Cav's Place

Yesterday was the 500th day of the current stage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. True, counting the days made far more sense in the beginning, and even more so when almost everyone was expecting Ukraine to lose quickly, but 500 is the “roundest” number between 100 and 1000, and I must hope that 1000 will never be reached, and that the reason will be the opposite of those initial expectations, that Russia and Putin’s regime will lose long before that point, unequivocally and in a manner that will ensure that they will stop being a threat. Unfortunately, while now the risk of Ukraine actually being defeated has all but vanished, the chance of Russia suffering such a defeat are similarly low, if not even lower.
There’s little point in writing this here when so many others who are so much better suited to make such assessments keep saying it, and even less in doing so yet again, after what I posted after this started and, especially, after 50 days, as well as in a few other posts, but I nevertheless will: The West could and should have stopped this from ever happening. All the signs that it was coming had been there, blindingly obvious, for many, many years. The means to stop it, the strength for the necessary show of force and the capacity for any additional operations which might have been required if the show of force wouldn’t have been enough on its own, were most definitely available, and in fact less costly and with fewer risks than what will be required to ensure that Ukraine will obtain a solid victory. All that lacked was the will, be it political or that of the society as a whole… As is the case when it comes to many other major problems, of various kinds and on various levels.
At least some more concrete military aid is finally being offered to Ukraine, albeit still far from sufficient and after unforgivable delays that caused an appalling amount of suffering, destruction and death. And it would appear that some more specific commitments are going to be made… Not that those are worth much of anything on their own. But maybe, just maybe, some important steps actually will be taken in the right direction. Maybe, just maybe, some actually are waking up and not just saying so. Maybe, just maybe, the horrors endured by Ukrainians and the various, albeit far lesser, hardships fallen upon the rest of us as a result of this war will eventually prove to not have been for nothing. It won’t lessen the blame falling on the shoulders of those who could and should have prevented it from ever happening and chose not to, but maybe, just maybe, it’ll end up marking a moment when the world eventually chose a solution that made some amount of sense. Not that I have many hopes of that actually happening…

With the plan being to follow last year’s pattern and run twice on June 15, I meant to spend most of the previous day resting, only doing a load of laundry, since dad had knocked one of my boxers off the wire while gathering his things after the previous load and I was going to run out of underwear before the next run, and I really didn’t want to have to do anything on the day between these two runs and the third. So I did that, but I also spent hours transcribing something for dad, and then more hours in the kitchen, cleaning up after he cooked, using three pots, the largest pan and various other things and leaving quite a mess in order to cook something that I’d have used a single pot for. And, after shaving, it was a little after 1 AM when I got back in the kitchen, and then I spent quite some time rearranging my bread in the freezer, to take out the piece that I wanted and make room for two of dad’s, and then I sliced three of his, to also leave one more out, and also dealt with my remaining one, even though I had to put it back in the drawer after microwaving it a little, since there was no room for it in the freezer yet. And I cleaned and washed what I could in the kitchen, so it was past 3 AM when I even took the green onions and the one beet that I had baked earlier out of the fridge. The salad consisted of baked beets, green onions and a little lemon, but it still meant that I ate dinner between 3:55 AM and 4:35 AM, also doing some searches in order to check and fix a few things in that transcript while eating, before I could send it to dad. It was a couple of minutes past 5:15 AM when I got in bed, despite leaving the two large plates that I had used unwashed and also not flossing.
After all of that, I was tired and even sore when I got up, at 2 PM, when the alarm rang. Then I had the usual stuff, with the yogurt being a nicer one, with 10% fat and 5% protein. The sweet thing was an expired bar, with added honey. I left at 4:45 PM, wearing the full running gear, an armband and the running belt, with some things split between it and the pocket of my tights. The reported temperature was about 29°C, the forecast listing 1-2°C less when I’ll finish the first run and probably 25°C at the start and 24°C at the end of the second. On the other hand, since I also took the protein milk grabbed after the half marathon with me, on the way to the park I made a small detour to a Shop & Go, finding a free cabinet that locked and leaving it there.
The time was 1:19:20, with sector times of 4:33, 5:06, 6:03, 4:36, 5:05, 5:54, 4:31, 5:09, 6:00, 4:38, 5:20, 6:15, 4:47, 5:23 and 6:00, making for lap times of 15:42, 15:35, 15:40, 16:13 and 16:10. I was hoping to stay under 1:18, but the first sector made me worry that I’ll even go over 1:20, which was the “worst case” target, so despite meaning to take it somewhat easier at first, I did push more from sector two, which resulted in a time that was good enough. However, going over six minutes on sector three was bad, even considering the fact that I had lost a little time because of a shoelace, and I was clearly off the pace for 1:18. That was no longer the case on lap two, but it just meant that staying under 1:20 was less of a concern. And lap three was also slightly faster than the first, making me think of staying under 1:19… Albeit not for long, sectors two and three of lap four, and the lap as a whole, making it quite clear that 1:19 was out of the question. I still thought about it and pushed, but that bad sector one of lap five, even if I once again pointlessly lost a little time with that shoelace during it, made it really clear that it was a lost cause, just leaving 1:19:30 as the target… And sector two meant that I had to really push to even have a chance at that. But I could push, ending up safely under 1:19:30… That was still a poor time, however, and a bad sign of what was to come.
I didn’t mean to push hard from the start, but still tried to do better than I did on the first sector, yet I felt that I couldn’t really go for it. And from lap four I got more and more exhausted, and on lap five my legs were starting to burn and my arms were sort of going numb, at least to some extent. And the pressing need which first appeared at the end of sector two of lap two, going away by the end of the lap, probably reappeared towards the end as well, initially seeming like it was going to be a real problem, though that proved to not be the case. But whatever got in my right eye right at the end of sector one of lap two caused the most discomfort, since I just couldn’t get it out, probably losing a little time on the following sector while trying to do so, and then continuing to occasionally try various methods after that, still unsuccessfully. And then there were the couple of seconds lost on sector three of lap one and sector one of lap five, when I stopped to tighten the right shoelace, since it seemed loose. It wasn’t, however, and while tightening it the first time might have prevented it from loosening later, that second stop was definitely unnecessary. And I also lost a couple of seconds at the start of sector two of lap five, to check the time after sector one, since it was getting dark. Otherwise, there were some windy areas, but the gusts were mostly from the side and the cooling effect was usually more important, the one place where the wind was a serious problem being at the start of sector one of lap three, when I really fought it under the bridge, and to some extent while going down the slope that comes right after the bridge as well.
As for the problems caused by people, on sector one of lap two, two girls went from one parent to the other in front of me, across the lane, and I had to stop for an instant in order to avoid them. Then, on sector one of lap four, I had to go off the path twice, the first time in order to avoid two guys riding bicycles or scooters, or perhaps one of each, I can’t quite recall, who used the one available spot through what was otherwise a roadblock but ended up coming straight towards me as a result, so I went towards the lake in order to avoid them, losing a couple of seconds while struggling to maintain my footing on that slope. And later on that same sector I slowed and took a step off the path in order to find a way through a roadblock when someone who was riding something and coming from the opposite direction was once again about to go through the one open spot. And a small patch that was fenced off, on sector three, in a spot where it could create problems, actually did so on lap five, when a woman and her kids walked across, right in front of that spot. They might have cleared the lane in time, but I couldn’t use it unless I wanted to slam into the fence a step later, so I was already on the left side, where they also were by the time I got there, and the woman was looking in the other direction and just kept going, so I had to hop on that area that I guess is the ship’s dock, shouting at them and losing a little time while regaining my footing, fearing that I was going to trip. And there were some lesser problems as well, but these are probably the notable ones.

