Cav's Place

On March 7 I left a little after 9:50 AM, with dad’s large backpack, a great sale on cat litter making me want to go early. So I was at Kaufland just after 10:15 AM and, after seeing that there was no danger of them running out of the cat litter right away, I looked for the other things that were on that limited sale, finding that the labels still listed the normal full price, but the discounts did apply correctly, so I got those other things and then also the cat litter, which actually had the regular sale price listed when I first looked and the additional, limited one added before I got back there. Then I looked around for a while and eventually used the self-checkout without problems.
Getting back wasn’t that easy or free of incidents, however, two bags of cat litter plus a little over a kilogram of other things in the backpack and the third bag of cat litter in one hand making me move rather like a tank, and at an intersection I meant to wait for the car that was just turning and then cross, so I stepped on the crossing as it was going past it, but those coming right behind it showed no intention of even slowing, so it’s a good thing I stopped in time for one to pass just centimeters in front of me at full speed. Since another car was alongside it, on the next lane, the driver would have had nowhere to even try to turn away if I’d have taken another step. And after getting halfway across and putting one foot down, to take another step, I looked and saw a car with no intention to stop coming from that direction as well, so I had to wait for it to pass too, despite being on the crossing. But I eventually made it back a little before 11:45 AM, having carried 25 kg.
After having something sweet and lunch and spending some time on-line, I went out again just before 4:55 PM, taking the recyclables… And somehow just walking past the bin, so I had to turn back to drop them off. Either way, I then went to Auchan and got some things from there, including one of those breads, the real weight being only eight grams under the listed one that time around, and some of those purple potatoes, though the price was 25% higher than when I first meant to get some and then forgot about them. Also looked at slippers, to compare them with those from Carrefour, but was probably too set on getting those I had seen there, because while I didn’t like the soles of the others that were around that price or less, there was one model that seemed all right and was even 10% less than those I had in mind from Carrefour, but I didn’t even check whether that model was available in size 43… Either way, I then also went to that Penny, put the purchases in a cabinet, but just found garlic and canned mushrooms, which I later also found in the other location I went to, so I shouldn’t have gone there. But I couldn’t know that at the time, so I got those things, retrieved the other purchases and continued on my way.
As if I wasn’t already running late, I then lost even more time by somehow getting lost in Park Lake, I guess because I kept changing my mind about going to the toilet. But I eventually put the purchases in a cabinet, peed and washed my hands, and rushed in Carrefour, first checking the frozen products and finding one last 1 kg bag of cheaper green beans, which I initially picked up, since my mother wanted one. However, it was more expensive than they are when they go on sale at Penny, and we still had one that dad could take there, so I eventually put it back, albeit after getting those slippers… Despite not finding any of the kind I wanted in size 43, that being the only size that was missing. Sure, 42 is what I wear, but that’s for shoes, slippers should be a little bigger, yet I made do with what was available, getting a pair in size 42, just like three years ago, when I got those I then replaced, being really torn and falling apart… And that was a bad idea, since on April 12 I noticed that they were starting to tear, the rubber at the heel splitting, so I guess they’re meant to last just the 30 days listed on the warranty slip they come with. Actually sent an e-mail about it to Carrefour that evening, and on April 20 I received a reply and a code for free shipping for an order from the site as an apology, not that it’ll do me much good.
Back to that evening, I then went to get some more of the large mucenici, or sfintisori, I had bought to reward myself two days earlier, after that half marathon run, wanting eight since four were to be taken to my mother. I couldn’t see the big sign advertising the four for the price of three offer anymore, however, so I asked the guy who was there, but he didn’t really seem to know, and the way he was dressed seemed to suggest that he was mainly a production worker in that department, only filling in at that time. So I looked and found that the whole bakery page from the catalog was displayed there, that offer also being listed on it, and when I pointed it out to him he said that in that case it applies. However, the one who should have been selling, or at least one of them, showed up at that point and when he asked her she said that the offer wasn’t valid anymore, because it had supposedly been for the frozen ones and they ran out, which was why they had taken down the big sign. But the guy actually took my side, and firmly, repeatedly pointing out what it said on the catalog page and the dates while she kept saying that it no longer applied, and in the end he told me to tell the cashier that they should be on sale. And he also made sure to add quite a few fistfuls of the ground walnuts spilled in the trays. Then again, I guess that mentioning the discount to the cashier wouldn’t have made any difference, since when I did she said that she didn’t know about that and will just see what happens, but it did indeed apply automatically to the total, so there were no problems… Except the fact that the change she gave me was 0.07 RON short. But there were a few coins in front of her and I just brazenly grabbed a 0.10 RON one. Forgot to use the discount voucher I had on the receipt from two days earlier, however.
