Cav's Place

Seem to be having some issues at the moment, including repeated ones with my Internet access at night, but I’d rather just catch up instead, starting with yesterday’s run. Only went out at 3:50 PM, but days are getting longer now and it was sunny too, so light wasn’t a problem, and neither was the weather, with a reported temperature of 6-7°C and the wind not bothering me, though there seemed to be some and I was a little worried at first. There weren’t that many people either, though they did cost me a bit of time in a number of places. The time was 48:20, with sector times of 4:15, 5:08, 5:51, 4:30, 5:03, 5:59, 4:32, 5:03, 6:04 and 1:55, making for lap times of 15:14, 15:32 and 15:39. It was quite clear after the first lap that I won’t get under 48 minutes, but I was never really in danger of going over 48:30 either, so did push a bit but not as much as during other recent runs, and on the final sector I probably even took it a bit easy, hence that poor time. Interestingly, the knee didn’t bother me at all as I ran, though it decided to remind me that it’s not fine after all as I was trying to take my shoes off after getting back.

It’s a good thing the water temperature was good last evening, for the first time in a week. There keep being problems, repeatedly leaving many people without hot water or heating, and while this area wasn’t really hit by them in full, the “hot” water was barely warm for several days, and actually quite cold on Sunday, when I think it only had around 25°C, and in fact I saw someone posting a picture on a group showing a measured temperature of 26°C. Saturday it was around body temperature, ending up slightly below it by the time it reached my skin, so I had to just manage to shower with it like that, considering how sweaty I was after carrying all that weight I carried that evening. It was somewhat better Tuesday, when I showered again, but still definitely not comfortable. Might have been a tiny bit better Monday evening, but decided to wait another day then.

But something I really want to mention is that on December 24 I finally managed to finish Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic. After starting it back in February of 2017, that’s something. Played it on and off, taking longer breaks for other games and shorter ones caused by that bug that makes it get increasingly choppy, then start just exiting, with no crash message, when changing between AI opponents’ turns, really seeming to only happen with opponents and not allies as well, and then no longer start at all the more time passes since last reboot. It does seem to take about three weeks to get to that point, and sometimes it took even longer, but with me only rebooting when I absolutely have to, usually for the monthly Windows updates, and in a couple of cases skipping those as well, that meant that even if I learned to put up with it being choppy most of the time, there kept being periods when I just couldn’t play it anymore, and sometimes I didn’t feel like getting back to it after the next reboot. Now let’s see about a review, since I definitely want to write one and meant to do so before the end of the year, but right now I’m not sure I’ll manage it.

Otherwise, getting back to Saturday, meant to go to the commemoration of the Revolution, which was also intended as a protest, but I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the specific agenda of the protest at this particular moment, so the idea was to go to the march and then see how things will play out later. But the march was supposed to start at 5 PM or 5:15 PM and dad said he’ll be back after 5 PM, so my original plan of just grabbing the metro card from him and going right out wouldn’t have worked. And that of first going to that event and then to other Carrefours, to look for that thing he had asked me to look for and a couple of other things that were on sale, definitely wouldn’t have worked either, since it’d have gotten too late and I realized I had to be back around 10 PM. So in the end I asked him to let me know when he’ll get on the metro and we’ll meet at the station, I’ll get the card and just go look for those things, then try to get back in time to watch the match too.
The thing is that he said he’ll likely be back closer to 6 PM, so I thought I’ll be ready by 5:30 PM and wait for the call, but that call came much earlier, at a time when I was on the toilet too, and from the voice mail and the message he sent later I understood that he was getting close to getting on the metro, not off it. So I knew I had to leave earlier than planned, but was actually thinking I’ll still have to wait for him a bit when I was about to go out the door, at 5:05 PM… Only for him to call again just then and ask where I was, because he had gotten off the metro already. What followed was a rather confused exchange, him asking whether he should just come and we’ll meet here, then saying we’ll meet on the way, which was definitely a bad idea, since we use different routes and I couldn’t even really explain mine, though he asked me to a few times. So I rushed out the door and kept looking while hurrying there, worried that he started walking too and we’ll miss each other, but in the end I saw him still waiting there, so it worked out.
Then again, any time gained by meeting him there was lost right away, since the train going in one direction was already in the station when I got in, but I let it go in order to take the one going the other way, since that’d have meant fewer stops. But it also meant first waiting for that train to come, then for it to slowly cover that last bit at the end of the line, then switching trains, waiting again since two trains going the other way came before the first one going the right way, and even that wasn’t the one I needed, so I got on it without realizing it at first, then got off it after two stops and waited for the next one, which also waited for a bit where the lines split.
Once I finally got to that Carrefour, I looked for what he wanted but couldn’t find it, and couldn’t find the cat litter either, the whole area being almost empty, with just one or maybe two bags of some other kind left. That was actually a funny moment, since I got there right behind another guy who was looking for the same thing and was also on the phone at the time, and we both stopped and stared for a moment, then he told the person he was talking to that he’s there and looking, but that’s about all he can do. Considered getting some garlic, but decided not to bother, meaning to check the Carrefour next to the park on the way back, though there is a bit of a walk from the station and that makes it not really worth taking the metro from there, so maybe if I would have gone there I’d have just walked back, and either way it’d have meant hurrying in order not to miss the start of the match. Also considered charging my phone card with just 1 EUR instead of getting the garlic, to activate it for this period, or even simply to go to the toilet, since I had to pee, but did neither.
When I got back to the station, the train I should have taken was just leaving, but I got confused again and went to the other side, only realizing I took the same one I came with once on it. Still, really don’t think I could have caught that first one, and the next one going that way was just leaving the station when the one I was on was getting there two stops later, so waiting for that one would have been the same thing in terms of number of stops, counting from that one where they met, and could have in fact ended up being slower, due to merging lines and perhaps needing to wait for another one to get far enough ahead. Plus, going that way actually offered me another option, stopping at another Carrefour instead of the one I had been thinking of and likely saving a bit of time, not going back and forth.
There is still a bit of a walk, from that stop to the Carrefour in that area, but I rushed there, finally going to the toilet at first, then looking again for what dad wanted and again not finding it. Yet, even though there was just one large bag left and that was only because it was badly torn, had better luck with the cat litter though, since there were plenty of small ones, half the weight at half the price, working out to the same thing. So I grabbed six of those and 860 grams of garlic, to get to an almost round amount. The total was 0.05 RON short of said round amount, but I didn’t get that coin as change, so that was that… Or not quite, since I then spent quite a few minutes trying to also shove the garlic in my backpack’s smaller compartment, after filling the large one with two of those bags, and eventually still had to give up on the idea and just carry it in one hand, so couldn’t be perfectly balanced, with just two bags in each hand. It was 7:35 PM when I finally left that spot.
With time so tight, I just pushed myself to hurry to the metro station, not allowing myself to rest for even a moment, despite carrying about 20 kg. And that was a good thing, since the train was just there when I arrived and I managed to get in and hurry down the stairs in time. Even that still didn’t leave me much time to walk from the station here, but pushed myself again, still not allowing myself to rest for even a moment despite feeling that I needed to a couple of times, and made it back just moments before the match started, at 8 PM. Then, after catching my breath, putting the stuff away and changing, also made popcorn during the first half, meaning to eat it during the second but instead spending some time on-line while mostly just listening to the match and only starting to eat the popcorn close to the end, so actually ate most of it after it was over.