I then went to retrieve the protein milk, but I didn’t drink it right away, just holding on to it while I made my way to Supeco and kept trying to get that thing out of my eye, finally seeming to manage to do so after a while. Then I put that protein milk in a cabinet, needing to try a few before finding one that locked, and got one of the bags of spoiling black radishes and just one small beet, and I wasn’t charged for the bag that those radishes were in. Then I retrieved the bottle from the cabinet, entered that Mega Image with everything, found an expiring juice that I considered getting but decided against it, and also checked the farmers’ market. Even the spoiling apples were really expensive, however, and the price of cabbage was still high in that location. I saw a lower price in only one place, for some small ones, and I went back in order to look more carefully, but even though the seller said that there was nothing wrong with them, they seemed to have been eaten through by something, so I gave up.
Then I went to Park Lake, using the toilet and seeing that my urine was finally as red as it should have been after eating beets, after being just orange when I woke up to pee in the morning and what would otherwise be a normal color, which wasn’t normal under those circumstances, after that. I also washed my hands and face quite well, even rinsed my mouth, and cleaned that eye better, trying to make sure that it was fine. Then I ate the protein bar that I had taken with me, put the other things in a cabinet and checked Carrefour, though I didn’t get anything. I only finally drank that protein milk after that, after retrieving it from the cabinet, then put the empty bottle back there, peed one more time, and went back to the park, only stopping on the first bench after crossing the road in order to quickly write down the times and mark which sectors the more notable problems had been on during the first run. It was getting late by then, since I had hoped to start running again at 8 PM, 8:10 PM at the very latest, and it was actually a little later than that when I did.

The time was 51:21.85, with sector times of 4:43.04, 5:20.00, 6:08.94, 4:45 (4:44.87), 5:20 (5:19.97), 6:19 (6:18.84), 4:53 (4:52.94), 5:31 (5:30.66), 6:25 (6:24.84) and 1:57.75, making for lap times of 16:11.98, 16:24 (16:23.68) and 16:49 (16:48.44). After not even resting between the runs, it was clear that the very thought of staying under 50 minutes was just a dream, but I was wondering about at least staying under 50:40, so the total time will be below 2:10. The first sector made me realize how unlikely that was, however, and with just sector three of lap one barely on the pace required to stay under 16 minutes and the lap just barely on the pace required for that 50:40, from then on it was a question of damage limitation. Under those circumstances, the first two sectors of lap two were all right, but I didn’t dare to hope that I’ll maintain that pace and sector three of lap two proved that. I still gave everything that I had left on lap three, but each sector was nevertheless the slowest of the day, so the only target that I could still aim for was to at least stay under 51:30, pushing even more on sector three despite feeling so tired that I still wasn’t sure it’d be enough, so I was surprised to see less than two minutes on the final sector.
It seemed more crowded, but after slowing to wait for a way through a roadblock on sector one of lap one and needing to avoid a guy who cut me off on the next sector, I only recall little things, not other notable problems. There was a broken attempted sprint on the long straight of sector two, because I had to go around a roadblock, but I wasn’t exactly sprinting anyway… At least if it happened on this second run, but I’m not even entirely certain of that, and I really don’t know on which lap if it was. I’m thinking that it was on lap two, but I seem to recall too many things which seem to have happened on sector two of lap two and I don’t clearly remember any of them. What I do know is that some of the pavement had been replaced on the final straight, some pieces were just removed and yet to be replaced, and the replaced pieces were held down with other blocks and some had other materials around them, so I had to avoid all of those spots.
The real problem, however, was that I just felt so tired… Also, something in the area of the bottom rib from my left side started to really hurt at the end of sector two of lap one and I really hope that it was just reflected from my back, and it did eventually lessen and even go away as I tried to work my back, but it was a real problem for a while. And a pressing need appeared at the end of sector two of lap two, going away by the end of the lap but possibly appearing again on sector three of lap three, though I’m not entirely certain of that. And I think it was at some point during this second run when my right knee started hurting a fair bit, maybe also on sector two of lap two, maybe at the end of lap two or even at the start of lap three, but I’m not entirely sure and it might have even been on the first run, towards the end of it if so, the fact that I didn’t write it down when I made those quick notes not really meaning anything, since I might have just forgotten about it at that moment. Either way, since that knee hurt a little even on the way to the park, it actually surprised me that it took so long to start hurting again while I ran, whenever it actually happened.

