Cav's Place

I slept badly on the morning of August 23, dad getting back just when I was falling asleep, then Liza started meowing loudly and he fed her when I was again just about to fall asleep, then finally managing to fall asleep but waking up at 8 AM, when the computer did the daily backup. After going to pee, I got back in bed, but it took me a while to fall asleep again and at 9:21 AM I was once again woken up, that time by the SMS announcing the delivery of that TV tuner which I had ordered, even though there had been no e-mail to let me know that it had been sent to the delivery service. But I had written in the comments that I wanted it delivered after 2 PM, so I just set the phone to silent, peed again, just in case, and went back to bed. After again taking a while to fall asleep, I woke up again around 11:45 AM, that time because I had dreamed that the delivery guy was here. So I peed one more time, and had probably just managed to finally fall asleep again when I noticed that the silent setting apparently only applies to calls, being woken up, at 12:26 PM, by an SMS stating that they had tried to make the delivery. When I checked, I saw that the delivery guy had called at 12:10 PM. And I’m not even sure that I managed to get back to sleep after that. Seeing as hardly any time seemed to have passed and yet it was 1:27 PM when I checked the time again, I probably did, but if so then I slept poorly. Either way, I considered getting up at that point, decided against it… And then got up anyway, just before 1:45 PM, since dad woke up, Liza started meowing again, and the alarm was set to ring at 2 PM, so I was just wasting time.
Minutes after getting up, I asked dad for his phone, called the delivery guy, said that I had mentioned that I wanted the delivery after 2 PM and asked if he could still deliver that day, but he said no, so it was left for the following day. However, when I said that I still wanted it after 2 PM, he said that after 2 PM they’re in another area, so it’ll have to again be around or just before noon. On the other hand, when I later checked the link from the SMS, I saw that the delivery was still listed for that day, between 12:15 PM and 3:15 PM, so the interval actually started after the moment when the guy initially called, and included 2 PM without problems. And when I checked again, just after 3 PM, and tried to reschedule for the following day in that manner as well, selecting that I won’t be home on that day, since the only other available option was that I had no cash to pay, there was a message stating that the delivery can’t be rescheduled anymore and telling me to call for details. But I had already done that, and was still shaking because of it, so I tried to put it out of my mind and continue to get ready for that day’s planned half marathon run, leaving at 4:35 PM, wearing the full running gear and one of those armbands, with some things in the pocket of my tights. That was after having an apple, mixing both almonds and raisins in dark chocolate with the yogurt and muesli, and also having a slice of that old cozonac, with added honey. I also considered taking the running belt, but decided against it. As for the reported temperature, it was about 31°C, supposed to either hold steady or maybe drop by 1-2°C by the time I’ll finish, depending on which site I checked.
The time was 1:47:28, with sector times of 4:21, 5:03, 6:00, 4:34, 5:14, 6:06, 4:39, 5:13, 6:07, 4:44, 5:24, 6:15, 4:52, 5:31, 6:23, 4:55, 5:39, 6:18, 1:57, 6:19 and 1:54, making for lap times of 15:24, 15:54, 15:59, 16:23, 16:46 and 16:52, plus 10:10 for the final portion. Of course, a time that I could have used, that I’d have been content with, was under 1:45, but after having estimated 1:49 if I’d have continued the previous run to a half marathon distance, I aimed to at least stay under 1:48, and when I saw how the first lap was going I hoped to complete it in less than 15:30, and also to finally have less than six minutes on a sector three again. And, while it was exactly 6:00 if I just take the seconds, the exact time for sector three of lap one was about a tenth under six minutes, and the lap time was under 15:30, so I calculated target times adding up to 1:48 from there. However, at some point I made a mistake, so after a while I ended up thinking that I had a chance to stay under 1:47, though the target times actually added up to 1:47:30. Either way, I pushed to stay under 16 minutes on lap three and just made it, then allowed myself to relax a little, the target becoming 16:30. After lap four, I was hoping to gain ten more seconds before the end, for that 1:47:30, but lap five went badly, I was trying to push but just couldn’t go any faster and lost almost everything I had gained until then, so I thought that I had to push to just stay under 1:48. But the target for lap six was 17 minutes and I only got a little slower, recovering half of that loss, and then I really pushed on the final portion and was 20 seconds faster than the target time. At the start of the final sector I still thought that I won’t manage to stay under 1:47:30, since I needed 1:55, but in the end I just did.
