Cav's Place

On the morning of April 13, Liza woke me just before 9 AM by going to the litter box, and after going to pee I decided to change out of my pajamas, clean it, and then change back. But then noise started coming from upstairs, heavy things being moved, loud voices, possibly cleaning, after a while dad got up as well, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I might have managed it just before dad left, but hearing the key in the door startled me awake again, and when I checked the time I saw 10:46 AM. At least I could get back to sleep after that, after peeing one more time, getting up to do so again just after 1 PM and then sleeping for just about another hour. But I once again wanted to go out and wasn’t sure where, so it was almost 2:25 PM when I got up, and then I made something of an egg salad, albeit without green onions, since I had none. And then I took the plastic and metal, and some glass… And saw that dad had moved the small bag of trash but once again forgot to take it, so I left it there as well, in case I’ll clean the litter box again after I’ll get back, walking out at 4:20 PM but realizing right after locking the door that I hadn’t taken the store card for Mega Image, so I went back in to grab it.
After dropping off the regular recyclables in a bin on the way, I entered Carrefour with the few with the deposit symbol picked up by then and bought an expiring product for mother and the one apple circle that was also at half price. Then I added something to the recyclables and put everything in a cabinet at Kaufland, washed my hands, entered the store at 5:20 PM, and saw discounts of 80% for many bakery products, and some interesting ones were left, so I grabbed two sweet pastries, the five cheap buns that were left and had that same discount, and a bread, even if its shape made it difficult to deal with. And then I added some things for dad, calculating the total so it’ll be just over 10 RON, because there was once again no trace of green onions and that day I decided to ask for another one of those vouchers, doing so after paying and receiving it right away.
Since the closing time was 7 PM for Mega Image, after retrieving my things and arranging everything I went to the one from that area, putting everything in a cabinet and looking for anything that was discounted by 90%. But I went to the regular area for expiring products, where they used to put them in that location, forgetting that they had started bringing them in a cart there as well, so when I thought that there were none and went to the bakery area I found the cart there, but someone had a full basket and only a few things were left in it. There was a basket as well, full of packaged salads, but I didn’t take any of those, just getting the three breads that were still in the cart and one sweet pastry from the bakery area, that being at half price and wrongly labeled, the discount label being switched with another sweet pastry, so I switched them around, dropping each into the other bag without actually touching them… And then I had to wait for a long time, the cashier messing up things for the person who had bought all of those products discounted by 90% and then seeming unable to fix them and calling the other one over as well, so everyone had to wait.
That still left me needing some vegetables, since I was almost out, and preferably some green onions as well, since there were none at that Mega Image either, and I had seen plenty of carrots among the spoiling products from Carrefour, and they had green onions as well, so after retrieving my things and adding the new purchases I went back there, adding something more to the recyclables and ending up putting everything in a cabinet from Hervis, since that Carrefour still has none and I didn’t want to enter with everything. I also pretended to have a look at a few running shoes, to justify being there, but then went to Carrefour and picked a bag of carrots that were once again among the spoiling products mainly because they weren’t whole, plus a bundle of green onions and some cheese which had just appeared among the expiring products, also at half price, by the time I passed by that spot again on my way to the self-checkouts. I obviously didn’t charge myself for the bag that the carrots were in, and then I left the new purchases just outside of Hervis, on the floor, retrieved what I had in the cabinet, and then took quite some time to arrange everything, because when I was about to put the backpack on I noticed that it was wet, realizing that the expiring cheese had leaked and taking everything back out and figuring out how to rearrange in order to put it in a bag while making sure that there was nothing else in it that it shouldn’t leak on, since a corner of the bag that it was in was completely torn. And while I was struggling with that my phone gave a low battery warning, so it only lasted for five days, but I was saying that I probably hadn’t fully charged it the previous time. So I turned off the music as I walked away, and on the way back I added something more to the recyclables.
I was back a little after 7:30 PM. Then I cleaned the litter box and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, put the purchases in their place, talked to dad a little, ate one of the sweet pastries from Kaufland, did the day’s squats, and rushed to use the toilet and wash between two matches, not quite making it but at least finishing before anything truly notable took place in the second. And after midnight, when I checked and saw that it had turned off, I plugged the phone in to charge, deciding to put it through another 24-hour cycle and unplugging it and plugging it back in a couple of times over that period, to see that it was actually charging. But, to return to that night, I ate an apple, washed what was in the kitchen, including a couple of pots, made mamaliga, and took an expired vitamin C pill before starting to eat… And when I took the receipts out of the jacket, I realized that I had somehow lost the first one from Carrefour, so it’s a really good thing that I didn’t enter the store with everything when I went back there, because it’d have been just the products bought from there the first time around that I wouldn’t have had a receipt for.