After initially crossing most of the way in this direction, I remembered that I didn’t mean to get back here and managed to cross back while the light was still green. Then I returned to Carrefour and had another look inside, realizing that I hadn’t checked the spoiling products the first time around and finding a bag with just four small potatoes that looked just fine, so I bought it, giving the cashier the exact amount listed and not being charged for the bag. I left without waiting for the receipt, just in case she’d have changed her mind, and then I retrieved what I had left in the cabinet.
There was no time for anything else by then, so I went straight to Kaufland, thinking of jogging but being unable to even get myself to try, so it was close to 9:50 PM when I entered the store, after putting my things in a cabinet and washing my hands. I noticed an evening discount for cucumbers and a good price, which might or might not have also been an evening discount, for oranges that were listed as being from Spain, even though I had seen Egypt listed in another location, but I initially went straight to the bakery area. It was just about completely cleared, however, with just two pastries being left on a bottom shelf, though one of those did interest me and I grabbed it and then looked for a price label… Only to scan it and find that there was no evening discount for that pastry, so I put it back, went to have a quick look through the expiring products and then rushed back to get cucumbers. I was still digging through them when the closing announcement came, so I weighed them… And saw that the full price was listed, so I ran with the label to a price checker, seeing the discounted price show up when I scanned it. Then I also quickly grabbed five oranges, choosing to trust that label, weighed them as well and rushed to the self-checkout, where the lines were once again pretty long. And as I was waiting in line I noticed that the small juices that were piled up in a basket in front of the self-checkout area had a high discount, so I had a look and saw that the ingredients really seemed surprisingly good and they were expiring soon but not right away, so I took one of those as well. And the cucumbers did scan with the correct price when my turn finally came. Then I retrieved what I had in the cabinet and arranged everything, walking away when it was past 10:10 PM.
On my way to the Mega Image that closes at 11 PM I also checked that Profi, knowing that, despite otherwise being non-stop, it does close for a while in the evening, but thinking that it does so at 11 PM and not looking at the signs on the door. So I put my things in a cabinet, even though the lock didn’t seem to work, grabbed an expiring yogurt that I found, and just as I went to the checkout I heard the cashier tell people to hurry because it was almost 10:30 PM and the register will stop working, and I didn’t get a receipt for that yogurt, though I don’t actually know whether he tried or was even still able to give me one, since I walked away quickly. I asked the guard whether they closed then when I retrieved my things from the cabinet and he said that they did, until 11 PM, and as I walked away I finally looked at the sign on the door and saw that it did indeed state that the store is closed between 10:30 PM and 11 PM. Either way, I then continued to that Mega Image, once again putting my things in a cabinet and not locking it, because I had used my only 0.50 RON coin when I paid for that yogurt. But I retrieved them quickly, not finding anything to get from there. And I’ll also mention here that I didn’t have a mask with me all day.
I got back a little after 11:15 PM, though after cleaning the litter box I went to drop a bag of trash down the chute. Then I put the yogurt in the fridge, drank that little juice which I had grabbed from Kaufland, and saw 46 kg when I weighed myself, showing just how much I had sweated, since I had weighed 48 kg after waking up and had also drank that protein milk. And there were plenty of salt streaks visible on the t-shirt. Either way, I also ate about half of a raisins and nuts mix that I already had and went to the bathroom at 12:40 AM, even doing the day’s squats after using the toilet… Which actually allowed me to realize that I had forgotten the towel, since I wanted to wipe my hands before starting and realized that I had nothing to wipe them with, so I went back to my bedroom to grab it, then did the squats, then washed, being done at 1:50 AM. Then I put the other purchases in their place and washed and cleaned what dad had left in the kitchen, starting to eat lunch while doing so, though I just took the first bite at 2:40 AM and only one more until several minutes after 3 AM, when it could be said I really started eating, on and off, while working on the salad, so it was 3:35 AM when I finally finished lunch. But eating while cutting the vegetables meant that I stayed there, without thoroughly washing my hands again after dealing with the small pepper which I added into the salad, and that really made my hands burn, being really painful. But I had to deal with it, and I ate dinner between 3:55 AM and 4:50 AM, then got in bed at 5:20 AM, despite leaving a few of the things I used unwashed.

On June 17, after waking up at 10:55 AM and peeing, I couldn’t really stay asleep anymore, setting the alarm to ring at 3 PM instead of 2 PM probably having something to do with it, especially since it was going to rain later and I was wondering what would happen if I’d go out too late and worrying. It was around 12:30 PM when I thought that it was quite late and I was wasting time, only getting such brief naps, but when I saw the time I got back in bed, getting a couple more naps before checking again and seeing 1:32 PM. I wasn’t sure what to do at that point, but after a moment I decided to get up. And at least my kidneys seemed back to normal, the fact that there had been beets in the salad already showing even before I went to bed in the morning. Either way, I then had the usual stuff, the sweet thing being a slice of the cozonac from my mother, which I had finally taken out of the freezer the previous day, with added honey. And I left at 4:15 PM, wearing the full running gear and one armband, with some things in the pocket of my tights. The reported temperature was about 29°C, the forecast listing 2°C less when I finished, though I didn’t actually check.
The time was 1:21:26, with sector times of 4:36, 5:15, 5:59, 4:36, 5:16, 6:06, 4:42, 5:22, 6:21, 4:52, 5:31, 6:24, 4:48, 5:30 and 6:08, making for lap times of 15:50, 15:58, 16:25, 16:47 and 16:26. I realized that I’ll have to aim to stay under 1:22, or even 1:23 in the worst case scenario, even 1:21 seeming a dream. That still meant staying under 16 minutes on the first lap and I managed that, just squeezing under six minutes on sector three also being quite nice when I was so tired from the start. And obtaining the same time on sector one of lap two as on lap one was a nice surprise, as was being just a second slower on sector two, and squeezing under 16 minutes on that lap as well made me dare to actually think of 1:21 for a moment. However, each sector of lap three crushed those hopes, the third most of all, and the lap time made it quite clear that it won’t happen. So on the first two sectors of lap four I mainly meant to just get to the end, but I still wanted to allow for 17 minutes on lap five and that wasn’t going to happen at that pace, so I pushed a bit more on sector three, but that was also where the worst roadblock caused me to lose a noticeable amount of time, and covering four laps in exactly 1:05:00 meant needing just under 17 minutes on lap five, which was anything but certain after 16:47 on lap four. So I pushed, and the first two sectors of lap five made me wonder whether getting under 1:21:30 was possible, which made me push even harder on sector three and at least manage that, though the time remains really bad.
I was, of course, tired from the start. I also felt some pain from my right ankle on the way to the park and at the start, but it went away after I started running, and while there were a couple of moments when my right knee also hurt, that pain also went away soon after it appeared. On the other hand, I tried to snap my back early on and couldn’t quite do it, so I had to manage that issue. But the main physical problem was the fatigue, and there was also a point, on lap four or even on sector three of lap three, when I clearly became exhausted and my arms started to go numb, but at least it didn’t get worse after that. On the other hand, it was obviously rather crowded, being Saturday evening, and I slowed in order to squeeze through roadblocks and/or have silly dances on every sector, often more than once per sector, with the possible exception of sector three of the first three laps, where there were just minor issues. But the worst problem was, as I already mentioned, on sector three of lap four, when I caught another runner just when we were going past a stand and he had also caught a couple who were walking, and a kid on a bicycle, coming from the opposite direction, was about to squeeze between the couple and the stand, while an older woman stopped behind him, waiting for a way through, so I had to stop for a couple of seconds. And there were also some soggy parts of the lane, and I avoided what I could, but at least that small area was no longer fenced off. However, I stepped in a couple of holes, the worst probably being one that was actually next to the lane, but my left foot went there and it’s a good thing that I manage those moments by instinct, otherwise it could have been bad.

Putting these three runs together, the total time was 3:32:07, which was awful when compared to last year’s total of 3:25:47. And the total time for the first two was 2:10:41, while last year it was 2:06:39. In addition, that second run was the slowest I’ve been over ten kilometers since the first run after COVID-19, last August, while this last run was the slowest I’ve been over 16 km since August of 2021, when I was in such a bad shape, before the hospitalization.

