Cav's Place

On the morning of January 11, after waking up while dad was getting ready to leave and talking to him a little and then going to pee, it was a very long time before I got back to sleep… And then I had a bad dream that made me wake up screaming, for quite a few seconds and so loudly that my throat was a little sore for a while! So, while I curled up under the blanket again after that, getting any more sleep was out of the question, and I didn’t try to catch another nap in the evening either.

Strangely, considering the snow and the low temperatures, with the highs being a few degrees below freezing, the workers were back on January 12, so I was woken up a couple of times by drilling and kept awake by scraping and voices, and for quite a while they seemed to be right in this area, and I noticed the occasional shadows as they passed in front of my window. So I stayed in bed until almost 4:40 PM, when they seemed to have gone away, and if you put it all together I definitely got more sleep than the previous day. On the other hand, that vent from the new kitchen windows was probably used for its intended purpose for the first time that evening, when the tea spilled when it started to boil and turned off the stove while I was gathering dad’s clothes from the rack.

After doing another load of laundry and still putting the clothes on the rack in my room, the dehumidifier was here again and around 9:45 AM, after waking up while dad was getting ready to leave and going to pee, I turned it back on, which pretty much blocked any possible noise made by workers, though I did wake up a couple of times when it switched modes. But it was the bad dreams that were once again the bigger issue, and while none caused me to wake up screaming again, two were particularly realistic and one more only stopped being realistic towards the end, and there were several other briefer ones that were weird, even if not necessarily bad. So I’m not entirely certain when I was asleep and when I was awake, and the sleep was obviously agitated and interrupted, but I almost certainly got plenty of it, and I only got up a couple of minutes before 5 PM, when I was sure that the workers wouldn’t be around anymore. And then, after sorting the larger bag of stuff that dad had gathered from the living room, I had lunch, did the day’s squats, took another one of those immunity supplements instead of just the vitamin D3, and at 8:40 PM I went out, once again wearing a mask and taking the recyclables with the deposit symbol, and I grabbed one more from the garbage room.
I reached the Mega Image that closes at 10 PM a few minutes before 9 PM, going to put the recyclables in the machine when I saw that the discount labels for the bakery products were being placed, but before I actually started the guard offered me a voucher, which I refused. Interestingly, if I saw the value correctly, it was exactly what I was going to get for the recyclables, though I didn’t know that at the time, since I hadn’t counted them before leaving. Either way, I couldn’t put all of them in right away, the machine reporting that the glass container was full before I finished, and I couldn’t get myself to ask the guard whether anyone could sort that out, so I waited for the carts with the products that are discounted by 90% to be brought and grabbed some when they were, then took some sweet pastries that had the 50% discount, and after the guard opened the machine and shook the glass container when another person came to use it, I put in the remaining recyclables as well, including that one which hadn’t been accepted before. And then I used the vouchers when I paid.
After putting my things in a cabinet, it was past 9:35 PM when I entered Kaufland, the first thing I grabbed being a bag of spoiling oranges that had a good discount on top of the good evening discount that all of those bags had at that point, so the price was just amazing. Oddly, though I didn’t see any tear in the bag, there was a loose orange next to it and when I weighed it along with the bag I saw that the weight was just what it should be, so I took that as well. And then I added a number of expiring products and two of the high-protein yogurts that were two for the price of one those days, after which I wanted to see whether I could find any usable red onions, since they had an evening discount, but they all seemed bad and when, even though there were ten minutes left, an employee told me that the store was closing and asked whether the buying had gotten into me just then, I gave up and went to pay, the one issue being that I didn’t notice that the QR code from a previous discount label was also visible on some of the germinated wheat and when that one accidentally scanned I had to call over an employee to cancel it. And since I was done before the closing announcement, I then quickly retrieved what I had in the cabinet and went outside to spread everything on a table and arrange, walking away when it was past 10:35 PM.
After reaching the non-stop Mega Image, I put the bag and the gloves in a cabinet, entered with the backpack, and saw no bakery discounts but a whole lot of expiring products that were discounted by 20% and 50%, so I took my time to look through them, thinking that I had to wait until 11:30 PM for the cart with the products that are discounted by 90% anyway… Only to have a look in that area some time after 11 PM and see that cart there and the usual women gathered around it, talking after having grabbed all of the good things. But they hadn’t been interested in a few things that I did find interesting, so I grabbed a couple, and after going back to the other expiring products to take a beer and a bag of chips for dad, those being discounted by 50%, I calculated the total and returned to the cart for one of the nicer breads, which were still there, to get to a rounder value. And then I retrieved my things from the cabinet, rearranged after adding the new purchases, and grabbed a recyclable on the way back.
It was almost 12:10 AM when I got back, and after cleaning the litter box and going to drop a bag of trash down the chute, I saw that the water would have been uncomfortable even for a shower and decided to wait until morning to wash, after having noticed that it’s really hot in the morning. So I took it easy, putting the purchases in their place, eating an orange and a sweet pastry, washing what was in the kitchen, also dealing with my bread, or more exactly with those expiring packaged small baguettes that I had purchased in order to use as bread, and eating dinner between 5:25 AM and 6:10 AM. It was almost 6:25 AM when I went to the bathroom, to use the toilet and wash, the water being really hot at that point. I was done at 7:20 AM and got in bed at 7:45 AM.

