Cav's Place

To start right after the previous personal post, on the evening of April 5 I found that the source of the weevils which had been once again appearing in the kitchen was once again something purchased from Penny and of their store brand, but that time it was pasta, which I really didn’t expect! So it seems that there is something in their chain of production that causes that infestation…

But now I’ll get to this week’s run, which was supposed to be a half marathon distance, the second and last one before the race, but the conditions didn’t seem right and, more importantly, I didn’t think that I was in any shape for such a run. Not that I was in any sort of form anyway, but after going out Monday and Tuesday and only getting some four and a half hours of sleep Tuesday morning, I was just crushed, spending two and a half hours, or maybe a little more than that, in bed late in the evening doing little to change that, since I only caught a brief nap that ended when dad had a sneezing fit. And yes, he was coming down with something, so I was definitely worried that I was going to catch it as well, but at that point the immediate concern was the exhaustion, and it seemed like I was going to have a hard time getting back to sleep and the noise dad made while cooking pretty much ensured that I didn’t. It is possible that I drifted off a little more, but if so then it was only briefly and lightly. And then I had things to wash and clean in the kitchen, also moved what was in one of the pots into a large jar that dad was going to take to mother in the morning and what was in the second pot into that emptied first one, which was easier to fit in the fridge and also had a suitable lid available, and finally ate dinner between 3:45 AM and 4:15 AM, with peanut butter on some of the bread.
Yes, that was because, while I was initially thinking to skip this week and run twice on the following one, with the half marathon run on Monday or Tuesday, I ended up deciding to run Wednesday after all, since the conditions definitely wouldn’t have allowed it on Thursday and the forecast for Friday listed more wind, if not slightly lower temperatures as well, plus that Friday was already rather late if I was going to do a half marathon run at the beginning of the following week. So no, at that point I didn’t plan to do that half marathon run that day, but a regular run instead, though I wasn’t sure whether that meant that I was switching them around or that it was going to be an additional run, the plan of two runs on the following week remaining in place, at least if I wasn’t going to catch whatever dad had. And, while until late at night I was thinking that I was definitely only going to run ten kilometers, I eventually started wondering what the point of that was and whether I might just somehow manage 16 km instead, without the time being completely embarrassing, I mean.
At least I slept quite well. I mean, I woke up when dad left, at 6:50 AM, and twice more to pee, but always got back to sleep right away, and while a little after noon the noise made by a neighbor woke me up again and kept me up for a little while, it wasn’t that long until I got back to sleep yet again and when smaller noises woke me up one more time I must have gotten back to sleep so quickly that I’m not even completely certain that I did fully wake up until a few minutes before 2 PM, when I checked the time and, even though I had set the alarm to ring at 2:30 PM, I decided to turn it off and get up… And by that point I had started wondering whether it wouldn’t be possible to actually cover a half marathon distance that day as well, even if with a poor time and still planning to do so again the following week. But it didn’t seem likely, at least not without a time that would be completely demoralizing, so I didn’t try to prepare for it by also adding raisins in dark chocolate in the yogurt or taking one of those expired energy bars or the gel that’s expired for even longer with me, just having the usual stuff, with a slice of cozonac, with added honey, as the sweet thing, and leaving at 4:40 PM, wearing the full running gear, though I returned to the better shoes and also to the t-shirt from the half marathon of 2016. The reported temperature was 11-12°C, holding steady.
Well, the time was 1:45:43, with sector times of 4:18.13, 5:13 (5:12.90), 6:01.53, 4:35, 5:10, 5:57 (I think 5:56.59), 4:37, 5:19, 6:02, 4:41, 5:19, 6:09, 4:42, 5:19, 6:11, 4:42, 5:15, 6:09, 1:53, 6:13 and 1:58, making for lap times of 15:32.56, 15:42 (15:41.44), 15:58, 16:09, 16:12 and 16:06, plus 10:04 for the final portion. So it’s not just that I ended up running a half marathon distance after all, but it was actually a “proper” one, not just to say I did it. It’s still not a useful time, being over 1:45, but it’s the tenth fastest through the park, and 1:40 better than a month ago. And I really just made up my mind to continue as I went along, even the fact that I ended up deciding to memorize the exact times for the first lap after happening to see the hundredths as well after the first sector despite not meaning to look at first showing that at that point I wasn’t completely certain that I won’t end up just running ten kilometers after all. And, while I once again decided to stop looking at the hundredths after that first lap and really don’t know the exact time for sector one of lap two, I’m pretty sure that I remembered them correctly after happening to see them after the following sector, so I’m also pretty sure that the listed exact time for sector three of lap two is correct, the fact that it was the one decent sector three of the day making me actually want to look at that point.