Either way, after the run I went to Carrefour, meaning to get cat litter, that voucher being offered for pet products those days. But I couldn’t find the kind that we used to get anymore, in 6 kg bags, instead seeing 5 kg bags from that same brand that were nevertheless more expensive than the 6 kg ones that I had seen on the site. So I just got some beer for dad, those vouchers also being offered for beer those days, and got back at 6:55 PM, after which I checked and saw that those 6 kg bags were only listed as still available in one location that I had never been to, and while I could order them on-line, I was limited to a maximum of two and it also seems that they no longer allow orders made on their site to be picked up from stores, for free… And I forgot that I had been offered a free shipping code after the slippers bought from them started falling apart after just one month. At the time I considered the offer useless, but I did save that code and, if it’s actually still valid, it would have helped at that point. But, seeing as I forgot about it, ordering was not an option and I asked dad whether I should get one of those 5 kg bags after all, and he said that I should.
As such, I went back there when I left again, at 7:45 PM, even though it was raining quite heavily at that point. I also took the plastic and metal, which I dropped off in a recycling bin, and while I had no mask on the first trip, I put one on before leaving again, and so far that’s the last time I wore one… And I got that bag of cat litter, plus some potatoes and an expiring sweet thing which hadn’t been there the first time. I wanted to receive a 0.50 RON coin as change, but the cashier said that she had no coins, so it’s a good thing that I could give her the exact amount instead. Then I arranged the purchases in the backpack, putting the cat litter in the sturdy bag as well, to try to protect it from the rain to some extent… Only to notice when I walked back out of that mall that the rain had stopped.
It was once again too late for anything other than going straight to Kaufland, so I did so, washing my hands when I got there, albeit only with water, since there was no soap, and entering, with everything, when it was past 9:10 PM. I again spotted some evening discounts on the way to the bakery area, but the listed bakery discounts were of only 30%, and after looking for a scanner that worked, since the first two didn’t, and scanning a label to confirm that, I just got a single bun. Then, after checking the expiring products, I went back to pick a few red onions, since they had an evening discount. There weren’t many left and most of those were bad, but I found a handful that seemed all right, and if the scales once again listed a higher price, the correct one showed up when I scanned the label at a price checker. Either way, I also got some red potatoes, the evening discount making the price equal to that of the white ones from Carrefour, and then I waited for 9:45 PM and checked the bakery area one more time, hearing the employee say that it hadn’t been announced but the discount was 50% at that point. However, the other kind of buns that I’d have wanted were gone by then, and what I heard later seemed to indicate that what that employee had said about the discount wasn’t true anyway, or at least not for all of the products, and after also getting one more of those discounted little drinks, since that basket was still full of them, I checked the price of those other buns at the self-checkout and saw that the discount had remained 30% for them, and that was also the case for the one which I had taken. But at least the price of the red onions was the correct one. So I finished using the machine and then took my time to arrange everything in the backpack.
It was raining heavily once again when I walked out, but I wanted to check that Profi as well, so I did, entering with everything, grabbing another one of those expiring yogurts and the Pepsi for dad, putting those purchases in a bag and then continuing to that Mega Image that closes at 11 PM. I did put the bag in a cabinet when I got there, but I entered with the backpack, getting one thing and then seeing two of those apple pastries in a bag with a discount sticker. They looked quite burned, however, so I took some time to have a good look at them, eventually deciding to get one and taking the other one out of the bag and putting it back on the shelf… But, despite even telling the cashier what it was and the price it should have, with the discount, he had a look and entered it as a much cheaper poppy pretzel, probably thinking that it was the only product that should have normally looked that dark, and handed me back the rest of the amount which I had already placed on the counter. And I didn’t say anything, just taking the money and then taking my time to rearrange the purchases… Only to realize almost right away that I had placed too much weight in the bag and it was likely to tear, so I stopped at the entrance to the metro station and lost quite a few minutes to fit the Pepsi into the backpack and then zip it back up, which quite certainly caused some more damage to it.
I got back at 11:30 PM, soaked and with 16 kg, but after cleaning the litter box I went to drop a bag of trash down the chute. After putting the yogurt in the fridge, I drank that little drink and ate the sweet thing from Carrefour… And Liza jumped on my back as I was getting an orange from the fridge, scratching me a little and making me wonder about the damage caused to the running t-shirt, since I still had it on. But, unlike the one that I had been using until she visibly damaged it, that one seemed to have somehow remained intact. Either way, I then ate the orange and it was a few minutes past 12:30 AM when I went to wash, being done a little before 1:20 AM. Then I washed and cleaned what was in the kitchen, put the other purchases in their place, and meant to eat a large bag of bagels, munching on part of it and using the other part instead of bread while having lunch. However, since I hadn’t touched it before taking the first bite of lunch, a few minutes after 3 AM, I ended up just using part of it, probably about the equivalent of a small bag, instead of bread. And, not counting that first bite, it was past 3:20 AM when I actually started eating lunch, and a few minutes before 4 AM when I finished. I ate dinner between 4:20 AM and 5 AM and got in bed at 5:50 AM.

I’ll now skip over June 19 and move on to the first moments of June 20, when I joined Asteroids@home, though the first tasks were only delivered later that day. And, despite being really messed up, I also quickly installed Matomo Analytics before going to bed, so I only did so at 5:40 AM. And then, after waking up to pee, from 10:50 AM I got back on-line and worked some more on setting up Matomo, getting no more sleep after that and only getting in bed at 5:25 AM the following morning. And my feet were so terribly swollen that it seemed like my skin was cracking, the feeling also going up on my legs, though I didn’t really look. A hotter day, the running, being dehydrated those days, and then also eating salty food, since dad made mamaliga, adding plenty of salt, and then I mixed in cheese and also the brine from it, since that had been my plan for the day before dad said that he’ll make the mamaliga, and that was the result. And that feeling of having fluid in my abdomen also returned…

I couldn’t exactly recover the lost sleep on the morning of June 21, since the neighbor who had started working on the apartment woke me by drilling just after 10:15 AM. I meant to get up after a while, but saw that I could sleep through it to some extent, so I got what naps I could, even if they were of poor quality and repeatedly interrupted, until the noise stopped, at noon. Perhaps strangely, I couldn’t get back to sleep as soon as that happened, but after a while I did, sleeping until dad woke up, a little after 2 PM.
My feet were still somewhat swollen, but I eventually got up… And I apparently stayed in my room longer than I thought I had after setting the water for the tea to boil, after dad had left, since it wasn’t ready to boil when I walked away but by the time I went back to the kitchen it had doused the fire and there was a strong smell of gas. But all the windows were open and I also waved the one from the kitchen for a little while, to fan away the gas, and then I carefully turned the stove back on.
As for that night, the large pot that dad had made mamaliga in slipped from my hand while I was washing it, falling only a few centimeters but right on the edge of another one, and after that I saw a small chip or two in the enamel, on the outside, there even seems to be a small dent in the pot itself in one of the places, and there may also be another one near that first one. I’m not entirely sure that they’re caused by that, even less so that all of them are, since they don’t quite seem to be in the right place, but I didn’t know exactly where it was struck either, so it’s likely that at least one of the damaged spots appeared then. At least its enamel proved to be of much better quality than the one from the new cast iron pot, which would have probably shattered over a pretty large area in that situation… Either way, after washing those pots and also moving something in a jar, I started eating dinner at 3:05 AM, but I still finished at 3:40 AM. And my feet were so awfully swollen, and they hurt a little as well.