Since I still needed frozen spinach and some other pastries for my mother from Penny, I then rushed to the one that’s close to the newer Kaufland, finding just one of each to get, a second 1 kg bag of that cheap frozen spinach being available but torn. Then I also rushed to that Kaufland, walking in minutes after 9 PM, putting my things in a cabinet, washing my hands and heading straight to the bakery area, where the employee was just placing additional discount labels. They were out of the kind of bread I’d usually get from there, but I got two of the second kind, the 75% discount applying even though it also had a regular discount those days, albeit of only 10%. Since I couldn’t find the three of that other kind that I had been asked to get from Penny, I also got some sweet pastries, two to send to my mother and one for myself, those being at an eighth of the price, and also a baguette that just had a label listing a 50% discount, but which ended up being an eighth of the price as well. Then I looked around, picked the last of the onions that seemed all right and, after having found none in the location I had been to in the morning, also found a few pieces of the large chocolate I wanted to get for dad. I think four were left, but just one was of a kind he could want, so I got that as well, waited around for a while longer, went to the self-checkout at 9:50 PM… And saw that the couple who was ahead of me had three of those large chocolates, along with several others, so maybe they had cleared out that area after me. Either way, I had no problems with the machine, then took a little time to put some things in the backpack, after retrieving them from the cabinet, but after the store closed I went out while I could still use the main doors and really took my time to arrange everything, using one of those tables that are outside.
On the way back, yet another car almost ran into me. I was crossing the street that’s right after that Penny, noticed lights that seemed to be coming towards me and froze in place, but did so a step too late, a car stopping just before hitting me, after having tried to turn in from the other side of the other road at some speed. Since he was also coming from behind, he could have seen me while I couldn’t have seen him, but it nevertheless sounded like the driver had some choice words for me. I just said out loud that it’s a crossing and kept going, however.
I got back at 10:50 PM, having carried almost 16 kg, so it was easy compared to the morning, but I was so tired… Couldn’t rest quite yet, however, so I had a banana and that sweet pastry from Kaufland, put some things in their place, and went to the bathroom right at midnight, not leaving much in the toilet but having good water to wash. I was out just before 1 AM, but still had much to do, so after putting more things in their place and washing what dad had left, it was 3:20 AM when I started eating dinner and 3:55 AM when I finished, and that was without even dealing with the bread. Sadly, the exact same start and end times applied to the following night’s dinner, after dealing with two of the three breads and also some lettuce, though that was after having a large lunch in the evening.

Moving on to March 10, I had lunch after waking up and was eating in my room and being on-line when dad got back and I didn’t hear him and he turned on his computer. I went out of my room some five minutes later, noticed him and ran back to disconnect, but the harm was done… And his “excuse” was that I hadn’t left him any note! Excuse me? A note to say that I woke up? I had taken the note he had left for me off the table, cleaned up after him, made tea and took it to my room, also took the plates with my food…
Either way, I left a little after 4:15 PM, with the electric grill which had burned out and some other such things that no longer worked in dad’s large backpack, since I was taking them to the collection center that’s close to Obor. I had to rush, since it closes at 5 PM, and in fact I got there at 4:50 PM and the last container was being closed and a truck was leaving, though the guy who was closing that container opened it again when I asked where could I drop off what I had and apologized for closing earlier, saying that the snow was coming over them, and it had indeed been snowing lightly almost since I had left, and it was windy as well. He told me to just dump everything at the entrance of the container, since they’ll clean up the next day, so I did just that, rushing even though he was telling me not to.
