Since the original plan for the post about losing the camera also included two days from July, I’ll start there, on July 17, when I left at 1:05 PM, with dad’s metro card and some electronics that I meant to drop off at Kaufland, including my old mouse, which I had finally decided to get rid of. After missing a metro by a minute and waiting for the next one, I got off at Basarab, dropped off those electronics, had a look in that Kaufland and was asked to show the contents of the backpack, where I just had some empty bags, when I asked to leave without purchasing anything. But at least I found a cart with a coin in it in the parking lot, though there didn’t seem to be any others that I could connect it to on the way to the exit, the only one I saw being full of trash, so I went back with it until I did find some others and could retrieve that coin.
My main destination, however, was Altex Orhideea, to look for what should have been a resealed Canon G5X Mark II, which was listed as available in that location and seemed to be the only one left in any store from here. Once I decided to see what new camera I could get, I ended up looking for a Panasonic TZ100 or TZ200, but the only ones that I could find were sold by other firms though eMag and overpriced, so when I saw that one there, and with such a discount, I decided to go and have a look. But I searched all over that store and couldn’t find it, and when I eventually asked an employee, he told me to wait in the TV area for his coworker… Who didn’t show up, so after a while that guy came back and said that he’ll try to look, because his coworker will be busy for a while. And when he also couldn’t find it, he tracked down a coworker who went with him, but they still couldn’t find it, so he told me that the guy who dealt with those products will look for it, since they have five or so cabinets in the back and it may be there, actually sealed despite what’s listed on the site, though the other option was that it was in service, so it was either new or broken.
Well, it seems like it was new after all, since when that other guy finally came, he brought the camera and said that it was discounted because it had been on clearance and that was the last one left, but it had in fact been sealed, though he opened it there, so I could have a look, and we exchanged a few words. I also asked him about the extended warranty and he said that I could extend it up to six years, also checking to tell me the fee, and he added the purchase to the account which I had just recreated before leaving, since I had allowed it to be deleted when they changed their system at some point, not wanting to use that store again… But this time around it seemed like I had no choice. Either way, I asked whether I could get the extension later and he said no, and when I said that I thought that it was possible, he said that it might be possible in the first 48 hours, so I left it at that, just buying the camera at that point and then putting it in the “shopping backpack”, since I hadn’t also taken the money needed for the extended warranty with me. And then I just got a nice sweet thing from the expiring products from that Carrefour, obviously not leaving the camera in a cabinet.
When I got to the metro station I needed to try a few times until the card worked, which took long enough to just see the doors of the train closing as I was getting down the stairs. So I waited for the next one and went to Crangasi, wanting to grab The Hidden Life of Trees from the Library’s location from that area and looking around until I found it. There was a bookmark in it and I let the person who was there know, but after a rather awkward back and forth I ended up leaving it in the book, saying that I’ll bring it back along with it. And then she said that another similar book was also available, handing me Brilliant Green and asking whether I wanted that one as well, and I ended up taking it. A little after walking away, I stopped to put the books and the camera in the backpack with rope straps, which I had also taken with me, but just as a little protection, since I then put that backpack back in the large one.
I continued to that Auchan, to get water for dad, but I first explored that location and found plenty of expiring products, eventually deciding to just get two things. I couldn’t find that water, however, and while there were employees in that area while I was searching, by the time I finally worked up the courage to ask, all of them seemed to have vanished. I eventually found one at the other end of the store, but she said that none of that kind was left, so I just bought those two things, letting an employee scan them since I wasn’t sure that the machines from that location were self-checkouts and didn’t try to use one directly, so I just used a machine to pay.
After adding the purchases in the backpack and getting back to the metro station, I once again watched the train just leave when I got there. I had also ordered an SD card from this nearby store before going to bed in the morning, and it was listed as in stock, so I had initially hoped to be able to make a detour and get it on the way back, which I’d have no longer had time to do at that point, but there had been no message to let me know that I could pick it up that day anyway. I still wanted to be back pretty quickly, however, in order to watch something, but I had no water for dad, so I decided to get off at Obor and dash to that Auchan as well, grabbing some expiring roes, also for dad, and then a pack of water. And when I used the self-checkout I confirmed that it does indeed round down the price to a value that’s divisible by 0.05 RON, to not use 0.01 RON coins. And stopping in order to remove everything else from the large backpack and put the water there instead, a guy stopping to help me do that, and then put the other purchases in a bag and wear the backpack with rope straps in front, at least meant that the previous train had left three minutes before I got back to the station, so if I’d have just rushed there, carrying the water, I’d have probably just missed it yet again.
