up to pee, a little before 8:30 AM, I heard voices outside and also had some pretty bad acid reflux, but I managed to get back to sleep right away and could sleep until the workers returned from their break, which I guess was around 1 PM again. I guess I might have woken up because of various smaller noises before then as well, but in that case I also fell asleep again almost immediately, since what I was actually aware of was when things started falling on the scaffolding and possibly even on my external blinds, so they were obviously tearing down or scraping something above, and I remained curled up under the sheet for quite a long time before checking the time, seeing 1:53 PM, and deciding to get up, albeit after lying there a little longer and then taking it very easy, so it was 2:15 PM when I got on the computer, staying there until 5 PM, when the workers were done. On the other hand, when I got up there was a heaviness in my abdomen and some little blisters on my tongue, plus some remaining acid reflux, albeit not as bad as it had been in the morning, so I had serious doubts about that pizza, or perhaps more exactly about dad handling it with dirty hands and/or somebody having either bitten off or having had dirty hands when they had torn off that missing edge. Either way, in the evening I started reading Blood Communion, and eventually my digestive system seemed to calm down as well.

On the morning of September 23, I surprisingly managed to stay asleep until almost 11:10 AM, not even waking up when dad left. And at that point, when I went to pee, the noise seemed rather distant and I could get back to sleep right away, sleeping for another hour and a half before waking up again, then peeing once more, just in case, and managing to catch another little nap before things started falling around my window, and some of the scraping and hammering seemed to come from upstairs as well. But I had set the alarm to ring at 2 PM and it’s possible that I caught another brief and agitated nap or two before that happened and I got up. Then I had the usual stuff, which included the last of those baked almonds with Himalayan salt which had expired at the beginning of May, to which I added one apricot pit. But when I went to the bathroom, the light flashed and then wouldn’t turn on anymore, so I replaced it with the one from the small bathroom, leaving replacing that with the old one that I kept as a spare for later… And while I was replacing that light, somebody rang the doorbell, and since the workers were right outside the apartment when I wanted to get back to the kitchen, I assumed that it had been them, and the fact that they were there made me avoid going back to the kitchen to eat those two nicer biscuits, with added honey, and drink most of the tea until they moved away and were pretty much done for the day, so I ended up only leaving at 5:05 PM, wearing the full running gear and one armband. The reported temperature was 27-28°C, and a couple of degrees less when I finished.
The time was 1:19:16, with sector times of 4:29, 5:11, 6:02, 4:35, 5:06, 6:00, 4:36, 5:12, 6:03, 4:38, 5:18, 6:13, 4:43, 5:16 and 5:54, making for lap times of 15:42, 15:41, 15:51, 16:09 and 15:53. With this being the first run over ten kilometers since the Dream Trek, or since a week before that if I’m referring to an actual continuous run, I was thinking that I’ll be content to just stay under 1:20 and started at a controlled pace, the first sector’s time being pretty much what I expected. The second sector was just a little slower than I thought it’d be, however, and while I hoped to squeeze under six minutes on the third sector, I definitely didn’t want to push so early, so I took that time as it was. But then I didn’t think that I could afford to be slower on the second lap, and while its second sector recovered almost everything I had lost on its first, sector three of lap two was still far too early to push, so I was sure that I was going to be slower after all… Yet I did just enough to be a second faster on lap two than on lap one, which made me feel much better about my chances of staying under 1:20, and staying safely under 16 minutes on lap three as well improved my confidence even further, to the point that I wondered whether I’ll even manage to stay under 16 minutes on each lap. That might have even been possible if I’d have really pushed on sector three of lap four, but by that point I was starting to think about squeezing under 1:19:30 and pushing before sector two of lap five seemed like it could cause me a net loss, so I “sacrificed” lap four and stuck to that plan, doing enough on sector two of lap five to give myself a good chance and then giving everything on the last sector and ending up very safely under 1:19:30. Not that this isn’t still a pretty bad time in itself, but I’m content with it under these circumstances.
What does make it worse is that there’s actually surprisingly little to say in terms of issues, especially after the first sector, since a pretty serious gust of wind hit me almost as soon as I started running and, far more concerning, right after that first sector’s long straight I felt what seemed like a warning coming from my heart. But neither of those problems repeated itself after that, and the only thing I’d mention about lap two was also right after the beginning of it, when the spray from the fountains that are on the lake was carried onto the path and there was a moment, before the bridge, when I found it rather hard to breathe because of it. Other than that, a pressing need appeared towards the end of sector two of lap three, worsening over the course of the next two sectors, but then it became more manageable, even if it remained noticeable all the way to the end. As for problems caused by people, other than a pretty normal amount of weaving and going the long way around, on sector one of lap four I slowed in order to squeeze through a roadblock, while on sector one of lap five I briefly stopped because of a little boy who came out from behind his parents and almost ran into my legs.

I did a few quick stretching moves before walking out of the park, and I also picked up a few recyclables, putting them in the machine from the nearby Mega Image but not staying to cash in the voucher at that point. And then I picked up two more recyclables, one of them without a label but being the right size for the label that I still had, and after getting back, piercing that cap that seemed to have been glued on and emptying that bottle, I decided to try to open it again and found that it opened right away, which was really weird. Either way, I then cleaned the litter box, ate a lot of watermelon, changed, albeit leaving the running t-shirt on, also changed the light from the small bathroom and found the receipt for the burned out one, since it’s still under warranty, and it was past 8:40 PM when I left again, with a bag of trash that I dropped down the chute and the recyclables with the deposit symbol, picking up one more on the way to Kaufland.
When I got there, I saw another recyclable next to the door of a car that was parked next to the entrance to the underground parking lot, and a couple more scattered on the ground, but someone was in the car and a woman was outside, so I initially put what I had in the machine, then saw that the car was gone and went back to pick up that recyclable that was still on the pavement, though I left the others, since that woman was still there, with her back turned. And, after putting that recyclable in the machine as well, I entered the store just before 9:15 PM and made use of evening discounts to get carrots, tomatoes, and Kapia peppers. I also added two of those cheap yogurts, and when I heard a good discount for sausages being announced I meant to get some of those as well, for dad, but when I got there I was told that they had just sold all of them. So, after waiting for 9:45 PM without seeing any new or increased discounts, I cashed in the voucher received for the other recyclables and used the one received for that last one when I paid. I was arranging the purchases when the closing announcement came, walking out a couple of minutes after 10 PM… And seeing a lot of smoke, so I was looking around, trying to see where the fire was, only learning after I got back that it was actually 3.5 km away, at a storage facility, and people were advised to stay inside with the windows closed because of the toxic smoke.
Not that I could have done much about that at that point, but since I wasn’t even aware of it, I continued to that Mega Image that closes at 11 PM, picking up another recyclable on the way, entering the store with everything, and just wasting some time, because the bakery products weren’t even bagged yet and the employees didn’t seem to be about to make any discounts, so after waiting around for a little while I continued to the non-stop Mega Image as well, picking up one more recyclable on the way and once again entering with everything. But I was apparently too late for the discounted bakery products, since I saw someone who had a few, but none of those that were left were discounted. And while an employee was checking the other products and applying the 90% discount to those that were just about to expire, a man was standing next to him and taking everything. So I looked for something else, spotting some cooked food that was expiring the following day and discounted by 50%… And as I was trying to work up the courage to ask whether that discount will also increase, dad called to say that he had forgotten his keys at mother and was just getting off the metro. So I had to get back and open the door, which made me manage to ask not one but two employees about that discount, since I couldn’t spot the one which had been applying those labels right away but did see him again before walking out. But both told me that the discount won’t increase that evening, so I left without buying anything from there either, showing the guard the recyclables and an empty bag when she asked what I had in the bag and in my pocket, the purchases being in the backpack, which she didn’t ask about.
Despite jogging back, I still picked up a couple of recyclables on the way, and after meeting dad in front of the building I grabbed a couple more that were left here. And, after letting dad in, I went back out, to have a look in the nearby Mega Image as well, grabbing two bakery products that did have the 90% discount. I also saw some nicer packaged bread that I’d have bought for dad, but it was discounted by 50% and when I asked the employee who had placed the 90% discount labels on the bakery products he said that the bread will stay at 50%, so I didn’t get it.
I got back for good at 11:10 PM, asked dad if he’d cook something, and eventually dug out some bio (organic) “burger” patties from the freezer and cleaned the grill for him to use for them, and when they were close to being done I added the two remaining slices of the pizza he had brought, though those got rather stuck on the grill and it then took a while to get them off. But first I ate a sweet pastry, put some of the purchases in their place, cut some of the watermelon for him to take to mother, then ate lunch, consisting of the pizza slices and one of the patties, and did the day’s squats. It was past 1:45 AM when I went to shower, that dull pain in that area of my head once again being more notable, not that it had ever fully gone away after I had first noticed it. And the water was quite cold until I was just about done, when it suddenly ended up being around body temperature and seemed to keep warming up. But I didn’t linger, being done just after 2:10 AM. Then I washed what was in the kitchen, including the grill, put the remaining purchases in their place, took the last of those expired vitamin C and zinc supplements, and ate dinner between 4:35 AM and 5:20 AM. I got in bed at 6:35 AM.

