Cav's Place

Considering the number of runs that I’m yet to write about, I should catch up on some of those, but after Friday’s awful long practice run, I just can’t do that, so I’ll get back to old odds and ends, starting with April 14, when I was making a note of the fact that there were no more ants in the bathroom, so my assumption that they had used something in the building’s basement that initially made them rush away but then probably killed them was probably correct. Either way, after making some more calls that had to do with the lost camera, I did 200 squats and left at 7:50 PM, the fact that I wasted a few minutes with a little detour to a pharmacy that I saw had closed earlier that day meaning that I wasn’t yet in Park Lake when the guy from the Subway Police called back. Then I found a couple of things to get from Carrefour, the cashier taking away the receipt when I gave it in order to use the voucher received for previous purchases.
After putting those purchases in the backpack, I continued to Auchan, but the bread had already been gathered and piled up in six carts. Three were still accessible, so I joined a few other customers who were also trying to look through them, but the other three had already been pulled into the area where the bakery equipment and employees are… Which employees didn’t bother to help the customers who asked them to. Either way, since I couldn’t spot that bread that I wanted for dad, I just got him two of that other kind that’s cheaper there than anywhere else, though still more than that one. Then I added a few other things, also used what was on the store card at the self-checkout, and took some time to arrange the other purchases in the backpack, leaving the bread in a bag.
I had also quickly glanced at a few discarded receipts at Carrefour and Auchan, but it was only after I reached Kaufland and grabbed several from the trash bins that I found one that included that egg dye, to make up for the one that dad didn’t get and enter it in the contest. In fact, I found that one quite quickly, then grabbed some more because I wondered whether I’ll find any others, though I didn’t. Either way, I put my things in a cabinet, washed my hands, and entered the store a couple of minutes before 10 PM, not seeing anything left in the bakery area that was interesting enough to get when the discounts were at 50%, which I confirmed by scanning some labels. But I got most of the wild garlic that was left, which had an evening discount, and bananas were also really cheap, so I dug through them and eventually got a few that weren’t quite as bad as the rest. Then bakery discounts of 75% were announced, so I scanned a couple of labels to confirm that, since new labels were never placed, took a glove and grabbed a few things, including a bread that seemed new and didn’t have any ingredients listed. Then I grabbed more egg dye and would have also taken eight of those yogurts, since that tiny discount was still listed, but when I scanned one I saw the regular price and I didn’t bother to complain over such a small difference, just putting six back and only taking two. And then I decided to also get red onions after all, even though finding a label on the crate that stated that they were from Netherlands despite being listed as from Romania had made me give up on that idea at first.
I was at the self-checkout a few minutes before closing, but the receipt fell behind the machine and I didn’t notice, thinking that it somehow didn’t print it, and by that point the store had closed and the employees had wandered away. I kept holding my hand up, but even the couple of employees who did pass by said that it wasn’t their area and, after opening the printer and checking whether it wasn’t stuck in it, told me to wait for someone else. So I did, and when someone finally came along I explained what happened, also asking whether it might have fallen behind the machine, though I had tried to look and hadn’t seen anything. However, the employee did find the receipt behind the machine, after reaching in and feeling around, though she wanted to make sure that it was mine before handing it over, so she asked what I had purchased, being satisfied after finding the first few products I listed on that receipt. I did feel rather embarrassed after she asked whether that was all that I had “bothered” her for, but after I said that I couldn’t open the gate to leave without the receipt she said that it was no problem. And I also arranged the purchases after retrieving what I had in the cabinet, and after walking out I used one of those tables to check that I had everything and arrange more carefully, so it was past 11:10 PM when I walked away. And on the way back I stepped into that non-stop Mega Image, but when I saw no bakery discounts, I didn’t actually enter.
I got back at 11:55 PM, with 13 kg… And learned that dad had thrown away some food that Liza hadn’t eaten instead of at least taking it to the cats that are behind the building, saying that he won’t go out just for that, so I retrieved it from the bag that he had thrown it in, really struggled to open the building’s back door, left that food there, then struggled to lock that door again. Then I just ate a banana and put a few things in their place, so it wasn’t yet 1 AM when I went to take a quick shower, being done just after 1:15 AM. Then I ate an old sweet pastry, washed what was in the kitchen, put the remaining purchases in their place, dealt with the wild garlic and with my bread, and finally started eating dinner at 4:10 AM, finishing at 4:40 AM and getting in bed at 5:25 AM.