On the first lap it was sunny and quite hot, and since cyclists were coming past me and two joggers were ahead and I was trying to calculate where and how to fit though, I again stepped in that hole that’s under the lane, on sector three, the lane being wet in that area as well, though at least it was once again with the left heel, so it was just somewhat jarring. It got gradually less sunny on lap two, but on the first sector I might have had to slow for an opening in a roadblock, since I seem to recall meaning to keep something in mind but obviously didn’t actually memorize the details. On the other hand, on lap three it was cloudy, which helped, but also much more windy, which didn’t, not that there hadn’t been plenty of windy areas on the first two laps as well. The wind lessened to some extent on the first part of lap four, when it was once again mostly sunny, but when I was on the long straight of sector two it got cloudy again, and on sector three the wind once again picked up. On lap five it got partly sunny again, and on its first sector I had to slow and maybe even stop for an instant in order to wait for a way through a roadblock, while towards the end of sector two a dog went for my legs and I had to avoid it.
Well, seconds after I avoided that dog, it suddenly started raining, the rain getting quite heavy almost immediately, so I was thinking that it’ll be quite a problem if it’ll continue like that all the way to the end, but I fortunately only had to cover about a kilometer under those conditions, the rain stopping before the end of the lap. It was more than enough to make the lane even soggier, however, not that there hadn’t been wet areas all along. Oddly enough, it remained partly sunny while it rained, but then became less so over the course of lap six, and the wind was dying down as well. On sector three of lap six I was noticing that it was actually starting to get somewhat dark, the Sun probably being too low to make it through the clouds anymore. A few drops returned when I was about halfway through sector two of the final portion, so what would be the last sector three of a lap, gradually increasing to a light rain by the time I finished.
What my mind refuses to recall is just when and where the most dangerous moment took place. I know that another runner was coming from the opposite direction, on the lane, and a cyclist who had been stationary tried to get moving, going across the path and being about to cut me off as I went to the right of the lane, so I initially meant to go farther to the right, in order to get around her as well, but someone yelled at her to stop and she did, so the space that I meant to use wasn’t created and the only way through was to get between her and the runner. However, when I quickly changed direction in order to do so, I found myself face to face with what I assume was the reason why she had been told to stop, in the form of a guy on what I guess was a large scooter. Both of us opened our eyes wide and he clearly had no way to avoid me, but I somehow just managed to jump aside in time. I have no idea how or even in which direction, but I somehow did. My mind seems to want to say that this took place on the earlier part of sector two of lap five, but at the same time maybe it didn’t, sector two of lap six also being possible. Sector three of lap five isn’t exactly impossible either, but I don’t think that what I can recall about the location fits with sector three, plus that it’d mean that it was raining then, which I don’t think was the case.
In terms of physical problems, I needed to pee even before starting, but the feeling gradually lessened, as expected, being gone by the time I finished sector two of lap two, and no other pressing need appeared. There were small warnings from my left thigh at the beginning, but they quickly went away. Other warnings came from my right knee and hip and left ankle and knee, but those appeared relatively late and didn’t get worse. However, on sector three of lap six my legs started feeling heavy and by the end of it even burning, things only getting worse over the course of the final portion.

After the run, I went to that Carrefour, or more exactly first went to pee and wash my hands, arms and face, only putting on the mask after that, then went to Carrefour and got what I wanted. After that, I had a quick look through that farmers’ market and asked one of the few sellers who hadn’t yet left about the price of some peppers, since dad had asked me to look for some. There was a sign on that pile, but it was for eggplants, and when I pointed that out she said that she thought that it was for the peppers, then told me that the price was the same as for the red ones that were next to them. That kind is usually more expensive, however, and they were also nicer and larger, so I walked away and checked first that Mega Image and then Supeco, just going in with the purchases both times. And in Supeco I found the kind of peppers that I was looking for at a lower price than what I had seen while checking other stores on-line, before leaving, so I bought them from there. I was likely going to find bags of spoiling peppers of that kind for an even lower price at some Mega Image locations, and they were going to be used for cooking, but I decided to pick nice ones from there and not risk to need to keep looking and possibly end up not finding any after all. I only had 100 RON bills, however, having spent all of the smaller ones at Carrefour, and when I told that to the cashier and handed him one he said that he unfortunately didn’t have change either, so we stared at each other for a moment, then I asked whether that meant that I couldn’t make the purchase and after pausing for a moment longer he finally gave me the change, which at least happened to be exactly 95 RON.