It was almost 6:15 PM when I got back, with almost 17 kg… And I saw dad stuffing sausages in an already overfilled freezer and meaning to start cooking something that wasn’t what we had talked about, since I wanted to make some peas and he had said that he’ll make some as well, in a different way, which should have freed space in the freezer. And he apparently stuffed those sausages in there in a way that didn’t allow the freezer door to close properly and I didn’t check until after showering, at which point I noticed that some things weren’t properly frozen anymore, so I tried to rearrange what I could. But before going to the bathroom, to pretty much waste time on the toilet and then shower, I ate a banana and the sweet thing from Carrefour, peeled the potatoes for dad and cleaned and rearranged some things. Then I had more things to wash in the kitchen, eventually having lunch after the food was done, and at least it did turn out well. I also did the day’s squats, and then I had another look and noticed that the camera needed an USB-C cable, but I put the SD card from the old one in it, took a few pictures and then put it back in that one in order to get them on the computer and have a good look.
It was almost 1:15 AM when I got back in the kitchen and I had more to scrape off the tray and things to wash and clean. At some point I also got back to the computer and checked a few things on-line, confirming that you can get the extended warranty later, by paying the fee in any Altex location. And I still had to make some use of some sliced bread as well, so I ended up eating dinner between 3:45 AM and 4:25 AM. And I added an USB to USB-C cable to the order which had initially only been for the SD card, and then I made a separate one for some cheap headphones for dad, since he had asked me to look for some after his had snapped. Even though I didn’t floss and left a few things unwashed, it was still just after 5:15 AM when I got in bed.
On July 18, I wanted to have lunch before leaving again, and dad had left one thing in the fridge for a long time, so I wanted to use it… Only to see that it was moldy and had to be thrown away, which was annoying. So I didn’t have lunch at that point, going to throw a bag of trash down the chute, dashing back to wash my hands and actually leaving once again at 1:05 PM, also taking even the new camera with me, not just the invoice and receipt, just in case. And I once again had the metro card, but after seeing that I could get the extended warranty from any location and knowing that there is one at Obor as well, I went there.
I first had another look in that Auchan, confirming that they also seemed to want to get rid of the products of their own brands that have Nutri-Score labels, but only some of those products were discounted and the discounts were lower, so I just got a few things, plus some more expiring roes for dad, using the small amount that was on the store card at the self-checkout and then putting the purchases in the “shopping backpack”. And when I got to that Altex I said that I saw on-line that you can purchase the extension at any point during the warranty period, but at the other location I had been told that it could only be done during the first 48 hours, and they confirmed that it could be purchased at any point during the warranty period as long as the product hasn’t been serviced yet. So I paid for the full six years, then walked out and put the “shopping backpack” on a bench, taking out the camera and looking for a serial number or any other identifying numbers, though none seemed to have been included, the documents just listing the product code and the number of the invoice for the extension. Either way, I had my things in the middle of that bench, so when a man asked whether he could sit while I was there I moved them to one side, then put everything back and continued on my way.
After crossing the street and just checking that Mega Image, entering with everything, I went to that Penny, once again entering with everything and finding an expiring hummus that was hidden behind the other expiring products and seemed much cheaper than it should be, the base price that was written on it being much lower than the actual one, so I grabbed it, along with another pack of paper towels. None had been left on the shelf, but I found a stack and got one from there, being careful to avoid bringing down the stack, since packs of toilet paper were on top of the paper towels. However, at the checkout I was told a higher total, the hummus scanning at its normal price, but I pointed to the price that was clearly written on it and, after initially trying to explain what the machine was listing, the cashier made a call and was apparently allowed to sell it for that amount. Then I added the purchases in the large backpack.
