Cav's Place

The initial form of this post was even stranger than usual, because it was obvious that I wasn’t going to get far before midnight, so I chose to just write the parts about the runs and leave everything else for later. And it actually showed up as having been posted at 12:59 AM on Monday, but that was because I had forgotten to change the hour in the settings, after it had changed last night. It was actually just before 12:59 AM when I added the part about the rest of September 28, and also the paragraph about the total time, which I had written before midnight but had simply forgotten to copy into what I initially posted. And before going to bed in the morning I also added the part about the rest of October 2, just leaving the part about the rest of September 30 for another time, since that’s the longest one. I finally added that one as well in the early hours of Wednesday, before going to bed.

I had no green onions for the salad made in the early hours of September 28, so I used a regular one, and I got in bed a few minutes after 5:15 AM. Then, after waking up again when dad left and going to pee, I assumed that I was going to be able to sleep until the alarm will ring, at 2 PM, but Liza seemed to have slept through the fact that dad had left and when she got up and realized that he was gone she started her “concert” and woke me again, and I was starting to feel the need to pee one more time, and it was close to 2 PM anyway, so I made a brief attempt to get back to sleep but after a while checked the time and saw 1:53 PM, so I turned off the alarm and got up. Then I had the usual stuff, with “Greek” yogurt and a Gala apple, but replaced two of the almonds with apricot pits, and the sweet thing once again consisted of two of those nicer biscuits that expired long ago, with added honey. And I also took the iron, though I accidentally swallowed it directly instead of sucking on it, and one of the pills of the supplement for joints. A reason for concern was that my right knee snapped when I put the bucket of yogurt back in the fridge, and it felt weird after that, but I left a little after 4:25 PM, wearing the full running gear. The reported temperature was 28-29°C, dropping to 27°C when I finished.
The time was 1:17:37, with sector times of 4:15.05, 5:01.50, 5:54.31, 4:31.09, 5:03 (5:02.78), 5:54.25, 4:30 (4:29.10), 5:11.18, 5:47.22, 4:31.10, 5:08.18, 6:02, 4:34, 5:20 and 5:56, making for lap times of 15:10.86, 15:28.12, 15:28 (15.27.50), 15:41 and 15:50. I decided to memorize the exact times as long as they were displayed, until I got to one hour, maybe mainly in order to keep training my memory. Either way, the target was to stay under 1:18, but I didn’t really think about it at first, initially just focusing on staying under 15:20 on lap one. And I rather pushed from the beginning and that first sector time seemed slower than it should have been, but I did have a couple of moments when I was uncertain that I wanted to push that much, so it was probably more or less correct overall. And I pushed harder on sector two and that sector’s time made me aim to complete the lap in less than 15:10. I just failed that, but I was close enough, and I had needed to briefly stop on sector three. Then I just ran on lap two, only realizing as I started lap three that I hadn’t really calculated anything until then. So I started to do so and aimed to still gain compared to that 15:36 that’s the 1:18 pace on it as well, pushing on sector three and managing it after the first two sectors had made that seem highly unlikely. That effort made me worry that I’ll end up at 16 minutes on lap four, but that didn’t happen at all, and while I was a little concerned that I had gone over six minutes on sector three of lap four, at that point I could afford to even go over 16 minutes on lap five, so the new goal was to stay under 16 minutes on that lap as well, and sector two wasn’t good enough, so I really gave everything on sector three and that proved more than enough… And made me wonder whether I could have even squeezed under 1:17:30 if I’d have pushed harder at an earlier point.
