Cav's Place

15 years since we met, since that first evening together and that first particularly awkward kiss that happened even though we had planned to go on that trip as just friends. Not since our first night together, since after that she did eventually go to the other bedroom, which my parents had cleared for her since she had said she didn’t want to sleep in the same bed with me before she had to, when we’ll actually go on the trip we had met for. Even said she was likely to make me sleep on the floor at the hotel if anything will make her not feel comfortable with it, but then she didn’t want to sleep apart on that first night, after the kiss, eventually going because my parents would have noticed and she had already put them through some trouble.
Won’t describe that kiss and the moments around it again because I did several times before, including ten years ago, when I’m sure it was fresher in my mind than now. But it feels like yesterday, the start and the end, and some major moments in between. The rest is getting increasingly muddy though… And what’s left but memories? If even those go away…
On the other hand, everything that happened since… Wouldn’t call it muddy, but… Unreal? A nightmare I keep waiting to wake up from. Close to 12 years which should have never happened, should have never been.

Went out today, got some things, but this won’t be a personal update. There will be one of those next week I guess, starting from last Wednesday, but it doesn’t matter. Though, regarding writing, and since previous July 12 posts mentioned it as well, I guess I can add here that I’m still sticking to the deadline I had set for myself to stop writing my story, and now that’s just days away. Had struggled to at least add something daily for so long, completely pointlessly for so long, that I have no idea how it’ll be to stop, but lately I’m barely adding a sentence or so per night, wanting to finish this chapter right on that last night, though it has dragged on too long as it is. Think it’s the longest yet because of it, but didn’t even bother to check. Maybe I will once it’s done, and maybe I’ll go over the whole thing from the beginning and keep working on it, or maybe I’ll try some short stories, or maybe I’ll write more on the blog again… Or maybe I’ll just stop. No idea…

Like last year, I’ve been commenting on articles about overpopulation on The Guardian, more of them this time, considering the studies that were released in time for World Population Day. Even got in a brief exchange with one other user, though I still see no point in that, especially since any comment just gets lost in the pile and probably only the other person involved in the discussion sees it, and a discussion on such a topic that’s not at least for the benefit of some audience won’t get anyone anywhere. But when the topic is what it is, and after I even managed to write a decent post on the matter yesterday, I guess a couple of replies weren’t so bad.

Other than that, should have installed this month’s Windows patches today, but after installing the one for Internet Explorer right away yesterday, I set the security-only bundle aside for at least one more day, not wanting to risk problems today, when my mental state, never stable to begin with, was already negatively affected anyway. So maybe I’ll see tomorrow whether I delayed any problems, which will likely mess me up completely, or just the stress. For today, just functioning in any way was quite enough. And I guess I did function, and interacted a bit, and probably didn’t give any signs to those I didn’t want to give them to.
As for those I did give them to, spelling out, didn’t even get a reply. Or, well, there was a brief one, to the image of Facebook reminding me, at the bottom of the list of posts on this date, that 15 years ago I had started a relationship. Nothing else to what I said after, or from the other person. Not sure what it could have been anyway. But I had to send something somewhere, and the two people from here I’m still in some contact with after having started talking to them more recently, though that “more recently” means about a year and a half ago for the first one and I wouldn’t exactly say we’re still actively talking in either case, seemed like the ones I could send it to. Had said it fewer times before, I have few expectations, and there’s less to lose if it goes bad because of it.

While I’m still waiting for World Overpopulation Day and this year’s World Population Day official theme and statement stick to the same old obviously necessary but so far from being sufficient as to hardly be even worth mentioning when it comes to solving the overpopulation problem measures regarding access to voluntary family planning methods, emphasizing their economic benefits and their role in empowering women, a study was released that raises alarm and doesn’t shy away from using strong language, showing that the sixth mass extinction is under way.
Of course, the timing of the release is no coincidence, as the study, the full text of which being readily available, points to human overpopulation as the main culprit. While overconsumption, especially by the rich, is listed as the second major cause and the one about which the most could be done humanely and in a relatively short amount of time, the study’s authors even call other measures “band aids”. And that is indeed what they are, as human overpopulation is the world’s worst problem and the one that needs to be solved before we’ll have a real chance to actually solve any other major environmental or social problems, and anything we do before the population gets back down below a sustainable limit only serves to buy time at an ever increasing cost. And those costs are felt first by the other species we should be sharing this planet with, then by the marginalized, the poor, even the children who are thrown into this world through no fault or choice of their own, while benefits are obtained by the parents who do make that choice and the society, including authorities and economic actors, that allows and even encourages them to do so, and the wealthy and the privileged maintain and even continue to improve their standard of living until there will be nobody else left to pay the price.