The plan was that dad would wake me to lock the door behind him, since he didn’t want to take my keys and leave me locked inside, and several minutes before 8 AM, so after I had only slept for about an hour, he did that, at which point I also cleaned the litter box to give him a small bag of trash to take. And, while I was back in bed just before 8 AM, I couldn’t get back to sleep right away, some faint noises started soon after, and around 8:45 AM they weren’t that faint anymore, so I got on the computer, and while the noise wasn’t exactly bad either, I only got back in bed at 11:50 AM, when I hoped that the workers would take their break. And they did, after a few minutes of worse noise, when they probably rushed to finish something, but it still took me a while to fall asleep again, and after they finished their break and the noise woke me again, I only managed to take a couple of brief and agitated naps, despite only crawling up from under the sheet some time after 4 PM. And then I read some more of the book, only actually getting up when it was close to 5:15 PM and the workers were gone, so I could raise the blinds and move around. And I didn’t get back in bed again that evening.

At least I did get some pretty good sleep on September 25… Which was very much a surprise, since dad had said that someone was supposed to come in the morning and measure the windows, so he should have woken me up some time before that, but I found myself only waking up after he left and finding a note saying that he had left earlier because they had also arrived earlier, which I found baffling, since measuring windows would have also required entering my room. But in the evening he explained that nobody came for the windows, but just to ask him to sign that he agrees to the work being done. Not that sleeping through that wasn’t a surprise just as well. But the workers’ break was supposed to start soon after I woke up, so I got back in bed and slept for some two more hours before the noise woke me, after a total of some eight hours of sleep. So I didn’t make up for the previous day, but at least I didn’t add even more to the sleep debt for once. And the microwave popcorn I made and ate during the evening’s match, which was admittedly of a different kind than the one used the previous time and expired “only” since December of 2023, actually seemed perfectly fine.
I wanted to check some Mega Image stores after the match, so I left at 9:55 PM, picking up a few recyclables and jogging to the one from Mihai Bravu, which I had found closes at 11 PM but had never checked for those 90% discounts until then. And the wind was quite a problem, chilling me and threatening to blow the cap off my head if I stopped holding on to it… Which did happen at one point. But I did get there in time to see those labels being placed on the bakery products and that time I managed to grab the two apple pastries that were there, reaching over as the man who had been waiting asked the employee about them. And then I waited around for quite a while, first because there were many bakery products left and that employee was going through them slowly, but also because I had seen some other interesting products that expired the next day and were discounted by 50%, so I wondered whether she’ll get to them next. And she eventually did seem to be going there, but then a guard came and called her over, apparently in order to take some products she had asked to be saved for her, and it was getting too late, so I just bought those pastries, without waiting for the receipt. Then, after putting the pastries in the backpack and picking up a couple more recyclables, I continued to the non-stop Mega Image that’s close to the metro station, put the recyclables in a cabinet that I didn’t lock, entered with the backpack, but found the bakery area already cleared and nothing else with the 90% discount. And after retrieving the recyclables and picking up a couple more on the way back, I entered this nearby Mega Image at 11:02 PM but only found some bagels that I wasn’t interested in left in the bakery area, and what was strange was that there were crates and piles of products everywhere and the employees were gathered outside, though none told me that they had closed early or tried to stop me from entering.
I was back a little after 11:05 PM. Then I cleaned the litter box and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, did the day’s squats, ate one apple pastry and put the other one in the fridge, and it was past 12:10 AM when I went to shower, being done just over 40 minutes later… And that time I didn’t notice that pain in that part of my head anymore. But then I spent some time on the computer, going back to the kitchen at 1:25 AM. And I also swept the floor and I’m not sure when I took the first bite of lunch, but quite some time passed before the second and I only finished eating it at 3:25 AM, then ate dinner between 3:30 AM and 4 AM.

Several minutes before 8:30 AM, I was already woken up by pretty bad noise, but it didn’t stay that bad and I could get back to sleep, and while I still woke up occasionally and, perhaps somewhat oddly, it was harder to get back to sleep after going to pee and exchanging a few words with dad during the workers’ break, I eventually managed to take another nap after that as well and it was 1:53 PM when I got up for good, when what sounded like metal cutters started making an awful noise. Then I ate lunch, did the day’s squats, and left at 6:05 PM, with a bag of trash that I dropped down the chute… Only for a piece gathered from the litter box to fall on the floor, and I wasn’t going to leave shit there, so it’s fortunate that something else fell along with it and I could use that to pick it up and drop it down the chute as well. Either way, I also had the recyclables with the deposit symbol, and even though I rushed to Obor I picked up some more on the way, plus a label taken off a crushed one.
After putting the recyclables in the machine from Auchan, I used the voucher when I paid for the paper towels that I bought from there, and after putting those in the large backpack I continued to Carrefour, picking up another recyclable on the way and putting it in the machine from there. I also took a label off a crushed one that was left there and put it on another one that didn’t have the deposit symbol, but that machine refused to read that bar code and someone else came to use it before I could try to put that label that I already had on that bottle instead, so I dropped that bottle that didn’t have the symbol in a bin and walked away. Then, after peeing and washing my hands, I entered the store and bought some snacks, vouchers with 30% of the value being offered for that product category, among others, those days. And I also used the voucher received for that recyclable when I paid and added the purchases in the large backpack.
I started jogging after walking out of that mall, but when I passed by a Profi I stopped for a quick look, entering with everything, and then I picked up a few more recyclables, including one that didn’t have the deposit symbol, on which I placed that label that wasn’t read before. And after that I didn’t jog anymore, initially meaning to just get to that Mega Image that closes at 10 PM in time for the 90% discounts. However, when I reached Mega Mall I decided to check that Carrefour as well, noticing two recyclables in the first bins I passed by inside the mall… But a guard told me that I wasn’t allowed to do that as soon as I picked up the first one, though after I put it back he told me to take that one, but that if I’ll continue searching he’ll invite me to leave the mall. So I grabbed that one again and then rushed straight to the machine, putting everything in, only being left with that label that still wasn’t read, so I replaced it with the other one, which worked. And in that Carrefour I found what I hadn’t found at Obor, a certain kind of snacks and more of the cat food that was on sale, thinking that I had enough for how much I wanted to take but realizing at the self-checkout that I hadn’t factored in the deposit for the expiring beers which I had also grabbed for dad, so I left some of the cat food there, the fact that I had noticed the problem before scanning it meaning that I didn’t need to call over an employee. Either way, I also used the voucher received for those recyclables and then put the new purchases in the backpack with rope straps. However, there was no way to run with two backpacks, and it was close to 9 PM by then anyway, so I came straight back, trying to jog, albeit very lightly, after finding that the area around the stadium was closed and needing to go back and around. And I picked up two more recyclables.
I was back for the first time at 9:35 PM. Then I put the purchases in their place, ate an apple and some expired salty pretzels while watching what was left of a match, and after it was over, a few minutes before 11 PM, I went back out and to the nearby Mega Image, seeing that the bakery discounts of 90% had already made and taking some things from there, plus some onions that were discounted by 50%. And, on top of not being charged for the bag that those onions were placed in, at the checkout I noticed that their price was slightly lower than what was listed on the discount label, though I later saw that it was, correctly, half of what was listed on the regular label that was under it. On the other hand, the guard, who was sitting inside the bakery area while I was trying to decide what to get, was coughing really badly, and so was the guy who was behind me at the checkout. Either way, I also finally used that voucher received for the recyclables put in the machine from there after the run.
After getting back for good, I just dropped off the purchases and rushed to wash, since dad was going to get back later and I knew that he was going to want to wash as well. And after I was done I put the last purchases in their place and then spent some time on the computer, getting back in the kitchen at 1:10 AM and then eating a sweet pastry that I already had, washing some things, taking one of those cold pills that expired a year before, moving the contents of a can which had expired three weeks before into a jar, and ending up eating dinner between 3:50 AM and 4:45 AM, so at 4 AM I only managed to post a placeholder for that day’s post.