That neighbor’s drilling woke me yet again the following morning, the first time being at 10:25 AM, but I only got up when it was past 3 PM and by then it had been mostly quiet for some time. But there was some occasional banging, and towards the end of that period dad also made some noise, after he got up, the result being that I once again kept waking up, didn’t even really know when I was asleep and when I was awake, dreams mixed with “reality”, and I was tired when I got up. My feet were almost normal at that point, however, though at night they were badly swollen again. On the other hand, that day was when I shaved my head, just over a year since the previous time. And I had dinner earlier, actually starting to eat at 1 AM, and it wasn’t even 1:40 AM when I finished.

There was no more drilling on June 23, but after drinking two liters on each of the previous two days, I had to get up to pee multiple times. But my feet were once again almost normal when I got up. And then I made pasta, realizing only recently that, despite meaning to add that as well, I forgot to take and use the rest of the breast from the chicken from the freezer. Either way, I also made the salad then, eating it with lunch, so I just had some garlic and a small red onion with dinner. And I again drank two liters, though the next day I realized that I messed up with the teas, since I should have used that vitamin tea for the second one, having even placed it on top after making the first… Only to not look in that drawer at all before making the second tea and using some of dad’s teas, against gas and to help the liver. So I didn’t have that vitamin tea at all, the tea that I made the following day being the one that I pretty much always make when I go out; that’s pretty much set in stone. And I hadn’t taken any supplements either. But, to return to fluids, the salad also contained cucumbers.
Late in the evening, close to midnight, I decided to lie in bed for a little while and probably even fell asleep, albeit very briefly, for no more than a few minutes. Then I also tried the bug spray, applying a little in a few places, to see if there’s any reaction. I never had any before, but it can’t hurt to check, even more so since it had recently expired. Either way, I once again had an earlier dinner, starting to eat at 1:55 AM and finishing a little after 2:45 AM, finishing the old peanut butter, which was better than the newer one but which had been opened very long ago, had even expired by then and had hardened, though the smell and taste were fine. And then I also shaved… And by that point my feet were once again awfully swollen, and my abdomen also seemed swollen.

I’m going to “cheat” and say that, since this may show some things that may be of some use to others, I won’t consider it a personal post, even though it’s basically another statistics post, and I’ll also use it to mention that Matomo Analytics didn’t report any visits on June 29, though both versions of Google Analytics did. Either way, since I installed Matomo Analytics on June 20, Universal Analytics is scheduled to stop processing data today, and I had also set up Google Analytics 4 some time ago, despite not making any use of it otherwise, I have ten days, between June 21 and June 30, when Universal Analytics, Google Analytics 4 and Matomo Analytics were active here, so I can post a comparison of some of the information displayed by each, following the format that I use for the statistics posts. Of course, the extremely low number of visits makes the whole thing of very little use, but there you have it…

[1] In Google Analytics 4, when I add hostname as secondary dimension to the landing page option that actually seems to work, I end up with two more front page entries than the total, one being the one for the bands list front page, the other being an additional one for either site index or blog first page.
[2] No idea why the total is 42 when all other reports list 41 pageviews.

What seems clear is that Universal Analytics is much worse at filtering out spam, and that’s despite the fact that I used the filtered view, with all of my custom spam filters applied, which isn’t the case for the others. However, it’s also possible that some real visits are not caught by the others, and it’s quite clear that Matomo Analytics caught two visits that really do seem legitimate that were not caught by the others, possibly because the users blocked Google Analytics as a whole. There are also some differences in the reported technical information, which is strange, since that should be pretty clear.
On the other hand, strictly about Matomo Analytics, a huge problem is the fact that it does not list the complete URL, so reports will lump together pages that have the same path but are on different subdomains, and I can’t seem to find any way to include the full URL in the report. Doing so is an option for the page title listing, but that will lump together pages that are on the same subdomain and have the same title, and I also wonder how it will deal with titles that are generated through scripts and may change. And there are a number of other issues that I noticed so far, though on the other hand it seems much better than Google Analytics in plenty of other ways, and it’s definitely nice to not send the data anywhere.

Even if it always was quite a pain to put together something like this, and that became even more so since the time I spend on-line was reduced, and yet more since I no longer sign in on Google on my main browser, now that they decided to terminate the previous version of Analytics and the new one seems a mess, I’m finally switching away, having installed Matomo Analytics locally, so I had to get myself to at least put together one such post, containing the last statistics obtained from Google Analytics. It’s not as thorough as the previous one, and in some sections maybe not even as thorough as the regular statistics posts that I used to have in the past, since I stopped at higher thresholds, and the fact that said previous post marked the end of a “cycle” means that it doesn’t include any column that goes even further back, but with two years and nine months since that previous post, I had to cover a lengthy period anyway, so I also decided to separate the past year into its own column. As such, the first column covers the entire period since the previous post, September 21, 2020 to June 20, 2023, the second column covers the period between June 21, 2022 and June 20, 2023, and the third is the usual one that I add at the end, covering the last month, so between May 21, 2023 and June 20, 2023. Not that it should be of any interest to anyone, of course, especially considering the low number of visits and the fact that many, if not most, of those are probably bots that haven’t been filtered out, but I’m posting it nevertheless, largely for my own use.

[1] Obvious spam entries not listed, though I did list what I was uncertain about.
[2] Including entries labeled “‘Mozilla”. They’re probably all crawlers or bots though.

I hope I didn’t make any mistakes, but seeing as I rushed and then spotted and corrected a few obvious ones at just a quick glance and quite a few more when I relatively quickly checked the data, I’m not exactly confident. Either way, what’s certain is that the records are unchanged, namely 169 visitors and 180 visits, set on the old site by that large spike on August 16, 2009, and 333 pageviews, set on March 3, 2013. And here are the usual graphs for visitors, visits and pageviews for the period covered in this post, and this time I’ll also add those for visitors, visits and pageviews ever since I launched the site, on September 21, 2010. Seeing as this is even more of an end of a “cycle”, maybe I should have put together a post with the statistics for this entire period, but that’s not going to happen…