I wasn’t particularly pleased with the first sector’s time, having tried to be pretty fast, but at that point I meant to run 16 km unless my body won’t allow it, so I allowed myself to slow down a little on the next sector. But I’d have still wanted to squeeze under six minutes on sector three of lap one, failing to do so seeming to be a bad sign. However, by then the thought of continuing to a half marathon distance was becoming more than just a passing one, so I tentatively calculated the lap times needed in order to stay under 1:50. And after lap two I also compared the lap times to those from a month earlier, seeing that I was 25 seconds ahead and pretty much deciding to go for it. I still worried that my body won’t allow it, but at that point the target was to avoid losing time compared to a month earlier on lap three as well and remain ahead overall after four laps, though I was certain that I’ll then fall behind. But that target of 1:50 became 1:48 after lap three, and when, after four laps, I kept gaining and was 51 seconds ahead, I started wondering whether I even had a chance to be faster than last month, expecting to lose between 45 seconds and a minute after lap five and therefore aiming to at least preserve that advantage at the end of it… And ending up extending it to 1:08, which didn’t just make me clearly aim to be faster than then, but also hope to get under 1:47. And after two sectors of lap six I realized that I might even have a chance to squeeze under 1:46, so I pushed hard on sector three of lap six, and again when I returned to that part of the route, so on sector two of the final portion, the target at that point becoming to beat the 1:45:50 that I thought, correctly, was the tenth fastest time through the park, which I safely managed despite almost walking up the stairs at the start of the final sector.
My right knee started giving warnings early on and other parts of that leg gradually joined it, but they were never more than warnings, what I found much more concerning being that feeling of numbness in my legs, and in fact in the left one in particular, which is not what I’m used to, so it seemed that I couldn’t quite run as I wanted to and it took me a while to correct that, and the feeling also seemed to largely go away later on. On the other hand, by the end of lap three my hands were already starting to go numb in that way that tends to indicate that I’m nearing my limit, and by the end of sector two of lap six they were really numb, making it hard to press the button on the stopwatch. And at some point after that my left ankle started hurting, though whether that was on sector three of lap six or on sector two of the final portion, I can’t recall. But since I remember being relieved when the feeling passed, it was probably on sector three of lap six, since otherwise there’d have been too little time for it. Either way, it was on sector two of the final portion when my legs also started getting heavy, which led to struggling to go up those stairs as much as I did. And there were also the two times when I stepped in holes that were under the lane, and while the second time, on sector two of lap six, it wasn’t that much of a problem, the first time, on sector one of lap four, my right ankle bothered me a fair bit for a while, though it eventually recovered. And I stepped on something right at the end of lap six and it seemed to have gotten stuck to the bottom of my shoe, at the front, and over the next few minutes I made a few attempts to get rid of it, which might have cost me a little time.
When it comes to the problems caused by people, on sector two of lap one I hesitated because of a kid who was pushing his sibling’s empty stroller and started moving across the lane when I was a few steps away, then did so once again on sector two of lap three, that time because of a kid who was chasing soap bubbles, while on sector two of lap four the reason for the hesitation were some dogs who were proving a little hard for their owners to control. Then there were a few other brief hesitations, one of them on that same sector two of lap four, another at the start of the following sector, and possibly a few more after that as well, though they were minor and I didn’t really remember by the time I finished the run. However, one more notable moment, when I might have even stopped for just an instant, was on sector one of lap six, but the reason is proving harder to remember. I think that it was something small, but whether a dog or a child, or something else entirely, I couldn’t say anymore. But it was definitely a boy on a bicycle who actually caused me to stop for a moment on sector two of the final portion, turning around at some speed and passing in front of the people that I was just about to pass, so we ended up almost running into each other and it’s a good thing that we both managed to stop in time.
Otherwise, the lane was obviously still damaged in all sorts of ways, and large parts of it were also wet, albeit not soggy. As for the weather, it was rather windy at times, though the wind died down in the later part of the run, and while dark clouds were nearby, it was actually mostly sunny, almost completely on the first two laps and most of the time after that, and if later on, from lap six, if not even from its second half, it didn’t seem sunny anymore, that was mainly because the Sun was dropping lower, not because those clouds were moving in.

