Cav's Place

In the early hours of May 2, I went to the kitchen at 1:10 AM and then had the bottom part of the grill to deal with, since dad had used it and I had only washed the actual grill and the cover earlier, leaving that bottom part so the grease would harden to some extent and be easier to remove without just dumping it down the drain with the water. So I removed that grease and then washed that bottom part… And then I bumped my head quite hard against the bottom of the freezer door when I stood up after reaching to grab something from the fridge, so I cut a bit of ice from the freezer and held it in that spot, but only for a minute or so, and the lump was noticeable later. Either way, all of that led to eating dinner between 3:20 AM and 4 AM. And then I took it a little too slowly and ended up getting in bed at 5:20 AM.
The alarm was set to ring at 11 AM, but at 9:10 AM I was woken up by an SMS from my provider, announcing me that the active period was about to expire, and that was pretty much it with sleeping, since I had a hard time getting back to sleep after that, then Liza went to the litter box, then dad woke up, and the neighbors were also making various small noises, so I drifted off a few times but really doubt that I got more than a few minutes of sleep on each occasion, if even that. But the plan was to walk the route of the half marathon, so I got up after the alarm rang, ate a banana, an egg salad and a large doughnut, with added cocoa cream, spent some time on the computer, took one more supplement on top of those that I take these days, filled a reusable bottle with tea and took it with me, along with the bag with the few recyclables with the deposit symbol which I had brought back three days earlier, and left at 2:50 PM, in a real hurry, with the backpack and headphones in my hand… And after putting them on in front of the door and checking that I had everything else, when I wanted to plug the headphones into the phone I realized that I had forgotten it. At least I hadn’t actually walked away, so I just went back in and grabbed it, but that meant that it was 2:55 PM when I actually left.
After getting on the route from here, I made my way to Constitution Square, picking up some more recyclables on the way and making a detour to put them in the machine from Carrefour Unirii, after which I also checked the store and spotted a couple of interesting expired products, plus an employee who seemed to be picking more that were likely going to be added there, but I wasn’t going to wander around for several hours with products that were already expiring, so I just cashed in that voucher and then continued on my way while also continuing to pick up recyclables.
After reaching what would be the last turn of the race, I briefly stepped off the route again, to get to what would be the starting area and continue from there, one thing that surprised me being how easy that climb on Berzei felt. It definitely won’t be easy during the race, but I was used to really feel it even while walking and that wasn’t the case that day, which seemed odd. On the other hand, I noticed that there’s a little slope a little earlier as well, which I don’t think I really paid attention to before. Either way, after also going both ways on Kiseleff, which is usually the easy part, when I returned to Victory Square I entered that Carrefour Express to put the recyclables which I had gathered in the machine from there and cash in that voucher as well, after a brief look through the store. And then I picked up more as I continued on my way, the next relevant thing that I noticed, not counting that short but steep climb that felt as hard as it usually does, being when I got back to Constitution Square and actually passed by it, steam or smoke coming through a fenced off manhole cover that was partially off and seemed to be right on what would be the final straight, though it might be right next to that lane, so on the one used to go past that area the first time around, and I wonder if that’ll still be like that, or otherwise a potential hazard, at the time of the race.
Either way, after passing by Constitution Square I made the usual detour to the crossing and back, then once again continued along the route until I made that other, smaller, detour as I approached Unirii Square, to use that crossing. And then, after putting a bottle which I had picked up but which didn’t have the deposit symbol in a recycling bin, I stepped off the route to go to Carrefour Unirii one more time, once again putting the recyclables in the machine, which even accepted a can that was quite crushed and a bottle with part of the neck broken off, peeing and thoroughly washing my hands and face, and seeing that some bakery products already had the 50% discount, so I took one of those mini breads, plus the tea that I wanted, and then also cashed in the voucher, since the value was greater than the price of those purchases and all of those interesting expiring products which I had spotted the first time around were gone by then. And then, after putting the purchases in the backpack, I drank the tea before walking out and getting back on the route, continuing to pick up recyclables.