Another small event in support of Ukraine was supposed to start at 5:30 PM at Victory Square, but I knew that people won’t gather right away and I wasn’t going to have time to go everywhere on the way back, so I decided to first pass through Kaufland, peeing and then checking what the cereals that were on sale contained and looking for but failing to find their cheap batteries, so I couldn’t compare the price with that of those that were on sale at Carrefour. And then I also went to Penny, looking for paper towels for dad, seeing none at first but finding that two packs had appeared when I got back there after having a look around the rest of the store. They had probably just been returned there, one being completely torn and with one roll outside of it and the other being just a little torn, but I took that one that was just a little torn… And then struggled for a while to stuff it in the backpack, walking outside after at least managing to get it in, then placing the backpack on a bench and struggling a while longer, until I could finally manage to close it.
I was finally walking away at 5:55 PM and reached Victory Square at 6:40 PM… Only to find absolutely nobody there. I tried to look across, to see whether they had moved, but it didn’t seem like it and I didn’t actually go all the way around, in order to have a close look, just trying to make my way to the Ukrainian Embassy instead. I didn’t correctly remember its location, however, so I ended up walking almost all the way to the end of Kiseleff instead of going on Aviatorilor, after a while realizing that something was wrong and being increasingly hesitant and eventually starting to search, but even then remaining certain that it was there, only thinking that the entrance might perhaps be on another street. I eventually put together a mental image of the map of the area and finally realized that there was no way it could be there, and just after 7:30 PM I managed to find it, but couldn’t even light a candle. At first I also meant to try to light at least some of the many that were already there again, since only one was still lit, but neither the lighter nor the matches I had seemed to work and my hands were freezing, so after a few minutes I gave up and walked away. My hands were utterly frozen and painful, and I was cold in general, and also needed to pee again.
After reaching the mall from Obor, I peed again and started warming up a little, then went inside that Carrefour with the backpack, not bothering with a cabinet, and got sugar, two beets for dad and, after happening to buy one kind two days earlier, also the other three kinds of cereals included in those that were on sale at Kaufland, the difference being that those from Carrefour were bio (organic)… And yet ended up being even cheaper, for the same quantity, despite not even being on sale! And one of those kinds of cereals was cheaper than the others and I noticed that the cashier got confused while scanning them, so when the total was different than what I had calculated, I ended up thinking that it was a little more than it should have been, since I had just calculated the coins, to make sure that I had exact change, and I told her that I’ll be checking the receipt. At that point, she also had another look, but whether she realized what had happened and decided to let it slide or still didn’t notice, she said that everything was fine… And when I also checked, I realized that it had actually been more than fine, because she had scanned those slightly cheaper cereals a second time instead of one of the others, the total being 0.83 RON less than it should have been, not more. So I decided to set 1 RON aside and donate it at some point.
It was past 9:30 PM when I walked out of that mall, so I rushed to Kaufland, had to try three cabinets until I found one that worked, put my things in it, washed my hands again and, finding nothing else that was discounted and interesting, ended up only buying a few onions that had an evening discount and still seemed all right, after digging through all the crates to even find those. Since the price was even less than the small amount left in my account, I paid by card at the self-checkout, though I still used one of the machines that also accepts cash. And I managed to do that in time, the announcement that the store had closed coming as I was arranging everything in the backpack, though I then took a couple more minutes to finish doing that, after which I walked out and finished arranging my clothes before walking away, a little after 10:05 PM.
I got back at 10:55 PM, ate an apple and something sweet, put the purchases in their place, and it was 12:30 AM when I went to take a shower, the water being good enough to drive that cold out of me. I was back in the kitchen at 1:15 AM, but still had things to do, including washing what dad had left, so I started eating dinner at 3:05 AM, but still managed to finish at 3:40 AM. As for that event, I later asked Remus Cernea what had happened and he said that some ten people had showed up but it was too cold and windy and at 6:30 PM they had decided to go and have a hot tea somewhere, so on the one hand I just missed them, but on the other I didn’t miss anything relevant.