On the way back, I grabbed two recyclables with the deposit symbol and checked the nearby Mega Image, entering with those recyclables and walking out with them as well, not bothering to use the machine when I had nothing to buy. Then I ate what was still usable out of a spoiling banana that was small to begin with, but that was hardly an issue when after that I got some 950 calories from a bag of peanuts. And then, after changing, albeit leaving the running t-shirt on, it was almost 8:45 PM when I left, with the recyclables with the deposit symbol, two burned out light bulbs, the broken flashlight and dad’s broken headphones, and the plastic and metal, which I meant to drop off in a recycling bin on the way, but some of them ended up “hiding” in the bag at that point and then I forgot to drop them off on the way back, so I ended up coming back with those few things. But at least I could put those recyclables in the machine from the nearest Penny, though one that I picked up from there wasn’t accepted, so I entered the store with it and those other things and just got some paper towels for dad, also using that voucher when I paid, but not receiving the receipt because the cashier just crumpled it right away and I didn’t speak up to ask for it.
I then rushed to Kaufland, picking up another recyclable with the deposit symbol on the way and putting it in the machine from there, but that one that wasn’t accepted at Penny and two more identical ones which had been left next to the machine from Kaufland weren’t accepted there either, so after taking the cart which had been left in front of the recycling machines, with the coin still in it, connecting it to others and retrieving the coin, and then dropping off the light bulbs, flashlight and headphones in the proper bins, I put those remaining recyclables and the paper towels in a cabinet and went to wash my hands, just with water, since there was no soap in the men’s and the room for disabled people seemed to be in use at the time.
It was almost 9:40 PM when I entered the store, seeing some evening discounts and picking up a lettuce with root, or more exactly two of them placed in the same bag. And while the discounts for lettuce, of any kind, remained the same, some of the others increased to 90% after 9:45 PM, so at that point I also took two bundles of wild garlic and, out of curiosity, one of patience. And then I also checked the chocolate area and took three of those large ones that were three for the price of two those days, wondering if the 30% discount that applied to chocolate those days would stack with that. I seriously doubted it, but I nevertheless tried when I got to the self-checkout, initially only scanning that chocolate and the QR code for dad’s store app, and when I saw that the 30% discount didn’t apply I asked the employee to remove them and moved to another machine, since it was free. And I was using that second machine when the closing announcement came, but I had to call that employee there as well anyway, since it wouldn’t accept that lettuce with root as the correct product, and she took her time before getting back to me. Either way, I also used the voucher received for that recyclable when I paid, then retrieved my things from the cabinet and arranged everything a little, and walked away at 10:10 PM, picking up a few more recyclables with the deposit symbol on the way back.
I got back a little after 10:40 PM, then cleaned the litter box and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, put the purchases in their place, washed the few things that were in the kitchen, did the day’s squats, ate the apple pastry that I already had, and it was almost 11:55 PM when I went to wash, being done just after 12:40 AM. Then I talked to dad a little, scraped what was left on the sides of the cast iron pot since the last time I had made mamaliga, eventually reaching the limits of what I could do with my fingers and using a spoon, doing my best to be careful but likely causing some more damage to the enamel as a result, and it was 2:10 AM when I started eating lunch, on and off, finishing at 3:15 AM. During that time, I took out almost all of the bread from the freezer, looking for the one piece of walnut bread which hadn’t been dropped that I was sure I still had but not finding it, so I eventually took one of the pieces of the one which I had dropped in the store before putting everything else back, then washed that piece a little more and put it in the oven for a while, which made it taste even nicer but hard to slice. And I also moved some roes into a jar, and finally ate dinner between 4:20 AM and 5:25 AM, with the last several minutes spent gathering what was stuck on the plate. I got in bed at 6:25 AM, my nose feeling quite irritated by then, though it hadn’t been like that earlier…

It was only some three hours later, when dad fed Liza and then left, that I woke up and it didn’t seem like I was going to get back to sleep quickly, so a little after 9:40 AM I got on the computer for a while before finally reading some more of the book, for the first time since March 15. And it was a few minutes before noon when I tried to sleep again, managing to fall asleep after a little while but waking up again at what must have been roughly 2:30 PM, or at least not long after that, since quite some time passed before I checked and saw 2:58 PM. And then I was yet again unable to get back to sleep, even if only some occasional small noises were coming from the neighbors, so even if it was past 4:20 PM when I finally got up, I’m pretty sure that I didn’t get any more sleep in all that time, snapping back awake right away the few times when it seemed like I was about to drift off. And then I finally initialized and partitioned the second NVMe and copied files to it, and at night I rebooted the computer and saw that error about Secure Boot not being enabled again, while on the other hand the other error didn’t return. Otherwise, I ate dinner between 4:25 AM and 4:55 AM, after selecting the parts that were starting to rot from those lettuces with root, removing those bits and washing the rest properly took a huge amount of time, which I also spent standing. And then I took a pill for the throat, which had started being sore after lunch, which was a clear cause for alarm when dad definitely had something. Then again, that pill was expired for almost two years and I also took it before brushing my teeth instead of just before going to bed, which was at 5:50 AM…