It was windy, getting worse from sector three of lap three, and while the cooling effect also helped, there were areas, including straights, where fighting against it was quite an issue. But there weren’t many people, the only notable problems being on sector three of lap one, when a dog that was off the leash charged after a bird, and when the bird flew away it turned back right in front of me and I had to briefly stop in order to avoid it, and on sector three of lap five, when a kid on a tricycle was right on the edge of the lane and twisting the handle this way and that, trying to get moving, and when I had to make a choice I stayed on the lane, since he was turned away from it, but then he turned the handle again and finally got moving, onto the lane, when I was too close to still turn away normally, so I sort of sidestepped in order to avoid him. As for physical problems, my right calf started giving warnings from the beginning, but those came and went and were never serious. Those from my right knee were quite constant, however, and got worse and definitely worrying on sectors two and three of lap three, but then they lessened again and stopped being a real concern. Otherwise, there was some pain in my upper abdomen, probably reflected from my back, which started towards the end of sector two of lap four, but it lessened by the end of the lap. And something once again felt uncomfortable at the back of my right foot, and when I got back I saw that the shoe had rubbed me in that spot, but I had admittedly rather shoved my foot in it before leaving, realizing that it was going to bother me as a result and not doing anything about it. And I had also noticed that the corners of some of the nails from that foot could jab the toes, and one did, so there was blood as well.

I picked up a few plastic bottles and cans on the way back, including one of those bottles that were going to grant two products in Carrefour’s campaign, so I set that one aside after getting back, but first I left everything in front of the door and went back down and behind the building, looking for any more usable apples which had fallen from that tree and just finding one, the rest seeming to have been on the ground for a while. Then I ate watermelon and some nicer corn puffs, changed and left again at 7:45 PM, wearing a mask and with a lot of bottles, plus the two cans which I had picked up, since Kaufland was offering vouchers with 0.50 RON for each recyclable taken to their recycling machines those days, so I wanted to take what probably wasn’t going to be accepted in Carrefour’s campaign.
I had dad’s metro card and picked up a few more recyclables on the way to the metro station, then got off at Basarab and the machine accepted everything except, unsurprisingly, the soap bottle which I had taken to check whether those would somehow also be acceptable. I seem to have had exactly 60 items, not counting that one, and there was a limit of 50 on one voucher, so the machine stopped at that point and released the 25 RON voucher and just three of those that offered a 10% discount on chocolate, even though it should have offered one for every five recyclables, so a total of ten. But I wasn’t going to use those anyway, so I shrugged it off and put in the remaining ten items.
I then walked to Carrefour, picking up another bottle on the way, washing my hands and finding one last bread of the kind that I wanted to get for dad. A couple with a full cart and a kid were barely advancing and I couldn’t get past them as I headed to the bakery area, and a woman who was initially behind me squeezed through and then jogged there and grabbed one of the few remaining breads, but she didn’t take that one. But actually buying it was tedious, because the only self-checkout that should have accepted cash that worked didn’t actually accept cash, but I could only see that the option was crossed out when I got to that point, and after moving to a regular checkout I ended up behind a couple with a huge pile of products, mostly for a small child. I was wondering whether it was the same couple that had blocked my way, but I hadn’t really looked at them the first time, just seeing the problem that they were causing, so I couldn’t tell. Either way, it obviously took a long time for them to be checked out, so buying that single bread took quite a while. And then I just held it in my hand on my way back to Kaufland.
In Kaufland’s parking lot I found a few more recyclables, though four glass bottles were in a corner and had what seemed to be rags between them, so I grabbed them quickly and tried to touch them as little as possible, and obviously only with the hand that I wasn’t holding that bread in, wondering whether what I was seeing wasn’t actually toilet paper, or used for that purpose. However, the machines weren’t working anymore, though at least a cart with a coin in it was nearby, so I took it to the others and retrieved that coin, then put the bag with the recyclables in a cabinet that didn’t lock and the bread in one that did, thoroughly washed my hands and entered the store when it was close to 9:20 PM… But there was nothing interesting left in the bakery area, nor any green onions, so I eventually decided to get a lettuce that had an evening discount and the few small regular onions that looked good. A woman with impatient kids seemed to try to get ahead of me as I was waiting in line at the self-checkouts, but I stepped firmly in front of them and they went back behind me, though the kids kept saying that it should be their turn and calling for help.