But I’ve been saying that for too long. Or perhaps not, when compared to one of the study’s authors, Paul Ehrlich, who has been raising the alarm about overpopulation since the 1960s and has obviously mostly been at best ignored, if not ridiculed and attacked because of it, all this time. But even now, at the age of 85, he remains firm and blunt about it, and so he should be, though I would definitely expand upon his “show me a scientist who claims there is no population problem and I’ll show you an idiot” statement. Yes, there are indeed higher expectations from scientists, they should be held to higher standards, but show me a person, any person, who claims not simply that human overpopulation is not a problem, but that it’s not at least one of the biggest, if not the biggest, facing the world, and I’ll show you an idiot. And the same goes for anyone who claims that, from the environmental perspective, overpopulation is only a problem in poor countries or because of the poor in general, not seeing that the environmental impact of poor children may increase in time, as their standard of living will improve to the level everyone not proven guilty of a serious crime should be entitled to, but that of a child who’s better off is great from or even before birth, so the population in countries that are not poor needs to drop now, drastically in case of the wealthier ones, while in case of the poor ones the improvements in the standard of living may be restricted until the population is sufficiently reduced.
While I’m at it, show me a person, any person, who now, when information is so readily available, chooses to worsen this problem by having one or, even worse, more children without somehow being forced to do so and I’ll show you a criminal. I dare say one worse than a murderer. Though, of course, forcing another to have a child, whether in the strict sense of the term in case of a woman or even something as “simple” as not giving a man the right to decide to terminate a pregnancy he did not willingly choose to cause, is even worse. Of course, that means there are a lot of idiots and a lot of terrible criminals in the world, but that’s no news, and the fact that idiots and criminals, in far more ways than this, are in charge at pretty much every level is even less so. The fact that a number of current world leaders do not have children, or at least none of their own, is interesting, however, but in some cases it wasn’t exactly a choice and in the rest that choice definitely doesn’t reflect in the views they express and the policies they support, so they may not be criminals in this sense, but that doesn’t change the other matter.

But that’s nothing I haven’t kept repeating either, so let me now move on to another article published these days, which also raises the alarm and pulls no punches, this time about the full extent of the hardships and disasters likely to be caused by climate change even by the end of the century. At 7200 words, you should set aside a bit of time to read it, and perhaps it won’t say anything new if you really looked into the matter, but for most it will be full of shocking revelations, as it goes well beyond what even most of those who believe themselves informed tend to think about when it comes to the consequences of climate change, the path we’re already on and our chances to turn back before it’s too late.
Why am I including it in this post about overpopulation? Because it stresses the fact that we have already done so much damage that not even applying all of the best available methods to reduce emissions right away will be sufficient to prevent disaster, and avoiding even the worst of it will require immediately and drastically changing the way of life of billions. Well, now imagine how much less of an overall impact those behaviors would have had and how much better the chances of changing them in time would be if we’d have handled the “billions” problem decades ago and by now the population would have been safely below carrying capacity while also taking the other species into account. And, of course, while the best time to start implementing the drastic measures required to tackle this problem was decades ago, the second best is today.