I think I was already awake when the computer did the daily backup, at 8 AM, and I couldn’t get back to sleep, so a little after 8:20 AM I went to pee, just in case, then tossed and turned, finally getting on the computer a little before 9:15 AM. I had been meaning to reboot it, so I did that, and also read the first chapter of Doomdark’s Revenge: The Icemark Chronicles, once again in order to be able to use the quick review as the week’s first post, since I hadn’t touched Fire and Blood for a full week, since that ill-fated bus ride. Then I got back in bed, but I still tossed and turned for a while, though I eventually did manage to fall asleep again, waking up again as dad was getting ready to leave. He was supposed to leave at 1 PM, but I didn’t check the time, and since I caught another brief nap after he left, then stayed in bed a while longer and saw 1:54 PM when I actually got up, either he left earlier or that nap lasted mere moments.
After getting up, I checked what money I had left after the previous day and noticed that one of the 0.50 RON coins was one of the anniversary ones for the Revolution, so I set it aside. Then, since what we put in that bin hadn’t been thrown out since then, I thoroughly dug through the trash, pulling everything out, to make really sure that I hadn’t somehow thrown the camera there. Then I washed the eggs that dad was going to dye and did a few more things in order to leave less for him to do when he’ll get back and start cooking, and since he got back just when I was about to have lunch, I took a break from that in order to help with one more thing. But I was so awfully depressed, and as time passed it was harder and harder to even move anymore, though at least I managed to finish that short story and write the quick review. And when I saw the glass baking tray on the stove even though I had told dad to put it on a cutting board, I once again started whimpering harder and felt even worse. He said that he had placed it on the cutting board while it was hot and then moved it, but I had no reason to believe him.
Still, I had offered to bring “light” from the church that night, since dad wasn’t going to be home, so after cleaning up some of the mess he had left in the kitchen, eating a banana and doing the day’s squats, I left at 11:50 PM, getting back less than 20 minutes later. Then I ate a large doughnut, with jam, while reading some things on-line, and at 1 AM I went to the bathroom, pretty much wasting time on the toilet, then showering. My feet were somewhat swollen, but that might have been a consequence of the April 13 run… Which remains my last good one, unfortunately. Either way, it was after 1:40 AM when I got back in the kitchen and I ate dinner between 3:20 AM and 3:55 AM, after also trying to get Liza to eat the food that dad had given her, after getting a different kind, but he had given her both kinds, placing them next to each other, so of course she ignored the new one and I couldn’t get her to eat it either.

On April 17, I managed to sleep for a few hours before getting up to pee at 9:30 AM, but there was no chance to get back to sleep after that, so at 10:40 AM I finally got back to reading Fire and Blood, finishing a chapter a couple of minutes before noon, then going to pee again. Dad was getting ready to leave at that point, so we exchanged a few words… And after he left he came right back and asked me to bring him a card that he had forgotten, saying that it was above the TV, but I just saw others there and brought them to him at the door, asking whether it was somehow among them. It wasn’t, of course, so he rushed in and grabbed it, snapping that he hadn’t wanted to turn back and that there are more places above that TV and I should have looked in all of them, not just in one, then rushed out again… And I crumbled even worse, just dropping on the floor and crying my eyes out. I managed to get up after some 15 minutes and washed my eyes, but I immediately started crying again and rushed to the computer to send dad a poorly written apology by e-mail, then threw myself in bed and kept crying my eyes out, only managing brief pauses if I held my breath. I have no idea how long it was until I could sort of stop, and I might have eventually napped just a little, but probably mere minutes. And when I got back on the computer and saw that dad had sent a reply to say that it was his fault, not mine, I just started crying again, though at least I could stop again quickly. But there was such a foul smell and taste in my nose and mouth, my abdomen seemed swollen, there was pain, probably reflected from my back, there were pins and needles in my legs… I crawled back in bed and stayed there, whimpering, for what was probably another hour and a half or so, before somehow crawling out.