The next evening I wanted to go out again, mainly to take advantage of the last day of Kaufland’s offer of 30% off all fruits and vegetables after 10 PM, but also meant to have a look at the Carrefour next to the park too, for what dad wanted. Meant to leave at 8 PM, was at the door five minutes after that, but dad said something then, so it was a few more minutes before I actually went out. Not that it was of any use to go to that Carrefour either, not finding the other things dad had asked me to look for when I said where I was going either, so after a quick look I started walking to the Kaufland from that area, but since it was still early, on the way decided to take a detour to the Auchan from that part of the city too… Which also proved to be just a waste of time, so I eventually reached that Kaufland a bit after 9:30 PM, waited until 10 PM to be sure and got a few things, including a stock of something for dad, though I still didn’t find what he had asked me to look for… And then, after getting back, I realized that the first thing he had asked me to look for, the one I had checked out four different Carrefour locations for, could be ordered on-line as well and picked up without paying for shipping, so I taught him to do that and he did it that evening, meaning that I wandered around so much for no reason.
Happened to spot one of the known protesters from the “old guard” while in Carrefour and I tried to greet him, but he just gave me a little confused look and walked past, possibly not recognizing me, though I’d find that a bit odd. The thing is that he had just had a harsh exchange with another activist in the comments of a post made by one of the best known “old guard” ones, clearly giving the impression that the problems between them had been brewing for quite some time, and I had intended to send them both a message to ask what was going on, but didn’t do that, and then obviously couldn’t get myself to ask him directly that evening. Thought of it, but there was no way I could manage to actually say something, couldn’t have even if he would have returned my greeting. On the other hand, a guy seemed to want to catch my eye in Auchan, but whether he recognized me and I didn’t recognize him or he wrongly assumed I had heard what had been said between him and the woman he was with before she walked away, I have no idea.

As for Monday, woke up at 9:30 AM and at first meant to just roll over and go back to sleep, but then I remembered I wanted to check that Auchan again early in the day, after seeing that they now also list products on site, including where they are in stock, and the specific kind of cat food dad had asked me to look for, since the male cat at my grandmother’s apparently likes it, was supposedly in stock there, though I hadn’t seen any the previous evening. So I got up, checked the site again, saw that it still said it was in stock there and that there should also be a limited stock at the one I usually go to, and at 10:30 AM I was out, only needing to wait a couple of minutes for the free bus heading that way.
Just lost sleep and wasted my time though, since there was still none of that particular kind, yet I then lost even more time by taking the bus that most directly took me to the regular Auchan I go to, checking there as well… And finding none of that brand whatsoever, that entire area was empty, with just the price tags left. Did also consider taking their bus to a third location, but the site said it wasn’t in stock there, so assumed the chances to find anything were even lower than where it should have been in stock, and decided I had done quite enough anyway, so took the one taking me back here instead… Which, interestingly, was the same vehicle I had gotten on the first time, meaning that I got off it at one end of the line and back on at the other. Wonder if the driver noticed…
Was back just after 11:50 AM and crawled back in bed around 12:30 PM, though I mostly just sat there, only getting up at 4:30 PM but not really sleeping that much. Though it rained later, the weather would have been good for a run in the first part of the day, but it ended up being good yesterday too, when it wasn’t wet anymore either, so it wasn’t a problem that I didn’t go then. I was tired anyway, and my upper legs hurt, so it’d have been very hard to try to get back at least under 48:30 then, and that’s even without getting up so early and wandering around first.

Oh, and Tuesday I bumped by head again in the kitchen. Had done so a few days before too, but more lightly then and I didn’t pay much attention, yet that day I definitely noticed a bump there a bit later, despite taking an ice cube and holding it there for a while. It’s possible that I didn’t hold it in the right spot though, since I think the bump was a bit above the area where I had held the cube, so that probably just made me feel cold without offering much of a benefit.