I’ll finish this with a brief “history” of my personal stance regarding population and breeding, starting with the fact that there was a time when I wanted three children, all of them before 25, preferably one before 20. But then, around the age of 15 or so, getting Internet access meant I started finding information and realizing that overpopulation was a problem, so at 16 I was finding it hard to justify having any children anymore personally, and by 18 I knew that this view needed to be applied to everyone if we were to still have a chance. Initially, I was saying that no more than 10% of people should still be allowed to have children, then, as time passed, the population kept growing and the environmental damage continued to worsen, I reduced that target to 5%, then to 2%, then to “the minimum required to avoid a genetic bottleneck”, as I also stated in the “Causes I’m Passionate About” post. But it’s been almost three years since then and things kept getting worse, without the world even considering to enforce any of the necessary measures even in any foreseeable future, so I moved on from that to deciding that “antinatalist” is the proper primary term to use to describe myself and considering a complete moratorium on breeding as necessary, at first for at least ten years, and as of recently for at least 20 years.
Of course, that minimum number of years will only increase as even more time passes and things don’t change, or not as drastically as required. But, however many the years will be, we should be using that time to fix things, both when it comes to the environment and to our society, and when the period is over we should analyze whether we have done enough in every aspect to allow a small number of people to have children once again. If not, the moratorium should be extended, I’d say for five more years, after which we should analyze again, repeating as many times as necessary and not allowing any more humans to breed until this world will truly be worth living in for all, humans as well as the other species we should be sharing it with and taking responsibility for. I do believe we should not go extinct, because we have caused all this damage and suffering and we should be the ones to fix and make up for it, but if so much time will pass without us having done enough that, even in spite of all the advances in medicine, we will go extinct as a result of this moratorium, we’d deserve nothing else anyway.

Edit: Another study, also available in full, reveals that having one less child reduces the emissions a person is responsible for by far more than anything else. Far more than everything else, for that matter. An average, for developed countries, of 58.6 tonnes saved per year for having one fewer child, compared to 2.4 for living car-free, 0.8 for a plant-based diet, and quite negligible values for the day to day stuff that’s usually promoted. But, of course, these high-impact measures are rarely mentioned, and in fact the study found that reducing the number of children is never mentioned officially as a measure to take. No that there’s any news in any of that…
Later edit: Of course, they could and should have phrased that the other way around, stating how much each of those actions makes one responsible for instead of how much is saved. So having an omnivore diet instead of a plant-based one adds 0.8 tonnes per year, driving an internal combustion vehicle adds on average 2.4 tonnes per year compared to living a car-free life, and each child you have makes you responsible for a total of 58.6 tonnes per year. And with the study stating that emissions must fall to two tonnes per person per year by 2050, you’ll very clearly see what that means.

Stumbled into a press release about a resolution aimed at promoting “a longer product lifespan, in particular by tackling programmed obsolescence for tangible goods and for software” adopted by the European Parliament, which includes a number of interesting proposals. Not that they mean much of anything if not enforced, of course, and even if they will actually end up being applied in practice it won’t really do much when, instead of enforcing good practices and banning undesirable ones, the resolution limits itself to voluntary measures, seeking balance and taking steps aimed at encouraging some things and discouraging others, but I guess it is a tiny step in the right direction.
However, I am particularly concerned about the fact that the resolution “notes the role of commercial strategies, such as product leasing” and “highlights […] the shift towards business models such as ‘products as services’” as positive developments even though, while they do indeed provide incentives for businesses to create products that last, they force users to give away even more rights and control, which is absolutely the opposite of what needs to happen and something that needs to be fought against in every way. Plus, what’s that about “encouraging, in the event of a recurrent lack of conformity or a repair period in excess of one month, extension of the guarantee by a period equivalent to the time required to carry out the repair” when the warranty period absolutely must be extended by the full amount of time the product spends in service every time, and the limits on the amount of time a product can spend in service before the customer is entitled to request a replacement or refund tend to be much shorter than that? But, of course, it’s just these negative developments that are most likely to be encouraged as a result, just because they bring advantages to those who are already in a position of power.

My view remains that the first thing to do in order to make products more durable and easier to repair when needed and upgrade when desired is to increase the minimum warranty period. It could be set to a minimum of 24 months, so it could be set higher as well, and I’ll stick to my proposal to increase it by six months every other year starting in 2020, resulting in the minimum warranty period reaching five years in 2030. That will simply force all producers to make durable products if they want access to the European Union’s market, and it will also be in their best interest to make products that are modular and easy to repair, since it’ll make it easier and cheaper for them to make the repairs if they are needed under warranty. And not restricting who can open products and making the instructions needed to carry out repairs easily available would also help, as at least some users would be inclined to make at least some simple repairs on their own, especially if they either do not require spare parts or only require cheap and readily available ones, instead of waiting for the product to be serviced. Of course, if the product is damaged as a result of the actions of someone not authorized by the manufacturer to carry out repairs, the warranty will be lost, but the manufacturer will need to prove that this is the case.
In addition, and in fact the resolution does mention this as well, the warranty absolutely must always be tied to the product and not the user, and it shouldn’t be limited by location either. This will mean that people who want to always have the latest products will be able to do so and yet still not simply discard the old, whether the desired changes involve component upgrades or complete replacements, as the old products or components will be able to be sold to others who will know very clearly that they will remain under warranty for quite some time, and also that they are built to be durable in the first place. A strict requirement to replace a product that requires repairs for reasons that are not proven to be the result of damage or misuse, say, three times over the course of the warranty period with a new one should also go a long way toward making manufacturers pay particular attention to durability.