Unlike previous Saturdays, on September 27 it was quiet and I could sleep. I did wake up after dad did, around 9:30 AM, and remained awake until he left, just after 10:20 AM, but since I didn’t need to pee I only got up to do so, just in case, at that point, and then I got back to sleep. I’m not sure for how long, since I was awake and just curled up under the sheet, lost in memories and daydreams and what ifs, for very long before finally dragging myself out of bed close to 3:40 PM, but I should have slept a pretty normal number of hours. On the other hand, after getting back to reading after finishing the post, it was almost 1:30 AM when I went back to the kitchen, and I also dealt with my bread and moved dad’s leftovers into a bowl, and while I “cheated” by taking a bite of dinner in my room just before 3 AM, I then once again saw time get away from me and also ended up moving the slices of bread to another plate and getting what was stuck on the one used to microwave them, so it was 3:25 AM when I actually started to eat and, despite doing my best to wolf everything down quickly, 3:45 AM when I finished.

After waking up around 9:30 AM, I couldn’t get back to sleep despite staying in bed until dad left, the fact that it was getting too cold to just cover myself with that sheet obviously not helping. Either way, at 10:55 AM I got on the computer for a while, before reading some more. It was noon when I tried to get back to sleep once again… But I still couldn’t, barely napping a little before getting up to pee again a couple of minutes after 2 PM. At least I managed to take more of a nap after that, but it was still a pretty short one, since it took me a while to fall asleep and I was once again awake for some time before checking, seeing 3:21 PM, and deciding to get up. And then I counted and sorted coins for Penny’s campaign, but by the time I finished the book and ate lunch, it was way too late to even make another attempt to go there and ask whether they still had vouchers, so I just took the few recyclables with the deposit symbol when I left, just after 7:15 PM, picking up a few more on the way to Kaufland despite jogging. But the machines were in use by people with large bags and it was late already, so I didn’t wait.
After putting those recyclables in a cabinet, I entered the store at 7:35 PM and made use of good evening discounts to get a lettuce with root and potatoes, and I saw some sausages that also had an evening discount, so I bought a few of those as well, for dad, plus some of those treats for Liza and just two cans of cat food for my mother’s cats, since there was a 30% discount for all pet food but I couldn’t remember just what kind she most recently said that they were eating and the kinds that were more readily available didn’t seem right. Either way, I was in line at the self-checkouts when the closing announcement came, but the people who were using one of the machines ahead of me took their time bagging their purchases, and the guy did so in front of the scanner, which led to the bag being scanned and needing to wait for the employee from that area to clear it before I could use the machine. And after retrieving those recyclables I stepped through the first set of doors and took some time to arrange my purchases, only walking out at 8:15 PM.
Then I rushed to Carrefour, putting the recyclables in the machine, being left with a can that was too crushed to be accepted, entering with everything, getting some of their cheap yogurt and some pizza dough and also using the voucher received for the recyclables when I paid. And then I rearranged the purchases a little and rushed out, being past 8:40 PM when I left that mall and starting to jog after a while, since I wanted to reach that Mega Image that closes at 10 PM in time for the discounts of 90%. But I probably didn’t gain much by jogging, since I did so slowly and was occasionally slowing back to a walk, and since I had placed those yogurts in the backpack, I was worried that they’ll get damaged as I jogged.
At least it wasn’t even 8:55 PM when I reached that Mega Image and those discounts weren’t yet made, so I put the bags in a cabinet, entered with the backpack, had a quick look at the expiring products that had lower discounts, and was checking the cabbage when I saw that the cart with the products with the 90% discount had been brought before the bakery discounts were made, so I rushed there, but a couple of other people had already grabbed some things and I only took a bottle of apple and pear juice before rushing back to the bakery area, where those discount labels were being placed… And I apparently just missed out on what I’d have been interested in from there as well, so I just took a bun, after which I added a cabbage, what seemed to be the last of those bug repellents for my parents, and an expiring bio (organic) yogurt that was only discounted by 50%… And when I wanted to arrange the purchases, I found that the edge of one of the yogurts had sliced through the cover of another one, which fortunately hadn’t spilled but which I was definitely wary about eating under those conditions. But there wasn’t that much to do about it at that point, so I put it in a separate bag and tried to hold it straight on the way back. And since I had picked up a few more recyclables by the time I got here, I wanted to use the machine from the nearby Mega Image, but it wasn’t working.
I got back at 9:50 PM, though I had spotted a couple of bakery products that I was interested in when I had checked the nearby Mega Image and meant to go back there at 11 PM, to see whether they’ll still be there and discounted by 90%. So I put the purchases in their place, ate a few plums, washed what was in the kitchen, and went back out when it was almost 10:55 PM… But there were no discounts of 90% at that point and none seemed about to be made, the employee who had been making them before being busy cleaning and the cashier saying that she wanted to smoke at one point and asking why were there people still in the store… And that pretty much meant just me at that point, so I took a hint and walked out, going a small distance away and waiting for her to finish smoking and go back in, at which point I tried to have a quick look from a distance at the top of the bakery area, which was all I could see without even reaching the door, since the guard was there and I’d have felt awkward to just look yet again. And none of the products that I could see in that area were even bagged, so I just came back.
I was finally back for good just after 11:15 PM, and then I cleaned the litter box, went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, straightened that can as much as I could, and rushed to finish and post what ended up being a first form of the quick review for the book. It was just past 12:20 AM when I went to wash and almost 1 AM when I was done, but I managed to stick to the dinner schedule despite exchanging a few words with dad, which included agreeing that the yogurt with that sliced top was going to get used in what he wanted to cook, fixing something sweet and eating it, having a few more things to wash, and using the worse lettuce leaves for the salad. And after eating I changed the wording of that review quite significantly.

The workers were obviously back in the morning, but the sort of noise they were making allowed me to keep taking naps, albeit interrupted and agitated ones, filled with scary, realistic dreams, plus what was probably a more proper one during their break. But I couldn’t stay in bed quite as long as I otherwise would, so just before 2:10 PM I got up… And dad changed his mind about how he wanted to cook and wasn’t going to use that yogurt after all, so I ate it. But I ended up being served with an excuse to yet again delay my plans to go out again, take those coins, and try to get myself to ask about that campaign when the hot water became quite cold and the site stated that the problem would remain all day, as they were trying to rebalance the system after starting work that will last all week nearby. And, either way, dad cooking meant that I basically spent all day in the kitchen, cleaning after him and arranging things… And seeing as this week’s run was the following day but I still only have the quick notes about it, I’ll stop here. And this is a new longest post anyway, easily beating the one from two weeks ago, since it has 8401 words, or 8411 if you include the title.

I appreciate how the early part brings readers up to speed, and obviously also the mention of discussing rules for creating new vampires and stating that it’d be like forbidding humans from having children, which is just the point. And Lestat, the Brat Prince, can still be said to be himself, some others also have a few moments, and there are some remaining glimpses of this enticing parallel world. But all of that mainly comes after the action’s over, in the last three chapters, which provide the true and proper conclusion to the series that this book was clearly intended all along to be.
The problem is that those three chapters contain almost everything of value and you’d lose little if you’d skip straight to them. When the book is short to begin with, there’s little space left between that introductory part and the ending for what should have been the “meat” of it, but worse is that the level of quality of writing and, if you’ll pardon my use of the term, of channeling Lestat that Anne Rice seemed to have once again found in the first two books from this modern cycle of the Chronicles simply faded away, the book just rushing to the desired conclusion, whatever needs to happen to get there being forced through, with little room for anything bar bland settings, noteworthy characters that, with the exception of the one-dimensional villains and Armand, whom I still can’t stand, are generally reduced to little more than fawning, swooning sycophants, and an amorphous, nondescript mass that makes up the rest. Gone are the signature decadent splendor, glamour and romance, the depth and wisdom of the characters, even their palpable power… That incredible atmosphere which had been rediscovered is simply brushed away, and while those last three chapters save everything and the remaining traces of that world and memories from the previous books may allow readers to mentally flesh things out to some extent even before that point, I’d call it more of a relief than a disappointment that there will never be another book “by” Lestat.