I felt occasional pain around my left kidney before getting up the next day, and it returned at night, while making and having dinner and after that, though it seemed fine during the day. But when I felt it again before getting up the following day, I was wondering whether it wasn’t actually caused by my lower back. If so, I strained it even more that evening, since dad came earlier than he had said and we defrosted the fridge, so he moved it, cleaned behind it a little, tried to balance it better and sorted a few things at the end, and I worked away for some five hours, most of that time being spent cleaning it, and otherwise holding it while he was trying to balance it better, taking things out, scraping the ice and taking it away, then putting things back. It was past 1 AM when I was done and went to shower and 1:30 AM or just after that when I was back in the kitchen. Then I had half of an expired bar and left most of what was to wash for later, to at least manage to start eating dinner at 3:10 AM, and that was after having lunch in the early evening. I might have still managed to finish at 3:40 AM, but accidentally knocked three slices of bread off the plate and spent a few minutes dealing with that, so I finished just after 3:45 AM. My back was hurting, my arms, also my legs to some extent… But I still also washed most of what was in the kitchen after all, and got in bed at 5:20 AM.

After running on March 14 and everything I had done in the previous days, I was really tired on the morning of March 15, but as it tends to happen in such cases, I slept little. I woke up after some three and a half hours of sleep, needing to pee, but just couldn’t get myself to get up, and I guess it was a good thing I took a while, because there was a call from the organizers of the planting event on March 19, so I answered and then went… But couldn’t get back to sleep after that, spending some three more hours mostly in bed, albeit getting up twice more during that time and on one of those occasions spending a few minutes in the kitchen, feeding Micky and then staying there while she ate. In the end, I’m not sure I slept more than half an hour more, and it quite certainly was less than one hour.
In spite of that, and of already needing to take care of laundry that day, I decided to also clean my room a little, doing that in the evening, after having lunch after dad got back. I was so exhausted, feeling quite out of it, my feet were also burning again, mostly after cleaning, my back wasn’t happy either, but oddly enough my nose got better over the course of that day, despite the cleaning, though it had been quite badly irritated in the morning… On the other hand, I’ll also mention here that I finally ate the last of the Granny Smith apples received back in October, when “paying” with PET bottles, that day.
I did feel much better the next day, but couldn’t quite say why, after sleeping badly again. I did get somewhat more sleep, but I’m not even sure I had been sleeping for three hours when I woke up to pee and while I did get back to sleep after that, an hour and a half later I woke up screaming. Only got up at 2:55 PM, but what little sleep I got in the nearly four and a half hours until then was plagued by awful dreams that I had a hard time realizing weren’t actually “real”, seeing as I’d just fall asleep and dream myself right there and then, but with something awful and, at least to some extent, plausible happening.

As for March 17, I left a bit after 7:20 PM, taking the plastic and metal, which I dropped off in a bin on the way, and also the caps and Tetra Paks to take to Penny and five cooking oil bottles, wanting to see whether the machine at Kaufland would accept them, for that 99% discount on a bottle of Pepsi Max. So I first went to the nearest Penny, but even though the sign was still there, when I asked whether the Tetra Pak campaign was still valid a guard told me it wasn’t. So I just threw the bag in a cabinet, without locking, and went in to look for the cornmeal that was supposed to be on sale. Didn’t even find a label or an empty area where it should have been, however, and when I asked an employee she took me to the spot where the one other kind was and said that was the only kind they had. That made me assume that they were already out of it, also saying so when I walked out, told that same guard that I was looking for that cornmeal and couldn’t find it and he said that maybe it’ll show up later, but he might have actually been right, seeing as large bundles, still wrapped up, were all over the store that evening and two days later, when I found it in another location, it had just been brought.
Either way, I then retrieved that bag from the cabinet, dropped the caps in the proper place and continued to Kaufland, to try that machine. At first it wouldn’t take the bottles, but I then noticed that a discount ticket was still in it, and another on the floor, so I grabbed those and taking out the one that was still in the machine made it accept the bottles, so I ended up with three tickets. But I didn’t actually go to Kaufland just yet, first going to that mall and buying a code to recharge my prepaid phone card, then having a quick look in a sports store, and then throwing the bag with the Tetra Paks in a cabinet and entering that Carrefour, finding two of the packs of batteries that I had been looking for, for dad, and getting both. Then I had a quick look in another store, retrieved that bag and finally went to Kaufland.