With nothing else worth mentioning about the route itself, I’ll just say that when I reached Decebal again I had a quick look in that Profi, entering with everything, and then also went to that Penny, being wary when I saw the same cashier who was there when I walked the route of the marathon, considering what happened then, but I wanted to at least get some mustard for dad, so I once again entered with everything, including the recyclables, since the machine wasn’t working at that point, and bought that mustard, not only remembering to hand over the store card but also telling the cashier that she could use it for the person who was ahead of me as well, who said that she didn’t have hers with her, and the cashier thanked me for that and then there were no problems. The recycling machine seemed to have been fixed by then, but I just walked out, added the mustard in the backpack, had a quick look in that Mega Image as well, once again entering with everything and not using the machine from there either when I didn’t find anything to get, and then continued all the way to the point where the route turns.
It was definitely late by that point, but I just barely had enough time to rush to Kaufland, so I did that, washing my hands when I got there, entering the store, once again with everything, when it was announced that the store was closing in five minutes, and just getting some wafers for dad and two cans of the cat food that was on sale, since they were also placed at the end of the shelf and I passed by them on the way to the self-checkouts, the fact that the store had closed having already been announced at that point. Then, after arranging my things, I continued to that Mega Image, putting the recyclables in a cabinet… And being surprised to see that the bakery products were also discounted by 90% that evening! So I eventually got quite a few, including a baguette with butter and garlic that I was thinking about giving away, plus some packaged bread for my parents that was also discounted by 90% and one of those imported high-protein puddings, which was the only remaining refrigerated expiring product that had that same 90% discount. And then, after retrieving the recyclables and walking out, only taking the time to arrange everything properly when I was outside, I finally put those recyclables in Kaufland’s machine, keeping the voucher for later… And I also ended up keeping that baguette that I was thinking to give away, since I didn’t see the homeless person that I expected to pass by after getting back on the route, covering this last portion of it on the way back, and while I considered giving it to another guy I saw, he was walking past me and holding a beer, so I decided against it. And I picked up one more recyclable by the time I got here.
I got back at 11:25 PM, then cleaned the litter box and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, gave dad the wafers, ate an orange and that pudding, spread out the bread and bakery products and put the few other purchases in their place, washed what was in the kitchen, and went to the bathroom, to use the toilet and wash, at 1:05 AM, being done a little after 2 AM. Then I also put the bakery products in their place and started eating lunch at 3:20 AM, but dad wanted some things taken out of the freezer, so I then did that, which took quite a while, and when I was done I also put those breads in there, eventually finishing lunch at 4 AM, and then eating dinner between 4:40 AM and 5:40 AM. I got in bed at 6:45 AM.

I’ll also mention here that the initial form of this post only included the first two paragraphs, the one above this one and what follows, since the main part, about the actual walk, wasn’t already written and going out again today meant that I had no chance to write anything more before midnight, and I only added it on May 14, at which point I also realized that the post wasn’t filed in the correct category and fixed that as well. Either way, I’ll also just add that, after getting up on May 3, I started thinking about making mamaliga that evening, eventually deciding to do that… But finding, when I was about to start, that the water was brownish, and then the hot water was turned off completely, and when I later checked I saw that the site reported that there was no water at the heating station, so it’s a good thing that we still had cold water, at least for washing. But I wasn’t about to use it for cooking, so I ended up putting some cheese and the piece of very old salo which I had taken out of the freezer, meaning to put it in the mamaliga, into that baguette with butter and garlic and eating that as a late lunch… And for dinner I used one of the plain baguettes bought from Mega Image, finding what were quite obviously three deep finger marks when I took it out of the paper bag, so I cut out that part and ran the rest over the fire from the stove a little before slicing it. And I don’t know whether it had anything to do with what I ate or not, or perhaps just with being concerned about it, but after dinner my heart started beating irregularly again… And I got in bed at 5:20 AM.