Rating: 3/5

Last year I was saying that it was terribly embarrassing to only manage to post a placeholder that was limited to a single paragraph at 4 AM on this day, but at least that was only the 20th September 27 if you also counted the first one, the real milestone, marking 20 years since she left, being this year… But here I am, on this milestone night, which is also the last September 27 before more than half of my life would have passed since she left, and I’m posting yet another placeholder that’s limited to a single paragraph. And last year I at least finished the post before going to bed, which can’t be the case now, not if I want to write anything meaningful and especially since I only started eating dinner at 3:50 AM, so I only added the rest in the evening.

Then again, it’d be surprising if I would manage to write anything meaningful. I mean, the post about this year’s half marathon remains basically a placeholder and the one about the Dream Trek that followed still misses most of the part about the actual run, while lately I’ve been resorting to posting old odds and ends in order to at least keep posting twice per week, since at least those are already written quite properly, while now not even the part about this week’s run is properly written in the file yet, not to mention anything that came after it. So the fact that I still didn’t have to resort to some of those old book reviews to create some more personal “slots” is rather surprising. And, on that note, I considered adding one now, not because I needed to but to mark the moment, especially since there are still a few that I connect to her, including the last one finished before she left, that I haven’t added, yet in the end I decided against it, hoping to keep all of them as a reserve for an even later time.
Since I got to reading, I was saying that the plan was to read Blood Communion two weeks ago but I didn’t even touch it then. Well, I’m reading it now, which seems quite fitting, another little way to mark the moment, and I should finish it tomorrow, making the quick review for it the week’s second post. It’d have probably been more fitting, following the pattern from back then, to finish it yesterday, but that’d have been out of the question even if I wouldn’t have gone out, and I’m not going to finish it today either, so I’m just aiming to leave relatively few pages for tomorrow.

I also mentioned that this is the last September 27 before more than half of my life would have passed since she left, and the day that would mark that moment seems to be September 9, 2026, so if I’ll still be around on September 10, 2026, and no miracle would have happened by then, I guess that will mark yet another stage. Not that a day more or less would really make a difference, at this point even a year probably doesn’t make much of one anymore, but the dates still have some symbolic significance, I guess. Just like this one and July 12 do every year.

In the end, it all comes back to the fact that I was too much of a coward to do what I had to do back then. Most preferably just that night, right after she left, but if not then while I was still there, or right after she got back, before I got thrown back here, or even shortly after I got thrown back here, before the pain switched from acute to chronic, to use such medical terms, and the passage of time made the direct connection somewhat less clear, perhaps not quite undeniable anymore, and therefore the odds of it giving me the strength and courage to do it decreased even further. After all, those who think of suicide may be cowards, but those who commit it are brave. And the fact that I’m still around just proves that.
Yes, there are those who’d look for things that I did since then and which I wouldn’t have done otherwise, like taking part in protests, running, or in fact becoming more active and fit and definitely much healthier in general, possibly even trying to write that book, even if I gave up on that long ago, and probably figuring out ways to be somewhat functional in general. But there’s no point in any of that and I don’t care for it to have a point. They’re just patterns and motions I’m forcing myself to go through because I’m still around and lying in bed in my own piss and shit would be even worse. Every day means only more suffering, plus using even more resources, having an even greater environmental impact, and in general just adding to the overall harm of existence, for myself and others, without anything to compensate for it in any noteworthy way, all the while getting closer to the inevitable end that will be that much more disappointing with every day that passes under these circumstances.
So, if it’d come to that question of what I’d use the ability to go back in time for, I guess my answer would still be that moment after she left, when I went to the balcony, and somehow keep trying until I’ll somehow find the strength and the courage to jump. Of course, it’d be great if I could find a way to fix things before that point, to make sure that she wouldn’t leave, or even after that point, to make her come back and ensure that we’ll stay together and things would truly work well between us from then on. But I have no idea how that could be achieved and there clearly isn’t one specific moment that could have changed the outcome, and it may well be that things wouldn’t have changed no matter what I’d have done, and quite certainly not if I’d have still been myself in any way. So that remains the only valid option, to have managed to do it when I had a chance, when it had a point, and before all of these years, now decades, of suffering and negative impact.

I expected Dungeons of Dreadrock to be a nice little puzzle game that I’ll be able to finish quickly, but after reading some reviews I had some concerns about the action elements, the required timing and reflexes, since even the hint system wasn’t going to help with that, and I also wondered whether I could “manage” to mess up the connected puzzles in a manner that’d lead to getting locked out of continuing. So it was a relief when my concerns proved unfounded and I finished the game without ever using the hint system, the video driver’s software claiming that it only took me six hours, though they were split over six days and the number surprised me when I saw it, since it definitely felt like it took longer.

If that sounded bad, let me assure you that I merely meant that I really didn’t think that my playing sessions were so short and that, seeing as there are 100 levels, each of them took me only a few minutes, on average. And that would remain the case even if that timer’s off by as much as a few hours. But what’s more important is that I wanted more when I was done, and not just because I generally want to spend a significant amount of time with a game I choose to play and count requiring anything less than quite a few tens of hours to finish as a negative, but because I actually found it enjoyable and satisfying. Plus that the story, such as it is, couldn’t just end there. And, indeed, it doesn’t, the series apparently being planned as a trilogy and the sequel having already been released… Though it’s unfortunately not DRM-free yet.
But that’s another issue, so let me get back to this game and say that the bite-sized puzzles are generally just right, with only a few threatening to be potentially frustrating by requiring more than a matter of seconds to reach a trickier final part, while in the large majority of cases you don’t really “feel” it even if you have to retry several times. And you also don’t really feel the increase in complexity or difficulty, the features being introduced gradually, most of them being intuitive, and adequate explanations usually being provided in the remaining cases. So there shouldn’t be more than a few moments when you’ll find yourself at a loss, and the hint function is available if you do find yourself in such a situation. But, as I already mentioned, I never used it at all, not even to test it, so I can’t say how helpful it actually is. What I can say, however, is that some features are pretty clever, those that involve connected levels probably being the most notable. And, perhaps more importantly, almost all of the solutions make sense and there are moments when the game will make you feel pretty clever for figuring things out on your own. Admittedly, there may also be moments when you’ll feel pretty foolish for failing to do so sooner, and a few solutions that may be rather strange. Since they could be seen as spoilers, I won’t give any examples, not even naming the one puzzle that I ended up solving by accident, just trying everything and then going to check a guide after it finally worked to find out just what I had actually done, but I will add that, at least in my case, the former far outweighed the latter. And I’ll also add here that those dream sequences do their job well enough, both in terms of the story, such as it is, and providing hints.
As for those initial concerns, the fact that I never had good reaction times or coordination and they’re definitely not getting any better as I get older did mean that the action and timing elements were an issue, and there were a couple of moments when I thought that there must be another solution because it didn’t seem possible to actually do what seemed necessary, but I eventually managed to scrape by. So you can make it if your reactions and finger movements are a “normal” kind of poor, but if they’re at a level that may or does indicate health problems, not to mention a disability, the only solution is probably activating the cheat mode and skipping levels. And that mode would also cover the worst case scenario of becoming unable to continue by messing something up in a level that’s connected to another in a manner that couldn’t be fixed normally. But I for one didn’t happen to find myself in any such situation and those levels are typically designed to assume that you’ll initially go for the easy or obvious solution of the first one, end up making the next one impossible as a result, and then go back and fix things. Sometimes that’s possible right away, in a few cases it requires restarting that first level of the pair after returning to it, but you can always restart a level at will and it seems to always be possible to find the solution normally, without even resorting to using the load function that allows you to go back to any previously completed level. And yes, you’ll clearly know when you may need to go back up because those are the only times when you can do so, a message stopping you otherwise.