After retrieving what I had in the cabinets and throwing the purchases into another bag, I had another look at the machines, seeing that one worked again. A couple were there, with many, many recyclables, and I was thinking that it’ll be 10 PM by the time they’ll be done and the machines will shut down, but just before that hour the other machine also started working again and the guy pointed it out to me, so I could also put in what I had found, the time printed on the voucher being exactly 10:00 PM. Another guy was behind me by then, I told him that the machines may shut down and he said that he hoped that they won’t, so I stuck around a little longer, arranging the purchases, walking away when it seemed that he was going to be able to put in his recyclables. Then I needed to try a few times before the metro card finally worked and I picked up a few more recyclables after getting off here. And I also had a very quick look in the nearby Mega Image.
I got back a little after 10:40 PM, though I then went to throw a bag of trash down the chute. Then I ate the one pastry that I still had, with added jam, took a quick shower, did something else that I had to do, took lunch to my room, starting to eat it at 12:50 AM and finishing just after 1:10 AM, went back to the kitchen a couple of minutes after 1:30 AM, and ate dinner between 3:20 AM and 4 AM. I’d have probably managed to stick to the schedule if I’d have just focused on dinner, but I also sliced dad’s bread and struggled to make it fit in the freezer before taking out the piece that I wanted to eat that night, though it’d have been easy if I’d have done it the other way around, and then I rearranged some things in the fridge as well. I got in bed at 5:20 AM.

In the early hours of September 30, I started eating dinner at 3:05 AM, but I still finished at 3:40 AM. And I once again used a regular onion, since I still didn’t have green onions, but at least there was something green, that lettuce, even if I threw away about as much of it as I used, if not even more, and that evening discount had been a “normal” one, not taking the price to next to nothing, as it had been at other times in the past. And I got in bed at 5:20 AM again, after deciding to wash one more thing which had been in the sink for a while before going to bed, finding what looked like a cigarette butt in it, thinking that I might have picked it up along with some of the recyclables, since I had shaken the bags and the backpack into the sink, and then disinfecting my hands and washing that thing more thoroughly. Either way, I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, and had exactly the same stuff as two days earlier, finally finishing those biscuits, exactly ten months after they had expired. I also took all of the supplements, of course with the exception of the second pill of the one for joints, quickly cut the three toenails from each foot that seemed likely to cause problems, and left at 4:35 PM, wearing the full running gear. The reported temperature was 29-30°C, dropping to 28°C by the time I finished.
The time was 48:07.69, with sector times of 4:17.04, 5:06.78, 5:51 (5:50.62), 4:26.32, 5:03 (5:02.37), 5:57.28, 4:31.38, 5:05 (5:04.81), 5:59.16 and 1:52 (1:51.93), making for lap times of 15:14.44, 15:26 (15:25.97) and 15:35.35. I wanted to stay under 48 minutes and pushed from the start, so that first sector time was disappointing, and continuing to push on sector two didn’t really fix things either, so I was thinking that I’ll just stay on the pace for 48 minutes on lap one and then have to settle for staying under 49 minutes, which remained the idea after the end of the lap. And, while the first two sectors of lap two weren’t bad, at the end of the lap it was pretty clear that staying under 48 minutes was out of the question, though I was likely to be closer than I thought during the first lap, and that proved to be the case in the end. Sure, I quite clearly lost more than eight seconds only because of the notable problems caused by people on lap three, so I’d have easily stayed under 48 minutes on a clear track, but the point of this second run from this series is to deal with a crowd and I obviously failed.
