Cav's Place

I’ll say from the beginning that this was initially just a placeholder, ending after this first section and the first two paragraphs of the next one, with the rest of the actual post about walking the route of the half marathon coming later, as I edited this in order to add those parts. Not that using a personal “slot” just for one day that’s not the date of a major run or another particularly significant event wouldn’t have been quite a waste even if I would have managed to write it all at once. But, after getting in bed at 6:30 AM, after also talking to dad a little and finding out that he had gotten back around 5:20 AM and I hadn’t heard a thing, despite not even listening to anything, today I woke up as he was getting ready to leave, around 10:50 AM, but I didn’t rush out of my room, so he had just left by the time I did… And I saw Liza once again in the litter box, and she keeps going time and time again and only leaving very little pieces there, or sometimes maybe nothing at all, and I had also noticed that her butt was very dirty and she can’t clean herself, which is nothing new but under these circumstances I had asked dad to catch her a couple of days ago, to allow me to try to clean her a little, but when I asked him to do it again yesterday, before leaving, he refused, so after she was done I put on the kitchen gloves and tried to wipe her butt on my own… Which obviously didn’t work, and she found a spot between the gloves and the shirt’s sleeves and scratched me, after which I clearly couldn’t catch her again to make another attempt.
I couldn’t get back in bed after that, so I stayed on the computer, finishing yesterday’s post but not being able to get myself to also start writing this one. And then I did take a nap, in the evening, but it was obviously far from enough to even add up to a normal number of hours for the day, much less to also help me recover after yesterday’s effort. And when dad got back and I pressed him about Liza, what he said made how little he actually cares shockingly clear, despite what he usually says and how he acts when she’s fine and just stays around him. So I said that in that case I’ll stop bothering, because I was saying that I basically didn’t care about her… Not that I can really do that when something’s obviously wrong with her and she’s a living being that’s in good part under my watch, even if I never actually accepted any responsibility for her and often can’t stand her, or at least that’s what I believe. And that showed even moments later, after she went to the litter box a couple more times and then, after once again struggling to clean herself and being unable to reach, she was sort of dragging her butt on the carpet, and I pointed that out to dad and he did catch her and I could wipe her a little, seeing that things didn’t look as bad as that first time. But she just keeps going to the litter box and leaving just a little piece each time, if even that, and the question is whether the constipation is the problem or a symptom of something else. Maybe we’ll find out next week, if dad actually will at least take her to the vet after these Easter days, like he said, but it remains to be seen…

To get to what this post should really be about, after eating dinner between 3:30 AM and 4:20 AM, the digestive problems that may be caused by these supplements that I’m taking led to going to the toilet one more time, even if not much actually came out, and therefore going to bed at 5:40 AM. At least my body seems to be adjusting, so I didn’t have to manage any pressing need over the course of the day, but I only got three hours or so of good sleep, until I got up to pee a little after 9 AM. That doesn’t mean that I didn’t get back to sleep after that, in fact I was probably asleep for a similar or probably slightly longer amount of time after that moment, if you add it all together, but after that point I kept waking up and having weird dreams, and sometimes it took me a while to get back to sleep, so I got those three or so, maybe up to three and a half, hours of sleep over the course of the next five, since I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM. Then I ate an apple, yogurt with cereals and the caramelized walnuts that I still had, so I once again got almost 700 calories and over 50 grams of sugar just from those, and they were also expired, as was the yogurt.
I left at 4:20 PM, and while I initially wanted to go to some stores, seeing as they closed early that day, I wasn’t sure that I’ll come back after that, so in my jacket I had an expired protein bar and in the backpack the opened bag of expired bagels and the candle that I was going to use to get “light” on my way back, after offering to do so, knowing that dad wanted that and that he worked that night. And that candle, being new, might have been a problem if somebody’d have checked the backpack, so when I continued to Penny, after walking this part of the route, until it turns, I put the backpack, as well as the bag with the bottle with the deposit paid which I had picked up on the way, in a cabinet. And I ended up buying a cabbage, seeing a 25% discount, but I really shouldn’t have done that. On the one hand, since the store closed at 6 PM, I bought it a little before 5 PM, and that 25% was listed as an evening discount, even though only certain, specific vegetables normally get those discounts at Penny and cabbage isn’t among them, I was wondering whether the discount would have increased minutes later. On the other, on top of the weight that I was charged for once again being a little higher than the real one, albeit only slightly, the cashier also gave me slightly less change. She probably realized it, since she hesitated for a moment and glanced at the screen, but she then just handed me what she had taken out, so I muttered that she had given me 0.10 RON in coins instead of 0.20 RON, but also said that it didn’t matter, just mentally adding the difference between what I ended up paying and what I should have paid, considering the real weight of the cabbage, to the amount that I had to recover from Penny at a later time. And there was one more reason why I shouldn’t have bought cabbage from Penny at all, but I couldn’t have known that then.