Still, I’d have felt much more at ease if manual saving would have been allowed, and I’ll always see it as a major negative aspect of a game, any game, when it’s not. Yes, Dungeons of Dreadrock lets you reload previously completed levels if you wish, the cheat mode means that even if the save is lost or corrupted you can get back to where you were, and the short levels mean that you lose very little in case of a crash, power failure or immediate need to quit, but not allowing manual saving, in different slots, still shows a lack of respect for the player’s time and doesn’t allow multiple people to play the game on the same account, and needing to use the cheat mode because the one automatic save somehow got lost, corrupted or overwritten may be disappointing. And there’s also the option to clear that save, and while it requires confirmation, it’s not impossible that someone would accidentally activate it.
On the other hand, I can find few other faults. I mean, yes, the game is too short, it doesn’t have much of a story, and the action and timing elements can prove difficult to manage even if you correctly figure out the solutions to the puzzles, but all of that is pretty much expected and should be known by those who look up a little information about the game before getting it, and the price is right for what it offers, especially considering the typical discount. There is the fact that you can’t customize the controls, but there are very few of them. And I wonder if being unable to skip those logo videos is some sort of Unity thing. And another potential tiny niggle that has to do with starting the game is that, in case of the GOG.com version that I played, it attempts to connect to, or through, the Galaxy client even if it’s not installed, leading to a pretty significant delay unless you add “, “auth_timeout”: 1” in the GalaxyConfig.json file from the game’s folder.

In short, if you know what you’re signing up for and can deal with the action and timing elements at least to some passable extent, it’s hard to go wrong with Dungeons of Dreadrock, especially when you can pick it up even for well under $1. It won’t be memorable, even less so in terms of the story, but it provides 100 bite-sized levels of generally enjoyable and at times clever puzzles that will make you keep thinking “just one more level” while you play and leave you wanting more at the end. Just keep in mind that there’s a single slot, used for automatic saving after each completed level…

On September 8, I could get some sleep, the workers apparently having that day free as well. I did get up just after 9:40 AM, after my parents went out, since my mother was here, and after cleaning the litter box and arranging some things it took me quite a while to get back to sleep, also because there was some more noise from upstairs, albeit not that loud, starting at 10:15 AM, and my parents also got back a little later, but I eventually did fall asleep again, and while I once again didn’t set an alarm, I got up at 1:45 PM, when Liza woke me by going to the litter box again and scratching at it for a long time… And then dad kept wanting to talk to me about some things, but I still managed to back up the system and have the usual stuff, which included the last of those imported bio (organic) apples. I considered using the last of the baked almonds with Himalayan salt, but eventually went back to the raw ones. As for the sweet thing, I had two more of those nicer biscuits, with added honey. And I left at 4:50 PM, wearing the full running gear and one armband. The reported temperature was about 30°C, holding steady or maybe dropping just marginally by the time I finished.
The time was 48:53.01, with sector times of 4:29.01, 5:03.40, 5:57.19, 4:34.28, 5:10 (5:09.47), 5:59.56, 4:34 (4:33.63), 5:10 (5:09.47), 6:02.59 and 1:55 (1:54.41), making for lap times of 15:29.60, 15:43.31 and 15:46 (15:45.69). Considering the previous run, the primary goal was still just to stay under 50 minutes and the first sector’s time was more or less what I expected, but sector two was somewhat better and managing to just squeeze under 15:30 on the first lap made me wonder whether I could get under 49 minutes. Sector one of lap two made that seem quite unlikely, and I was calculating the target times that’d lead to at least being less slow than the previous week, but after the following sector it seemed that I might cover the lap in less than 15:45, so I pushed harder and made it, which led to thinking that I actually did have a chance to stay under 49 minutes after all. So I kept pushing, and after sector two of lap three it seemed like I could even be safe at the end of the lap, so that became the target and I managed it, which meant that I didn’t have to push that hard on the final sector anymore. Of course, the time is still poor, but I didn’t expect something better after a cold…
There were quite a number of people, leading to plenty of weaving and going the long way around, but they actually caused no notable issues. I might mention one moment, on sector three of lap two, when I hesitated because a kid on a bicycle was about to turn in front of me, but I probably lost more time on some of the occasions when I had to really go the long way around. As for physical issues, I felt some warnings from the right hip from the start and there was a moment when it seemed that a pressing need was about to appear. But that quickly passed and it was only on sector three of lap three that my body pointed out that I was asking too much of it, my hands going numb, getting warnings from both legs, and starting to feel lightheaded.

On the way back, I picked up two recyclables and a label from one that was too crushed, putting those two in the machine from the nearby Mega Image but not staying to cash in the voucher, since there was a line. Then I finally installed the Windows updates for August, the usual errors still appearing but nothing else seeming off. Either way, I also did the day’s squats, ate lunch while talking to mother, changed, and left when it was almost 8:50 PM, with the recyclables with the deposit symbol.
I went straight to the Mega Image that closes at 10 PM, getting there a little after 9 PM, finding the employee still placing the 90% discount labels on the bakery products, and eventually taking two bags from there. Then I started putting the recyclables in the machine while waiting for the other products discounted by 90% to be brought, which actually happened a little after the machine had stopped, displaying that the PET container was full. But there wasn’t anything interesting in that cart, or at least not anything left by the time I reached it. And the machine had apparently recovered on its own, so I went back there and continued, stopping after finishing my recyclables and then putting in those emptied by my parents as well, only being left with the one recyclable which hadn’t been accepted before either. So I had three vouchers that I cashed in before buying those bakery products, also using the voucher from the other Mega Image when I paid.
I considered going to Kaufland Basarabia from there, but it’s a good thing that I went to the one from Pantelimon instead, and that I went straight there instead of checking Carrefour first, since they had just changed the closing time back to 10 PM, so I put my things in a cabinet and rushed in a little after 9:40 PM, seeing that they still had a lot of those large bio (organic) cucumbers, looking worse but being discounted by 90% instead of 75%, so I grabbed several, plus some bundles of green onions, with a great evening discount, and one Gala apple, since it was supposedly Romanian, a little less expensive than elsewhere, and I had none left to eat before runs. And then I spent the remaining time picking some Moldovan grapes, which had a very good evening discount as well, going to weigh them when the closing announcement came, then dashing to have a quick look at some of the expiring products that are close to the checkouts before going to the self-checkout. And, after retrieving what I had in the cabinet and arranging everything a little, I used that machine to change a 1 RON bill into two 0.50 RON coins and walked out at 10:10 PM.
I then continued to that Mega Image, putting my things in a cabinet, using one of those coins to be able to lock it… And finding that they had already made the 90% discounts and the bakery area was mostly cleared, other people holding the products that they had just grabbed, so I just took one sweet pastry out of what was left, then found some cheese that was the only product with the 90% discount left in the regular place for the refrigerated expiring ones. It looked bad, but I nevertheless took it, along with two other things that I dug out from under the expiring meat products, somebody having likely meant to hide them there, since they weren’t meat products. But the cashier said that the cheese wouldn’t scan, at which point I said that it looked bad and I had doubts anyway, so maybe it was a sign that I shouldn’t take it and didn’t try to press, nor did I got back when, after waiting for the guard to put a basket full of discounted bakery products in his bag and then retrieving what I had in the cabinet, I heard that cashier tell the guard that she had figured out why none of those products scanned, so there had probably been others, and the reason was apparently that they had to be weighed first. So I just walked out, stopping for a moment after crossing the street to try to arrange my things a little. And on the way back I picked up some more recyclables and also checked the nearby Mega Image, leaving my bags next to the door and once again seeing bakery discounts of 90%, leading me to believe that they’re actually made at 11 PM after all. But just two bags of things were left and I didn’t care for either, so I just retrieved my things and walked out.
I got back at 11:15 PM, ate the remaining watermelon, cleaned the litter box yet again and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, then put the purchases in their place, washed what was in the kitchen, also ate a large doughnut, adding jam on it, and went to wash at 1:20 AM, being done at 1:55 AM. And I took a first bite of dinner in my room at 3:15 AM, but actually started eating five minutes later, since I had boiled my remaining tea again before putting that supplement in it, after seeing that my parents had replaced the plate I had placed on it and thought that I had noticed a small bug inside it, and it was still too hot, so I had to slowly sip it. Either way, I still managed to finish at 3:40 AM anyway. On the other hand, I realized that the filling that was only replaced in June is almost certainly loose again. And then I decided to play just a little more Dungeons of Dreadrock before going to bed, which resulted in getting in bed at 5:20 AM…