As for software and updates, the resolution also mentioning this as well, security updates and bug fixes must be provided for a very, very long time, allowing users to safely continue using the versions they are comfortable with, and perhaps also work best with their products or any other software they wish to use. For this same reason, security updates and bug fixes for important software, such as operating systems, must always be provided separately from other updates, such as those altering existing features or introducing new ones. Also, and this should go without saying but sadly that’s no longer the case for quite a number of years now, updates must never degrade or otherwise negatively alter functionality or performance. And the user must always be, or at least have the clear option to be, in complete control of the update process, no updates being forced or required for the continued use of the product, with the possible exception of specific scenarios, strictly limited to security updates, in which the use of the product without the relevant update can be proven to represent a clear and present threat to others.

There would be more to say here, but probably nothing I haven’t repeated plenty of times before, so let me just add a different piece of information that may be of interest, and I’m referring to the list of MEPs who did not vote in favor of this resolution, which was approved by 662 votes to 32, with two abstentions. To also get that out of the way, those who abstained were Lars Adaktusson (Sweden, EPP) and Notis Marias (Greece, ECR).
Votes against (sorted by country, then group):
– United Kingdom (19): EFDD (16): John Stuart Agnew, Tim Aker, Jonathan Arnott, Gerard Batten, James Carver, David Coburn, Jane Collins, Bill Etheridge, Raymond Finch, Nathan Gill, Roger Helmer, Mike Hookem, Patrick O’Flynn, Margot Parker, Julia Reid, Jill Seymour; ENF (1): Janice Atkinson; non-attached (2): Diane James, Steven Woolfe
– Netherlands (4): ENF (4): Marcel de Graaff, André Elissen, Olaf Stuger, Auke Zijlstra
– Germany (2): ECR (1): Ulrike Trebesius; EFDD (1): Beatrix von Storch
– Greece (2): non-attached (2): Konstantinos Papadakis, Sotirios Zarianopoulos
– Sweden (2): EPP (2): Christofer Fjellner, Gunnar Hökmark
– Bulgaria (1): ECR (1): Nikolay Barekov
– Czech Republic (1): EFDD (1): Petr Mach
– Italy (1): ECR (1): Raffaele Fitto

To get it out of the way, I ran today and the result was 50:28, which I definitely consider poor since this year’s half marathon. In fact, it was the first time I didn’t manage to stay under 50 minutes since then, the previous such situation being the last run before the half marathon, which was a 50:15 early in the morning, on very little sleep, and while needing to manage worse issues with my right leg than now, when just my hip was still complaining somewhat. It’s also my worst time since April, and that time I was still recovering from a cold and feeling out of breath, and the fact that it’s the worst final sector time since March shows it really was all I had. The distance walked yesterday may have had something to do with it, but normally it shouldn’t have, so I’m left with the fact that I slept little and poorly recently.
Back to the sector times, they were 4:43, 5:24, 6:09, 4:36, 5:12, 6:08, 4:42, 5:16, 6:22 and 1:56, making for lap times of 16:16, 15:56 and 16:22. Lap three and sectors one and three of it don’t reflect my actual pace because my right shoelace got untied twice, as I tied it back quickly in sector one and then it happened again in sector three, when I tried to do it more properly, but I’d say I lost ten seconds that second time and probably a bit less the first time, so even if also adding the little time lost trying to find my way through what appeared to be three groups of people coming from two directions and meeting right in front of me on that same sector one of lap three, it wouldn’t have been enough to stay under 50 minutes. And, again, it really was all I had, as at least since sector three of lap one I gave it everything, seeing how far behind the target pace I was.

