Cav's Place

Something isn’t right, though I don’t know whether it’s something in my chest, which would be a serious problem, or a new effect of that bone spur on my spine, which has been acting up more lately. Either way, something feels wrong when I breathe, and it’s not new, having occasionally happened for months, if not pretty much all year, but it definitely got worse lately, in the sense that I feel it almost all the time and Monday morning before going to bed it was no longer just a strange feeling but I actually felt like I had some difficulty breathing, though it went away by the time I woke up. It was enough to finally make me ask dad to take me to have it checked out, before making the payments for next year’s half marathon and marathon, in case it’s something bad and will require spending a lot now or even prevent me from taking part in such runs then, but he meant to go there to take care of something for my mother tomorrow and I can’t go with him then, since I’ll be planting trees Saturday after getting hardly any sleep that morning, so tomorrow I want to get up as late as I can and possibly get back in bed for a little nap after eating something and getting the stuff I’ll take with me ready. May spare an hour for another trip for some more vegetables in exchange for plastic bottles if I won’t be able to sleep that late, but being at the doctor at a certain time, which may even be in the morning, depending on her schedule, and waiting there for what will probably be hours, since that’s how it goes with her, is definitely out. But maybe he’ll get me scheduled and we’ll go next week. But, of course, it’s a scary prospect.

Still on the topic of worries and health, but this time having to do with how someone else’s may end up affecting me, Tuesday afternoon, around or probably a bit before 1:40 PM, I noticed that the network signal was completely gone, as if somebody had cut the cable again, and since dad was here, I immediately told him to call the guy. Minutes later, I made the connection with the fact that I had noticed the elevator being serviced when I went out that morning, which was likely to require turning off power to the place where the building’s switch is at some point, and that did seem to be the case, as it recovered at 2 PM, but by then dad had already called and learned that the guy’s in hospital and will remain there until Friday evening, having kidney problems checked out, and he doesn’t have anyone else to handle such matters if he’s unavailable. So, on top of possibly having such problems that may take a long time to fix if the situation will repeat itself, if he’ll have his own health to worry about, and pay for, I fear for this little network’s future. Judging from the public financial reports I could find, while managing to greatly reduce its losses despite the revenue dropping to a level indicating just a few dozen remaining subscribers, if even that, it seems to have next to no remaining assets anyway, so I’m not sure what the future was likely to bring even without these added problems, but under these circumstances I fear even more.

Since I already mentioned having been out Tuesday morning, that was to get some more vegetables for plastic bottles from that Carrefour. Hadn’t tried again over the weekend or Monday and that was probably a bad choice, since I haven’t seen corn again these days, since I went on each of these last three days, but there were always Kapia peppers, Bianca peppers and green onions. But, getting back to Tuesday, I was up at 9:15 AM and left at 10:20 AM, taking out a few plastic and metal things and a glass bottle dad broke, and going to that Carrefour with ten plastic bottles, which I exchanged for four Kapia peppers, weighing about 550 grams, three kohlrabies, two Bianca peppers, weighing about 260 grams after I removed a rotten part one had, and one bundle of green onions. The girl told me she had to pick the moment I tried to pick one Kapia pepper myself, so I obviously allowed her to do that, and I also asked whether I could bring wine and vinegar bottles, and after asking the other one, since I’ve seen two of them there these days, she said I could, as long as they were washed and transparent. And I finally saw a place for expiring things in that location as well, though at the time the stuff that should be refrigerated was simply dumped in two carts, which was a huge problem from where I’m standing. They did place them properly since then though, since I looked again today.
That day I had also taken those 20 batteries that I’ve kept trying to exchange for four new ones recently, meaning to go to a location of that store that should exchange them like that which should be behind the park. However, I didn’t get that far, because some environmental film and technology festival is taking place in that mall this week and I saw that they had a machine exchanging used batteries the same way, one new one for five, so I went there on the way out and got the four new batteries. The machine seems to be just for show, however, that space mainly being intended for children, as it would seem that a new battery comes out whenever you press the button for it, regardless of how many used ones you put in, and the slot for AAA ones was already stuck anyway, the woman who came there as soon as I started using the machine telling me that after I tried putting some in and saw that I couldn’t. But since it didn’t matter where you put them, I just put all of them in the AA slot and pressed the AA button, noticing that it just worked on its own when trying to do so after being told of that other slot being stuck and getting a new battery right away even if I had only tried to put three in and none of them had really gone through. But I just put in the 20 I had, got the four I should have gotten and walked away, getting back at 11:10 AM.