I did put the purchases in a cabinet when I got to Tei, then I got what I wanted from there as well… And on the way to the checkout happened to see what seemed to be a lower price for those gels, so I grabbed two… And only realized after getting back that they were the regular kind instead of the Pro, which is what I’ve been getting so far. But I did buy three of those back in April, so I still have the two which I’ll likely use during the marathon and these two expire in 2024, so I have time to find some use for them. Either way, I then added those purchases in the cabinet, quickly checked that Mega Image as well… And while I was there it started to rain heavily, so after retrieving my things from the cabinet I took my time to figure out how to at least protect the medicines to some extent.
By the time I finally walked away, it wasn’t raining quite as heavily either, so I continued to that location of that other pharmacy, but they didn’t have that supplement for joints. I had seen it on their site, so I hadn’t looked for it at Tei, but I was told that the site lists what’s available for on-line orders and there’s no way to see the stock of their physical locations and therefore they couldn’t even tell me whether it may be available elsewhere, so I got the other things and also added a tea. Then, after just glancing from the door at the bakery area of that Mega Image, I decided to also go to the other location of that pharmacy, and since the route took me close to the larger Mega Image from the area I had a look there as well, putting the purchases in a cabinet… And finding bags of spoiling peppers of that kind. But it was too late, so I retrieved my things from the cabinet and continued on my way to that pharmacy. A single pharmacist seemed to be working when I got there, and he was outside, talking to people, so he ended up following me inside… Only to say that they didn’t have that supplement there either.
So I went the other way again, getting to Kaufland and stuffing everything in a cabinet just when the 75% discount for bakery products was announced. After washing my hands and walking in right at 10 PM, however, I found that not much was left in the bakery area, so I just got one thing that I could put something sweet on, or in, even though I checked using a self-checkout and saw that it didn’t even have an evening discount, being one of the products that had a regular discount those days. Either way, I then got some bread for dad, saw some evening discount for beets and got two large ones, one for dad and one for myself, wandered around for quite a while, decided to also grab an expiring mix of dried plums, apricots and walnuts, then got those snacks that dad wants, since they were on sale, and looked for salt but had to get an imported pack of their store brand, since we were out and I couldn’t find the one that we usually get. And while I was at the self-checkout an old man was telling the employee that he had been to the Pantelimon location and it closed at 10 PM and she told him that he must have been at Carrefour, since only Kaufland closes at 11 PM, but I spoke up to say that I had also bumped into that problem, that location indeed closing at 10 PM. Then, after needing to try several times before the cabinet door finally unlocked, I took quite some time to somehow arrange everything in the flimsy bags which I had taken with me, walked out right at 11 PM… And once again saw heavy rain, probably the heaviest of the day, so at the end of the covered area I stopped again, arranged some things a little more, and when it seemed to start to lessen I braved it, the good thing being that pretty soon after that it lessened a lot.
I was finally back at 11:40 PM, and I know that it was 6:40 PM when I finished the run, so I had wandered around for exactly five hours. Then I put a few things in their place and left others for dad to take, ate that mix, went to the toilet and to shower when it was almost 12:45 AM, and was done at 1:25 AM. I had quite a lot to wash in the kitchen, however, and other things to do as well, so after a lunch consisting of the rest of the large bag of corn puffs which I had started two days earlier, which I was just finishing at 3 AM, and a slice of pizza brought by dad, eaten while slicing bread, I started eating dinner at 3:45 AM and finished at 4:35 AM. And my stomach wasn’t happy, so I then rushed to the toilet again. And I was also noticing pain under the nails of all of the middle three toes from my left foot, and while it didn’t happen right away, in time I saw faint bruises appearing under the top parts of the other two as well, along with what was left of the one from the Dream Trek. Either way, after sending an e-mail to that pharmacy, to ask whether someone could tell me whether that supplement was actually available in any of their locations, which I actually never got a reply to, I finally got in bed at 5:45 AM, though my stomach was still unhappy.

The next run was on the evening of August 29, so after having a small apple after getting up, I decided to actually cook something and then have some of it as lunch, finishing a little after 6:15 PM, though I then moved what was left in a smaller pot and scraped the little amount left on the bottom of the other one and also the breadcrumbs from the plate at 6:30 PM. Then I put on the full running gear and one of those armbands, plus some things in the pocket of my tights, had another slice of that old cozonac, with added honey, drank most of the tea and left a little after 8:05 PM, when the reported temperature was about 30°C, supposed to drop by a couple of degrees by the time I’ll finish. Sunset was at 7:58 PM, so I ran in the dark.