Surprisingly, it was quiet again, and with my parents only leaving later and since I didn’t need to pee either, it was past 1 PM when I initially got up, thinking that it must be much earlier. And when I saw that time and since I still didn’t really need to pee, I got back in bed, but I didn’t fall asleep again and eventually got up for good about half an hour later. Then I had lunch, did the day’s squats, and went out again at 6:45 PM, with the recyclables with the deposit symbol and dad’s metro card, so I took the metro to Obor.
I grabbed a few more recyclables on the way, put them in the machine from Carrefour, and then took that one that wasn’t accepted there either to the information desk, receiving the coin but being told that I could clean recyclables before handing them in, which made me feel rather embarrassed. Either way, I bought some expiring yogurt and a bag of spoiling apples, so I really shouldn’t have bought that one from Kaufland, not that I could have known that at the time. And the label stated that those from the bag were Gala as well, but the bag was torn and when I weighed it I saw that one apple was obviously missing, plus that at least one other one seemed to be of another kind, so I replaced that one and added one more, the weight ending up being exactly what it should have been, and those two apples were also starting to spoil, so it seemed a perfectly fair thing to do. On the other hand, bio (organic) watermelons were supposed to be on sale at Carrefour, but I couldn’t find any left, which wasn’t surprising. Yet the regular kind was cheap, so I bought one of those. And I also bought another PaysafeCard code, and I hadn’t yet used the GOG.com wallet funds purchased with the one bought on August 25 and the exchange rate was marginally better, so I should have waited. But that was another thing that I couldn’t have known… As was the fact that the rate would get even better later, if admittedly too late for that particular sale, and after I had already made purchases. But, to return to that day, when I paid I used the voucher received for the recyclables along with the one received for a previous purchase, and then I struggled to put the apples and the watermelon in the backpack and then put it on, a guard hovering around for a while and eventually helping me.
I picked up another recyclable on the way to Auchan, then entered with everything, also noticing that the cabinets had been removed anyway, put that recyclable in the machine, and just bought a small pack of cheap biscuits for dad from there as well, to use the voucher received for the recyclable and not have to ask to be allowed to leave and increase the risk of needing to take off the backpack and show a guard what I had in it. I was worried that it was going to happen even so, but it didn’t, which was quite a relief.
After picking up another recyclable, I sat on a bench for a little while, since it was too early to check the Mega Image from that area that closes at 10 PM for discounts of 90%. And it was still too early when I decided to walk in, putting that recyclable in the machine, entering with everything, and wasting a little time, but eventually deciding to walk out without waiting for 9 PM or even cashing in that voucher, not really caring for anything that could have received that discount. And then I picked up two more recyclables on the way to the other Mega Image from there that also closes at 10 PM, across the road, once again entering with everything… But finding no discounted products whatsoever. So I just cashed in the voucher received for those two recyclables, keeping the other one, since they can be used in any location of a chain but only cashed in at the one that they’re received from. And then I took the metro back and picked up some more recyclables, including one without a label that seemed to fit the label picked up the previous day.
I got back just after 9:45 PM, with over 12 kg which felt like far more because of that watermelon in the backpack and the rope straps really digging into my shoulders… And which most probably caused my current back problems. And that watermelon cracked badly when I started cutting from it, proving how ripe it was but also meaning that it won’t last as long. But at least I didn’t lose it completely, though it was a close thing, since I almost dropped it as I picked it up to take it to the fridge. Then I ate some of it and put the purchases in their place. And then I also made some microwave popcorn, using some which had expired back in June of 2023 and eating it towards the end of the match, even though it tasted rancid and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some mold as well, since it’s not like you can check that kind of popcorn before using it. Either way, I also ate a small chocolate bar and then went to wash, being done around 1:05 AM, which seemed early enough to stick to the dinner schedule. However, I moved two things into jars and took it easy, and I also moved the slices to another plate and got what was stuck on the one that I microwaved them on before going to my room to eat, which led to eating dinner between 3:40 AM and 4:20 AM. And I didn’t take that supplement anymore, though a couple of pills were left.

I woke up a little before 9:30 AM, probably because of what dad said was somebody knocking on the elevator door, since it repeated and we both assumed that it was at our door and he went to open. And then I spent a little time on the computer, after which I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I eventually got up again, getting back in bed at 2:15 PM. At least I did get back to sleep then, albeit still after a while… But a little after 3:45 PM I was woken up by dad calling to say that he was coming back earlier than he had said and to ask what ingredients he had for what he wanted to cook, and I didn’t get back to sleep again after that, especially since I made mamaliga again in the evening, taking a first bite of the salad in my room just before 3 AM but then taking it too easy, actually starting to eat here at 3:10 AM, still doing something on-line as well, and noticing that I won’t be able to quite finish wolfing everything down at 3:40 AM, so I slowed down again at the end and finished at 3:45 AM. And then I used the wallet funds purchased with those Paysafecard codes for gift codes for the Betrayal at Krondor Pack, Ultimate Body Blows, Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption and Wacky Wheels, which I mean to give away, plus Vampire’s Fall: Origins, which I bought for myself. The latter game isn’t one that I’m likely to care much about, and it was a little cheaper in the past, but it had ended up on my wishlist after Alma talked about it and that way I could use all of those wallet funds.

The following day, it was still quiet, so I could once again sleep. Then I did the day’s squats and left just after 7:45 PM, with a little trash that I dropped down the chute and the recyclables with the deposit symbol, picking up one more on the way to Titan, then taking the metro, since I had dad’s card, to Carrefour Pantelimon, picking up another recyclable when I reached the machine from there, and then putting all of them in. And then I just bought some tea from there, but forgot to use the voucher received for the recyclables when I paid for that and, while they at least added self-checkouts that accept cash in that location, there didn’t seem to be an option to cash in those vouchers, so I had to use a regular checkout for that.
From there, I walked to Kaufland, and after peeing and washing my hands I entered the store, with the teas in the backpack, a little after 9 PM, seeing few evening discounts for fruits and vegetables, and only a couple that I could be interested in. But I found deeply discounted pieces of processed meat products that I got for dad, along with some sausages that had an evening discount, and eventually I just took a lettuce for myself, making use of that evening discount, and adding a couple of loose leaves that seemed good. And at the self-checkout the employee was hovering around me and when only the last of those discounted pieces of processed meat products wasn’t accepted she said that she expected that and logged on to clear the error… And then she saw the total, grabbed a 0.10 RON coin left in another machine’s change tray, and handed it to me, so the change would just include a 0.50 RON coin. But I had also found such a coin in that machine’s tray, yet despite realizing that and saying so, she still left me that coin as well. And then I walked right out, to do so before the closing announcement, and used the carts to spread out and arrange the purchases, walking away a couple of minutes after 10 PM and finding two recyclables by the time I reached the machine, so I put them in and kept the voucher for another time.
I found one more recyclable on the way to that Mega Image, putting it and the backpack in a cabinet and finding that the 90% bakery discounts had already been made, so I grabbed some things, plus some lemons that were discounted by 50%, and then I wandered around, waiting for the other products discounted by 90% to be brought, the one good thing that came from that being that I noticed that the bug repellent that mother wants was at half price! The discount was listed as lasting all month, but I took three right away, which was as much as I had money for at the moment. I could have just managed four if I left the lemons and didn’t take anything else, but I was hoping to have something to add when those other discounted products would be brought… However, after wasting all of that time, I was a couple of steps away when the cart was brought out and the few women who were waiting right at that door snatched everything that might have been interesting before I even got there! It couldn’t have been more than a couple of seconds, but I didn’t even get to see what had been in that cart before they took everything except the ready-to-eat fruits and some fresh spices! And I had no interest in those, so I only saw that there had been things that I would have been interested in when I glanced at what they had in their baskets. And then I also forgot to use that voucher received for a recyclable that I had been left with from two days earlier. Either way, I then retrieved what I had in the cabinet, arranged everything, and gathered plenty of other recyclables on the way back.
I think it was 11:55 PM when I was at the door. Then I put most of the purchases in their place and ate some plums while dad washed, going to wash myself a couple of minutes before 1:30 AM, after he was done. And I was done some 40 minutes later. Then I ate a sweet pastry, fixed something that counted as lunch and ate it, on and off, between 3:20 AM and 4:15 AM, during which time I washed and cleaned what was in the kitchen, which included the grill that dad had used, and used the worse lettuce leaves to start making the salad. I also took one of those supplements again and, since I had used one of those small baguettes instead of bread, I moved the slices to another plate and gathered what was stuck on the one that I had microwaved them on, before finally eating dinner between 5:10 AM and 5:40 AM. I got in bed at 7 AM.