Moving on, less than two and a half hours after I had posted the previous post, there was a power outage, a significant part of the city seeming affected. Not unexpected, considering the heat wave, but no less of a problem. And it lasted some two hours at first, then the power came back for a few minutes, then it failed again for a few more minutes, then it finally recovered for good and there were no more problems here since, though I think there was at least one other brief outage nearby that night. And it did show that my UPS is still doing well despite approaching three years, as between me napping when it happened, being woken up by it beeping and taking a bit to shut down the computer, and the computer taking a fair amount of time to shut down once the command was given, probably because it was trying to figure out why it had no Internet access anymore, it kept it running for some five minutes and didn’t complain of low battery. The ones I had before this one got to a low battery warning after some two minutes or even less soon after the two-year warranty they came with expired, and likely would have no longer worked at all by now.

After that, I waited out Saturday, which was the hottest day but which still didn’t bother me while staying inside, with window closed and blinds drawn until evening. I expected to at least feel somewhat uncomfortable, but it simply was not the case at all this time, and the highest temperature I saw reported by my CPU was 60°C, so there were no problems there either. And then the temperature was already several degrees lower on Sunday and Sunday evening some storms came, Monday had highs barely around 20°C, and it kept raining until Tuesday morning. And the forecast I’m seeing lists highs only around 30°C for the next two weeks, so even if I’m of course not expecting it to be particularly accurate for more than the next few days, it doesn’t seem like any more heat waves are coming during that time.

Getting to Tuesday, I had to return the book I had borrowed from the Library then, and I knew there was one that dad wanted to read for the projects he’s involved in and I saw on the site that I could pick it up from a branch that could be on the way, if I used another route to get back, so I asked him if he wanted it and then picked it up for him, since I’m the one who has a pass now. Sure hope he’ll take care of it though, because I’ll also be the one who’ll need to return it…
The problem was that a part of the return route was new to me, in the sense that, in two places, I knew where to start from and where I should arrive, but there was a section in between which, as far as I recall, I never walked on. And while the first time it all worked out just fine, before reaching the second such spot I somehow got the distinct feeling that I had walked too far and the larger intersection I could just spot in the distance was past the spot where I should have turned, which caused my mental map to flip around, making me certain that I had messed up quite some time before, going one way when I should have gone the other, because I knew I hadn’t passed by the intersection I was looking for. However, said intersection was just the one I could spot in the distance, so the fact that I went around, not even directly back the way I had come, until I had assured myself that I had walked the other way long enough to rule out the possibility of having turned the wrong way in the first place, only meant I added a 2.5-kilometer loop to my route before ending up just where I had started from. And that took the total distance covered on streets to some 16 and a half kilometers, according to Google Maps, to which some wandering around a farmers’ market, different from the one I recently bought things from, and a mall and the hypermarket in it, was added. Actually checked out two farmers’ markets, but the first was small and didn’t have anything to interest me, so it didn’t add much.

As for the last part of the title, yes, I’m just noticing my mouse double clicking again, so I guess oiling the top of the microswitch with just a little bit of cooking oil when neither me nor dad could open it properly to try to do more only gained me a little over a month. But it is something I guess, and I sure wish I’d have just tried slipping that matchstick through before dad damaged the area around that screw that won’t budge, making the mouse sit oddly and scratch the pad. But now let’s see if it’ll work again or this month was all I had before needing to take other, likely particularly expensive, measures, at a time when getting even a fraction of the money needed sure seems like it’ll be a huge problem. But at least for the next few days, I guess I’ll just be plugging the cheap spare mouse I got back in April back in and using it while playing, since I actually got back to Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic these days, and maybe also when selecting files I don’t want to open or launching programs I don’t want to risk launching twice, if it’ll get bad enough again too soon.

Writing this on the second day of this year’s first actual heat wave, but I’m sitting here with the window closed and blinds drawn, so it doesn’t matter much. Not that it’d have really bothered me either way, the reported highs being the same as yesterday, around 35°C, and there’s also a fair bit of wind, which actually makes it nice in the kitchen, where the window is open. But I kept it closed until evening yesterday and I’m doing the same now, in part also because the bright light and maybe also the feeling of possibly being watched definitely don’t make writing any easier and I left it late enough as it is. Tomorrow these measures may be needed for the temperature alone though, with the forecast mentioning even up to 40°C, so it is likely to get rather uncomfortable even for me and I’ll be keeping an eye on my computer as well. But it should only be that one day, as it should get back below 35°C Sunday and next week should start with storms and significantly lower temperatures and then be quite fine after that.

