While I managed to write everything that comes after walking away from University Square, after the Dream Trek, I can’t just post that and leave the part about the actual run for another post, especially since July 12 is next week and it’s 2025, so I’ll need to edit this in order to add the rest at a later time, the initial form of the post skipping ahead after the first two paragraphs. But now I’ll just pick up right from where I left off and say that it was a few minutes after 8 PM when I rushed out the door… And then I saw that the area around the stadium was closed because of a food festival, entrance seeming to require tickets, so I went around and jogged that part of the way… Not that I should have bothered, since it wasn’t even 8:20 PM yet when I reached the place where we were supposed to gather, which was once again that store from that mall, only a handful of people were there at the time, most showing up after that point, and Radu only started his speech at 8:43 PM, 20 minutes before the scheduled start time. And then, probably because of what happened last year, a quick warm up was done right there, and I missed it because I went to pee. But I didn’t miss the picture.
The “formal” start of the run was actually right at 9:03 PM, at sunset, and from there, since we jogged our way to the exit, making a short pause once we got outside, to wait for everyone to regroup and, I guess, to allow the organizers to make sure that everything was ready. But I didn’t know how long that pause was going to be, so I got the slip of paper and the pencil out of the running belt again, meaning to write a few more notes, but the signal to start running again was given while I was trying to do that and that bottle made it hard to get those things back in there quickly, so I struggled to do so while trying to at least walk quickly, ending up pretty much at the back of the group by the time I could run again. But that wasn’t a problem, so I still took it pretty easy, and the fact that only a few hundred meters later we had to wait for quite a while at a stoplight meant that everyone ended up back together again anyway.
After picking up a couple of recyclables from the underground passage, I took the metro for one stop, putting everything in a cabinet when I reached Carrefour Unirii, buying a few things, and then retrieving what I had in the cabinet and returning to the metro station, getting back here just after 7:35 AM. Then I put the purchases in their place, washed what was in the kitchen, ate a bag of chips, getting over 650 calories just from that, and left again when it was almost 9:25 AM, with the recyclables with the deposit symbol, picking up a few more from the garbage room, and some pretzels that I gave to a beggar who was in front of the metro station, since I took the metro for one stop instead of walking to that store… And that beggar was holding a message that I didn’t read, but I saw that it had a cross at the top, and when I handed him the pretzels he asked whether it was “in the name of the Lord”, so I shrugged and said “as you wish” before walking away.
When I reached that store and was initially told, by a cashier that I hadn’t seen before, that the machine had stopped working and that people keep coming with many recyclables and it can’t handle all of them, I feared that I’ll have to turn around and take them back, but then she told me to try to use it, maybe after exchanging a few words with someone else, I’m not certain, and I saw that it did work after all, and I assume that it had just been emptied, because I could put everything in without it stopping, so I just split into two, to have dad’s on one voucher and mine on another. And when I told the cashier what the total should be, including the bonus, she said that she trusted me and will just give me that amount, though she then asked whether she should trust me, having a look at the vouchers, and I did the calculation on my phone as well and showed her the result, receiving that amount.
Then I took the metro to Carrefour Pantelimon, washing my hands when I got there, entering with the few recyclables picked up on the way, and getting the year’s first watermelon, even if it was imported and more expensive than I’d have wanted, since it wasn’t large and at least it was from Greece instead of a non-EU place and still a little less than what dad tended to pay for the watermelons he got from the market, mainly for mother, even in the middle of the season in previous years. Either way, I also got a little more cat food… And then I saw that they had finally added self-checkouts that accept cash in that location as well, so I used one before arranging my things, picking up another recyclable, and deciding to test my luck by getting an instant ticket from the Lottery place that was there, though I just lost the money, not winning anything, and they had increased the price of those tickets in the two and a half years since the previous time I got one. But at least there was no bad luck on the way back, so I took the metro, I think finding another recyclable somewhere, and when I got here I saw that I had time to quickly check the nearby Mega Image as well, entering with everything, though I didn’t find anything to get.