In the evening I made mamaliga, with some things in it, and I rather burned the cast iron pot, possibly making it worse when I saw that what was stuck on the bottom wasn’t going to rise and give me a chance to try to peel it off, so after pouring out the rest I covered the pot and turned the stove back on for a minute or two, hoping that some heat would help, and then I left it there while I ate the rest. Of course, it was really stuck when I got back, so I struggled to scrape some of it off for a long time, also using a spoon and a knife, trying to be gentle but quite clearly adding some scratches. And when that obviously wasn’t working, I put water in the pot, left it for a little while, ate what had softened even though the taste was nasty, then heated the water and once again tried to see what could be scraped off… And when I poured out the water I burned a finger. Actually burned two, but just running some cold water on one seemed to be enough, so only one had it somewhat worse. And I still couldn’t leave the pot alone, so I ate what the heated water had helped me scrape off, which at least had a more normal taste, then I put it in the sink to soak, but still kept trying to scrape off what I could. At least I used something made of wood at that point, but even that might have added a little damage.

After initially falling asleep, I woke up at 6:50 AM, when dad got back, and he had sent an e-mail to let me know that he’ll bring something to put in the freezer, so I got up and struggled to find a way to make it fit, somehow also exchanging a few words, even though it was awfully hard. I got back in bed at 7:25 AM, but it was clearly past 8 AM when I fell asleep again, since I heard the computer doing the daily backup, and at 9:30 AM I got up to pee. At least I got back to sleep much faster after that, getting up when alarm rang, at 11:45 AM.
I left a little after 1:10 PM, at first just rushing but after a while switching to jogging and continuing like that for most of the way to Unirii metro station, so I jogged about half the way. And I also used the route that took me past the recycling center where I last took the stacked paper, seeing that the reward had returned to that old value after having been 20% higher when I had previously passed by that place, so I missed that moment. Either way, I already wrote about going to the Subway Police, so I’ll move past that and to the fact that I then went to that Carrefour. I had taken a mask with me and finally took it out at that point, but then I thought that I might just go in and out, so I put it away again… And ended up being there for quite a while, finding a lot of discounted bread, so I got some better bread for dad and also a bag of oranges for myself, searching through the spoiling ones for one that was better. I used the voucher received for previous purchases at the self-checkout, but I forgot that I also had that 10 RON one, for doing that survey. Then I put the oranges in the backpack, arranged the bread in a bag, and used the other route to get back, to also go to that Penny, and on the way I also found and grabbed another one of those bottles that went towards that 10 RON voucher from there. And, after putting just the bag in a cabinet, I decided to keep the mask off in Penny as well, getting a couple of things… And then realizing that I had walked away without retrieving the bag, so I turned around after a few steps and did so.
I initially meant to get back here after that, but after hesitating a couple of times I decided to turn back and also go to the pharmacies after all, finally putting on the mask when I approached Tei. Then I once again only put the bag in a cabinet, found the teas that I wanted to get from there and, surprisingly, also those boxes of that magnesium and potassium supplement with ten more pills for the same price, calculating carefully in order to make sure that I had enough left for what I wanted to get from the other pharmacy. However, when I got there and looked, I saw that the listed price of the tea that I meant to get from there was higher than what was listed on the site, which would have been a problem. But I first asked about those pills for dad that I hadn’t bought on April 10, from that other location, and bought them when the price that I knew they should have was confirmed. And then I also asked about the price of that tea, and once again it was confirmed that what was listed on the site was correct, not what was on that label, so I could also buy two of those.
I got back just after 5:10 PM and went straight to the toilet… Where I ended up just finishing a newspaper, oddly enough. Then I took a quick shower, after which I ate a banana and something sweet, sliced the ends of dad’s breads and somehow found a way to stuff them in the freezer, taking out one of his older ones, then had lunch and read some more. And when dad came back, late in the evening, he brought some more things and wanted to put some of those in the freezer as well, which I really didn’t think was possible, but I somehow found room for some of them. And that night I also washed the cast iron pot and another large one, so I could leave the glass baking tray in the sink, since I had emptied it when I had lunch. Even so, I might have still been able to start eating dinner at 3 AM, but I noticed that an onion was soft and when I cut it open I saw that everything except one outer layer and a part of another was rotten, so I dealt with that… And then I realized that dad had gone to bed and left things in the living room, so I cleaned after him, ending up starting to eat dinner at 3:10 AM. It wasn’t even 3:40 AM when I finished, however. And when I put the cast iron pot back I confirmed that there was at least one tiny chip on the enamel on the inside as well, and also a clear crack on one of the handles. Of course, on the outside it got much, much worse since then, showing how poor its quality is, but at least it’s still usable. Either way, I got in bed at 5:20 AM.