The time was 48:52.10, with sector times of 4:30.34, 5:12 (5:11.86), 6:01, 4:36, 5:12, 5:56, 4:33, 5:11, 5:53 and 1:48 (1:47.56), making for lap times of 15:43, 15:44 and 15:37. I did try to see the exact times at first, but by the end of the first lap it was completely dark and my eyes wouldn’t focus before the stopwatch‘s light went out, would have had to stop and didn’t, so after several attempts over the course of sector one of lap two I just gave up on that. As for the target time, I hoped to get back under 48 minutes, but only really aimed to stay under 50 minutes, and when I saw that poor time for the first sector despite having felt that I had been fast, it seemed that I was in big trouble. And sector two wasn’t good either, the first lap’s time made me worry that I’ll fail even that, and sector one of lap two only worsened my concerns, though all the attempts to see the exact time had probably slowed me a little. But sector three of lap two marked an improvement, and having pretty much the same time on lap two as on lap one made me change the target to 49:30 and push on lap three, first giving a passing thought to staying under 49 minutes after sector one and thinking that I might just have a small but real chance to do so after sector two. So, even though my body was complaining from the end of sector two, I pushed even more on sector three and continued to do so on the final sector, not even checking the time at the end of the lap, so I didn’t know what I needed or what my chances were, but in the end I made it by a safe margin… Not that almost 49 minutes isn’t still an awful time.
As expected, the park was crowded, and some cyclists without lights were a danger to others and even riding on the running lane. But many people were on the lane, though I mostly managed to just weave my way around them, albeit often going the long way around or squeezing through. The most notable problem was on sector two of lap two, when three dogs on leashes, one going in the same direction, one in the opposite one and one coming from the side, met and wanted to go to each other, so after avoiding one I got in the path of the second, after avoiding the second I got in the path of the third… And after avoiding that one as well I almost slammed into a woman who had just passed through that spot before the dogs got there and then stopped to arrange her hair, so I had to quickly avoid her too. And at the end of that sector, under the bridge, I slowed a lot because of a triple roadblock. I might have just managed to squeeze through, next to the wall, but another runner coming from the opposite direction who had apparently just stopped and was checking the time noticed me and blocked that spot by moving off the lane, probably out of reflex, so I had to just squeeze through somehow.
Otherwise, I also lost time because of the dark, since there are areas where you can see next to nothing and I had to be more careful. As for physical problems, there was a little warning from that spot at the back of my left thigh at the start, but it went away… And what I wrote down at the time is that both thighs started giving warnings on sector two of lap two, towards the end of that sector my chest also started burning a little, and towards the end of the lap I started feeling a little out of breath, but it seems more likely that these actually took place on lap three, especially considering what I mentioned above, about the moment when my body started complaining. Either way, it was definitely towards the end of the final sector when I felt even more out of breath, not quite managing to sustain that sprint all the way to the end. But I managed a good time on that sector anyway.

Then I jogged to Carrefour, once again first washing my hands and face and only putting on the mask after that. I didn’t find anything to get, however, and I was rushing, so I removed the mask again after I got back outside and held it in my hand as I mostly actually ran to Penny, getting there a little before 9:40 PM, so only ten minutes after walking out of that mall. Then I put the mask back on, just got a bag of bagels and continued to that Kaufland, washing my hands again, not bothering to put those bagels in a cabinet, since they were Penny’s store brand, walking in the store at 10 PM, going straight to the bakery area and grabbing a sweet pastry and a bun, the discount for bakery products soon increasing to 65%. I saw plenty of other evening discounts as well and grabbed another cabbage and more plums, and then also grapes for my mother. And I kept seeing some bagels that seem to be a kind that I used to get in the past among the expiring products in that location, though now they’re apparently sold by weight, with those apparently expiring ones being packaged by Kaufland in plastic boxes, but if I had previously only seen a few such boxes at a time, that evening there were dozens, so I grabbed one of those as well, then went to the self-checkout, walking to the last machine… And finding that it was in German. I pointed that out to the employee and she told me to wait for another to become available, but I said that I’ll manage and did so, the fact that the product names were still in Romanian making it easy enough.