I did put the backpack in a cabinet when I got to Kaufland, and when I found expiring walnuts with Himalayan salt at a good discount, I got two more, meaning to give one away. Then I got a couple of other things and, while I’m not entirely sure, I do think that I left the discount voucher received for plastic bottles on July 14 there that day, so on the last day when it was still valid, looking for the products that it was valid for and placing it there. Either way, at the self-checkout one of the boxes of walnuts scanned with both the discounted and the full price, the discount label not being placed over the bar code and one scanner “catching” that bar code when I scanned the discount sticker on the other. How did the machine accept two products being scanned without the first one being placed on the scales first, I’m not sure, but it meant that I had to call an employee to sort out the problem. Then I retrieved what I had in the cabinet and arranged everything in the backpack.
I once again put the backpack in a cabinet when I got to Carrefour, but I forgot that I also wanted some tea from there, so I missed that price as a result. However, I saw that the watermelons were discounted more than they should have been those days, and while they were large and most seemed to be past their best, a huge one seemed fine when I tapped it. One of the signs that it wasn’t quite ripe yet was there, but I thought that the sound was a better indicator and ignored it… And that probably turned out well, even though it really wasn’t fully ripe at that point, because it did seem to get sweeter after a while and it had 12.5 kg and we only finished it after almost a month, on August 13. On the other hand, it also had a really thick peel, so a part of the weight was in that, plus that watermelons were going to have that same price at Penny as of the next day, and that remains the lowest price that I have seen this year, even though I’d have considered it a high price even two years ago, and more or less normal last year. Either way, I couldn’t have known that, so I bought that one, then retrieved what I had in the cabinet, carried everything a few steps away and then took my time to rearrange what I had, putting just the watermelon in the backpack and everything else in a bag. Even so, I struggled to get up after putting on the backpack and a woman who noticed me just then asked whether I was all right.
After making my way back to the metro station, I got back at 4:55 PM, with a little over 19 kg. I did look for someone to give those walnuts to on the way from this metro station and did consider a guy who was sweeping in front of a building, probably actually being a street sweeper, judging by the clothes, but that thought sort of came as I passed him, plus that I mainly wanted to give something to a homeless person, so I didn’t turn back. And, to skip to the morning, it was past 5:20 AM when I got in bed.
I started reading Brilliant Green in the first moments of July 20, and in the morning I was woken up by a cramp, which was definitely bad when I was going to run that day. But at least I was already awake when, almost right after that, I received the SMS that let me know that I could pick up the SD card and USB-C cable. It was 11:45 AM and, after peeing, I wondered what to do, since it was going to be hotter and sunnier earlier but later there was some risk of storms, so I had considered waking earlier. But I eventually decided on a compromise, moving the alarm to 1 PM, though the fact that it took a while before I got back to sleep probably meant that I just got a brief nap before getting up. Then I had a banana instead of the apple, since we had some that really had to be eaten and I meant to have watermelon after the run. Then, after the usual yogurt with cereals and almonds, the sweet thing was a slice of cozonac, with added honey, and I also drank most of the tea. I wanted to leave shortly after 3 PM, but it was past 3:25 PM when I actually did, wearing the full running gear and one armband, with some things in the pocket of my tights. The reported temperature was about 34°C, holding steady.
The time was 1:23:36, with sector times of 4:27, 5:11, 6:02, 4:34, 5:09, 5:58, 4:41, 5:18, 6:28, 5:01, 5:38, 6:46, 5:17, 6:04 and 7:02, making for lap times of 15:40, 15:41, 16:27, 17:25 and 18:23. I was thinking that it’d be awesome to stay under 1:20 in that heat, but I really aimed to stay under 1:22 and thought that even that might prove hard and I may end up trying to just avoid the slowest ever time, the first one, but didn’t really believe that I’ll be that close to it. And when I aimed to stay under 4:30 on the first sector and under 16 minutes on the first lap and managed to do somewhat better than that, even if getting over six minutes on sector three was worrying, I wondered whether I could also stay under 16 minutes on lap two. And when I had an almost identical time on the two laps, I wondered whether staying under 1:21 was actually possible and thought that staying under 1:22 was quite certain… But I soon realized that if I’ll hit the wall it really wasn’t, and after two sectors of lap three that gave me hope, on the third I was pretty much done and I went well over the 16:15 that was the target for that lap. So from then on it was a matter of getting to the end and after sector one of lap four I realized that I could even be looking at my worst ever time, and the exhaustion made it hard to calculate, so I pushed as much as I could on lap five, at first not knowing whether I was aiming for 1:22:30 or 1:23:30, then thinking that I had covered sector two in 5:04 instead of 6:04 and wondering whether getting under 1:22 was possible after all, not realizing that it’d have actually been 1:23 even so. In the end, it was the worst time over this distance since March of 2018 and the fourth slowest ever, after that first one, the fourth and the third, which was on snow and ice and in below freezing temperatures.
