Cav's Place

In the early moments of December 20, dad split some meat that we had to freeze and called me over to see how to fit it in the freezer, and he wanted to take everything out and see what we had that could be used for steak as well. So I did that and rearranged more or less like he wanted, managing to get almost everything back in, and he said that the vegetables that were left out could be left in the fridge until he’ll use them. I couldn’t leave them, however, so I spent probably another half an hour struggling to find a way to fit those in as well. Of course, some things started thawing during that time, most noticeably the bread, which was on the top shelf and which I hadn’t even taken out, and after washing and cleaning in the kitchen I also sliced dad’s remaining bread and dealt with mine and added those in as well, and it was concerning that what was in front, close to the freezer’s door, wasn’t exactly frozen even when I got up. But at least all of the meat was frozen solid, and everything was finally frozen again by evening. Either way, all of that meant that I only ate dinner between 4:05 AM and 4:30 AM, and got in bed at 5:25 AM, after also doing the day’s squats just before going to bed, since I was about to do that when dad called me over. Then I got up when the alarm rang, at 1 PM, had the usual stuff, with the sweet thing consisting of another kind of nicer but expired biscuits, with added honey, and left at 3:35 PM, wearing the full running gear. The walk to the park was less uncomfortable than I feared, even though the reported temperature was 8-9°C, and about 7°C when I finished.
The time was 48:15.41, with sector times of 4:17.16, 5:05.60, 6:00.00, 4:31 (4:30.90), 5:04.16, 5:58 (5:57.28), 4:32 (4:31.91), 5:08.43, 5:49 (5:48.60) and 1:51.37, making for lap times of 15:22.76, 15:33 (15:32.34) and 15:29 (15:28.94). I was wondering whether I could get back under 48 minutes and pushed from the start, so that time on the first sector was a little disappointing, but at the same time it wasn’t bad, and after sector two I was quite sure that I’ll at least stay on the required pace, so under 15:20, on the first lap… Only to feel myself slowing on sector three and then see that I really had slowed, that time of exactly six minutes definitely being concerning and meaning that any chance of getting under 48 minutes was gone. So the new target became to at least be less slow than the previous time, and preferably stay under 48:30, and lap two gave me a chance, so I pushed again on lap three and, after not being quite content with the first two sectors, I gave it everything on the third and that sector time surprised me. It’s still a poor time, however.
I felt some warnings from my right knee at the beginning, but those quickly faded, only returning, faintly but from both knees, on sector three of lap three, when I was pushing. And I briefly needed to snap my back on what I think was sector two of lap two, but quickly managed to do so, and I think it was around that same time when something of a pressing need appeared, but it was faint and pretty much went away by the end of the lap. As for people, they only caused me to occasionally have to weave or go the long way around, but on sector three of lap three I had to briefly stop because of a little dog that was off the leash and uncertain which way to go, possibly because it had ended up some distance from its owners and was trying to go to them, and it got right in my way.

An old man asked whether summer had arrived and he didn’t know when I passed by him on the way back, wearing just the running gear, and I said that I was coming after running ten kilometers, at which point he said that in that case he understood, but then added that running a lot or making a lot of effort isn’t recommended when you’re as thin as I am, if you want muscle mass you need good nutrition and other exercises, and that all marathon runners are so thin, so I said that I do run marathons too, and he eventually said that if I think that I’m fine as I am, all right, though he thought that being so thin was a thing for women, but maybe in this day and age it’s for men as well, then wished me well and happy holidays and I returned the wishes and we went our separate ways. And I also checked the nearby Mega Image, without a mask, and found plenty of spoiling products, keeping the bio (organic) yogurts in mind, as well as something for dad, but after getting back I didn’t go right back out to buy anything. So I had lunch, changed, albeit also leaving the running t-shirt on, and it was past 7:40 PM when I left again, taking 50 RON in coins.