I walked out a few minutes before 11 PM, when that location closed, but then spent several minutes arranging the purchases, only actually walking away after the announcement that the store had closed. And it seemed that I caught several spiderwebs on the way back, though none of them was as thick as the one I had caught the previous evening. Either way, I got back a little after 11:40 PM, put some of the purchases in their place, ate watermelon, the sweet pastry and those bagels, finally went to shower at 1:05 AM, got back in the kitchen at 1:30 AM, sliced the two breads that I was yet to slice for dad, out of the four purchased the previous evening, started eating dinner just after 3:05 AM and finished at 3:50 AM. However, after having decided to not do so before showering, I found myself needing to go to the toilet before going to bed.

While I’m definitely not changing my stance when it comes to the complete and official elimination of long final sets and my interest in tennis in general is still just about completely gone because of this change, which happened gradually over a number of years and was actually formalized and enforced earlier this year, yesterday’s final proved that tennis could still be exciting. I again didn’t follow the tournament, of course, and the US Open was the first of the Grand Slam tournaments to impose final set tie-breaks anyway, long before the others, and I didn’t make a point of even watching that final, but I gave it a chance while I was in the kitchen and what I saw made me keep watching all the way to the end. I mean, some points were so outstanding that plenty of times that match looked like a demonstrative one!
More than that one match, however, I’m tempted to say that Carlos Alcaraz offers some hope for the future of tennis, despite the utterly terrible direction the sport has otherwise been heading in for quite some time. At first he gave me the impression of being Nadal‘s “heir”, but now it’s quite clear that he’s so much more, and so much better. I’m tempted to say that he likely has some 15 good years of tennis ahead of him, but a lot can happen during that time, including injuries, a loss of interest, getting carried away by fame and fortune, the regulations getting even worse… However, right now he’s not only an outstandingly skilled player, but also one who truly seems to play for the joy of it and does so in a spectacular manner. And he also has that endurance that the sport is now rejecting, having reached the final after winning three consecutive five-set matches and winning the tournament after a total of 23 hours and 40 minutes on court, which is the most time any player has spent on court during a turnament since these records began, in 1999. So to say that he’s the one to watch would be an understatement. And, of course, something that those who weren’t driven away from the sport over the past few years already knew all too well.

On July 22, the bathroom light failed again, though that LED tube was bought only nine months earlier. And dad had moved the box with receipts, so I asked him to tell me where it was, but he kept saying that he won’t bother with the warranty after such a long time and bought a new LED tube, from the same place and leaving the broken one there. And when that new one was identical and came with a warranty certificate, I remembered that I had kept the old one’s, actually in the kitchen, so I grabbed it and again asked him for the box with receipts, so he’ll at least be able to go back and get the old one replaced on top of buying a new one, since the fixture allows for two and we were only using one anyway. But he just said that he’ll do that next time, and when I pointed out that he insists on not defending his rights, since it’s not the first time when he refuses to make use of warranty or a right to return, he said “not at this level”.

After getting in bed when it was almost 5:30 AM, after dad left for the weekend, after getting up on July 23 I took out the part of my “stash” of food which I had bought for Micky in November, since dad seemed to want to keep giving that kind to Liza and there was a sale at Mega Image over the weekend but even so the price was higher than what I had paid for those back then, so I counted them as having been purchased at the price they had at that moment, making a “profit” of a few RON. But that was after having decided to count 100 RON out of what dad gave me for that month as not actually being for me, without telling my parents that I was going to do that, so it’ll be as if I contributed towards the vet expenses for Micky to some extent as well, not just giving my parents a part of the money out of what I had set aside but adding all of it to their “debt”.
I did also go out that day, however, taking the plastic and metal, the things that I take to Kaufland and some other trash and leaving at 7:45 PM, dropping off the recyclables and that trash in bins on the way… But coming back with the other things, since on top of the bin for masks having been removed, I could no longer find the other bins either at that Kaufland, which I reached after first getting what I wanted from Carrefour Park Lake and having the cashier ask how old I was and say that she was just asking when I asked why, which was odd, and then quickly stuffing the purchases in the backpack, putting them in a cabinet when I reached Penny, at 9 PM, and getting what I wanted from there as well.