In the early hours of May 24, I washed the other things that were in the sink, including another pot, and also tried to wash the cast iron one, but only did so partially, seeing that the burned area couldn’t be cleaned as easily as that pot had been to clean until then. Then I sliced another bread for dad and also dealt with one of mine, made a salad mostly out of lettuce leaves, and then I took the ends of another bread which I had bought for dad, since those pieces weren’t sliced and that bread seemed quite interesting. After weighing those ends and seeing that it’d have been too much for one night, I sliced off two slices from one of the ends, adding them to the rest of that bread, which I left for dad, and then took a while to slice the rest for myself, since that bread was so soft. As a result, I ended up eating dinner between 3:20 AM and 4 AM. And then I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, had the usual stuff, and for the sweet thing I went back to two of those nicer biscuits, expired long ago, with added honey. I left at 4:15 PM, wearing the full running gear, with some things in the pocket of my tights. The reported temperature was 26-27°C, holding steady.
The time was 47:12.54, with sector times of 4:22.01, 4:59.47, 5:46.50, 4:25 (4:24.03), 4:54.12, 5:50 (5:49.94), 4:22.91, 4:56 (4:55.37), 5:50 (5:49.66) and 1:48.53, making for lap times of 15:07.98, 15:09 (15:08.09) and 15:08 (15:07.94). I hoped to get back under 48 minutes, but I felt tired at first and that first sector didn’t look good. However, after it I pushed and was surprised by pretty much everything that followed, each sector being faster than I thought it’d be. I was still only aiming to stay under 48 minutes after the first lap, but after the second it seemed like getting under 47:30 was likely, and I even had a passing thought of getting under 47 minutes, though that really didn’t seem likely. Either way, I pushed even more from the start of lap three and after sector two I wondered about getting under 47:15, and while at the time that seemed impossible, at the end of the lap there seemed to be a chance, and I made it despite thinking that I was too tired to obtain the required time on the final sector. And that was the first good time in two months.
There were some windy areas, but it wasn’t that bad. And that tiredness that I felt at first quickly went away and I felt just fine until the long straight of sector two of lap three, when my body seemed to want me to stop, but I pushed through it. Otherwise, the pressing need that seemed to appear towards the end of sector two of lap two turned out to be just gas, but then the need did appear on the long straight of sector one of lap three and seemed like it could be a problem, and even if it lessened after a while, it remained something to manage to some extent all the way to the end.
There were a fair number of people, which meant plenty of weaving and going the long way around, plus a few more notable problems that were mostly caused by cyclists. On the first sector, around the boat dock area, I’m not sure what was going on, but there was a “convoy” of vehicles with the brand of an ice cream producer that moved slowly and blocked the rest of the path, next to the lane, so a cyclist who was coming from the opposite direction had to use the lane and another person was blocking the small remaining space just when we’d have met, and he also seemed to get a little unbalanced, so I had to stop for a moment. I briefly stopped again on the next sector, barely managing to avoid a crash with a guy on a bicycle who was chasing two girls with a water gun, not looking where he was going and coming right at me. I cursed him for that, out loud. And on that same sector I hesitated for an instant when a guy stopped and got off his bicycle just as I was getting there. On sector one of lap two, a kid on a scooter came from a side path and almost reached the lane right in front of me, so I stopped for an instant, though he also managed to stop right before the lane. Another brief stop was on sector three of lap two, when I caught some people with a dog right when a ball fell from that ice cream and toys place that’s in that spot, making the dog jump in front of me and causing the cyclists who were coming from the opposite direction to first swerve away from it and then quickly swerve back in order to avoid the person who was on the other side of the lane, completely blocking my way.
There were also two moments when I had to step off the path, one being on the long straight of sector one of lap three, when cyclists coming from the opposite direction again had to use the lane, since the rest of the path was blocked, including by a woman with a stroller who had stopped on the inside, where I also was, so I had to put one foot off the path in order to get around her. And my notes state that the other moment was on sector two of lap two, but since it’s the last thing I wrote, I wonder if I didn’t actually mean sector two of lap three, and by now I definitely can’t remember when it happened, though I still remember the moment. Either way, I briefly stepped off the path in order to avoid a guy who was on the lane and stepped back instead of forward when I yelled at him to make way, going towards the woman who was with him and blocking me even more.

I kept running after finishing, glanced at a store that’s across the road from the park and then continued to the farmers’ market, having a look through it and then checking Supeco. They were out of cabbage, however, and I even asked the guard and he said so. But I had seen someone in the farmers’ market with two cabbages at the price that it was supposed to have at Supeco, since otherwise the price of cabbage had increased sharply those days, so after also having a quick look in that Mega Image, I went back there and had a better look, seeing that they were somewhat bad but still acceptable under those circumstances… And finding myself saying yes when I was asked whether I wanted both, though I really should have just bought one, since by the time I finished the first one I could once again find good cabbage for less. And if they’d have been just a little larger I wouldn’t have been able to buy them both, but the price for both of them turned out to be exactly what I had on me in bills, so I was just left with a few coins. Either way, the woman who was there had placed them in a bag even though I had mine in my hand, and hers was flimsy and looked like it wasn’t going to hold that weight anyway, so I first moved them into my bag, then stopped again after a little while and separated them, to hold one in each hand. I didn’t wear a mask.
After getting back, I ate the banana which I had kept since after the half marathon and the apple pastry which I had grabbed two days earlier, then went to the toilet and washed, after which I also ate one of those small bags of bagels which I had also bought two days earlier. Then I made mamaliga, after taking a long time to scrub the tiny remaining burn off the cast iron pot. At one point, I hesitatingly tried to use the harder scrubber, but I quickly saw that it was obviously scratching the enamel, so I stuck to using the softer one and kept at it, occasionally also using my nails a little, gently, and eventually got most of it out, albeit not quite every last trace. And scrubbing that enamel that’s obviously of such poor quality that much did have consequences, almost the entire bottom of the pot ending up burned after I used it that night, and that’s been pretty much the rule since then. However, that burn cleaned pretty easily, though I saw a fair amount of damage to at least a layer of the enamel, so it’ll obviously only get worse.