After Liza woke me just after 9:20 AM by going to the litter box, I peed and got back to sleep, but when I woke up again just before 10 AM, after dad did, I changed and went to clean the litter box… Only for my hand to slip into the bag, right in what was in it, when I was done and meant to switch it to the other hand, so I then spent quite some time washing and disinfecting my hands. And after peeing again and exchanging a few words with dad I got on the computer for a while, properly writing what was still commented out from the previous personal post and editing it in order to add all of that. And then I played some Morrowind and got back in bed at 12:45 PM, after peeing one more time and changing back into my pajamas… Only to hear the computer fans spinning up multiple times and see a lot of disk activity, so I turned the monitor back on to check what was going on, seeing that it had updated Microsoft Defender, followed by a definitions update. But at least I could get back to sleep after that, which also happened after getting up to pee again, but after it happened yet again, a little after 4 PM, it didn’t quite work anymore, so I drifted in and out, took some naps, and then was fully awake for a while before finally getting up, just before 6 PM. And then I backed up the system, for the first time since January… And when I later went to the toilet I saw an invasion of ants again, apparently once again coming out of the wall, around the door to dad’s bedroom, so I used some bug spray under the carpet, there and on that small piece of hallway, also under the rag that’s around the bottom of the heating pipes in that small piece of hallway, and a little in my room as well, just in case.

After waking up at 8:30 AM because the dermatitis between my legs was acting up and going to wash that area a little in the sink after peeing, the noise made by the workers also returned, and they even placed the windowsills at our bathrooms, so I was mostly asleep until 10:40 AM, when I went to pee again, but even that sleep was probably rather agitated, and after that I had a hard time getting back to sleep at all, so I was drifting in and out and catching occasional brief naps, and the noise was getting louder as time passed, so just before 12:30 PM I gave up and got up. And then I started a load of laundry, hanging the clothes to dry when the machine was done, and spent a good four hours, if not a little more than that, peeling and grating most of the parsnip roots which I had bought for dad, since he was just leaving them there, before crawling back in bed in the afternoon, when it was quiet again… Only for dad to call a little after 7:05 PM, so after I had gotten a little over an hour of sleep, supposedly just to let me know that he was getting back in case I wanted to go out and needed the metro card, even though I had told him repeatedly, including shortly before he left that afternoon, that I was going to run the next day and plant trees on Saturday and therefore meant to rest that day and on Friday. So that was it with the sleep…
On the other hand, late in the evening I tried to time the squats while watching the match, but the time was off the screen when I was done, and while I looked at the kitchen clock until it returned and deducted those seconds, I may still be a second or two off, and that’s a real problem because I almost certainly managed a new record, since I seem to have done them in an incredible 1:47 while the previous record, from 2021, was 1:51 and I don’t see how I could have been off by at least four seconds. And this means that the best time will remain uncertain, because even in the highly unlikely case that I’ll ever beat this time, I’d need to beat it by quite a lot to be absolutely certain that I have a new record, and that’s impossible either way you look at it.

Moving on to April 16, I got up to pee three times, and between the first two I was also woken up by noise made by the workers, and possibly by dad as well. But I always got right back to sleep, and I seem to have slept through dad leaving and any other noise that came after peeing the second time, though after the third time I just took a little nap, since that third time was at 1:20 PM and then I woke up again just seconds before the alarm rang, at 2 PM. Either way, I then got up and, after cleaning the litter box, I had the usual stuff, though I decided to eat an apple with large spoiled areas instead of one of those set aside to eat before runs and despite removing all of that I still felt an odd taste, maybe like it was fermenting. But I just ate all of it, and the sweet thing consisted of a slice of cozonac, with added honey. I left a little after 4:40 PM, wearing the full running gear, sticking to the better shoes. The reported temperature was 20-21°C, holding steady.