After retrieving my things and once again putting them in a cabinet after reaching Kaufland, I ended up needing to wash my hands in the women’s bathroom, having no way to do so in the men’s, and walking in the store when it was just about 9:25 PM. I meant to go straight to the bakery area, but noticed that a single bundle of green onions was left and it had an evening discount, so I grabbed that first, and still holding it in one hand caused me to struggle to get the two breads of that kind that were left, eventually managing when another guy held that glass, or more probably plastic, open for me… Which made me wonder whether he had also wanted them but got there just a few seconds too late. Either way, I then grabbed some more things from that area and a few other products and, while the price labels weren’t changed again, at one point a 75% discount was announced for bakery products and they were indeed 75% off when I got to the self-checkout… And yet again almost stole something by accident, a discounted pack of biscuits, but at least I remembered it before paying and scanned it as well. Then, with the store closing just as I paid, after retrieving the other purchases from the cabinet I again had to use the emergency exit, and then went to the table that’s farthest from it in order to arrange everything, the others being occupied. Not that I did it properly, so I ended up stopping twice more before actually leaving that area, at 10:15 PM… And then stopped yet again after a little while, to put that cloth bag around my neck again, since placing it in one of the other bags had caused that one to be too heavy.
On the way back, I went to the Mega Image that’s next to Tei, walking in with the backpack and the bag that was around my neck and using two cabinets for the others. With that discount applying to all of the cat food, there was a better kind that I was looking for, and while none of that seemed to be left and I even asked an employee and he said that they didn’t have any more elsewhere either, I did find two last ones of a similar kind, from the same brand, so I grabbed those… And the cashier gave me 1 RON more as change, but I let her know and handed it back. Then I retrieved what I had in the cabinets and got back here, but after dropping everything off, putting the peas in the freezer and giving Liza some of that new food and seeing that she ate it, I went back out and checked this nearby Mega Image as well, though it was almost certain that I won’t find any more of that food there, and that indeed proved to be the case.
It was almost 11:50 PM when I was finally back for good, then ate the sweet pastry bought from Kaufland, with added honey, and the last apricots and drank the tea. It was 12:55 AM when I went to shower and 1:30 AM when I got back to the kitchen… And only then remembered to weigh myself again, to see how much I had carried, so that difference of 21 kg compared to what I saw when I first walked in, carrying everything, probably meant that it had been closer to 22 kg, considering what I ate and drank before showering. Either way, despite still having some more things to do, I almost managed to stick to the schedule, cheating a little, taking the cheese and sour cream to my room and mixing them there, in order to start eating dinner seconds before 3 AM, and at 3:40 AM I was scraping breadcrumbs and sunflower seeds off the plate, though that took a few minutes. On the other hand, my legs were burning again, the right one in particular, the feeling going all the way up in that case.

Since I was again sleeping poorly, just getting some brief naps before waking up again, on the morning of July 26 I eventually got up and tried that test that I already mentioned, to see whether restoring from the backup and setting the date back to the day before the old license expired would allow me to continue to use Emsisoft Anti-Malware (EAM) as before, without it being connected to a workspace. So I unplugged the HDDs again, first tried to see whether the fact that I had repartitioned the SSD so the system partitions would be the exact same size as on the system HDD would allow me to restore on it directly, and when that failed I set its ID to that of the system HDD and it finally worked… Or at least it did after also using the repair option, since on the first attempt to boot from it I got an error stating that it couldn’t find what was needed. Of course, there were still things that it couldn’t find once it did boot, the HDDs not being connected, but I could update EAM and see that it did continue to work as before, also after setting the date back to the correct one.
However, when I rebooted the system seemed to freeze, just a couple of lines of the boot text being displayed, so after a while I pressed the reset button and it booted normally after that. But EAM only detected three external storage partitions instead of four, and if I shrugged it off at the time, when I rebooted again into the repair environment, in order to change that ID back, I saw that the external HDD was no longer detected at all. And after rebooting again, normally, and confirming that it wasn’t detected, I noticed that it seemed to keep spinning, and it resumed doing so after I unplugged it and plugged it back in. It even seemed to continue to spin after I turned the computer off, to reconnect the HDDs and close the case, once again resuming spinning after I again unplugged it and plugged it back in. I could only breathe a sigh of relief after booting back into the normal system, considering that test completed, and connecting the external HDD to another USB port and seeing that it once again worked. And then I tried the old one on the port which had seemed to cause the problem and that one worked just fine as well, and while I didn’t dare to try the new one there once again that day, I have done so since then and the problem didn’t reappear, so I have no idea what happened then. And I’m also not sure why Comodo Firewall forgot the HIPS settings again when I rebooted one more time, since it’s been a while since that last happened, it hadn’t happened the first time and nothing changed between those reboots. And it took many attempts before it actually imported the settings properly, though at least it eventually did.