On May 31, I was still tired after wandering around a lot and even running part of the way, while carrying purchases, two days earlier, and I also kept waking up more and more often. The last time I checked, the time was 12:44 PM, and I was just drifting in and out of sleep after that. The alarm was set to ring at 1:30 PM and the last time I woke up I was really sure that it was about to ring, so I was just getting up, sitting on the side of the bed, when it did ring. I felt so weak, even shaking, but the plan was to cover a half marathon distance, so I had the usual stuff, with the yogurt being the protein one received after the half marathon and the sweet thing being a slice of cozonac, with added honey. I also drank most of the tea and left just before 3:45 PM, wearing the full running gear. The reported temperature was 27-28°C, holding steady.
The time was 1:44:29, with sector times of 4:22, 5:02, 5:52, 4:24, 5:02, 5:51, 5:08, 5:03, 5:56, 4:33, 5:02, 5:56, 4:30, 5:07, 6:08, 4:38, 5:18, 6:14, 1:55, 6:21 and 2:07, making for lap times of 15:16, 15:17, 16:07, 15:31, 15:45 and 16:10, plus 10:23 for that final portion. I aimed to get under 1:45 again, starting with a moderately controlled pace but still wanting to be fast on the first laps, and I was quite pleased with the first sector and even more so with the second, wondering if I could cover the lap in less than 15:30 before that second sector and in less than 15:20 after it, and I pushed and managed that. And I was also really pleased with each sector of lap two, and obviously with the lap as a whole, once again managing to stay under 15:20 even though I was wondering whether I’ll manage to average that time over the first two laps. But a shoelace cost me some 45 seconds at the start of lap three, though I pushed and the actual running time on that first sector was about the same as on the first two laps. That meant that the rest of that lap was a matter of damage limitation and things looked bad, so I was thinking to set 1:45:45 as the target, to account for that loss. But I still needed to gain something on lap four and I somehow did. I didn’t believe it after sector one, but then things got better.
That meant that I was actually still thinking of getting under 1:45 at that point, which meant also covering lap five in less than 16 minutes, if I was to have a chance, and I actually managed to be right on what should be the average lap time when that’s the goal. That sector three was bad news, however, so nothing seemed certain and it was harder to keep pushing, but I just kept at it, and if I had done the calculations with 16:30 on lap six, over the course of it I reduced that target and ended up with a nice enough time to make me think of getting under 1:44:30. And the first sector of the final portion seemed good, but I wasn’t sure that I’ll stay under two minutes on the last one, so I wanted a good enough time on sector two, and while I was several seconds better than expected, I was just done after pushing so hard and the final sector’s time was awful. Still just good enough, however, even if by the slimmest of margins.
On the first sector, I slowed a little on the long straight because of a roadblock, then hesitated after a guy with a water gun squirted it on me a little, without looking, and then once again hesitated when a kid started running straight towards me, on the lane, before stepping aside just in time. But that was not a sign of things to come, because after that there weren’t many people and there were even areas that were unusually clear, so there was just some weaving and going the long way around, plus needing to avoid a cyclist that was coming down from a side path at the end of sector two of lap six. And that guy who had told me that there’s a radar ahead twice before said that same thing to me three times as I passed by him that day, the second time laughing hard at his own bad joke, so I turned to shout after him that it’s old.
On the other hand, there were some windy areas, the worst being on sector three of lap one, when I had to fight a pretty bad gust for a while. And there were more gusts in that area on other laps as well, and also one or two on sector two, but those weren’t that bad. Otherwise, there was some new damage on the lane, including a couple of spots where I risked tripping, one of them on the long straight of sector two. And there were two small fenced off patches on sector three, one of them irrelevant but the other making me go the long way around on the first three laps, though on that third lap I realized that I could actually just squeeze through on the inside, so I did so from lap four. But I stepped in holes that were under the lane twice, on sector three of lap one, right after a recently repaired patch, and on sector three of lap two or three. It seems more likely that it was lap three, but I’m not certain. Either way, my ankle held.
But the big loss was, as I already mentioned, on sector one of lap three, since I noticed right after the start of the lap that my left shoelace was undone, and had knotted twice, so I lost some 45 seconds because of that, and after I resumed running it felt like I couldn’t quite get back to the pace I had before, despite pushing hard… Maybe too hard, because towards the end of the long straight of sector two of lap three I started feeling out of it. I recovered after that, but the feeling returned towards the end of the long straight of sector two of lap four and it just got worse after that, and on sector three of lap six I started feeling really drained, arms going numb, legs burning, even vision starting to be affected. But I pushed through it all. It was hard to go up the stairs at the bridge, but I managed it… But when I started the final sector I was just done, so I pretty much walked up those stairs, and it was hard to get back to running even on the straight. Otherwise, it felt like there was going to be blood from a toe from my left foot since at least some point on lap five, if not even lap four, and that was confirmed after I got back.

After getting back, I finished the tea and made another, and I weighed myself after finishing that tea and saw just over 46 kg, so I was probably just under 46 kg before that, meaning that I had lost about 1.5 kg through sweat. Either way, I also ate a banana and an entire 150 g bag of peanuts, at least unsalted and baked, not fried. And I eventually left again a couple of minutes before 8 PM… Only to realize that I had forgotten the bag with those things that I take to Kaufland, so I rushed back and grabbed it, actually leaving a couple of minutes after 8 PM.
I had dad’s metro card and wanted to go to that confectionery that’s at Kaufland Basarab, for one of those cakes, so I went there by metro… And only realized after going up the escalator that the bin for those things is at the entrance. But I didn’t want to turn around right away, so I just put that bag in a cabinet, had a look in the store and left without buying anything, the employee who was there asking me to show her what I had in my backpack, which is a first for Kaufland. But the backpack was empty, so I did that, then checked that confectionery, but I didn’t see that cake and didn’t ask about it then, since I meant to return there. And after going down the escalator I realized that I had forgotten to retrieve that bag from the cabinet, and if I didn’t want to turn around the first time, I did so the second time, retrieving that bag and finally putting those things in the bin.
I then walked to Carrefour, finding cabbage for slightly less than it was at Kaufland, where those days the price was the same as the one I had purchased those two from the farmers’ market at, and I got to pick, not needing to get those that were at that price because they were less good than the rest, so I really should have just gotten the smaller one then, since I hadn’t even finished that one by then. But maybe I had helped a producer a little bit through that purchase, if that really was one and not a reseller. Either way, I got a small cabbage from there as well… Which really turned out to be one that I shouldn’t have bought, since I was yet to touch it by the time cabbage got a fair bit cheaper. And I forgot to look for beets, even though the old price was still listed on-line, which was something even if we’re talking about the old full price, since elsewhere it either vanished or became significantly more expensive. And the price increased a little at Carrefour as well since then, albeit not nearly as much as elsewhere… Yet. Anyway, the two self-checkouts that accept cash once again didn’t work, so I went to a regular one, then threw the cabbage in the backpack and returned to Kaufland.
I did ask at the confectionery that time, pulling down my mask as I did so, for some reason… And I was told that they didn’t have that cake that day, and when I asked whether they still made it at all, I was told that they did, which was later proven true, but they hadn’t made it that day and possibly won’t make it the next day either. So, after washing my hands, I entered Kaufland again, with my backpack, and got one thing from the bakery area, very few products being left and the discount staying at 50%, and some mozzarella for the pizza that I wanted to make. I kept looking until it was close to closing time, but I couldn’t find anything else to get, so I eventually went to the self-checkout, put the purchases in the backpack and went back to the metro station.
I didn’t really know whether I wanted to come straight back or not, and the fact that the metro that’d have taken me straight back here was just in the station when I got there and there was no way to reach it in time helped me decide, so I ended up taking the one going in the other direction, which was going to come sooner, and went to the Mega Image from Dristor, entering with the backpack and finding three of those apple pastries, two of them in a bag that had a discount sticker. The third might have been removed by someone from another, and I’m quite sure that nobody’d have said anything if I’d have added it into that bag as well, but two was quite enough, so I just bought those and added them into the backpack.
I got back a few minutes after 11 PM, but soon after that I went to drop a bag of trash down the chute. Then I put the few purchases in their place, washed what was in the kitchen, ate the apple pastry that I already had, started working on the pizza and salad, and even did the day’s squats while watching the match, so it was almost 1:10 AM when I finally went to wash, getting back in the kitchen when it was almost 1:45 AM and only getting to eat between 4 AM and 4:55 AM. I got in bed at 5:55 AM.