Yesterday the idea was to go see Blue Heart at that festival mentioned above, and I had requested an invitation by e-mail, since doing so was required, and it was confirmed. So I was obviously going to take some more plastic bottles to that Carrefour, but with the movie supposed to start at 7:30 PM, I was going to go later, and left at 5:55 PM, giving myself time in case there will be lines, seeing as that’s pretty much the rush hour and I had 30 more batteries to exchange as well. But I could exchange the 12 bottles well enough, the issue being that I had taken 12 of the largest ones and had pressed them as well, to fit them all in one bag, and they didn’t fit through the holes when pressed like that and, while the girl first offered to get a bag for me to put them directly in it, she then returned to say they had no more bags available, so I had to struggle to make them fit one by one. Once that was done, I got the usual four Kapia peppers, again all of them good and weighing about 650 grams, four Bianca peppers, weighing about 335 grams, this time weighed without first removing the rotten bits that one of them again had, one lettuce and, since nothing else of interest was still available at that time, three more bundles of green onions, which didn’t look that good either. And then I went to exchange those 30 batteries as well, confirming that the machine was indeed only for show when a guy came as soon as I got there and told me that they had removed the new batteries from it since children kept pressing the button and getting new ones. I could still put them in it, and I did, but he didn’t bother to count, believing me when I said I had 30 and giving me six in exchange.
Since I had seen that this walk only takes me 15 minutes and I had nothing else to do, at 6:25 PM I was outside and walked back to drop things off, leaving again at 6:55 PM and entering the Cinema City from there at 7:15 PM. Even the speeches only started at 7:40 PM though, and one of them really dragged on, the movie only starting at 8:10 PM, by which time the moderator was quite desperate, as the schedule listed the event as ending at 9 PM and that meant that the movie itself only ended five minutes before that. But a debate was supposed to take place after the movie and another guest was given ten minutes to speak before questions were to be taken from the audience… And she ended up speaking for 20 minutes, and almost entirely in favor of the dams and against those who oppose such “development” in general, which made me so furious that I stared daggers at her almost the entire time and often managed to not look away when we seemed to make eye contact, and I was on the fourth row, with that side of the first two being empty, and had my cap off as well, so I’d say she noticed. One guy, whom I had recognized as having exchanged some plastic bottles for vegetables just before me and who had brought that paper bag with him there, did try to speak at one point and wasn’t allowed then, but at least the moderator did give him a chance after that woman finally finished and he outlined, in a calm and gentle voice, three problems of the dams, giving some quick examples… Only for that woman to be given the last word as well, to quickly reply to him before things ended, at 9:20 PM, when it would appear that the next movie was about to start there, those who had tickets for it waiting at the door. So I took it slowly at first, trying to calm down and only getting outside at 9:30 PM, then walked back and wrote them a long comment on the event page, but there was no reaction.

As for today, I was peeing at 7:20 AM and at first decided to stay up, then got back under the blanket, then got back up to check and saw that the Carrefour from there opens at 8 AM and decided once again to get up, taking 12 more bottles and leaving at 8:45 AM, hoping to find better things if I’ll go early. It seems that plenty of others had the same idea, however, since it was the first time I actually had to wait in line for a few minutes, though at least I didn’t have to put the bottles in one by one anymore, the girl just taking my bag and emptying it in a bag. The thing is that they had radishes, this being the first time I saw that, but they had just finished when my turn came and I heard the girl ask for more to be brought, but decided against asking whether I could wait, so I just got four more Kapia peppers, weighing just over 740 grams, four tomatoes, which I also hadn’t seen before, these weighing about 770 grams but not looking too good, and I’ll be throwing out a fair bit of at least one of them, and four cucumbers, weighing about 370 grams. Then I went inside and bought a few things, including something to eat right away, and I did so after getting outside, sitting on a bench, so I ended up only entering the building at 10:30 AM and, after putting everything away, getting back in bed a little after 11 AM.

Only timed my squats today, when I did two series, in 2:15 and 2:19, respectively, and Sunday, when I did them in 2:22. But at least this week’s run, which was Monday, finally broke that series, being a few seconds faster than last week’s, in spite of dad asking me to help him move a piece of furniture after I woke up, or more exactly after he woke me up with a sneezing fit, also being unable to take a shit before going, and feeling rather weak and being worried about my breathing while running. Also felt bad about how things turned out with that piece of furniture, since he had turned it around in a different way, so I’ll be able to hold on to it better, and then when turning it back one of the legs he had put on it came off, taking a part of the bottom with it, and while he said that he’d have had to turn it back around either way, I was left wondering whether it would have still happened if I wouldn’t have failed to hold on to it the way it was at first.
Either way, the conditions were otherwise good, I had the usual stuff plus the last of the corn, there were fewer people than in recent weeks as well, and time was 47:38.14, with sector times of 4:26.37, 5:02 (5:01.67), 5:46.92, 4:27 (4:26.44), 4:58.08, 5:46.29, 4:29 (4:28.72), 5:06 (5:05.58), 5:46.24 and 1:52 (1:51.83), making for lap times of 15:14.96, 15:11 (15:10.81) and 15:21 (15:20.54). The first little issue came early, when something got in my eye as I ran through a cloud of bugs just before the bridge, on sector one of lap one, and I likely lost a bit of time trying to get it out, or at least make it not bother me anymore. Then, on sector two of lap two, a guy with a dog was coming from the opposite direction and the dog suddenly rushed towards the lake as I was about to go past them on that side, cutting me off and forcing me to quickly need to avoid them, going the long way around dog, leash and master. And then there was the matter of losing the light, as I went out at 4:05 PM and by the end I was struggling to see the time, slowing down for a few moments in order to be able to do so at the start of sectors two and three of lap three. Not that I could see the hundredths better after sector three of lap three either, but I didn’t even try, so I didn’t slow again at the start of the final sector, only looking after I was done, since that last intermediate time remains listed. And, speaking of intermediate times, nice how I managed nearly identical sector three times on all laps, and also nearly identical sector one times on the first two and being only a couple of seconds slower on the third.
However, the most annoying bit involved a truck that seemed to chase me from the end of lap two and through much of lap three’s first sector. I didn’t actually turn to get a good look, but it was likely the one loading bags of leaves, which I had seen before, albeit going in the opposite direction, and which I had needed to rather squeeze past on sector one of lap one as well, and at that point I heard it approach and moved to the edge of the path, to allow it to pass, yet the driver didn’t seem to want to, getting pretty much alongside me and staying there for a while. When I noticed that it wasn’t about to pass, I tried to pick up the pace and it actually fell behind a little, but only a little, staying right behind me until it eventually stopped some time later. It’s possible that the driver was doing that just so he won’t bother me, but I felt that he was egging me on and it didn’t seem safe to have the truck right there for so long, and trying to stay at the very edge of the path to leave room for it wasn’t exactly comfortable either. Plus that having me there and the truck next to me left those coming from the opposite direction with nowhere to go, and there were a couple of cyclists who had to act quickly as a result.