After putting the bag in a cabinet and washing my hands, I went to the bakery area, since it was a few minutes past 9 PM, but no bread was left… And, as I later confirmed, the label indicated that the price of the one that I prefer to get from there had increased yet again. But I got two sweet pastries, then checked for evening discounts for fruits and vegetables, grabbing the last two bundles of green onions and adding a few more pieces that were scattered in the crates to them, checking the handful of remaining bananas one by one and just getting two, digging a lot through all the crates of potatoes and getting close to six kilograms, and also taking a few beets. But I had mainly meant to get a bottle of the bio (organic) olive oil that was on sale at a shockingly good price, it was getting late and I was yet to even look for it… And when I did, I didn’t even find a label, so I asked an employee who was in that area and she said that they were out. Even though the sale had only started the day before, I didn’t find that surprising, considering the price, but later realized that it had been listed in a separate section of the catalog and site and I should have probably looked for it elsewhere in the store, and in fact I did find it in an entirely different place two days later, in another location. Either way, I then also looked for that Pepsi, but couldn’t find any small bottles of Pepsi Max, so I just grabbed three of the regular kind, which had the same price, and went to check whether the discount would also apply to those.
Well, it didn’t. I got to the self-checkout a few minutes before closing and just scanned the Pepsi and the discount tickets at first, and when I saw that no discount applied I looked for an employee to cancel that and allow me to scan the other purchases. But, if one had been running around that area until then, they all seemed to have suddenly vanished at that point, which left me and a couple who needed one to clear an alcohol sale looking around and waiting, blocking the available machines that also accepted cash after the store had closed and with a line forming behind us. And after an employee finally came and sorted things out, an old woman kept getting ever closer to me, almost pushing me from the machine as I was trying to hurry to scan my other purchases. And an employee, which I actually think was the same one who had sorted things out, was starting to clean the cabinets when I left the checkout area, so I rushed to take my things out, then moved a few steps away in order to start trying to stuff the bag with the potatoes in the backpack. But I thought that I might be getting in the way even there, so I then moved to the other set of cabinets, from the area with the stairs, and when I still wasn’t done when she came there as well I went down the escalator and continued there, finally managing it and putting on the backpack before walking out.
I was walking away from Kaufland a little after 10:10 PM, got back at 10:40 PM, had a banana and one of the sweet pastries, took a quick shower, did another thing I had to do, and only had lunch after that, taking it to my room and also checking some things on-line, so it was past 1:20 AM when I finished. In spite of that, I managed to stick to the schedule for dinner. On the other hand, I only got in bed at 5:20 AM, after finally managing to ensure that my computer won’t run out of work.
I’m referring to the fact that the problems that MilkyWay@home had at the time got worse and if for a while it worked intermittently and I could just manage to get enough work to keep the computer busy between outages, that was about to end that night and things weren’t going to get fixed in time, and with World Community Grid also taking a break, I urgently needed other options. Following someone’s suggestion, the first attempt was Universe@home, but after at first it wouldn’t connect and I needed quite some time to finally manage to get an updated ca-bundle.crt and fix that issue, the BOINC warning that the project may not have work for my type of computer proved correct. So I tried Cosmology@home next, remembering seeing that its legacy app was supposed to run on 32-bit systems, and that did the trick… Eventually, because at first it kept saying either that the work cache was full even though I had it set to 1+1 days and just had MilkyWay@home work units for a few more hours, or that tasks weren’t needed because it’s not the highest priority project even though I even set its share to 2000, with the rest being at 100. But after setting the work cache back to the previous 5+5 days and giving it a little time, it finally downloaded work units… The problem being that, because of that setting, it downloaded too many, and since I just used it to take me through that MilkyWay@home outage, I ended up abandoning the rest. And the time spent working on that project was unpleasant, because if at first I saw it use 120 MB of RAM per work unit, that amount increases in time, and I saw it reach 750 MB, which made it quite a problem to actually use the computer. And the following day I was trying to let one of those work units finish and then switch back to the few remaining ones from MilkyWay@home while I’ll be using the computer and missed the moment, one core being idle for three and a half minutes. But at least that wasn’t much.