But to start from the beginning of the period covered by this post, last Thursday I went to the Botanical Garden, to at least use the first of the four free entries I got when I volunteered, as I had been told that the best time to see some things was April or May and for others May or June and it was late June already. Since the greenhouses were listed as closing at 1 PM, I wanted to be there at 11 AM, or preferably even a bit earlier, so I meant to leave around 9:30 AM, considering the distance and that I was going to walk all the way. That didn’t work quite like that, but it was close enough, as I only managed to go out the door at 9:50 AM, but was there at 11:05 AM. And, either way, I noticed the summer schedule listed there, which contradicted the one on-line, as it stated that greenhouses were open until 3 PM, though on the other hand I saw the museum scheduled to close at 3 PM as well, though on-line it says 5 PM.
When I arrived, I saw a group of people talking in another language standing just outside. I later thought it was probably Portuguese, but I’m not certain, or I might have heard others speaking Portuguese instead, as they definitely weren’t the only foreign people there at the time. Either way, they walked in right after me, before I could show my pass to the person there, so I stepped aside and let her handle them first. However, that was not so easy, because they had someone who spoke English very well but the woman handling the tickets didn’t. I think they asked about two other languages as well, but that didn’t get them anywhere either, so they just tried to somehow sort things out without a common language while I kept meaning to step in and translate but couldn’t get myself to actually say anything at first.
Eventually did step in when the person who knew English took a folder, which I guess had the map when spread out and information, possibly also in English, on the rest of it, and someone else from their group grabbed several more, prompting the woman handling the tickets to ask if they’re not together, quite confused. So I translated that question, repeated myself when I wasn’t understood at first, then was asked to also ask whether the tickets for the “treehouse” are also paid there or at the entrance in question. That, of course, being the greenhouse entrance, and yes, I did say it was a greenhouse and not a treehouse, two or three times, but I didn’t seem to be getting through. Either way, was told those were also paid there, after which the group meant to leave, which rather confused me. They were leaving without their change though, so they were called back, I also shouted and explained why, then due to the lack of a common language the woman handling the tickets made the calculations on a piece of paper, to show that she was giving correct change, getting a thumbs up in return. Those calculations didn’t really make sense to me though, as prices seemed to be discounted even though they shouldn’t have been, but one more category seemed to be added, and in the end it seemed to me that they got more money back than they should have. But I probably got something all wrong.
Either way, after the group left, I stuck my head inside the booth through the small opening, though I guess you’re not supposed to do that, and gave my pass and a 5 RON bill, for the tickets for the greenhouse and museum. But, after first being asked whether I had any more of those passes, which was a question I didn’t get the point of, I was told that for the museum you pay at the entrance and something along the lines that maybe I’ll just leave 1 RON there if I want to for the greenhouse. That didn’t make sense to me, and contradicted what I had been told to tell the group, and I was wondering whether I was being waved through either because I had been a volunteer or because I helped a little with that translation, or perhaps a combination of the two, and asking myself how will the person checking for tickets at the greenhouse know that.
I had no reason to worry though, as there didn’t seem to be anybody checking anything at the greenhouses. I mean, there definitely was nobody at the small old greenhouse, which I found first, and then at the big ones there seemed to be someone at the table at the entrance, but she was talking to someone else and didn’t pay any attention to the people going in. Found the person who had spoken in English from that group there again, standing with one other, the rest having likely walked ahead, and she was clearly confused and wondering out loud whether they could just walk in or there was something else to do, but since I could just walk in, I just walked in and didn’t bother with anything else. Not I got much out of it, but I wanted to make sure I saw everything, so I looked at the plants and read the information available, though it seemed quite little to me and in one of the rooms I didn’t find anything at all. Also tried to read the labels on the plants, but I was mainly seeing scientific names, so unless one actually knew what it was all about, they didn’t seem to be of much help and after a bit I started pretty much ignoring them.