I got back again a little after 12:05 PM… And then I bumped my head after putting the found recyclables on the balcony. But it’s not like bumping my head is unusual, which will be proven even a little later in this very post, so I then washed the watermelon, ate some of it, put it and the cat food in the fridge, made tea, did the day’s squats, went to the toilet and to wash, and then went to bed… Only to sleep for less than two hours before waking up and being unable to get back to sleep, and even the feeling of being sleepy was just going away as time passed, so I eventually gave up and got up. Then, since I needed a second post that week, I quickly played No Response and wrote the quick review while eating lunch… And just before going back to the kitchen at night I decided to lie in bed a little more… And ended up falling asleep for probably about half an hour, so it was past 1:20 AM when I woke up, and a little later I actually came back from the kitchen to get back on the computer for a little while, ending up eating dinner between 4:10 AM and 4:55 AM and getting back in bed at 5:40 AM.
At least it was past 5:20 PM when I finally got up, though I did go to pee twice before that point, also spent a little time on the computer on the first such occasion, and only actually slept for a total of about seven hours, if even that, since there was a little drilling from above just after 11:30 AM, and while it stopped quickly, after that point I had a very hard time getting back to sleep and quickly woke up whenever I finally did. Either way, I’ll also mention here that, since a discussion on the GOG.com forums had made me have another look at what was available and I finally spotted a monitor that seemed to be just what I’d want in case I ever had to replace the one that I’ve been using for some 18 and a half years, and it seemed to have the lowest price it ever had around here and the store offered an additional 10% discount on monitors those days, I decided to go for it, also adding a few accessories for the vacuum cleaner to the order and dad paying by card. And at night I ended up starting to eat dinner at 3:35 AM and it was past 4:25 AM when I finished getting what was stuck on the plate.
After having to get up much earlier than I’d have wanted, since I was scheduled to have that lost filling replaced at 2 PM, I just managed to walk out the door seconds before that hour, so I jogged, getting there pretty much right away, and I had a few minutes to wait anyway. And they did confirm that it was the same one which had also fallen in May of last year, being replaced on the 15th of that month, but I was charged for it in full anyway, the dentist saying that the shape probably makes it hard to stick in place, but she’d rather not drill more into the tooth and risk harming it when she doesn’t need to, since no new cavity developed, and she actually praised me for how well I had cleaned, saying that she basically had nothing to do except put a new one right in the hole, and that I had no other problems either, except plaque of course, but I still ignored the strong recommendation to make an appointment to have that removed. On the other hand, when I stood up I banged my head against the light, which hadn’t been moved out of the way.
The good thing was that the delivery, which was scheduled for that day, was supposed to be made later, so after having a quick look in the nearby Mega Image and picking up a few recyclables on the way back, I waited for it, rearranging my books a little during that time, since I had kept meaning to do that ever since receiving the new books, almost five months ago. And after it did arrive I obviously took the time to set up the new monitor, arranging things so the old one could stay connected as well, though I changed the settings so only the new one would be used, and then fiddling with things for a while, finding that if I used the “Economy” preset, which also means sRGB, HDR and any of the gaming enhancements except adaptive sync being off, and set the refresh rate to 60 Hz, or in fact up to 120 Hz, its power use is exactly the same as the old one’s, albeit with that one having sRGB on and a refresh rate of 75 Hz… And turning sRGB on makes this one’s power use increase massively, so I’m keeping it off. And I also keep Ambiglow off, though when I tried to leave it on while watching TV for a while, it didn’t seem to make a difference… But, speaking of differences, the difference in size and resolution will definitely take some getting used to.
On the other hand, what caught my attention even more was that, while the CPU temperature had reached a high of 61°C while processing some images or checking other games and the fan speeds continued to remain fixed, when I started Lords of Xulima, since I quickly checked how the installed games worked at this much higher resolution, and it reached 62°C, the fans suddenly sped up! I heard it, and was monitoring the system, so I saw it reported as well, and that has pretty much been the rule since, and in fact a couple of times I noticed them starting to speed up a little when the CPU was reporting a few tenths of a degree less than 62°C. So it’s not that the system can no longer react to the temperature, but that it ignores my settings and uses different ones that make it only increase the fan speed at higher temperatures, or maybe only under certain scenarios. At least that means that there should be no actual risk of overheating, but it’s definitely strange, and it remains a concern, especially when temperatures are about to go over 40°C.