I went to Obor, to Carrefour, asked at the information desk about the campaign with the coins, and that employee called the one who handled it and then sent me there. So I went in, handed over the coins and after a little while I was asked for my name and to sign and given the 50 RON bill and the 5 RON gift card, that employee also saying that she checked to make sure that it worked. The problem is that the campaign was supposed to last until today and I tried again today, with 50 RON more, and was told that it was over, and at some point an employee even mentioned something about those gift cards having been disabled, so on top of missing out on a second one even though, according to the regulations, I should have gotten it, let’s see if even that first one remains valid, and it may be quite some time before I’ll be able to really see that, since it should only work for purchases of at least 50 RON.
Getting back to that day, I then checked the bakery area and found that the bread was already discounted, though other products weren’t, so I bought two of the kind that I get from there, plus a few other expiring products, put everything in a bag and then in the backpack… And after a while I realized that I had forgotten to get garlic. But I kept going and, after checking to make sure that Kaufland did close at 11 PM when I passed by that location, I went to Penny, entering with the backpack and getting two things, then adding them in the backpack and leaving it in a cabinet at Kaufland, but only walking in to check the price of garlic there and then wanting to go back out, the problem being that the information desk, where you should normally ask to be allowed to leave without purchases, is not accessible from inside the store in that location, so I asked an employee from the self-checkout area how to exit without products and she said that I should leave the same way I entered… But those gates only open when someone wants to enter and there’s even a voice saying that it’s not an exit if you try to exit through there, so I ducked under one. Then I jogged, at times even ran, back to Carrefour, getting a little garlic and two sweet pastries, since those had also been discounted by then, being done minutes before closing.
I went back to Kaufland holding those purchases, added them in the cabinet, used the toilet, and entered the store again just before 10:10 PM. Then I took a bakery product, also scanning the label for a bun but finding that it really wasn’t discounted, and at the expiring products I saw several cartons of eggs, each of them containing at least one that was smashed and some more that were cracked, but they were deeply discounted and not wrapped, as they usually are at Kaufland, so I took my time to put ten good eggs in one of the cartons… Or sort of in it, since I had to tear off the place where the smashed egg had been, having no way to get all of it out of there, and then I put the tenth egg on top of the others and the carton in a bag. And then I also found something among the discounted meat products, but when I looked more closely I realized that the discount label was for another product and I couldn’t find the correct one, and I asked an employee who was nearby whether someone could place the correct label on it and she didn’t really answer, just saying that the label must have ended up stuck on it from something else, but when I asked whether that meant that I couldn’t take it, she hesitantly said that I could. Another employee was also there at the time, asking that one about some expiring yogurts, but she walked away just before the end of the conversation. And I did wonder what would happen if the machine would say that it’s not the correct product, detecting a different weight, but I nevertheless walked away with it, grabbed a few more things, and went to the self-checkout just before closing time.
Well, the machine obviously detected the different weight, so I called over the employee, who was the same one I had asked about the exit, and she looked closely and pointed out that the discount label was for something else. I said that I had taken it from the discounted products and she snapped at me that she saw where I had taken it from, though she obviously hadn’t, and walked away in a huff, with it. I asked if that meant that I couldn’t buy it and she said over her shoulder that of course it did… And that employee who had been asking about those expiring yogurts was at the next self-checkout and she said that she was the one I had talked to, correcting herself and saying that she had been there at the time when I said that she wasn’t, and then saying that her coworker had told me that the label had ended up stuck on that product from another and that I couldn’t take it, so I said that she was right about the first part, but that I had actually been told that I could take it, yet despite no longer being there at the end of that conversation, she still contradicted me, then walked away as well, so I snapped after her that she should ask her coworker, then finished scanning the other products, after which I took my time to arrange everything, walking away a little after 11:10 PM. I’m quite sure that they assumed that I was lying, maybe even that I had taken that label from something else and placed it on that product myself, and it is possible that the self-checkout employee had walked past me when I was picking those eggs and had seen that… But I think that the other employee was the one I dealt with in March of last year, when I accidentally walked out without paying for the bakery products and went back to do so when I realized it, losing several minutes because she didn’t do it right, so she should know better than to accuse me of trying to cheat.