As I said, it was crowded, as expected, and getting worse as time passed. There were lesser issues on lap one and the first two sectors of lap two, but on sector three of lap two I had to slow in order to see where a space was going to open in a roadblock, on the long straight of sector one of lap three I had to squeeze through a multiple roadblock, at which point I also recognized a girl that I knew from protests and greeted her in passing, and later on that same sector I went very wide in order to get around other people. I’m pretty sure that there was a moment on sector two of lap three as well, but the details fled from my mind almost right away, so maybe I just slowed a lot. Either way, sector three of lap three was the worst, since I had to briefly stop three times, two of them because I wasn’t on the lane and cyclists were coming from the opposite direction, so I made way. Otherwise, my right knee started giving some warnings from sector two of lap two, and while they didn’t go away completely after that, they came and went and remained at a rather low level. And the right shoe still bothered me at the back at first, but after a while both of them felt just fine, though I did once again see a mark in that spot when I got back. And I did feel the heat… But even so, and despite the crowd, I should have been able to push at least a little harder…

I gathered some more plastic bottles on the way back, ate watermelon and a small bag of corn puffs, changed and left again at 7:40 PM, wearing the mask and with just the large backpack filled with bottles. However, I checked the garbage room and found a large number of bottles, in and around bags. Out of those that were placed next to the bags, one was full of trash and I left that one there, but otherwise there was one with milk in it, a few with some water and one with what looked like peanuts, so I poured all of that down the chute and took the bottles, but I didn’t check those that were in bags, just taking them as they were and only noticing when I put them in the machine that some had a little liquid left in them and one even contained some trash.
Since I also had the metro card, I took the metro to Obor, picking up a few more recyclables on the way to and from the metro station. Also, on the way to the station, I put the Kaufland catalog which I had taken with me, with the announcement about this campaign circled and marked on it, over the fence of an old man whose small yard is always full of recyclables, just in case he didn’t know about the campaign. And then I went straight to Kaufland and stood in line for a while, and the machines kept stopping and one employee had to keep coming to get them going again. The machine also stopped while I was putting in my recyclables, so I moved to the other one, but then that one stopped as well, though I think that the employee had turned them both off in order to work on them a little more, since that first one kept stopping so frequently. But I could eventually put in all of the recyclables and get the vouchers, then I dashed in only to wash my hands. I might have entered the store if I’d have seen green onions, but there didn’t seem to be any left when I tried to look from the entrance, so I ran to Carrefour instead.
It was past 9 PM already, so there were bakery discounts and I took a bread for myself, then I grabbed some expiring bread for my parents, an expiring piece of cake and also a bag of spoiling apples, plus a few other things, obviously without charging myself at the self-checkout for the bag that the apples were in. Then I took a moment to put everything except the bread in the backpack, leaving that in the bag that hangs from my neck, and rushed to Penny, though what I was carrying meant that I couldn’t actually run again.
It was past 9:45 PM when I got there, and I rushed in with everything, but the guard called after me and said that he didn’t want to end up arguing with me when he’ll want to check my bags, and I had two, so he asked me to at least put one in the cabinet and I walked back and said that I was thinking that I had no time and only had bread from Carrefour in that bag, but I nevertheless put that bag in a cabinet, without locking it, then went back in, still carrying the backpack, and quickly got some things, including a pumpkin that I was wondering whether I’ll get a discount for, the catalog listing a 20% discount on fresh vegetables if you used the store card. I didn’t get that discount, but it was admittedly listed as on sale, albeit without a crossed out old price in the catalog, and the small text said that the discount didn’t apply to products that had other discounts, plus that below that there was a list of locations where the offer apparently applied and that one wasn’t among them, so I didn’t even comment… Then again, I didn’t even comment about the fact that the cashier didn’t give me the coin that she should have given me as change, just retrieving that bag and walking out, since the store was about to close, and then putting my things on a bench and adding the new purchases in the backpack.
It was obviously too late to go back to Kaufland, but I didn’t necessarily mean to anyway. I wanted to go to Mega Image, however, for an anniversary sale that applied to products of their own brand, so I grabbed a few more recyclables on the way to that one that closes later, then put the bag with the bread in one cabinet and the recyclables in another, even though there were no keys, entered with the backpack, got what I wanted and calculated the quantities and how to split the purchases in order to get two receipts that I could also enter in their raffle even if I won’t end up getting some more of those raisins in dark chocolate for myself, since it didn’t really seem that I had any reason to. But I did take those to the checkout as well at first, and I ended up between some guys who kept talking, poking fun at each other and being annoying, and there was a single cashier, so I had no other options and when my turn came I asked whether she could split the purchases, putting the paper towels and handkerchiefs on one receipt and the other products on another, and she did that, but when I paid for that first part, the guard came behind her and asked whether I had 1 RON, to make it easier with the change. And I did, so I added that bill to what I had already given, but having one more person to deal with made me even more anxious, and those guys were still laughing around me.