After retrieving what I had in the cabinet and putting the cabbage in a bag, I got back on the route, walking to the entrance of the area that’s around the stadium before stepping off it again and making my way to Kaufland. Then I put my things in a cabinet, washed my hands, and entered the store a little after 5:20 PM, grabbing two things from the bakery area that I ended up using instead of bread and then making use of other evening discounts and getting germinated wheat, bananas, lemons… And another cabbage, which was better and cheaper than the one from Penny, on top of the fact that I weighed it myself and therefore couldn’t be cheated, like it happened there. So, again, I really shouldn’t have bought that one, but I couldn’t have known. Either way, I also made up for that tiny discount which I had missed out on because of that employee the previous week by stealing one of the bananas, not that they weren’t left with quite a pile of them at closing time anyway. On the other hand, I also wanted to check the price of cat food, knowing that a 30% discount was going to apply to the entire category Monday and Tuesday, but I forgot to do so even if I still had a little time, since I got in line at the self-checkouts before the announcement that the store had closed.
An awkward moment appeared after I arranged the purchases a little, as I was on my way to retrieve what I had in the cabinet, when a man tried to give me some money. I didn’t take a particularly good look at the bill, but at the time I was pretty sure that it was a 20 EUR bill, which was strange in itself and also made me wonder whether it might have been fake. I’m editing this much later to say that I eventually realized that a 20 RON bill also exists, even if it’s very rare, but at the time that didn’t even cross my mind. Either way, when, after my initial refusal, he reached in front of me and tried to shove it right in my pocket, the way I pushed his arm away and said that I didn’t need it might have been rather harsh, which was probably why he apologized, which made things even more awkward, to have someone apologize for trying to give you money. But I asked him to please give them to someone who truly needs them and then scurried away, retrieving what I had in the cabinet and then arranging everything a little more.
Since that Mega Image closed at 7 PM, I then went there as well, putting the other bags in a cabinet, entering with the one that hangs from my neck and the backpack, and waiting for the employee to place the 90% discount sticker on the one expiring bread that I wanted to get for dad, taking it after she did so. That meant being unable to check the other expiring products that were also just getting that 90% discount, since I had seen another employee placing those stickers and by the time the one who was dealing with the bread was done he came and told her that almost everything had been taken right away, only a few products being left, which I confirmed when I eventually had a look as well. But it’s not like we needed anything else, in fact the problem being that we have way too much food these days, considering what dad is also bringing and the fact that in a few days I’ll make my own food and eat that, as I always do before a race. So I just bought that bread, then retrieved what I had in the cabinet and continued to Carrefour, which also closed at 7 PM, once again putting the other bags in a cabinet and mainly looking for more green garlic… And when I didn’t find any left, and also didn’t see any interesting expiring products, I completely forgot that I had also meant to look for a certain tea, so I just walked out and retrieved my things.
After getting back to the spot where I had stepped off the route, I made my way back, picking up another recyclable with the deposit paid and getting back here at 7:10 PM, to pee and drop off the purchases, putting the germinated wheat in the fridge but leaving everything else lying around. The optimistic plan, or more exactly the optimistic version of the one that included getting back here, was to actually leave again around 7 PM, but I knew that I could afford to delay until 7:40 PM or so, and I wasn’t far from that, since I also ate some of those bagels, then put them back in the backpack and left again at 7:30 PM… And, even though I hadn’t taken them off, I wasn’t even out of the building yet when I suddenly felt something in my right shoe, so I stopped on a bench to get it out.

After adding all but those first two paragraphs of the above section Monday evening, I only edited this post again in order to add what follows Saturday evening, and this part begins with getting back on the route and continuing all the way to Constitution Square, one problem being the late hour, which made it rather pointless to try to figure out how the sunlit and shaded areas will feel during the race, or sometimes even exactly where they were. And, after reaching Constitution Square and then continuing straight to the start area, without also walking the final straight first, since I was going to walk past that area again later, the second problem caused by the late hour was that it got dark too early. Of course, I’d have been preferable to walk the entire route before it got dark, to see everything better, but the main issue was that I consider the part that starts after the route turns away from Izvor Park and ends when it approaches Victory Square to be a somewhat bad part of the city and I’d have preferred to be done with it by 9 PM or so, yet at that hour I was just reaching the top of that bad climb that’s on Berzei, so I had over a kilometer to go… And I was once again reminded just how much of a problem that climb is, since even walking it is not easy. But at least I was on schedule to reach this church at midnight, so I could continue pretty calmly once I did reach Victory Square, also noticing that the work that’s being done in that area is still ongoing, so it will be something to take into consideration, even if it shouldn’t really affect the run. But being on schedule didn’t mean that I had time to spare, and cleaning crews were also out, unsurprisingly, since it was just before Easter, so even if I should have probably found a large number of recyclables with the deposit symbol while walking such a distance, I only grabbed the few that I happened to spot right away.