After needing quite a while to get back to sleep after waking up the first time and then deciding to get up after waking for the third time, at 3:05 PM, since dad wanted to cook and probably wasn’t going to wait much longer anyway, I probably got a total of 5.5 to six hours of sleep. But late in the evening I had another nap, getting some two more hours but waking up again when it was past 1:30 AM, and since I also rearranged the bread in the freezer, I ended up eating dinner between 4 AM and 4:45 AM. And then I had a hard time getting back to sleep, the late nap and dinner likely having a lot to do with that, and since dad had to wake up at 7 AM and leave around 8 AM, it wasn’t long before I woke up again. At least I only got up to pee once, a little before 8:30 AM, but then the workers were back, so between that and various weird dreams, I was just drifting in and out and really couldn’t even give a rough estimate of the total amount of sleep I got, but it definitely was of poor quality. Still, Thursday was definitely the week’s only day when I could run, so I got up after the alarm rang, at 1 PM, had the usual stuff, the almonds still being some of those expired baked and salted ones, though I’m pretty sure that I accidentally replaced one with a raw one, and for the sweet thing I added honey on a piece of something that was either cozonac or something very similar, which I had saved for this purpose… Probably for too long, since it tasted somewhat strange. Either way, I left at 3:40 PM, wearing the full running gear, an undershirt, the training shirt which I had worn inside those days, that thing that goes on my neck, and the older gloves, plus the jacket on the way, tied around my waist as I ran. The reported temperature was about 3°C, dropping to 1°C by the time I finished.
The time was 49:58.79, with sector times of 4:25.23, 5:16.35, 6:11.21, 4:39 (4:38.47), 5:15.28, 6:04 (6:03.88), 4:41 (4:40.81), 5:15.41, 6:11 (6:10.75) and 2:01.40, making for lap times of 15:52.79, 15:58 (15:57.63) and 16:07 (16:06.97). I had resigned myself to just staying under 50 minutes from the beginning, and losing a few seconds on sector two of lap one meant that I wasn’t that worried about the bad time on it, but the following sector’s time, and that of the lap as a whole, made me think that 51 minutes seemed more likely, and I feared that I’ll already end up averaging more than 16 minutes per lap after lap two. So I gradually pushed a little more, being quite surprised when I managed to cover lap two in less than 16 minutes as well. That meant that staying under 50 minutes was possible after all, and while also covering lap three in less than 16 minutes seemed unlikely, I knew that I didn’t need to. But at the same time I had to keep the loss of time in check, because the slush and puddles on the first part of the final straight meant that I was going to be slow there, so I had to be safe after three laps and I pushed just hard enough for that to be the case. It was close, and the final sector’s time was even worse than I thought, but I just made it in the end… Not that just barely squeezing under 50 minutes isn’t a very bad time, but it was all I could do that day, so I had to settle for it, as disheartening as it is.
There were pretty few people, but the puddles and slush, and the fact that it was usually worse on the lane, meant that I often had to go the long way around or pick my way through, and in a few places I had to step more carefully to avoid slipping. On the other hand, my digestive system was dealing with something, which was quite clearly that sweet thing, and I felt a little nauseous and a certain pressing need also appeared, though all of that eventually faded, as did the pretty notable pain that I felt in my abdomen and even chest from the start of lap two, part of it probably being reflected from my back, but the digestive issue and the cold air likely had at least something to do with it as well. Otherwise, on sector two of lap one it felt like a shoelace was coming loose, so I stopped for a couple of seconds to have a look, and while it actually was loose at the end, at that point it seemed fine and it held. And I’m pretty sure that it was on that same sector when the rest of the path was blocked in a spot where the lane was full of slush and I might have briefly stopped, or at least slowed a lot, as I made my way through. And there were two more moments that definitely were on sector two, on the paved area, but I’m not sure whether one was on lap two and one on lap three or both were on the same lap, in which case it was almost certainly lap three. Either way, the first was when I briefly stopped when a couple cut me off, and the second was when I then stepped sideways right where that paved area ends and the asphalt begins again, so it’s a good thing that my ankle held. And then, after feeling tired and struggling up the stairs, there was that first part of the final straight, with the slush and puddles that meant that I couldn’t really run there.