Otherwise, that day I also received a reply from Carrefour, saying that they’ll send that cashier for more training, since employees are available to check prices until closing time, and that they corrected that price label but I will be able to go to the customer service desk and buy that yogurt at the price that was listed then. As for sleep, I only got in bed at 5:20 AM, admittedly after a late nap, getting in bed after dad left for work and getting up at 12:55 AM.

July 27 was when dad cracked the cutting board almost in half when he cracked some bones on it with the hatchet. The crack didn’t quite go all the way through, but I clearly needed a new one. On the other hand, that night I also made a lot of work for myself when I wanted to put the pot with what dad had made for himself in another, in water, so it’ll have a chance of cooling. That other pot was only a little wider, so there was little room for water and I put in far too much and also placed it on the counter, since something else was on the other side of the sink, and if at first I removed some of the water and only a little splashed on the counter on the next two attempts, so I was able to wipe it with the sponge, I eventually ended up being certain that I had removed enough and just dropped that pot in the other one… Resulting in a lot of water on the counter and flowing down, right where the drawers are, and into them, and into the second one in particular. And my teas are also in that drawer, so I had to take everything out of that one and remove it, also take out the things from the front part of the other drawers, spread everything around, wipe what I could, let everything dry, set the teabags that got a little wet to dry as well, and then put everything back. Still, even though I already put some of the things back before dinner, it only led to starting to eat at 3:05 AM and I still managed to finish at 3:40 AM.

On July 29, I went out at 3:05 PM, going to Park Lake and first having a look at refrigerators in that Media Galaxy. But the main reason for going there was to get detergent from Carrefour, that being one of the categories of products that they were giving those vouchers for those days, so I got a 13 kg bag and put it in a cabinet, then also took care of the second matter, asking at the customer service desk whether I had understood correctly that I could get that yogurt at the price that was listed then, since I hadn’t received another reply after asking for confirmation by e-mail. At first the employee told me that I should have bought it then, but I had taken a screenshot of the e-mails on my phone and let her read them, after which she made a call and then confirmed that I could get two at the current price and then come back to her and have the difference refunded. The problem was that I had checked those yogurts before getting the detergent and they were expiring on August 2 or August 7, and those were large cups, and small ones, also bio (organic), were among the expiring products, so getting two would have been a bad idea, but I first got three of those cakes that are three for the price of two, and as I was looking through those I noticed the employee from the customer service desk heading to that area and when I went back there I saw that more of those yogurts had been brought and they expired on August 14. So I did get two of those after all, along with two of those expiring ones. Then, after checking out a cutting board and not quite liking what I saw, that system that they have in that location assigned me to the same cashier who had told me that the price couldn’t be checked, so I moved to another line when I realized it, and also used the voucher, the receipt again being taken away.
After returning to the customer service desk and having the difference refunded, I retrieved the detergent from the cabinet and struggled to carry it, getting back at 5:25 PM, though that was after placing that bag on the bench that’s in front of the building and taking some time to pick some fruit from the tree that’s here. Then I had one of those cakes, the other two being for my parents’ birthdays, ate lunch, and just before 7:30 PM I went out again, rushing to Cora.
I hadn’t been there in a long time, but I wanted to check out a cutting board that I had seen on their site, so I got there at 8:05 PM, first very quickly glanced at refrigerators in that Flanco, then went in, explored a little, spotted large packs of chamomile tea and got one, then looked through those cutting boards and found one that seemed to be mostly made of a single piece of wood, only a small part on one side looking different, so I got that as well… Though when I had a better look after getting back I noticed that, while it otherwise looks like a single piece of wood, there are two more places, towards the middle, where different pieces seem to be joined together, so it remains to be seen how sturdy it’ll actually end up being.