On my way back to Victory Square, after turning back where the route does, at the end of Kiseleff, I decided to start looking for a place to wash my hands in order to eat those bagels, and when I passed by what should be some proper public toilets, in the park, and saw light inside, I tried the door, but it was locked, and the automated toilet that’s also in that spot didn’t seem to function. So I continued, and after passing Victory Square once again I started thinking more and more about entering one of the many food places that I was passing by and using the toilet, but I didn’t really want to do that unless I had to, so I only decided to actually go for it after that detour that ends with that short but particularly steep climb, when I passed by two more of those automated toilets and both seemed occupied, or at least that was the message that was displayed. And I was also in that area when, after I had just grabbed another plastic bottle with the deposit symbol, and actually did so from a trash can, a man who had two beer bottles next to him as I was about to pass by him stuffed one in his backpack and then called out to me, asking whether I could help him with something. So I stopped and asked what did he need, but when he asked whether I could help him get some food I frowned and walked stiffly away, thinking that, if he really was hungry, he should have thought of food before beer.
I eventually entered what was pretty much the last place that I could enter on Victoriei, peed and took quite some time to thoroughly wash my hands, and also my face a little and rinse my mouth, then struggled to take the bagels out of the backpack with just my left hand, so the right will remain clean, and started eating… Only to spot a beer can with the deposit symbol just moments later, and picking it up made things difficult, since I definitely didn’t want to put my right hand on anything other than the bagels and I couldn’t untie the bag where I had the few other recyclables that I had picked up and put the can there with just my left, so I was struggling to hold that bag, the can, and the bottom of the bag of bagels with my left hand until I eventually put the can in one of the jacket’s pockets, which at least allowed me to finish eating the bagels that I had meant to eat as I was getting to Constitution Square again. And after being done with them I also ate that protein bar… And I also noticed some work being done on the road at Constitution Square, which once again shouldn’t really be a problem, but should nevertheless be something to keep in mind.
Since there’s no crossing in the spot where the route turns and I didn’t want to just cross that wide road, even if it is possible, especially at that hour, I continued to the next stoplight where there’s a crossing, also finally putting that can in that bag, then returned to the route and rushed, since struggling to eat those bagels like that had caused me to lose time and I had ended up behind schedule. Not that I really had to be even at that church shortly after midnight, seeing as finding someone to light that candle from should have been possible even much later, and dad actually said that they were just locking up when he got back in the morning, but I had told dad that I was going to do it, so I wanted to be sure, and being there later also meant getting back even later, and I was going to get back particularly late even so. Of course, rushing also meant that I paid even less attention to the route, but the way back here from Constitution Square shouldn’t imply anything that I couldn’t have noticed on my way there, except perhaps while going around Alba Iulia Square on the other side, which is an area where you can’t really see the road from the sidewalk anyway.
In the end, I reached this church around 12:10 AM, lighting a candle from someone and, after standing around for a moment, making my way back… And actually forgetting to fully walk this last bit of the route, ending up using the route that I usually take to get back from there and only realizing it after getting back. And, as I stopped to empty another plastic bottle with the deposit symbol which I had picked up and put it in that bag, some women asked another man who had a lit candle to light theirs as well and he couldn’t, all of the candles being shielded in plastic, so I said that I had a small candle, which I had used to light mine, walked up and used it to get the “light” from the man to the women. It did feel a little awkward to do that when I also had a lit candle, but the lid was on mine and there’d have been no way to remove it without burning myself… And then things got even more awkward when one of the women greeted me with the usual Easter greeting, to which I felt forced to mumble the appropriate reply, that scene repeating itself when I entered the building alongside another man.
I got back at 12:25 AM, having picked up only ten recyclables with the deposit symbol, or 12 if you include those from that first trip, when on such a walk, if I’d have had time to look around, and also at another time, not when the cleaning crews were out in force because Easter was coming, I should have found many more, and Kaufland has a campaign the following week. Either way, after getting back I ate a banana and then cleaned the litter box and took a bag of trash to drop down the chute, going to the bathroom, to use the toilet and wash, several minutes after 1 AM. I was done at 1:55 AM, then I washed what was in the kitchen, finally put the other purchases in their place, and ate lunch, on and off, while doing that and starting to work on the salad, between 3:15 AM and 4:20 AM, with the remaining bagels instead of bread, so I got about 1000 calories just from all of those bagels eaten over the course of the day. I finally ate dinner between 5 AM and 5:45 AM, and also took another pill, just in case. Since I didn’t get on-line, I only saw the next day that no visits were recorded. On the other hand, I saw a strange bug on my desk before going to bed, and there had been another bug which I didn’t recognize on the hallway, in front of the fridge, when I got back the first time.