There were some gusts of wind, even headwind, but the cooling effect mattered more. It was cloudy at first, but it cleared close to the end of lap one and I had to put looking for the most shaded route above all else. I think it was after the long straight of sector two of lap three when it got cloudy again and it fortunately stayed that way; I don’t see how I could have even finished otherwise, especially since I was pretty much done from the very next sector even so. Otherwise, completely unnecessarily tightening the right shoelace cost me a few seconds on sector two of lap one, and it was rather difficult to regain my speed after that. And the feeling that I hadn’t left everything in the toilet appeared even before leaving and reappeared, on and off, while running. But more concerning was that there were moments when my heart felt weird, I think the first coming as early as after the long straight of sector two of lap one, and moments when I seemed about to get dizzy probably started appearing from lap two and increased in frequency as time passed. And my legs were burning from sector three of lap four and I think that my arms started going numb after the long straight of sector one of lap five, and there was a spot on my left arm, right under the armband, that started to occasionally hurt from then on as well. It was just so hard to keep going, starting to feel dehydrated when I was only halfway through or so, and it was also harder and harder to think, so some of these details may be somewhat off. I thought to stop at a drinking fountain and at least splash some water on me at the start of lap four, then postponed that to the start of lap five, then gave up on the idea, thinking that I couldn’t spare the time while wondering whether I’ll be able to finish without doing that. But at least there were few people and they only caused couple of small issues, nothing notable.
It started drizzling just when I finished, which probably helped me stay on my feet, but my vision was already weird after climbing those stairs and when I stood back up after sitting on a bench in order to get what seemed to be something out of my right shoe it got worse and I felt that I was about to faint. But I had to get to that store before it closed, so I was careful with my breathing, tried to stay close to something that I could hold on to if needed and kept going, managing to get there in time and pick up the order, after “managing” to mess up what should have been an easy to remember order number, then realizing it and saying the correct one, but also taking out the tiny slip of paper that I had written it on in order to confirm.
The little time spent in that store, where it was cooler, helped a lot, so I then jogged the brief distance to that Mega Image, entering with the bag with those products and buying an expiring pudding. I don’t think that I ever cared for anything of the sort before, but when I saw some there at that point, it seemed like a good idea. And the cashier rounded down the price. And that day it really helped that Mega Image stores aren’t just cooled, but pretty much cold during summer, being kept at temperatures that make employees wear warm clothes and keep complaining of the cold, and which can cause quite a temperature shock for customers. So I felt almost fully recovered by the time I walked back out, and I pretty much ran back here. Of course, the fact that it was noticeably cooler outside also helped a lot… And meant that things would have been very different if I’d had stuck to my usual schedule, going to run about an hour later, even if that’d have meant not picking up that order that day.
After getting back, I ate that pudding, finished the tea and made another, and also ate a bag of snacks. And I put the SD card in the new camera, took some pictures, used that cable to connect it to the computer, checked… At first I was worried that something seemed wrong in one spot, something strange appearing in the exact same spot on two of the pictures, but it wasn’t there on the others, and it’s not like I could have asked for the camera to be replaced with another one when it seems to be the last one available here, so checking for tiny potential problems right away was rather pointless, and in case something notable comes up I have six years of warranty.
Either way, I went out again at 8:05 PM, taking those walnuts with Himalayan salt that I meant to give away and going to the Carrefour and Kaufland that are next to each other, thinking that it may lead to having more options, since that Kaufland still closed at 10 PM. That proved wrong, but I couldn’t have known that, so from Carrefour I got some more expiring roes for dad and a bag of spoiling apricots for myself, after checking the few different bags, taking the one that seemed better and then looking for a spot where I could open it and look more carefully, confirming that the apricots were indeed quite good. And I also saw more frozen products of their own brands that had Nutri-Score labels and were at half price, including two remaining bags of a mix of vegetables that dad sometimes uses, so I had to at least get one, despite knowing that there was no room in the freezer. And I once again had to call an employee to sort things out after a product, dad’s roes, scanned with both the discounted and the full price.