And this is how far I got before midnight, while what follows was only added Thursday evening, but I really wanted to get through all of this in one post, since the next odds and ends that I skipped over are from May 22.

In the early hours of April 24, I managed to start eating just before 3 AM but only finished at 3:55 AM, and in fact, after somehow managing to find room for my bread in the freezer, it was a quarter of an hour later when I spotted a small slice which had fallen on another plate and ate that too, without anything on it. I was awfully, painfully bloated, the problem starting in the evening, after eating an orange and an old chocolate egg and drinking most of the tea.
After getting up, I noticed old cat foot scattered around the garbage can and when I looked I saw that the plate from dad’s bedroom was empty, so I asked about the scattered food and dad said that he must have dropped some when he fed Liza. So I then said that it looked like the old one which had been left in his bedroom and he said that the food from there had been thrown away, once again not taking responsibility to actually say directly that he threw it away… And I froze again, said that I was going out that day and had told him that in an e-mail sent at night, so I could take it to the cats that are outside, but he said that he had forgotten how long that food had been there and he should take care of others’ health as well, not give them everything that’s old… Not that he really cared, of course. Either way, I asked if he at least threw it in the bag instead of the can and he initially said that he didn’t know, though after a moment he said that yes, it was in the bag. I didn’t see it in the bag, however. Nor in the can, for that matter, but I could only see what was at the top of it and those small pieces would have easily fallen through the other trash.
That caused me to break down again, squatting on the floor and whimpering and hugging myself, and when he finished eating and got to the kitchen he just ignored me, then started humming after walking away and I couldn’t handle that, covered my ears and hyperventilated, needing quite a while to be able to get up again. I was at the sink when he came back to the kitchen and, as always, searched for large bags under that seat, even though they’re under the sink. So I moved aside when he asked for those bags, but the noise he made while searching through them and muttering about them stunned me, I just stood there, hands tightening on the bowl that I had meant to put something in, until he was done and left. Of course, he just ignored me until just before walking out, when he said how long it should be until he’ll get back when he’ll leave again after that. And I needed some time before being able to move again, then tried to focus on what I had to do that day.
I went out just after 3:55 PM, without a mask and with 14 bottles, six of them going towards that 10 RON voucher, plus three more of that brand, but of sizes that shouldn’t go towards that voucher, and two of them also being quite crushed. So the first destination was the Penny from Decebal, but when I put the bottles in the machine there was nothing on the screen to tell me how many had been recognized as going towards that voucher, and it accepted one of the crushed ones but not the other, and for some reason it rejected another one as well. So I dropped that crushed one that it rejected in the plastics bin from there, but kept the other one, and put in five of the six that I knew should go towards that 10 RON voucher, since that was how many I still needed in order to get to the total of 20. However, on the receipt I saw that it had recognized six, so it either recognized the crushed one that it accepted or the other one that was of that brand but not of the correct size. The problem was that the receipt was like those from the location that’s close to that somewhat newer Kaufland, not split in two, so I couldn’t tear off the part that listed how many I had for that 10 RON voucher and keep the rest for the raffle.
The bigger problem, however, came when I tried to get that voucher. I first asked the guard what to do, she told me to ask the cashier, I did, but she didn’t know either, saying that she thought that I had to make purchases of that value and then get the discount by using that receipt from the machine. I said that I was quite sure that’s not how it worked and read to her what it said on that receipt, she asked through the headset and had a confused conversation with someone else who also didn’t seem to know, during which she kept saying that I had to make purchases and then get the discount like that, and I eventually wandered in the store while waiting for more from that other person. A moment later I saw another employee who seemed to be heading to the checkouts, so I made eye contact, asked if she was the one the cashier talked to and showed her the receipts, but she said that I needed 20 on a single receipt. I pointed out where it said that you get the voucher when you have 20 on one or more receipts, but she said that it means more receipts with 20 of those bottles on each of them, and also that I shouldn’t have torn them, they’re not valid if torn, even though those from the other locations were specifically made to be torn, with a dotted line with scissors between the part listing the total number and the one listing the number that go towards that 10 RON voucher, so I had just taken that part of those ones with me. So she was definitely wrong, but I couldn’t keep arguing and left it at that for the moment, just buying a bag of bagels.