The time was 1:18:15, with sector times of 4:21.67, 5:09 (5:08.90), 5:57.35, 4:34 (4:33.97), 5:00 (4:59.53), 5:53.53, 4:33 (4:32.06), 5:09.16, 6:01.81, 4:36 (4:35.37), 5:14.38, 6:08, 4:36, 5:09 and 5:55, making for lap times of 15:27.92, 15:27.03, 15:43.03, 15:58 and 15:40. While still hoping to get back under 1:18, I was feeling exhausted from the beginning and the realistic target seemed to be to stay under 1:20, the first lap seeming all right. Sector one of lap two wasn’t that good, but the following sector definitely made up for it and despite thinking that I had exhausted myself too quickly sector three showed that I hadn’t, and the lap was actually almost a second faster than the first, if you look at the exact time. That made me wonder whether squeezing under 1:19 was possible, and while it seemed unlikely I wanted to try it, and after lap three I decided to try staying under 16 minutes on each lap as well, and hoping to also get under 1:18:30. That required pushing somewhat more than what my body seemed to want on lap four, but the result was doing just enough, so I was thinking that I really had to manage to get under 1:18:30… But that did require gaining a few more seconds on lap five and I wasn’t exactly feeling like I could, and when the first sector’s time was the same as the previous lap’s first sector despite trying to push all the way, I was starting to think that I was going to fail by just a few seconds. But I didn’t want that to be because I didn’t give everything, so I did, pushing even harder and doing enough on sector two of lap five to feel that I was almost safe, and then really giving everything on the last sector and finishing with a very safe margin. It’s still over 1:18, but it’s the best time over this distance since September and I’m content with it, especially considering how tired I felt and the issues with the knee.
It was pretty crowded, resulting in plenty of weaving and going the long way around, and things looked bad when on the first sector’s long straight I hesitated and maybe even stopped for just an instant when I had to pass between a kid and his father, on bicycles, with the kid riding unsteadily on the lane. And a similar pair, if not even the same one, since I was focused on the kid the first time and on the father the second time, so I can’t say, made me briefly stop at the end of sector two of lap three, under the bridge. And then there were a few other moments on laps four and five, but the specifics slipped out of my mind by the time I wrote down any notes. I know that I briefly stopped when a kid almost ran into my legs and I’m pretty certain that it was on a sector two, but saying that it was on lap five is little more than a guess, so it might have been on lap four. And there might have been a hesitation later on that same sector and I’m quite sure that another moment was on the following sector, so on sector three, but I’d again be guessing if I’d say that it was on lap five and not four. And there was a roadblock that I had to slow in order to get through on a sector one, and probably on the other lap than those mentioned above, since I don’t think that one of those laps had something on every sector, but I’m not even completely sure of that.
Otherwise, there were some windy moments, but on the other hand when there was no wind and I wasn’t in the shade either, there were moments when I was starting to overheat a little. But what I had to deal with all along were some warnings from a spot in my left calf muscle, though they weren’t that bad, and those from the right knee only started on sector two of lap four, being quite serious for a while but then seeming to lessen on the last two sectors. Other than that, I felt just about done as I tried to sprint on the long straight of sector two of lap two, needing to take it easier well before the end of the straight and thinking that from then on it was just a matter of getting to the end, but then I saw that sector’s time and realized why, and it wasn’t too bad after that, at least not until the last sector, when I really was feeling quite out of it. And my nose was really irritated after the run, and that knee and, to some extent, my legs in general weren’t exactly happy.

I picked up a few recyclables on the way back. Then I ate a banana and an apple circle, put some snacks in the remaining half a liter of tea and ate that as well, helped dad a little as he took measurements for the bug nets, did the day’s squats, changed, leaving the running t-shirt on, and left again at 9:22 or 9:23 PM, with the regular recyclables, those with the deposit symbol, two cartons, and those other things that I take to Kaufland, dropping off the regular recyclables in a bin and then going to the Mega Image that’s next to Tei to try putting the cartons in the machine that appeared in that location and which should grant the deposit for such things, even if it’s not paid when purchasing them at this point. And they were accepted, though in case of the milk carton I obviously had to peel the discount sticker off the regular bar code first, so I kept that voucher and continued to Kaufland, picking up a few more recyclables and then putting them in the machine, splitting them on two vouchers.