After putting the purchases in the backpack, I went to Kaufland, washed my hands, entered with everything not long after 9 PM… But there was no evening discount for bread and other bakery products were only discounted by 30%, and I scanned a few labels to confirm that, so I went to get some other things until the 50% discount for bakery products was announced, at almost 9:30 PM. However, after scanning more labels I found that it didn’t apply to plenty of products, so I just got a sweet pastry that it did apply to. Some time later, I asked the employee who had placed the new labels and started cleaning about bread, but she said that the discounts were just the listed ones, so I didn’t get bread. And I went to the self-checkout when it was announced that the store had closed.
I then rushed to that Mega Image, stopping at a bench to put the other things in the backpack and leave the sweet pastry and two expiring breads for dad in the bag that hangs from my neck, and then entering with everything. A frail old man was arranging his purchases at that moment and I briefly considered giving him the walnuts, but I didn’t, also thinking that he might have bad teeth and perhaps see it as a bad joke. Either way, I didn’t find anything to get from there, so I just went in and out, and the guard gestured towards the bag when I was walking out, so I showed him what was in it and that it’s from Kaufland. He didn’t say anything about the backpack.
I had also seen an old woman sitting on a bench on the way to that Mega Image, and when I passed by her again I considered giving those walnuts to her as well, but there were other people on the next bench and, at least at a glance, it seemed that she was pretty much toothless, so I moved on yet again. But I still needed bread, so I continued to the Mega Image from Iancului, once again entering with everything… And still not finding anything to get. So I also entered the non-stop one that’s across the road from this metro station with everything, and while I still found nothing, on the way in I spotted what looked like a homeless man sitting next to that bus stop, so when I passed in front of him I handed him those walnuts, even though a woman had sat by him by then and they seemed to be talking, and she didn’t look homeless in the least. I just sort of muttered that he was sweating a lot those days, as a way to justify the salty walnuts, and walked off, feeling increasingly awkward as he thanked me profusely, then shouted after me when I had to stop at the light and thanked me again. Either way, I had a brief look in the nearby Mega Image as well, which had returned to the non-stop schedule, once again entering with everything and once again not finding anything to get.
I was finally back just before 11:25 PM. Then I selected three apricots that looked worse and ate those instead of any watermelon, put the purchases, with the exception of the kohlrabies from Kaufland, in their place, also looked for something for dad and then put back what I had taken out, and it was almost 12:45 AM when I went to the toilet and to take a bath… And I had just gotten in the bathtub when I realized that I hadn’t taken my towel or the shampoo, since I had finished the old one, so I went to grab them. It was almost 2 AM when I got back in the kitchen, and there was a lot to wash and clean, plus some things to rearrange in the fridge, so I ate lunch, on and off, between 3 AM and 4 AM, and then had dinner between 4:35 AM and 5:30 AM. I got in bed at 6:05 AM… And the following morning I got in bed at 5:20 AM.
On July 22, I finished Brilliant Green and posted the quick review, though I wrote the Romanian translation before going to the kitchen at night and edited what I posted on Goodreads and The StoryGraph to add that when I got back to my room to eat dinner, so in the early hours of July 23.