Unsurprisingly, that was when the problems started. When I asked the cashier whether she could tell me the total for the other products, minus those raisins in dark chocolate, I didn’t realize that I had moved them to the other side and placed them next to what I had already paid for, so when I pointed that way she assumed that I was saying that the beer that those guys were buying wasn’t mine while I assumed that they had taken them to prank me, and when I stared at them they started saying that they knew that I was strange when they saw me with a mask. The guard eventually pointed out where I had placed them and the cashier told me the total for the other products, but did so without scanning the store card again, so the discount hadn’t yet applied and that amount made me initially say that I really won’t get them in that case. Then I realized what had happened, told her to scan the card again and got the discounted price, so she asked whether I didn’t also want those after all, but I said no, moved everything to the floor, so I won’t keep holding up the line… And couldn’t find the second receipt. So I asked whether she had given it to me and she said that she had, but I pulled and spread everything out and when she also came to look I showed her that I only had the first receipt and those from Penny and Carrefour and she eventually found that she had accidentally thrown the second one away and retrieved it, and we both apologized for the confusion.
That location closes at midnight, but at that point I thought that it closed at 11 PM and that hour had just passed, so I thought that the front door won’t open anymore and asked whether I could go back through the store to retrieve what I had in the cabinet. Nobody answered, however, so I walked out and then went back in through the entrance, also noticing the listed closing time at that point. Then I retrieved my things and took my time to arrange the purchases and check that I had everything… And I ended up convinced that I had lost 1 RON, calculating repeatedly and in different ways and coming to the same conclusion every time. I was wrong, but I only realized it later that night, quite some time after getting back, probably after I had finally calmed down enough to be able to think more or less properly again.
Either way, I meant to pick up another bottle on the way to the metro station, but I first stopped to check a can, leaving it there when I realized that it was crushed, and at that point those guys from the store came from behind and stopped ahead of me, so I didn’t want to stay there and pick up that bottle while they were looking at me and I just continued to the metro station. And when I got there I was asked which way I wanted to go, since the last train from Dristor had already passed, but going in this other direction wasn’t a problem, so I could enter and quickly checked what I had once more before the train came, remaining wrongly convinced that I had lost that 1 RON. Either way, I hastily added the other purchases from Mega Image in the backpack while I was on the metro, leaving just the paper towels and handkerchiefs in a large bag. And I picked up some more bottles on the way back, including two of those that were going to be rewarded with two products in Carrefour’s campaign.
It was close to 11:45 PM when I got back, with exactly 15 kg. Then I put the purchases in their place, with the exception of the bread, ate that expiring cake, washed a few things in the kitchen and went to shower at 1:20 AM. I was back in the kitchen half an hour later and washed and cleaned what was there, dad having cooked. I ate lunch, on and off, between 2:40 AM and 3:15 AM, and dinner between 3:55 AM and 4:20 AM. And then, after getting up to pee a little after 9 AM, I couldn’t get back to sleep, and while I meant to get on the computer a couple of times, I decided to just stay in bed even if I was obviously only wasting time. A neighbor also drilled just after 11:30 AM, but only for a few seconds, a couple of times, so I didn’t get up then either and I eventually managed to at least catch a few brief naps before finally getting up, just before 3 PM.

After once again using a regular onion in the salad, since I still had no green onions, and starting to eat dinner at 3:10 AM but still finishing at 3:40 AM, on October 2 I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, put some clothes that dad wanted washed those days in the washing machine and started it, then had the usual stuff, once again with a Gala apple and “Greek” yogurt but no longer replacing any almonds, and the sweet thing consisted of two of those nicer biscuits of a different kind, expired back in May, with added honey. I also took the supplements, including the one with potassium and magnesium, which I had started taking the previous day. And I hung the shirts to dry and also took out dad’s pants, so he could hang them, leaving the rest of the clothes in the washing machine and leaving at 4:30 PM, when the reported temperature was about 22°C, holding steady. I wore the full running gear and had two small bags in the pocket of my tights, for any recyclables that I’ll pick up on the way back, but I actually didn’t spot any.