On the way back, I picked up a label with the deposit symbol off a crushed plastic bottle and had a quick look in the nearby Mega Image. Then, after cleaning the litter box, I just managed to write the times in the file before having to rush to the toilet, where I guess my body got rid of what it had to get rid of. Then I had lunch, put on some more clothes, and left again at 8:20 PM, once again wearing a mask and taking a small bag of trash, which I dropped down the chute, and the recyclables with the deposit symbol.
After picking up one more recyclable which had for some reason been left in a bin in front of the machine from the nearest Penny, I put all of them in. But there were plenty of other plastic bottles in those bins, so I then had another look, took two that were the right sizes for two labels that I still had, put those labels on them and put those in as well, getting a second voucher. And then I just bought two small bags of bagels, cashing in one voucher, using the other when I paid, and then putting them in one of the jacket’s inside pockets… Where they were left until this evening, since I only remembered to take them out while writing this.
I picked up one more recyclable on the way to Kaufland, and then I put the label that I still had on one which had been left there, putting both in the machine and grabbing a bunch of the discount vouchers that are valid these days, for soap, along with a glass bottle which had been left there and wasn’t accepted, since it was just like that one which I had eventually managed to put in the machine from that Mega Image that closes at 10 PM. Then I put that bottle and the gloves in a cabinet, washed my hands, and entered the store just before 9:25 PM, making use of an evening discount for a handful of usable red onions that I managed to find and then looking at soap, being surprised to see a kind that was made in Romania and getting some. And then I added one of those cheap yogurts and waited for 10:15 PM, though there were no new or increased discounts. On the other hand, the employee from the self-checkout area seemed new, so when I called him over in order to use those discount vouchers for the soap, he tried to scan them as payment methods, in different ways, and seemed quite confused when it didn’t work even though I told him that it won’t and that they had to be scanned as products but couldn’t be placed on the scales because they’re too light, so he had to log on to override the weight check… Which he only did after walking away for a moment, then returning and saying that he’ll try something else which would definitely work, which “something else” was just what I had told him. Either way, I then used the voucher received for the recyclables as well, retrieved what I had in the cabinet, and walked out a few minutes before 10:30 PM.
After picking up one more recyclable on the way, I put my things in a cabinet when I reached the Mega Image that closes at 11 PM, seeing a coin left in the lock that didn’t seem to work but being unable to pull it out right away, so I left the cabinet unlocked while I had a quick look, retrieving that coin and my things before walking out to check the non-stop Mega Image as well, wanting to see whether anything interesting was there. But there wasn’t, so I put my things in a cabinet that didn’t lock and then just retrieved them and rushed back, once again putting my things in that cabinet and buying a bag with two bakery products that had the 50% discount, which I had spotted the first time and had decided to get in case there really won’t be anything better. And then I retrieved my things once again and picked up another recyclable on the way back.
I was back a little after 11:20 PM. Then I went to drop another small bag of trash down the chute and once again decided to wait for the morning to wash, the water hardly even being lukewarm at that point. So I took it easy again, eating an orange, fixing something sweet and eating that as well, mixing and moving a few things into jars, washing what was in the kitchen, and finally eating dinner between 5:35 AM and 6:25 AM, while writing some notes about the day and checking things on-line. And then I did 200 squats, since I was a day behind, cleaned the litter box, and was relieved when the hot water finally came, since it had still been little more than lukewarm when I had washed what I had used for dinner. So it was a little before 6:55 AM when I went to wash, being done just after 7:25 AM and getting in bed at 7:45 AM. And I got up to pee just after noon, then stayed on the computer for a while, getting back in bed a little before 12:30 PM. I managed to get back to sleep quickly at that point, and after the first couple of times I woke up again after that, but then I was sort of drifting in and out, and by the time I finally got up, at almost 5:10 PM, I had been fully awake for some time. On the other hand, at night I just didn’t feel like going back to the kitchen, so it was close to 1:45 AM when I walked out of my room and I ended up eating dinner between 3:45 AM and 4:30 AM, with the last several minutes spent gathering what was stuck on the plate.