On July 28, I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, had the usual stuff, with the sweet thing being two of those expired nicer biscuits, with added honey, and left a few minutes after 4:30 PM, wearing the full running gear but forgetting to also take the armband. The reported temperature was 28-29°C, holding steady or maybe increasing by just 1°C by the time I finished. And the work on the sidewalk, replacing it with that pink pavement that the mayor filled the sector with, had reached just this area at that point, so I had to be careful where I stepped as I walked out. And a part of that narrow strip of greenery from that side of the building was, of course, destroyed in the process, though someone put up messages asking for that to not be done… But that’s what this mayor does everywhere…
Either way, the time was 47:44.19, with sector times of 4:19.04, 5:05.60, 5:56.09, 4:31.03, 4:58.22, 5:48 (5:47.15), 4:24, 4:54, 5:57.10 and 1:52 (1:51.93), making for lap times of 15:20.73, 15:17 (15:16.40) and 15:15.13. I covered the first two sectors of lap three in 9:18.03, but even though I clearly looked and calculated, I guess I didn’t actually memorize the time for sector one of lap three, maybe because I pushed so hard on sector two, so after sector two I realized that I just didn’t know it. I was thinking of something along the lines of 4:24.63, which would mean 4:53.40 for sector two, but that may be off. It was definitely over 4:24 for sector one and under 4:54 for sector two when it comes to the exact time, and probably over 4:24.50 and under 4:53.50, respectively, but I really couldn’t be sure. Either way, I hoped to get back under 48 minutes but really doubted it, pushing hard from the start and thinking that I was some ten seconds slower than I should have been on sector one, so from then on I just hoped to at least cover the first lap in less than 15:20… And when I failed, however narrowly, I thought that I was looking at 49 minutes and worried that even that might prove difficult if the heat will once again exhaust me. And sector one of lap two didn’t look that good, but the next two sectors were surprisingly fast and the lap was faster than the first, so I just gave it everything on lap three, wondering if I somehow did have a chance to stay under 48 minutes after all. I still didn’t really see it as possible despite the great sector one of lap three, but that shockingly fast sector two made it seem that I was safe, and the lap was actually the day’s fastest, despite a sector three that was, marginally, the slowest. In truth, it’s only what should be a normal time, but after the previous week’s awful run, I definitely needed something like this.
I had to slow and wait for a way through a roadblock on sector one of lap two, but that was the only notable problem caused by people. As for physical issues, I needed to snap my back towards the end of sector two of lap one, but I eventually managed to do so, the warnings that my right leg gave on sector three of lap two also went away after that, and I otherwise felt quite fine, though it was sunny and uncomfortably hot, so I was looking for a shaded route, and avoiding much of the lane, which was soggy and also had a few areas that were fenced off. And I’ll also add here that I passed by the Sector’s mayor on the first lap, on sector two, if I remember correctly. He was riding a bicycle, obviously with others around him, but I didn’t say or gesture anything… I definitely thought quite a few things, however…
This is how far I got before midnight, and at least it’s enough to let me stick to the original plan for this post, since when I thought that I won’t even get this far I meant to just stop before July 28. So I edited the post in order to add the part about the rest of that day, and also the one about July 31, Tuesday afternoon.
After getting back, I ate walnuts with Himalayan salt and some raspberry compot, then went out again, at 8:05 PM, taking 15 bottles and dad’s metro card and going to Obor. I put the bottles in a cabinet when I got to Carrefour, then got beer for dad and saw that they were discounting bakery products, so I grabbed some and moved on, getting some other things and then returning to the bakery area and adding a bread which had also been discounted by then. At the self-checkout, I used the voucher received for the cat litter which I had ordered on-line, then retrieved what I had in the cabinet and rushed away, since it was already 9:40 PM and that location of Kaufland was still listed as closing at 10 PM on the site.
Well, the closing time listed on the door was 10:30 PM, so I first went to put the bottles in the machine, looking oddly when a discount voucher for sunscreen, which was what had been offered in exchange for recyclables two weeks earlier, was on the floor… And then being even more surprised when the vouchers I got were for sunscreen as well. So I went in, put my things in a cabinet and asked the guy from the information desk to confirm the closing time… Only for him to say that it was still 10 PM, so I said that it said 10:30 PM on the door, at which point he said that in that case it’s 10:30 PM… You’d think that he’d know when he was supposed to get off work… Either way, I also asked about those vouchers and he looked and said that they hadn’t been changed yet at the machine, and when I mentioned that those for sunscreen were from two weeks before, he said that he knew that, and no, they couldn’t be used for a discount on ice cream, which was what should have been offered those days. However, after I sent a message on-line the following day, I received a quick reply stating that those vouchers should actually be replaced at the information desk for those who ask for it. But I didn’t know that at that point and didn’t press, just going to wash my hands and entering the store at 9:55 PM, just getting some spoiling mushrooms and another expiring product. As I was checking the refrigerated expiring products, two employees came to add more and I heard one mention “the discount hunter”, seeming to refer to me, but why wouldn’t I be?