After being woken up by a call at 10:10 AM, I decided to play some more Dungeons of Dreadrock, only getting back in bed a couple of minutes before 11 AM, and just after 12:20 PM I woke up again when dad went out, and when he came back he let me know that the guy who was supposed to replace something at our heaters was coming, so I had to get up. And after that guy left I finished the game. But in the evening dad’s computer wouldn’t turn on again, and unplugging the CPU and motherboard power connectors and plugging them back in, which tended to eventually do the trick in the past, didn’t fix it… And when I went back to the kitchen at night I dropped something on one of Liza’s plates and it broke in two…

After waking up when dad left but then getting right back to sleep, the awfully loud drilling started again upstairs around 9:30 AM, though I’m not entirely certain of the time, since I curled up in a ball for a while and it was 9:50 AM when I got up and checked the time… And at 10:15 AM there seemed to be a power failure, and after letting the computer run on battery for 16 minutes before turning it off, during which time I kept wondering how did the guy above keep working, I opened the door and saw that the building did have power, so I beeped dad and he called back and when I told him he told me to check the fuse panel and indeed one switch was down, and so was the master switch. That one that was down seemed to control all lights except the one from the entrance hallway, so I wondered whether the electrician working above had touched something in that floor, so in our ceiling. But nothing seemed wrong after flipping the switches back on and testing the lights. And when the noise stopped, just after noon, I got back in bed, being woken up by dad calling again at one point but then getting back to sleep and only getting up just after 4:45 PM. And there were no visits recorded that day.

The following day it was quiet, being Sunday, but I woke up at 11:15 AM, while dad was getting ready to leave, and if I initially got back in bed and might have even caught a very brief nap before he actually left and I woke up again, after that I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I got on the computer for a while, getting back in bed just before 1:30 PM and sleeping some more, though I had been awake for a while when I checked the time, saw that it was 4:10 PM, and decided to get up, albeit after staying in bed a little longer and taking it very easy. Then I had lunch, did the day’s squats, and went out when it was almost 7:10 PM, with the recyclables with the deposit symbol, and despite rushing to Kaufland I still picked up some more on the way.
Since Kaufland had gotten back to closing at 8 PM on Sunday and people with full bags were in line at the machine, I left the recyclables in a cabinet, since even so it was 7:35 PM when I entered the store. And some price labels showed that there had been some interesting evening discounts, but only some white bell peppers were left at that point, so I got a handful of those, after which I added cheese and kashkaval. I was also looking for some cat food that was on sale, but none of the specific kind that I wanted to get was left. So I was waiting in line at the self-checkouts when the closing announcement came, and when a machine freed I first checked that the 30% discount applied for that kashkaval, the employee coming to ask whether I had anything left to scan when I did that and telling me to hurry up when I said that I did but wanted to check that discount first. And the next person placed her things on the machine as I was paying, also using the voucher received for recyclables which I had been left with three days earlier, and before I could get my change she almost moved into me, only then seeming to notice that I was still there and apologizing, admittedly after having argued with that employee about a price difference, so her mind might have really been elsewhere. And as I tried to hurry away, a bill fell from my hands, that employee fortunately letting me know.
After retrieving the recyclables, I went to one of the tables that are outside and put the purchases in the backpack, then went to Penny, putting the recyclables in the machine, entering with the backpack, buying some things… But, even though in that location the posters about their coins campaign still exist, albeit only on the registers, faded and possibly because they couldn’t remove them from those places, since those from windows have been removed, and the cashier actually told the next customer to ask me for the store card in order to get a discount, since he didn’t have his, and the moment when I turned back to hand it over would have been a great opportunity to ask whether they actually still had vouchers in that location, as I had been told to do when I had asked by e-mail, I just couldn’t get myself to do it, so I just arranged the purchases and rushed to that Mega Image that closes at 10 PM.
I got there a few minutes before 9 PM and waited for the 90% discount labels to be placed on the bakery products, the employee seeming to appreciate that I was patiently standing behind her, because when a guard came and asked whether he could take some things, she said that he should wait like I do, because I’ve been there longer and I may want things as well, and when he said that he had no time she told him to come back when he did have time. But I had spotted one of those apple pastries, and after she was done with that section I grabbed it, along with one other thing that I meant to use as bread. There was another sweet pastry that I might have been interested in, but a woman grabbed it first. And then I waited a little longer, until the cart with the other products that were discounted by 90% was brought, and it only contained a bunch of packs of some bio (organic) cashew product, apparently some sort of vegan “cheese”, plus a couple of other things that I wasn’t interested in, and while that “cheese” was actually still rather pricey even with that huge discount, I decided to get one after all. And I also used that voucher received for a recyclable that I had been left with.
After initially meaning to arrange the purchases before walking out, I changed my mind and walked out with them in a bag, only stopping quite some time later, on a bench, to put that “cheese” in the backpack, though I still left those bakery products in that bag, so I didn’t really do much of anything. And, since I had picked up two recyclables by the time I got here and it was still before 10 PM, I meant to put them in the machine from this Mega Image, but when I walked in I saw that it was out of order, a note stating that it required servicing that they’re not able to provide and are waiting for a technician. So I had a quick look in the store, entering with everything, but didn’t find anything else to get.
It was close to 9:50 PM when I got back. Then I put the purchases in their place, ate an apple, cleaned the litter box, went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, made a few quick changes in what was already written and scheduled what I posted that day to show up at 11:59 PM, noticing that the middle button of my mouse was really double clicking a lot, and thought that I had to take a cold shower, since the “hot” water had been quite cold in the kitchen and when I had turned it on for some 30 seconds in the bathroom it seemed to only get colder. However, when I actually went to take that shower, just after 11:30 PM, the water did actually heat up, though I stuck to the plan of only taking a shower, being done at 11:55 PM. Then I washed what was in the kitchen with the exception of the grill, which dad had used once again, and made something sweet and ate it while spending some time on the computer, only going back to the kitchen a few minutes before 1:30 AM. And then I washed that grill as well, also moved that vegan “cheese” into a jar, and the only way to still finish eating dinner at 3:40 AM was to eat in the kitchen, which was what I did. On the other hand, no visits were recorded on September 14 either, so for two days in a row.

The workers were back on this side of the building on September 15, but the noise wasn’t that bad in the morning, so I could more or less sleep until 1 PM or so, waking up a number of times, including after dad got up and when he left and then came back the first time, but always getting back to sleep quickly. But the noise got worse after the workers finished their break, so I got up, and the plan to try to get some more sleep earlier in the evening, knowing that dad was going to get back again around 9 PM and wanted to take apart some furniture, didn’t work because noise began to once again come from above not long after the workers left, so I stayed in bed for about an hour, but if I slept at all, it couldn’t have been for more than mere moments.

Things were more or less the same regarding the noise on the morning of September 16, but the real reason why I woke up the first time, around 8:45 AM, was that my body was about to clean the plumbing and I really have no idea how I stopped it from happening, so when I went to pee I also checked to make sure that there really was no mess whatsoever. And then I could get back to sleep and, while the noise got worse and entered dreams that were already messed up, so that sleep was agitated and interrupted, the next time I actually woke up properly it was 10:40 AM. But I managed to quickly fall asleep again even then, waking up one more time at 11:55 AM, perhaps just because of the sudden silence, so after going to pee one more time I took advantage of the workers’ break to sleep until around 1:10 or 1:15 PM, when the noise woke me again. But I decided to stay in bed a little longer and managed to nap a little more, getting up when it was close to 1:55 PM, so almost when I normally would, even if I hadn’t set an alarm, knowing that it won’t be needed. And then I had the usual stuff, though the yogurt had expired two days earlier and I saw a weevil that I didn’t manage to remove when I poured cereals in it. And I also shaved and ate two nicer biscuits, with added honey, as the sweet thing, taking it easy and waiting until after 5 PM, so I left at 5:05 PM, wearing the full running gear. The reported temperature was 29°C, holding steady.
The time was 48:41.85, with sector times of 4:27.57, 5:13 (5:12.66), 6:02 (6:01.78), 4:33.81, 5:09 (5:08.81), 6:02 (6:01.57), 4:31.47, 5:01 (5:00.34), 5:52.78 and 1:51.06, making for lap times of 15:42.01, 15:44.19 and 15:24.59. The target was to stay under 49 minutes, and most preferably also be less slow than the previous week, and while I didn’t push that much early on, sector two of lap one was concerning, and when I went over six minutes on sector three and over the 15:40 that’d be the lap time target for 49 minutes on the lap as a whole, things looked bad and I wondered whether I should continue to 16 km instead. And that remained an option if staying under 49 minutes was impossible after three laps, but the goal was to avoid getting there, so I started pushing more, though probably from sector two of lap two, since I didn’t want to tire myself too early. But, even so, lap two was even slower than lap one and I definitely needed to be at least a few seconds faster on lap three in order to have any chance of staying under 49 minutes, so I really had to choose whether to put everything into attempting that or take it easier and continue to 16 km after all. But I still stuck to the original target, so I kept pushing and that finally showed on sectors two and three of lap three, so at the end of the lap I knew that I was even going to be less slow than the previous week after all, which was indeed the case. But, on top of that still being a poor time, it meant a lot of effort for only a minor improvement, making it unlikely that I’ll even get back under 48 minutes, not to mention around 47 minutes, within one month after getting rid of the cold, which was what I was hoping for.
I felt tired and quite out of it from the beginning, and I also needed to snap my back and couldn’t quite do it well enough, the more concerning thing being that something seems to have caught in my back once again for some time and my right foot is once again rather numb. But, to stick to what has to do with that run, the first lap was difficult, but I dug in and things got gradually better, even if it did feel pretty hot. Otherwise, I slowed for a second or two at the start of sector two of lap two, to get a better look at the time, and while I might not have actually slowed that much, wanting to make sure that I had seen the time correctly was also the main reason why I broke my attempt at a sprint on the long straight of sector one of lap three. But, even if we were still quite some distance from each other, I was also doing a silly dance with a cyclist at that point… And later on that sector I had to avoid another cyclist. But, even though there once again were a fair number of people and I had to weave and go the long way around quite a lot, I wouldn’t say that there were any other specific problems caused by them that I could list.