Back outside, I started wandering around, first going through the Rosarium, though most roses were wilting. That was still better than the Iridarium though, as that was what I had been told should be visited in April or May and there were no flowers to be seen at all anymore. Other areas varied, but there wasn’t really anything to catch my attention, so I just tried to make sure I explored every little bit of the place and read all information I could find, going back a few times through some areas and even ending up on narrow footpaths through grass and weeds, wondering whether those were areas the volunteers will work on next or they were just for the staff to use. Outside the sectors with certain themes, it all seems to be in a pretty poor state, but that does also create a few nice spots, such as an old bench under an old tree, a bit away from the main paths but still before being left with just those narrow footpaths and grass and weeds, where I found a couple talking and cuddling. Passed by the area a few times and they were still there, so I just passed right in front of them once, trying to go around otherwise, so I’ll leave them in their little world. On the other hand, did glance at another couple I saw, when I heard him start explaining to her, in English, what it’d mean if he’d be in an open relationship with her.
While exploring, I saw a huge tree with a large structure in it that definitely looked like a birdhouse but which was probably large enough for a person to fit inside as well, albeit probably not a tall person. Found no way to get to it though. On the other hand, after having missed them the first time around, when I got back to those areas after checking the map at the entrance to see where I didn’t recall having been, I found what I remember a sign stating was the first project of this group that calls for volunteers every year there, the Children’s Garden, as well as the Garden with Remedies, apparently arranged by some other group. The Children’s Garden, apparently built in 2012, is now a ruin though, and a rather creepy one at that, its location only enhancing that impression, while the Garden with Remedies is surrounded by a tall hedge, which made me miss it at first due to seeing a sign but finding no entrance, and contains several different areas separated by shorter hedges that are very close together, so I had to just squeeze through, and in some places go around because some trees were completely blocking the way. Also about the Garden with Remedies, can’t say I actually found anything there other than a lot of butterflies flying out of those hedges, and there definitely were no labels or other information whatsoever other than the large sign at the main entrance, describing, in a general sense, what should have been there. Almost missed even that one, since I had found my way in through a smaller entrance instead.
Back to that group, did see a few people, including the one who coordinates these events, sitting down and I think eating as I was passing through the area close to the gift shop. Later, as I returned there, I saw the coordinator and just one other person, probably an employee, gathering the tools and equipment. And that was when I also noticed what was listed as their third project, the Garden of Books, supposedly built in 2015 but already in a poor state, with benches out of place and turned over and nothing looking right anymore. What I guess would be their second project, Grandmother’s Garden, next to the old greenhouse, is the only one that seems to still be in use, and people were working there when I had a look. Found it being mentioned on their site back in 2011 though, even before the Children’s Garden, so something’s probably wrong somewhere.
If you noticed the fact that I initially mentioned a museum but then didn’t say anything about actually visiting it, that’s because I didn’t. Had a look at the entrance, decided I’ll return later, did so, walked up the stairs, but decided against going in, thinking that if I didn’t spend money until then, I’ll keep it as a free visit. Found myself even less interested in the museum than in the Garden in general anyway. And I still have three visits on that pass, so I can just go some other time if I’ll feel like it.