After retrieving what I had in the cabinet, I went outside and arranged everything in the “shopping backpack”, walking away when it was a few minutes past 10:30 PM and going around in order to check a Mega Image, which I entered with everything. I found more discounted apple pastries, but I had already found and bought two from Carrefour, the price being lower there, so I didn’t get them, only getting the single Kapia pepper that I found there. Then I got back to the metro, only adding that pepper in the backpack while waiting for the train. And I once again used the route that took me past the house which had recently burned, as I had done on my way to the metro station as well, and it still smelled of burning, but I was quite impressed that the kindergarten that’s right next to it and the house that’s on the other side of a narrow alley looked undamaged, so I assumed that the other two houses that were reported as affected were behind the one that had its upper part completely burned down, since I didn’t actually go down that narrow alley to check. I did later see images that showed some damage to the kindergarten, at the top, but I’m still impressed by how much the firefighters managed to limit it.
I got back at 11:25 PM, with 13.5 kg, put most of the purchases, along with some things brought by dad, in their place, washed just a few things, ate an apple pastry, finished the compot, and went to the bathroom at 1 AM, just wasting time on the toilet and then showering. I was done at 1:45 AM, but then I spent a fair amount of time rearranging things in the fridge and adding what was left, though the cabbages couldn’t fit, so I put them in the cabinet from the balcony. I also washed a few more things and started eating lunch when it was past 2:45 AM, taking bites while working on dinner, so I finished lunch at 3:45 AM and then moved straight to dinner, which I ate between 3:50 AM and 4:25 AM. I got in bed at 5:50 AM. And my nose was a little irritated after the run, and that remained the case after getting up, while the following evening my feet were once again rather swollen, and that night I initially got in bed at 5:20 AM… Only for dad to get back seconds later, so I went to talk to him a little, actually getting in bed when it was past 5:25 AM.
Before going to bed on the morning of July 31, I started The Hidden Life of Trees. And after waking up at one point in the morning, I decided to set the new camera to film me if I’ll get back to sleep, wondering if I snore or rock myself, at which point I found that there’s no option for a lower video resolution and filming time is limited to 29:59… And the first attempt, which ended when the maximum duration was reached, resulted in an apparently empty file, with a size of zero, when I tried to copy it on the computer. However, if that time I didn’t try anything else, just deleting that file, when I tried again on another day, I saw that the camera could play such a recording, even though the file still seemed to be empty if I tried to copy it on the computer. Either way, a second attempt made that morning ended after less than 14 minutes, when the battery died, so it can film a total of about 45 minutes on a full battery, if it’s not used for anything else at all during that time. That seems awfully little, and I’d still want at least an option for 1280×720 at a normal frame rate, and most preferably to be able to select 640×480 as well, or 640×360 if the 16:9 ratio is a requirement for video.
Either way, July 31 would have been a really good day to run, but the forecast had listed storms, so I didn’t plan to run and didn’t, even though the storms were only in the morning, while during the afternoon it was cloudy but it only drizzled a little. On the other hand, that day I somehow finally got myself to try to do something that I had been meaning to do since April. The plan had been to install the last 32-bit Linux Mint on the old computer, to see if and how it worked, seeing as I keep considering to install it on this one as well, and I still didn’t do that, but at least I connected that old computer to the monitor, keyboard and mouse from dad’s, so I won’t mess anything up with mine, and saw that it still worked, at least after I made the proper BIOS settings again, since it had forgotten them, the battery having obviously died after such a long time, that computer just staying in the corner of my room since the end of September 2016. And it has Linux Mint on it, albeit version 18.0, which I installed on it back then, and I used it to verify the USB stick that I had placed version 19.3 on, but when I saw that it still worked normally, I was wary about deleting something that I might have placed on that HDD back then. I really doubt that there was anything at all on the system partition, much less anything which may still prove useful in the future and which I didn’t copy back on this computer, but I couldn’t get myself to do it, and in fact just doing what I did was enough to make me need to rush to the toilet.
As for that night, I ate dinner in the kitchen. Since I was going to cover a half marathon distance, which is a matter for another post, I meant to also have some peanut butter, but I gave up on that idea and ended up eating more of the mix of cheese and sour cream that was obviously spoiling for some time. I was actually wondering whether mold had started appearing on it, since it looked somewhat strange, but there was no change in color that I could see, so maybe there was no mold just yet.