I fell asleep quickly even though dad was getting ready to leave at that hour, but at 9 AM I was awake and, despite the exhaustion, it didn’t seem like I was going to get back to sleep quickly, so I went to pee, just in case, and then spent some time on the computer. I got back in bed at 9:45 AM, but I still had no chance to get back to sleep, so a little before 10:30 AM I started reading Scenes from the Heart, finishing the first part in just under an hour, then peeing one more time and once again trying to sleep, eventually managing to get another nap. But that was all the sleep I got that day, since some time after waking up again I got up and didn’t have any other nap that day. And two days later I finished the book, also writing the quick review, and after eating that night I also added the Romanian translation on Goodreads and The StoryGraph.

On June 9, I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, had the usual stuff, the sweet thing being two of those expired nicer biscuits, with added honey, and left at 4:30 PM, wearing the full running gear and one of those armbands. The reported temperature was about 28°C on forecast sites and at the stations outside the city, but the weather station inside the city was listing 31°C. That one also went down to 28°C by 6 PM, however, while the rest held steady.
The time was 47:39.79, with sector times of 4:24.17, 5:02.12, 5:51.31, 4:24 (4:23.69), 5:00.69, 5:48 (5:47.68), 4:24 (4:23.60), 4:57.09, 5:54.44 and 1:55.00, making for lap times of 15:17.60, 15:12.06 and 15:15.13. Or at least I clearly remember that time for sector two of lap three, but if I add up, the hundredths don’t seem right. But, if there is a difference and it wasn’t a case of my memory playing tricks, it’s of only a few hundredths, so it doesn’t matter and I’m leaving it like that. Either way, I aimed to stay under 48 minutes and the first sector looked bad, so I pushed more and the second sector was better, but I still wondered if I’ll even manage a first lap on the pace for 48 minutes. And, while sector three was good enough to stay under that 15:20 on the first lap, I thought the realistic target was 49 minutes. But I was rather surprised by sector one of lap two, and the next two sectors were also better than on lap one, so the lap was faster and it seemed like I had a good chance to stay under 48 minutes after all. So I pushed even more on lap three, and I was again surprised by obtaining the fastest times on the first two sectors, albeit by mere hundredths in case of the first. The third sector was the slowest of the day, but the lap was definitely good enough, actually leaving the first one as the slowest. There was no point to push on final sector anymore, since I was certain to be well under 48 minutes and had no chance to get under 47:30, so I just wanted a decent time and it was all right.
There was some wind in a few spots, mainly on sector two, but mostly from the side and the cooling effect helped. And I tried to make good use of shaded areas, but in truth the heat was less of a problem than it seemed on the way to the park. Otherwise, there was more damage to the lane that I had to avoid, and a few wet areas, I guess caused by sprinklers or drinking fountains, so I avoided what I could, though I did step in a hole that I wasn’t aware was under the lane in that spot, at the start of what I think was lap two. It might have been lap three, but I’m pretty sure that it was lap two. As for physical issues, I felt rather tired at first, and for a while on sector two of lap two there was some pain in my right leg, actually at the back of the calf, though it was likely reflected from the knee, and it soon went away. And I felt better as time passed, though I was rather out of it on the final stretch, struggling to at least regain focus at the end. And, from sector two of lap two, I thought that the left shoelace was coming loose, but I didn’t stop, and at the end I saw that there had been no problem.
On the long straight of sector two of lap one, I had to quickly avoid a guy who seemed about to go across the lane, only to stop and turn around just as I had gone off the lane in order to go behind him, assuming that he’d continue moving as he had been, so I barely managed to avoid slamming into him. At the start of lap two, a few kids on bicycles, and one on a scooter, were weaving around and the one on the scooter kept asking the others to slow, so they were in my way for a while and I might have slowed on the way to the bridge, to stay just behind them, until they sped up a little, and at the start of the long straight they stopped and blocked the lane, but I had time to go around them without losing time, getting rid of them at that point. On sector two of lap two, I slowed to squeeze past a roadblock and then probably slowed a little once again, towards the end of the long straight, when some guys were shooting water guns at each other. Then I slowed a little and stepped off the path on sector three of lap two, when a small group stopped on the lane, right in front of me. I might have slowed a little at the start of sector two of lap three as well, since some people who were coming from the opposite direction on either bicycles or scooters, can’t recall, squeezed between other people and some toys placed by a woman in front of the bench that she and her kid were on, and I rather jumped over the toys, after initially meaning to go between them and the bench but being uncertain that I’d have managed that.

I gathered a few fruits from a tree on the way back, meaning to get more but shying away when someone stopped to look at me, and I looked for others but couldn’t really find more ripe ones that were within reach and without people around. I was somewhat determined, however, so after a quick check of the nearby Mega Image, without a mask, I made a detour in order to keep looking, but just the trees that are around the police station had some ripe ones within reach. There were also many on the ground, but I wanted to pick some from a tree and only got a few more until a man came to look at me and I walked away, without even glancing in his direction to see whether he was a policeman. So I gathered too few to be worth eating then and I set them aside after getting back, eating another apple instead, and then also having the apple pastry that I already had for a while. In between, I cleaned the litter box into a bag of trash and then went to throw that bag down the chute. On the other hand, it was somewhat worrying that, despite putting a medium and a small beet in the salad made the previous night, my pee wasn’t red at all before leaving to run, and even after I got back it was just orange, while normally it’d be dark red in such a situation, especially if the salad contained more than just a small beet.
Either way, I made another mamaliga in the evening, after washing away the burned area left on the cast iron pot after the one made just two days earlier as well as I could, some traces still being left. And I also did the day’s squats, in the kitchen. And, even though the mamaliga was rather watery, it ended up badly stuck to the bottom of the pot, not coming off at all, no part of it rising, after leaving the pot with a lid on for a little over an hour, while I ate. I should have probably left that lid on longer instead of pointlessly struggling for almost half an hour to peel off what was stuck and maybe damaging the enamel even more, but I eventually had to give up and put the pot in the fridge… And, after leaving it there for a few days, I was actually able to scrape almost everything off relatively easily, and then clean the pot quite nicely. And my pee was finally red before going to bed, but that was over 24 hours after eating those the beets, so it was still worrying.