Either way, it was 7:50 PM when I finally went out again, deciding to go straight to the Carrefour and Kaufland that are next to each other, despite initially meaning to either go in the other direction or at least make a detour to also check Penny. And I’d have had time for that detour, and I still had to go around the area that’s around the stadium anyway, since it was still closed even though that food festival had finished two days earlier, but I couldn’t have known any of that. So, after putting the few recyclables that I picked up on the way in a cabinet when I reached Carrefour, I got what I wanted plus two expiring products, then arranged those purchases, retrieved the recyclables, and continued to Kaufland, putting everything in a cabinet, washing my hands, and entering the store at 9 PM. But I didn’t see evening discounts that I cared for, so I only picked up a bundle of radishes in case the discount would increase, then got some other things, including some canned tomato paste that was at half price, I’m not sure why… And while I was wandering around I heard an employee say something about 11 PM and there were no closing announcements, so I waited until after 10 PM before going to the self-checkouts, and there were still no announcements. But there were no new or increased discounts either, so I left the radishes there, then retrieved my things and arranged everything just enough to be able to carry the stuff to that Mega Image, where I put the purchases in a cabinet that I locked and the recyclables in one that I didn’t, then took a packaged bread for dad and a pretzel for mother, both being discounted by 90%, and a small pack of cat food. Then I retrieved my things and went to a bench outside, taking my time to arrange everything properly. And then I remembered to check and saw that the closing time for that Kaufland was listed as 10:30 PM at the entrance, though the large sign still listed 10 PM.
I got back just before 11:15 PM, with almost 12 kg. Then I put the purchases in their place, also showed dad the new monitor, spent some time on the computer, ate a little chocolate and some watermelon, washed what was in the kitchen, waiting for dad to go to bed since he had to wake up very early but still had things to do, did the day’s squats as well, and finally went to wash at 1:40 AM. I was done at 2:15 AM, but then I noticed that one of the two remaining bananas had gone completely soft and had leaked in that basket, so I cleaned up, throwing away the paper bags that it had leaked on and washing the plastic ones a little, and also tried to see whether any of it was still usable, eating a couple of tiny bits that still had a trace of something that didn’t look completely spoiled. That meant losing a fair bit of time, so I only took a first bite of lunch at 3:15 AM, but it was quite some time later when it could be said that I actually started eating it, on and off, while working on dinner. And I also moved the olives into a jar. Either way, I finished lunch at 4:20 AM, ate dinner between 4:35 AM and 5:30 AM, and got in bed at 6:05 AM, just after dad woke up. And one annoying, and somewhat worrying, thing was that a spot on my right thumb had kept itching all day and, if anything, it seemed to be getting worse at night, though I couldn’t see anything there.
I woke up a little before 9:30 AM and decided to go to pee, and then I wanted to check something on the computer and ended up fiddling with things again, so I was still there a little after 10:20 AM, when there was some more drilling from above, and at a later point somebody rang the doorbell as well, by which point I was trying to check the route taken during the Dream Trek once it started changing and, while I’m not sure of some details, I pretty much confirmed that the different options hardly seem to make any difference at all in terms of distance, making that estimate of 45 km quite accurate either way. But checking that took quite a while, so it was 12:10 PM when I finally got back in bed… And, while it had been relatively quiet for a little while before that, more loud noises started coming from above moments later, as if heavy things were thrown or falling, my bed shaking quite noticeably a few times. That didn’t last long, but various lesser noises continued, so it took me quite some time to fall asleep again, and at 1:50 PM I was awake again, going to pee one more time and having another quick look on the computer before getting back in bed yet again and catching a few more naps, though I had been awake for quite a long time when I finally got up, a little after 4:30 PM. And then I noticed the image shifting a number of times, so I started to look through settings to see whether I could figure out what was going on and spotted something called Pixel Orbiting, which a quick search told me I correctly determined to be the culprit, but for the time being I’m leaving it on. On the other hand, at night, after making mamaliga, I saw quite a number of ants in the living room, helping themselves to the breadcrumbs scattered by dad… But now I’d consider the fact that we definitely have fleas again to be the far bigger problem.