Either way, after checking when this nearby Mega Image was going to open, in case dad wanted one of those other expiring products which I had noticed and one would still be there in the morning, I got back a few minutes before midnight, though after eating a banana and a really sweet thing that contained over 50 grams of sugar, I eventually went to drop a bag of trash down the chute. I also put the purchases in their place and went to wash at 1:25 AM, being done a little before 2:10 AM. Then I washed and cleaned in the kitchen and started eating dinner at 3:45 AM, being otherwise done just before 4:30 AM, but then spending ten more minutes getting the breadcrumbs that were stuck on the plate. I had used a part of a bread without added salt from Auchan and it got nicely crunchy and also tasted unexpectedly good after getting microwaved, but a lot of breadcrumbs and pieces of crust ended up stuck on the plate. On the other hand, that blister which had been under my tongue at least since the start of November seemed to have finally healed, after bursting almost a week earlier. And I got in bed at 5:20 AM.

On December 21, I started reading Utopia for Realists, and then I got in bed at 5:20 AM. I finished the book on December 23, also posting the quick review then, and then I washed the stove top that night, including the cover and those grates, and after also showering I was only back in the kitchen a couple of minutes before 2:30 AM, and there was more to wash and clean and put in the fridge after dad had cooked, so I ate dinner, consisting of some slices of pizza brought by dad and a salad that I tried to make way more quickly than I normally do, between 4:05 AM and 4:25 AM. Then I revised that quick review and grabbed another digital book, but found that I had to read it in the cloud reader, since it required an updated Kindle for PC, the message also stating that it required at least Windows 8. And I got in bed at 5:55 AM and there were no visits recorded on either December 23 or December 24. And something was bothering me in the upper left side of my mouth, which made me worry that it might be the tooth where I have the crown, but the problem seems to have gone away since then. Either way, in the early hours of December 25, I ate dinner between 3:10 AM and 3:30 AM, and then I started reading that book, finishing it on December 29, though I only wrote the quick review the following day.
Getting back, in the early hours of December 26, after just slicing bread after 1 AM and then going to take a shower, I cheated a little in order to be able to say that I started eating dinner before 3 AM, actually starting a few minutes later, and then dad also called me over, to exchange a few words, so it wasn’t bad that I finished eating dinner at 3:55 AM, especially since the last several minutes were spent getting the breadcrumbs off the plate… And then I had to rush to the toilet, something obviously disagreeing with me, but things gradually calmed down after that, and while a bit of a strange feeling remained after getting up and throughout the day as well, I didn’t even go again that day.

In the early hours of December 27, I was only starting to shave at 1 AM, so it’s not bad that I ate dinner between 3:15 AM and 3:55 AM, and I also had some of the old peanut butter on some of the slices of bread. And I somehow didn’t wake up when dad got back, but he brought some more things and also left a mess in the kitchen, so when I did wake up, just before 8 AM, and went to pee, I spent some time rearranging in the fridge and cleaning up a little in the kitchen, and then I dashed back out of bed twice, because I couldn’t remember whether I had done some things correctly. But I did eventually get back to sleep and got up after the alarm rang, at 1 PM. Then I had the usual stuff, the yogurt being an expired bio (organic) one, and the sweet thing consisted of a slice of some sort of cake brought by dad, I think made by that friend of my mother’s, though I still added honey. However, despite feeling like I had to go, I barely left a tiny bit in the toilet, and the previous problems made that even more of a concern. But I eventually had to cut my losses, and I left at 3:40 PM, wearing the full running gear. The reported temperature was 15-16°C, dropping by a few degrees by the time I finished.