I entered that Mega Image with those bagels in my hand, and also with the bag with the remaining bottles, and bought some more products of their store brands that were at half price. Then I decided to also check the larger Mega Image from this area, putting the purchases in a cabinet and leaving the bag with the remaining bottles next to the cabinets, since it didn’t fit. I hadn’t seen the kind of cat food for Rocky that was on sale at the other location, but I saw it there and confirmed that the sale price did apply to it… But only if you had the store card, and dad hadn’t left it for me despite saying before going out that he wasn’t going to need any of the cards, and I had written to him the previous night to mention that we had to decide which of us will look for that cat food, since it required the store card. And I didn’t find anything else to get, so I retrieved my things and walked out.
Dad was just coming down the stairs when I entered the building, so I mentioned that card and he said that I hadn’t said anything about it. I couldn’t get myself to say anything else at that point, but he gave me that card and I got back just before 5:50 PM, ate the bag of bagels grabbed from Mega Image, and left again just after 7:15 PM, that time with a mask, and with seven bottles, three of them straightened. I looked for more bottles on the way to the nearer Penny, and the second one I grabbed had some dirt on it and also seemed to smell, so when I found more in a bag that was near some trash cans I left that one there… But the machine from that Penny was not working. I asked the guards and they told me to go in and use it, seeming annoyed that I had bothered them, and when I showed them that it didn’t work I was initially told to ask a cashier, and then that if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work, and that they hadn’t seen anyone using it that day. And when I went through the other door, to get straight to the checkouts, and left the bottles next to the cabinets, one came after me and asked what did I intend to do and what were they going to do with those bottles, apparently assuming that I meant to leave them there for good. But he left me alone when I said that I wanted to ask about something else.
When I asked that cashier about that voucher, she also said that she didn’t know and asked through the headset, and the other employee who came and looked at those receipts was also confused, definitely mixing the raffle and that voucher. She told me that nobody had asked for those vouchers, then asked whether I could come back the next morning, to talk to the store manager. When I said that I’d rather not, she called the store manager and tried to explain the situation, but did it very badly, kept saying that I had many receipts and she didn’t know what to do with them. Since I had taken a screenshot of that part of the rules and saved it on my phone, I showed it to her and she tried to read it to him, but still didn’t seem to understand, and when he told her that the campaign ended the next day she was tempted to say that it was pretty much already over, even though the vouchers could be used until June 1. So I eventually asked whether I could talk to the manager myself and she handed me the phone, probably rather relieved. So I explained the situation to him, and while at first he also said that I needed 20 on a single receipt, after I read that part of the rules to him he asked how many I had and I told him that I had a total of 21, split among six or seven receipts, so I should get one of those vouchers and then keep the receipts for the raffle. That finally seemed to clarify the situation, and he said that he couldn’t understand it from what his coworker was saying and he’ll tell her to give me a voucher, so I gave her back the phone. The guards seemed annoyed with her at that point, calling for her to do something else, but she eventually came back with a voucher. However, she didn’t mark those receipts or ask for my information, so I could have used them at another location to get another voucher, but I was fair and didn’t.
I saw another one of those bottles on the way back and decided that I might as well grab it. It had what I hope was just some water inside, and my hands were still a little dirty from that bottle that I had picked up on the way to that store, so I washed just a little with what was in it, then took it. And then I checked that Mega Image as well, leaving the bag with the bottles next to the cabinets and spotting bakery discounts, even though it was still early. And two of those apple pastries were there, both of them in the same bag, so I grabbed them. Then I looked for that cat food and found ten or 11 cans, and while they were discounted individually as well, every third one was free, so I got nine. I also spotted some nice cereals of their own brand that were listed as being at half price on the shelf, but there was no such sticker on the actual bags, so I tried to buy all of them but told the cashier that they should be at half price and the other cashier told him to check whether they had Nutri-Score labels. They didn’t, and scanned at full price, so I didn’t get them, but at least I figured out the reason for the discounts. Either way, I then put the other purchases, including the pastries, in the backpack, and retrieved the bag with the bottles.