This post was supposed to be shorter than just that section was, and it took me two hours just to get this far. But this actually means I wrote very quickly, so let me now move on to what I did after leaving the Garden, at 3 PM. And what I did then was check three hypermarkets that are sort of in the general area, eventually ending up buying some things just from the last one of them though I had meant to get something from another as well. The price was the same, I usually prefer to avoid the one I did get the things from in the end, and the one I meant to buy from is currently celebrating 16 years and they’re offering scratch tickets and entries to a draw with each purchase. But I just forgot about it then, grabbing what I meant to grab and starting to walk back… For one hour and about 45 minutes, on a sunny summer day, while carrying a number of things. My arms ended up rather tanned, actually, but the back of my neck sure was red, and I’m still peeling skin from there now. That didn’t stop me from going out again Friday, twice, picking up a couple of things during the day and a few more in the evening.

I think the blood comes after this, because I’m pretty sure it was Sunday. Either way, and this is once again something I guess most would file under “too much information”, one of those days I noticed blood out the rear end again, for the first time in quite a long time. Had admittedly rather pushed it, between holding it in when the bathroom was occupied when I meant to go and then even ending up skipping a day, trying to go right after waking up, especially after waking up early, when it usually just doesn’t work, and you definitely shouldn’t force things when you have such issues, and starting to feel a certain need while being outside and holding it in again. So it was likely to happen, it felt like it was going to, and then it did. Seems to be healing by now, though there was a little more in the first days after that.
One other thing is that I was so, shall we say, out of practice, that I didn’t even press the right way or wait enough for it to completely stop, just wiping and getting up, so I ended up with a bit of blood that even went through my underwear, got on my shorts, and then even on my chair. The shorts and the chair were easy to clean, though now the chair looks badly stained in the area where I used a bit of water and soap, likely due to all the dirt embedded in it over the years. It didn’t come off my underwear quite so easily though, so some trace of it was left. Makes it even more uncomfortable to think that women go through far worse on a regular basis…

Back to the trips I made, Monday I woke up early and went back to that farmers’ market, picking up some more apricots and green onions, plus a cabbage from two guys that had taken up a spot right in the corner, on a row that only had someone else at the other end, and seemed to be pretending that one was about to purchase something from the other, possibly taking turns. They had a label with where the products were from, but I only saw four cabbages and a bunch of supposedly green onions that were mostly wilted which they were pulling out of a bag. But the cabbages didn’t look bad and they were the cheapest ones there, so I just grabbed one of them and I’ll see how good it actually is, as I’m actually yet to get to it, still having enough from another to use tonight as well.
But that wasn’t all of it, since I wanted to get a few more things in a certain way, so while I didn’t go back out Monday, I did go Tuesday, wandering around, grabbing just a few things despite checking multiple places again. Actually, first grabbed a few things and checked multiple places, then got back, went back out to run, got back again, went back out to check out an announced protest against the person named as the new Prime Minister, and on the way back from there I took a detour to check some more places again and grab just one little discounted item. But, while at it, I found that, at least if you look in enough places and just want something to use right away, you can find quite a number of things pretty heavily discounted because they’re about to expire, so that’s something to keep in mind more.
Either way, was ready to wander around Wednesday as well, since there was still something to get in certain specific conditions, but I eventually found what I was looking for that time, so I could make just one trip, though I did check two other places on the way, just in case. Also, on top of what I actually went out to get, I bought a watermelon, the first one this year and also the first one I ever bought myself. They were huge and I got the smallest one, not counting those that looked different and were damaged, and even so I was close to the limit of what I wanted to allow myself to spend, but it’s good enough, and it is nice to have watermelon these days, considering the heat wave.

I already mentioned that this week’s run was Tuesday, and the time was 49:30, with sector times of 4:37, 5:11, 5:57, 4:33, 5:14, 5:58, 4:37, 5:18, 6:15 and 1:50, making for lap times of 15:45, 15:45 and 16:10. Was thinking I may end up skipping this week, seeing as I was going to wander around during the first part of the week and then I didn’t care for an evening run during the heat wave, but I found that time Tuesday and it actually went better than expected, considering the fact that I had just walked a fair distance. Pushed as hard as I could, probably even a bit harder than I would have normally dared to on that final sector, yet the time was definitely no record, so I really was at the limit.

In spite of that, I then just changed again and, as I stated above, went back out, walking to University Square, albeit for no real reason. Those who asked people to come to the protest were expecting only a few to show up, but I have to say even I was negatively surprised when I just noticed two people there when I first arrived, at 7:15 PM, so 15 minutes after the announced start time. There were about 20 more nearby, in the spot where they’re gathering signatures for a doomed and, in my view, completely pointless attempt to organize a referendum to remove the mayor of Bucharest from office, and some of those may have agreed with this protest as well and a few did briefly mix after they gathered their things, after 8 PM, but that still doesn’t mean much.
So I wandered away, returned, wandered away again, returned again, and eventually just sort of stayed in the area, around the small group that had formed but not chatting away, like the others did, or even really staying inside it. Until I left, a little after 8:30 PM, I had counted some 30 people, but don’t think there were more than 25 at any one time, as some had already left before others arrived. And with no shouting or chanting and only a single pretty small sign, not even the gendarmes seemed to care to bother, two of them walking past, returning, seeming to briefly communicate with someone, and then apparently being told to just leave us be, which was what they did.