The time was 1:18:10, with sector times of 4:29, 5:12, 5:58, 4:32, 5:09, 5:55, 4:35, 5:08, 5:59, 4:35, 5:04, 6:02, 4:34, 5:10 and 5:48, making for lap times of 15:39, 15:36, 15:42, 15:41 and 15:32. After the previous run, I was thinking to target 1:19:15, to stay below a total of 3:25 for the three runs, but at the start of this run even 1:20 looked really good and I was wondering whether a realistic target shouldn’t actually be 1:21 or even 1:22. And, even though I did start with a controlled pace and also lost a few seconds on the first sector, that first sector time was still bad, the second sector was also poor, and at the end of the lap my thoughts remained the same. But a slightly faster lap two made me think that, if I’ll manage to stay under 16 minutes on lap three as well, I should have a chance to stay under 1:20 after all. And when I was faster than I thought I’ll be on that lap, I started to feel not just pretty confident about staying under 1:20, but even wondered about getting under 1:19, and the first two sectors of lap four gave me real hope… And made the fact that I went over six minutes on the third feel disappointing. But the lap time made me wonder about 1:18:30 and I really pushed more and more over the course of lap five, giving everything on the last sector and also being helped by another runner who overtook me and was a little faster than I could be, the result being that I ended up rather frustratingly close to 1:18. I’ll also add that on lap four I started to sort of consider continuing to a half marathon distance, and over the course of lap five I was thinking that if I’ll fail to stay under 1:18:30 I will do that. But that didn’t happen, so I didn’t… Even though, when I really thought about it, I realized that I might have just had a chance to stay under 1:45, maybe, which would have been really good for my morale.
That loss of time on the first sector was caused by a little girl who ran right into my right leg. I’m not sure if the man was with her and her mother or just happened to be in front of them when I approached them, but he went across the lane, making me aim to pass between him and the woman, only for the little girl to suddenly appear from behind him and run towards her mother, slamming right into my leg, so I froze in place for a few seconds, with that leg stretched behind me until she stepped aside. It was a good thing, and in fact quite surprising, that she stayed on her feet, and that I didn’t knee her in the head, since that was pretty much how tall she was, but she hit my foot quite hard and it hurt for a while after that. But the only other somewhat notable problem caused by people was on the long straight of sector one of what I think was lap four, though there is also some chance that it was lap three, when another little girl was struggling to walk, right on the lane, with an older woman right behind her and cheering her on, and once again a man, who that time clearly had nothing to do with them and who was walking in the same direction that I was running in, went across the lane and blocked the other side just when I was approaching, so I had to find a way to squeeze through.
Otherwise, my right knee started giving warnings from sector two of lap two, and that calf and ankle and the left hip joined it from the next sector. The warnings varied in intensity after that, never going away but never becoming serious either. And there was some significant headwind at the start of sector three of what I think was lap three, though there’s a chance that it might have been lap two, but otherwise the weather was good. And I was noticing that I was less bothered by the unevenness of the lane, and I even stepped in a couple of small holes and that seemed less of a problem, likely thanks to the new shoes.

The total time for the three runs was 3:23:54. Sure, that’s much better than 3:26:36 in spring, but that’s irrelevant, considering what it was a sign of. A proper comparison is with the 3:20:37 from a year ago, and I wasn’t fast enough after that either, so it’s no surprise that what followed this year was significantly worse. Either way, the best total time for such a series of runs obviously remains the 3:20:23 from the previous spring, before last year’s half marathon.