After getting back, I put a lot of watermelon on a plate, then cleaned the litter box and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, after which I ate that watermelon, did the day’s squats, and then also ate what ended up being a rather small lunch, consisting of a slice of pizza brought by dad and just a little of the peas that were left, to keep a full serving for another day. Then I changed and went out again at 8:50 PM, with the recyclables with the deposit symbol, picking up just one more as I rushed to Kaufland.
After putting the recyclables in the machine and peeing and washing my hands, it was almost 9:10 PM when I entered the store, but the evening discounts weren’t good enough, so I first went to see whether the packs of cat food that I was looking for were available in that location, taking two and using a self-checkout to buy them after checking that the 30% discount applied. And then I turned around, took a bag of dry cat food from that same brand and another pack of that kashkaval, and waited for 9:45 PM, checking to see whether any evening discounts would increase. But they didn’t, so I just bought those two more things, checking that the 30% discount applied for both… Only for the machine to ask me to wait for an employee, and when one came he seemed confused and asked whether I had inserted the money, so I told him that I had and the amount, and that I was waiting for 1 RON as change, and also pointed to the receipt and said that I had purchased what I had in the bag earlier, and he did something which made the machine return the amount I had inserted and then he inserted everything again, walking away when that seemed to do the trick and ignoring me when I asked what had happened. So I had to shrug it off as well, then arranged the purchases in the backpack and walked out just before 10 PM.
I then went to the Mega Image that closes at 11 PM, entering with everything and seeing that the 90% discount labels were just being placed on bakery products, two people being there and the employee asking them what they wanted and telling them to pick up the products and put them in the bags that she had already placed the labels on. After they seemed done, she asked whether I wanted anything, and when I said that I don’t tend to push ahead like that she nodded and told me to let her know if there’s anything that interests me, though I stepped back and just took one of those small baguettes after she had bagged it. But then I saw a few other products that had the 90% discount, which may well be the first time that happens in that location, and took some cooked peas with chicken, meaning to give them away, before returning to the bakery area after that employee had walked away and also grabbing a bag with two buns with sesame. Then I added the baguette in the backpack and walked out.
Since I didn’t spot any homeless people in the immediate vicinity, I was still holding the peas and the buns when I went to the metro station and checked the card, since dad had left it for me but nothing was printed on it, seeing that he had activated it, so I went to the cashier and asked him to write the date until which it’s valid and stamp it, to have some proof if it’ll stop working before then… Only for him to write a date that was one day earlier, ignoring what I had said and explaining that it had been activated on the date printed at the top. But that was when it was purchased, and I guess dad had activated it the following day, so I stated again that I had just checked it and another employee who was there checked it as well and confirmed what I had said, so the cashier crossed out what he had written and wrote the correct date below. And then I rushed to that non-stop Mega Image as well, but when I saw from the door that there were no bakery discounts, I didn’t bother to enter, grabbing a couple of recyclables on my way back to the metro station… And proving that the interaction with the cashiers had messed me up by going to the wrong part of that station, so it was fortunate that I just missed a train, because that gave me time to check and I could turn around and go to the correct part… But that made me miss a train there as well, and the next one was initially listed as coming at 10:48 PM, but that time kept changing and it was eventually there at 10:52 PM, and while the plan was to go to that non-stop Mega Image from Basarabia, I wondered whether I’ll get there too late for the 90% discounts and whether I should try the one from Titan instead. But I eventually stuck to the original plan.
After getting there, I put my things in a cabinet and entered the store a few minutes after 11 PM… Only to see that not even the bakery products had the discount labels yet, having only been bagged, and when I checked the area where the other discounted products are placed I saw the same group of women as the previous time and the younger one told me that the discounts hadn’t been made yet. So I went back to the bakery area and waited for the employee to place the discount labels, but as soon as she started doing so, several people crowded in, hardly even leaving her any room to move, and since I stayed at the back of the group the apple pastry which I had spotted was grabbed by someone else before I could reach over, and when that employee opened the drawer with a bread that I’d have wanted to get for dad, someone else put a hand on it and said that she was going to take it before the employee even took the 90% discount label that was to be placed on it, so I lost that as well, probably along with a few other things that I didn’t even get to notice, and eventually just took two buns before going back to wait for the other products that had the 90% discount to be brought. And when they were I quickly grabbed a few things, though a little later I put the pineapple pieces back, keeping the coconut pieces and the box with that unclear label of various mixed salads, I believe containing mainly the quinoa and chicken salad, albeit with very little chicken and some vegetables that may mean that a small quantity of something else was mixed in. And there were 800 grams in there, but I took it anyway, then retrieved my things and added the buns in the backpack.
Since I was going to get back late anyway, I decided to actually look for recyclables on the way back, ending up with a bag that was just about full. And I also saw a man sleeping on a bench in front of that Penny, where homeless people can usually be found, and left the peas and the buns from the first Mega Image next to him. Maybe it’d have been better to leave that other thing, since I didn’t quite know what was in it, and I did consider giving it away as well if I’d spot another homeless person, but I didn’t.
It was almost 12:10 AM when I got back. Then I cleaned the litter box again and went to drop what I had gathered down the chute, put the purchases in their place, talked to dad for a while, eventually ate the apple pastry that I already had, and it was almost 1:40 AM when I went to wash, being done just after 2:20 AM. And then I also gathered my clothes, which were placed to dry in my room, since we still can’t use the balcony, and it was 2:35 AM when I finally got back to the kitchen, ending up eating dinner between 4 AM and 4:50 AM, while also writing notes about the day. I got in bed at 6:20 AM.

At least I could actually sleep, waking up when dad left but then getting back to sleep and the workers apparently being quiet until the afternoon, possibly because of the rain. And I took another nap in the evening… But I was still so exhausted… And the numbness in my legs is getting even more concerning. I mean, that feeling in my right foot, quite frequently going up to the knee and sometimes extending even higher and also to that arm, was quite normal for many years, the fact that at some point I started having lengthy periods when it wasn’t there being more unusual, but when it affects my left leg as well, something’s wrong… Or, more exactly, more wrong than it used to be. And that was also an issue when I got in bed in the morning, though I eventually managed to fall asleep. But at least I managed to keep taking naps even after dad got up, albeit interrupted and agitated ones, considering the noise made then, since another person also came to help him carry some things that were to be taken to grandmother’s. And the noise made by the workers wasn’t that bad after he left, the problem being that I didn’t fully take advantage of their break, waking up while it was still quiet and spending some more time trying and failing to get back to sleep before checking the time and seeing 1:59 PM. And then I got back in bed for almost another hour, and the noise only got worse about halfway through it, but I only napped for what couldn’t have been more than mere minutes during that mostly quiet first part… And it sounded like something snapped behind me in the kitchen just now, since I’m making mamaliga again, and I really hope that it actually came from outside. But I just realized that this is already a new longest post I ever wrote, so I’m leaving aside the idea of waiting until tomorrow and including that day as well and posting it as it is, with 8077 words, or 8091 if you also include the title.