By the time I woke up, some time before noon, I clearly had something, so I dug through the piles of pills in the living room cabinet to find what we had for colds and took some vitamin C and something else for the throat which wasn’t expired before getting back in bed a few minutes after 12:30 PM, at which point I was starting to feel something in my chest as well, and when I woke up again at some point I felt like I even had a fever. At least that feeling had mostly passed by the time I actually got up, close to 5:20 PM, though I had been awake for quite a while by then, but my throat was still sore. Still, I wanted to go out again, so I did the day’s squats and left at 7:35 PM, with the recyclables with the deposit symbol, along with that plastic and metal that was left in the bag and the few more pieces which had gathered… And I still didn’t quite manage to put all of those things in a recycling bin on the way, one thing remaining on the bottom of the bag until I put the recyclables, including one picked up on the way, in the machine from Carrefour, which actually accepted everything, so even those three which hadn’t been accepted before. And that allowed me to spot that remaining item and drop it into a recycling bin from that mall before entering the store, mainly looking for fresh garlic, which was discounted those days, but initially grabbing a discounted sweet pastry. And then, since that garlic’s left with a useless part attached to the head but it’s paid by weight, I took what I had selected to an area that seemed quite clear and removed those useless parts, using the small cutter which I had taken with me for the first and the last one, but managing to tear the rest off by hand, and then I also used the voucher received for the recyclables when I paid.
I then continued to Penny, hoping to find something in that larger location but still being unable to, asking an employee but not even seeing a price label in the area she indicated, and when she was actually there and I told her that, she said that in that case they must not have it anymore. So I just got something for dad, also using the voucher received for the two recyclables with the deposit symbol picked up on the way there and which I had put in the machine. Then I put the purchases in cabinet at Kaufland, washed my hands, and entered the store at 9:30 PM, ending up just getting a chocolate for myself and two smaller ones for dad, that 30% discount applying to all of them. I might have bought more of those for dad if the employee who was in that area and actually scanning the price label of chocolate bars would have been helpful, but when I asked whether the discount applied to those as well, since there was no sign on that specific section of the shelf, he said that if there is no sign, it doesn’t, yet I still took those two and checked at the self-checkout, finding that it actually did apply but not rushing back to get more at that point. And then, after retrieving my things and just throwing everything in the backpack, I still failed to walk out before closing time, the announcement coming just as I was walking to the exit, which still opened, but the outer doors had just been locked, so I had to use the emergency exit anyway, and then I took out the purchases on one of those tables and arranged them better. And then I spotted three more recyclables with the deposit symbol at the top of the first trash can after I reached the sidewalk, so I went back and put them in the machine, keeping the voucher for another time.
I picked up some more recyclables with the deposit symbol on the way back, and I also entered that Profi, with everything, and got two buns that had the 50% evening discount and which I grabbed with those tongs, since I didn’t see gloves, though I always doubt that they’re cleaner than my unwashed hands. Either way, the cashier gave me someone else’s receipt, so I turned around and handed it back to her, being left without the one which should have been mine, then I added those buns in the backpack and also entered that non-stop Mega Image with it, without finding anything to get from there.
I got back at 11:05 AM, put the purchases in their place, ate an orange and the sweet pastry, washed what was in the kitchen, and it was 12:50 AM when I went to wash, being done a little after 1:35 AM. I ate lunch between 2:10 AM and 2:30 AM, took the last of that medicine expired for over a year, ate dinner between 3:55 AM and 4:40 AM, by which time I definitely felt something in my chest as well, took some zinc and another one of those pills for the throat expired for close to two years, and got in bed at 5:55 AM… And when I got up for a while, around 10:30 AM, as dad was getting ready to leave, I had crap to blow and spit, felt rather hot, and the most concerning thing was that it definitely felt like there was something in my chest. And even if otherwise I felt much better, that remained the case when I actually got up for good, at almost 4:20 PM, and I’ve even started coughing. So I’m continuing to take things, so far more vitamin C and zinc and some other pill for the throat, with the plan for the night being to take another medicine that’s very similar to that one expired for over a year and which is expired for “just” one year, and another one of those pills for the throat that’s expired for close to two years, to at least get through them. And this should continue to be the plan for the coming days.

The original plan for this post also included what I skipped from the previous personal one, March 18, but I ended up skipping it once again, especially since I couldn’t even finish writing the rest before midnight, what was originally posted ending even before the end of the first paragraph of the section about Friday, just before entering the store, with the rest being added Monday evening.