Getting back to October 2, I checked the nearby Mega Image on the way back and found spoiling lemons and apples that seemed good enough, so I grabbed some money and went back to buy them, even though the apples were almost 20% more than when I had previously seen piles of the same kind among the spoiling products in Carrefour and didn’t get any. But Mega Image had finally started to actually list the prices for these discounted products and I was surprised to be asked for less, later realizing that the lemons had a discount those days, which I had actually noticed, and I was correctly charged half of that current price while what was printed was half of the full price. And I also wasn’t charged for the bags that I was forced to use, and that seems to be another change that they had actually implemented. I wasn’t given a receipt, however.
After getting back again, I hung the few other clothes that dad had, except his socks, which I left for later, and had lunch, even did the day’s squats, and changed, leaving again at 8:30 PM, with more recyclables and wearing the mask. I went straight to Kaufland, without picking up anything else on the way, and got in line just before 9 PM… Only to just waste my time. The line was quite long and going slowly, and an older woman kept complaining, and occasionally a younger one did as well. Admittedly, there were some people with multiple huge bags and, after they were more or less forced to walk away and let others have their turn, two older people were very slow and kept making mistakes or repeatedly putting in things that the machines couldn’t accept, but stressing them in that manner only made things worse. So there was a fair amount of tension, and the machines also kept stopping. At least an employee was there, emptying the bins and rebooting the machines several times, but time was passing and he said that he had been told that the machines will shut down at 9:50 PM, and another employee had already said that it was out of their control. Two of those who were ahead of me left before that point, but that didn’t help, since one machine ran out of paper just before 10 PM and the employee who came after that guy sent the message said that they won’t replace the roll that evening, since it was closing time already, and the one machine that still worked was used at that point by that older woman. And just after she was done, a couple of minutes after 10 PM, the machines turned off. There was one more person in front of me, so the fact that the other machine had stopped working earlier at least meant that they didn’t turn off right when it’d have been my turn… But I’d have liked it if they’d have turned off right in front of that woman who had complained so much instead of right after her…
After it was clear that the machines won’t start again, I walked away, with the recyclables which I had brought, and decided to check that Profi… Only to get there right before 10:10 PM and be told by the employees who were outside that it was closed, and I looked at the sign and saw that the period during which it’s closed had changed to 10:10 PM to 10:40 PM. I said that it used to close at 10:30 PM and I was told it had changed… Which struck me as a particularly bad decision. Not that closing for those 30 minutes at 10:30 PM was a good idea either, but changing it to 10:10 PM seems to have been done just to stop anyone who leaves Kaufland at closing time from going there next, which seems to be the very opposite of what a store would want.
Either way, I then made my way to the Mega Image that closes at 11 PM, leaving my things next to the cabinets, and at least I found a discounted apple pastry. The cashier was the same guy who had entered one of those pastries as a much cheaper poppy pretzel in June, so when the bakery products still had to be entered manually even if they were discounted, and this time around he entered it correctly but still took a little less, handing back one of the 1 RON bills which I had given him instead of giving me 0.60 RON as change. He didn’t give me a receipt, but I obviously wasn’t going to say anything or even stick around to wait for it, so I retrieved my things and picked up some more recyclables on the way back, using one hand and walking with that pastry in the other. I did take a few of those recyclables from the trash, however, and the next day I noticed that I had also picked up some large ants along with them, and I had left the bag with those recyclables in the kitchen. But I killed most of those ants at that point, just noticing one that managed to escape, and I wasn’t worried, since they weren’t going to be able to do much of anything on their own, so far from the colony, and I haven’t seen any since then.
Either way, I got back a few minutes after 11 PM, ate an apple and that pastry and scraped and also ate what was left on the pot that dad had used to fry something, washed a few things, and finally hung dad’s socks as well, trying to match them first and apparently making a few mistakes, since I was left with a few that didn’t seem to have pairs but he later said that he found some mismatched ones that included the pairs of some of those. But I did my best at that point, and it was a couple of minutes after 12:30 AM when I went to the bathroom, to use the toilet and shower. I was done just before 1:20 AM, then I washed what was left in the kitchen, found a way to make all of the bread fit in the freezer, ate dinner between 3:45 AM and 4:15 AM, and got in bed at 5:25 AM.