I then decided to go back to the Penny from Decebal, to at least put the bottles in the machine, for another chance in the raffle, but on the way I also checked that non-stop Mega Image that’s close to the metro station, entering with the backpack and finding more of that cat food. I also spotted some zacusca that I could get for dad, but it had no price label, so I asked and an employee tried to check on her phone, but she said that there was a problem with the signal inside the store and walked around until it worked, at which point she told me a price that was much higher than I thought it’d be, so I just got more of that cat food, actually finding more of it in another spot and getting 27 cans, since there were 28 or 29 in total. Then I threw that cat food in a bag, continued to that Penny and just put ten bottles in the machine, only taking the time to arrange everything in the backpack after that. And then I entered that Mega Image one more time, with the backpack, and got all of the four bags of those cereals that I saw there, since those had that discount sticker. I didn’t get a receipt, and when I tried to reach over and pull out what the machine had printed, it seemed to be something else, or maybe the printer wasn’t working, so I walked away.
It was late, but I decided to also check Kaufland after all, and since I rushed but didn’t jog, it was past 9:50 PM when I got there, quickly washing my hands and entering with everything. A bunch of plain bakery products were left and at very low prices, but I had no interest in those, so I just got the one bun of another kind that was still there, and also very cheap, and three bundles of green garlic, which had an evening discount. I went to the self-checkouts, which had moved, when it was announced that the store had closed, but the lines were huge, and I ended up talking with two older women while waiting, and also going to ask an employee whether the benefits card that one of them wanted to pay with would be accepted by those machines, since she was asking about that. And after I told her that the employee said that it would be, she asked whether I’ll help her use the machine, though when her turn actually came she asked an employee to do that. And when it finally was my turn, the machine wouldn’t accept the green garlic as the correct product, so I had to call an employee to override the error, then I added those purchases in the backpack and walked away when it was almost 10:25 PM.
I only had some coins left, but I still went to Auchan as well, entering with everything and grabbing two bottles of water for dad. But that assumed that there was more left on the store card, since I couldn’t recall how much should be there, and things became awkward when I tried to use a self-checkout but an employee called me to the one she was at, so I couldn’t check first and had to ask her how much was on the card, and the low amount meant that I had to tell her that I’ll only get one bottle, and then I needed to tell her one more time to use that little amount that was on the card, since I just gave her the rest, in coins, and she was saying that it wasn’t enough. But at least I got that bottle, which I then threw in the bag where I had the two remaining empty ones.
I got back at 11:25 PM, though I’m pretty sure that I then went back out to throw a bag of trash down the chute. Then I ate an orange and a small lunch, with what was left of a bag of corn puffs opened some time ago instead of bread, put the purchases in their place, and went to the bathroom, to use the toilet and shower, when it was almost 12:45 AM. I was done at 1:35 AM… And found that the kitchen light bulb had burned out during that time. Admittedly, I had been noticing flickering for the past few days, and more of it just before going to the bathroom. So I looked through what light bulbs we still had and replaced it with the most powerful one, though it was only a little more than half as bright, and had warm instead of neutral light, so I expected dad to say that we needed to get a new one right away, but he surprisingly said that it was fine and I only replaced it about a month and a half later, when I happened to find others at a good price, and then I replaced the one that works from my room with that one, since it should have the same brightness as the old one that I had but use less power. But, to return to that night, I ate dinner between 3:25 AM and 4:10 AM, though I had licked something in the kitchen before that.

The following night I ate dinner between 3:15 AM and 4 AM, after dad wanted to make mamaliga on his own after all, despite once again getting back at a late hour, and he rushed it and also messed up my plans for those days, and I couldn’t figure out what to do, so after washing what I could in the kitchen I spent some more time in my room and eventually decided to just ignore that mamaliga that day and the next, since the next day I wanted to make some myself once again. As a result, that night I had a regular dinner, but I went to the kitchen some 20 minutes late, and since dad took a bath while I worked on my dinner and finished just as I was about to go to my room to eat, I went to clean up a little in the bathroom as well.