The time was 48:46.16, with sector times of 4:15.66, 5:10 (5:09.35), I think 6:04.17, 4:38 (possibly 4:38.08), 5:04 (possibly 5:04.50), 6:02.19, 4:31 (4:30.43), 5:10 (5:09.75), 5:58.53 and 1:54 (1:53.50), making for lap times of I think 15:29.18, in which case it’d be 15:44.77, and 15:39 (15:38.71). I’m pretty sure about the time for sector three of lap one and therefore also for the lap, but after sector two of lap two I found myself thinking that I had 26 hundredths after sector one and 25 on sector one, so as if I had calculated it with one hundredth after lap one, and one hundredth was after sector two of lap one, but I also clearly remembered 18 hundredths, most likely at the end of the lap, so I was obviously confusing something. The times assume that I had miscalculated the hundredths for sector one of lap two, but I might have remembered those completely wrong. Either way, the seconds are correct, and the exact times don’t matter since there are no good times. In fact, at that point I even considered ignoring the exact times from then on, but I didn’t.
I felt that I couldn’t keep up that pace from the first sector, and my only chance would have been if it’d have been a great one on that sector, and it wasn’t, and then sector two was poor and I needed a good sector three to even have one lap on the pace for 48 minutes, yet I went well over six minutes on sector three, which made me wonder whether I’ll even stay under 49 minutes. And after that slow sector one of lap two, I pushed harder, and the next sector wasn’t that bad, but the third was still over six minutes, though by less than on lap one. So I kept pushing on lap three and sector one wasn’t bad, and sector two gave me a chance to be certain at the end of the lap that I’ll stay under 49 minutes, and a sector three that was the only decent one of the day at least assured me of that. My best hope, however, was to get under 48:45, and I didn’t even manage that. So it was another bad time.
The abdominal pain started towards the end of sector three of lap one, lessening on lap three but seeming to return to some extent on sector three of lap three. But more concerning was how my heart felt on sector two of lap one, which made me slow down a little and be careful, thinking that there had recently been a couple of times when I once again felt irregular heartbeats. And that feeling seemed to return on sector one of lap three, when I pushed more, though it then quickly went away, without actually getting to that point again. Otherwise, it was quite crowded and that did cause me to lose time, but mainly because of weaving and going the long way around, and also using the lane way more than I’d have wanted to, to be able to at least claim some right of way. I also squeezed through a few times, but what was surprising was that there was only one problem that was notable in itself, and I’m not certain whether it happened on sector two or three of lap three, but it was when I hesitated and probably briefly stopped when I was catching up to a group that was forming a roadblock, saw that there might have been a way to squeeze past, on the inside, shouted at them to make way, but the guy on that side seemed to block my way even more, if anything. Either way, the crowd isn’t an excuse for ending up so much over 48 minutes, and the weather definitely wasn’t either, being really good for running.

I again saw plenty of nice expiring yogurts when I checked the nearby Mega Image on the way back, despite having no mask, but I didn’t even check the date, just keeping them in mind. Then I ate some glucose and another apple and left when it was almost 6:15 PM, taking the used batteries and a bag of trash, which I dropped down the chute, and also something that I left for a cat. I had dad’s metro card, and the idea was to take Utopia for Realists back to the Library, after checking the site and not seeing anything about that location being closed those days… But I forgot the book, running back when I realized it, so it was almost 6:25 PM when I really left and then jogged, and at times even ran, to the metro station, reaching that location a little after 6:50 PM… Only to find it dark and locked up, but without as much as a sign indicating what was going on. And I still had enough time to reach the other location from that area before 7 PM, so I rushed there and, while it was also closed, at least there was a sign, which stated that it was opening again on January 8. Seeing as the deadline to return that book is January 5, that couldn’t also be the case for the first location, but at that point I had no other information, and those two locations have yards, so you can’t return a book when they’re closed, like you can in the locations that have those slits in the door. So I looked again when I got back, finding out that the location where I have to return that book will open again on January 4, but that announcement was just in a post on their Facebook page, not on the site or even as the cover on that page, to be easily noticed, and there had been quite a few other posts after it.