After washing my hands, using the room for disabled people, and putting those other things in what may be the proper bin, it was several minutes after 10 PM when I entered the store, and the closing time had returned to 10:30 PM, so I was rushing. But at the bakery area I found several nice buns that I was going to use as bread, discounted by 75%, so I took all of them before returning to the fruits and vegetables, checking the spoiling ones and getting some broccoli for mother and a bag of Mandarin oranges, and also taking a few bananas that had a great evening discount, three from some which had been left next to that area and one more that I happened to notice in the boxes that had been taken away from the regular spot and left on the main aisle, what was left in there otherwise being unusable. And I also made use of the nice evening discount for radishes and grabbed two bundles, plus a large bag of cat litter, at full price, since we really needed some. And then I reached a self-checkout right when the closing announcement was made, but it didn’t accept those buns as the correct product, so I had to call over the employee to override the error, and then I needed her again when one of the heads of broccoli wasn’t accepted, the machine reporting that the discount label in question had already been used, so after she logged back on but got the same message I gave up on it, though at least the other two worked. On the other hand, I decided to leave that bag of Mandarin oranges there after all. And the 30% discount for bananas which I had activated on-line before leaving didn’t apply, so I guess that it only applied if the regular discount was less than that, and I shrugged it off, using both of the vouchers received for the recyclables when I paid and then arranging the purchases.
I then went straight back to that non-stop Mega Image, picking up another recyclable and putting it and the cat litter in a cabinet that didn’t lock, the key not turning fully in the lock, and I didn’t bother to try another, just leaving my things there, entering with the backpack and the bag where I had those buns, and taking a sweet pastry for mother that had the 50% discount, to use that voucher received earlier. The cashier didn’t seem to care to give me the receipt and I didn’t ask for it, just retrieving my things and then struggling to get back, carrying that cat litter being quite an issue. Either way, I also grabbed a few more recyclables, plus a carton, though I left another one that seemed far more likely to be accepted.
I was at the door at 11:45 PM, having carried almost 16 kg. Then I cleaned the litter box again and went to drop a bag of trash down the chute, put the purchases in their place… And then noticed something scurrying away when I moved my running shoes, and it seemed like a large spider, though I couldn’t be certain. But I used some bug spray under the shoe cabinet, where it had gone, and since I also killed some pretty large flying insect in the kitchen I wondered what else had gotten in while dad had the windows open, since I gathered that he had measured and checked multiple times. And then I noticed a wet area on my running t-shirt, but when I rubbed my hands on it, it seemed greasy, so I tried to quickly wash at least that area in the sink, wondering what that was. Either way, it was almost 12:55 AM when I went to the bathroom, to use the toilet and wash. I was done at 1:45 AM, and then I washed and cleaned up a little in the kitchen, selected the radish leaves and used what I could from them, also used the worse leaves from a huge lettuce brought by dad, ending up making too much salad, ate dinner, on and off, between 3:15 AM and 5 AM, and finally ate lunch between 5:30 AM and 6:10 AM. And dad had to get up very early, and Liza also did, so after taking one of those expired vitamin C pills I cleaned the litter box yet again after she went, and then rubbed cream on both hands and feet before going to bed, at 7:15 AM. And my right knee was really complaining, plus that while washing I once again noticed that deep, dull pain in an area of my head, though it didn’t seem to be quite in the exact same spot as before.

If I slept through dad leaving and got right back to sleep the first time I got up to pee, after the second time, at 1:20 PM, it didn’t work anymore. There were a few more naps, but they were brief, and otherwise I mostly drifted in and out, and later even experienced that pain that radiates from my back, though at least I immediately moved into the position that makes it go away and it worked, and I think I even took another brief nap. But then I remained awake for a while, finally giving up and getting up right at 4 PM. And I didn’t get back in bed in the evening, and as I was on the toilet I saw ants again, larger ones, in the bathroom, so I sprayed that area as well and we’re keeping that door closed now. But at least I managed to eat dinner earlier, between 1:15 AM and 2:10 AM, and then I shaved before getting ready for the morning, when I’m going to plant trees again, which is also why I’m posting this now, to have something as the week’s first post. I’m so exhausted that I even felt like I was about to faint a few times, plus that my legs are still complaining, but I’ll see how it’ll go… And whether I’ll manage to at least catch a nap first, since now I’m getting in bed, I guess at 4:15 AM.