Either way, when I got back to the metro station, the machine held the card, which was just a couple of days old, for a few seconds, which was a bad omen. Then I went to Carrefour Orhideea, grabbing the last two of those cheap breads for dad, some sausages, obviously also for him, and finding plenty of deeply discounted expiring products there as well, including bio (organic) yogurts, though not the “creamy” ones which I had seen at this Mega Image, so I just took one of those, thinking that the discount might increase to 90% over here, if I’ll get back before closing time and they expired the next day. But one of the two self-checkout machines that should have accepted cash was off and the other had a sign stating that it only accepted cards, and I was missing a 0.01 RON coin in order to have the exact change, so I wandered around a little more, looking for such a coin, and during that time I also asked at the information desk, which is also accessible from inside the store in that location, whether they had rechargeable batteries to give in exchange for used ones, but was told that they didn’t. And I didn’t find one of those coins either, so I eventually went to a regular checkout, gave what I had, and the cashier didn’t comment. Then I put everything in the backpack, returned to the metro station… And the card gave an error, and after the first attempt it wasn’t even the usual error anymore, the machine listing “unknown operator” instead, which was a new one. So I showed it to the person who was there, also mentioning that the previous card had also stopped working right after using it at Romana, which in fact happened when I borrowed that book, and she also checked the card and said that the error was indeed a strange one, then advised me to replace it when that service will be open and let me through.
After getting off at Dristor, I walked to Auchan, wanting to see where the recycling machines are, since they were offering 0.50 RON for each recyclable without the symbol as a discount for their own brand of clothes those days and I thought, correctly, that dad would want something. And, after finding them in the parking lot, I entered the store, with the purchases, and looked around, but I just got some water for dad. Then I took the other purchases out of the backpack and put the water there, being surprised that it fit, since I hadn’t taken the large one.
I wanted to go to Kaufland next, picking the one next to that Penny, though Penny would be closed by then, so just Kaufland was the target, but I tried the other route, which would actually be the slightly better one for going straight to Kaufland, but I crossed the road too late and didn’t realize it, so I kept going until I reached the river, which was definitely not where I should have been, and while, after turning around, I did manage to find a way through that allowed me to get to Kaufland without actually going all the way back first, I lost a fair bit of time. Then I put everything in a cabinet, used the toilet, and entered a few minutes before 10:30 PM, seeing that some interesting sweet pastries were left in the bakery area. But we have plenty of sweets these days, so I just got a bun, after scanning the label and confirming that the other kind of buns that I might have otherwise gotten didn’t have an evening discount. Then I also grabbed a handful of beets, which had an evening discount, and some germinated wheat, which was discounted by 90% because it was expiring that day. And, after retrieving my things and arranging everything, I walked out at 10:55 PM and had to really rush to reach this Mega Image before it closed, at 11:30 PM, and I couldn’t jog because of the weight. But I did make it, leaving the bags right in front of the cabinets and entering with the backpack… Only to see that I shouldn’t have bothered, since those yogurts expired the day after the next one and the discount was still 50%, so I retrieved those bags and walked out.
I got back a couple of minutes before 11:30 PM, with about 15.5 kg. Then I put some of the purchases in their place and went to shower a little after 12:20 AM. I was done just before 1 AM, then I gathered some of my clothes which were hung to dry, put the rest of the purchases, with the exception of dad’s bread, in their place, washed and cleaned what was in the kitchen, ate lunch, on and off, while working on dinner, starting a little before 3 AM and finishing at 3:45 AM, and then had dinner between 4 AM and 4:50 AM. I got in bed at 5:55 AM.

I managed to at least write about these two runs, plus the part about the days that were between them, during the evening, so, after initially posting it right away by accident, I scheduled the post to be posted with just this content at 11:59 PM, then edited it Tuesday evening, to add the parts about the rest of December 20 and 27.