Either way, I walked out just after 9 PM… And somehow took the same route back instead of heading straight for Kaufland and Carrefour. I realized it when I reached Basarabia Boulevard and recovered from there, but that meant losing some time that I didn’t have. Even so, and despite only jogging a little when I was already close to Kaufland, I managed to get there at 9:30 PM, washed my hands, didn’t bother to use a cabinet for the tea and the cutting board, rushed to the bakery area and grabbed some things. I couldn’t find any of the products that I was actually looking for, however, and the discount for those bakery products stayed at 50%, but at least there were no problems with the self-checkout, which allowed me to walk out just before 9:55 PM… And still rush to Carrefour as well, managing to get in at 9:57 PM, obviously once again without leaving the purchases in a cabinet. And, despite having so little time, I managed to find a watermelon that seemed good, again had no problems with the self-checkout, and actually left the checkout area at 10:01 PM.
After taking some time to check that I hadn’t lost anything and put the watermelon in bag, I got back here at 10:40 PM, had watermelon and a sweet pastry bought from Kaufland, went to the bathroom just after midnight, somehow ended up just wasting time on the toilet, and then showered. However, despite being back in the kitchen a little before 1 AM and not having much left to do, only dealing with one bread, which didn’t take long, and deciding to still use the old cutting board, not trying to oil the new one, as you should do before using it, I somehow still ended up starting to eat dinner at 3:05 AM. But at least I still finished at 3:40 AM.

This would have been a good place to end this post, but I’m too far behind, and with the next run that I’m yet to write about having been on August 23, I’ll go up to August 21, to get through the remaining odds and ends before that point, even if I need to post it after this section and then edit it later in order to add the rest. After all, this section already skips forward, covering August 16, when I woke up again when dad got back just as I was falling asleep, likely remained awake until he went to bed, and then got woken up yet again, at or just after 7:30 AM, by Liza going to the litter box and scratching a lot, as she tends to do. So I went to pee at that point, then had a look in the kitchen… And saw a note from dad that seemed to continue the previous argument, again saying that he smelled pee and asking whether I was making “experiments”. And I had checked the litter box before going to bed and there had been nothing in it, and all that was in it at that point was the pee which Liza had just “produced” moments earlier, so there couldn’t have been anything else in between. Plus that when I had gone to the bathroom I had been struck by the smell of feet, or socks, but dad apparently doesn’t notice that and therefore it doesn’t matter.
I was so angry that I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I considered going out, but I was too tired, so I just got back in bed and wasted time, too angry to sleep, too tired to get up… Though I eventually did get up again, getting on the computer at 9:05 AM and finally returning to bed a little after 10:20 AM. It still took me a long time to fall asleep, but at some point I did, and it was 1:35 PM when I woke up again… And again smelled what seemed to be overheated electronics when I went out of my room, like it was on August 8, so I checked the fridge and found that there was almost no ice left inside, but nothing else seemed unusual and it was running again by the time I once again went out of my room, at 4:20 PM, after sleeping some more and then finishing the part about July 25 and editing the post about July’s runs in order to add that as well. On the other hand, later I learned that dad hadn’t even actually used the last two bio (organic) eggs while I was at Carrefour the previous evening even though I had told him that I wanted them for the mamaliga which I had made that night, but only used one and threw away the other, supposedly because there was just yolk inside, though I’d have definitely used it.

I didn’t even manage to finish the above section before midnight, posting what I had and adding the last couple of sentences a little later, but the actual later edits start here, with this part which I added before going to bed in the morning, about August 17, when my initial plan was to look for some evening discounts again. However, in the early hours of the day I realized that I had what I needed until the next planned run, so I sent dad an e-mail to ask whether he’ll remove the stove top in the evening, so I’ll be able to wash it… And when he said that he will I wrote another e-mail, to ask whether I could get myself some pastries or if he could actually get them for me, so I won’t have to go out at all… And that just drained me, I panicked, started shaking and pretty much shut down. I still sent the message, but it was a mess and ended by saying that I had to recover, and when I woke up and went to pee after he got up, I struggled to tell him to not get anything, knowing that he was going out, and that was even harder to do because he didn’t hear the first time and I had to say it twice. However, after I went back to bed and only got up again when he came back, he said that he had forgotten to get bread for himself, so I asked whether he wanted me to go to Auchan, since that kind is much cheaper there, and ended up doing that, taking the plastic and metal and some trash and leaving at 4:15 PM. I dropped the recyclables and the trash in the appropriate bins, but kept the torn bag I had taken the recyclables in, meaning to throw it in a bin meant for plastic bags that I knew was supposed to be at Auchan.
Despite being in a hurry, since I went past it I decided to have a quick look in Supeco as well, though I didn’t find anything to get. Then I got to Auchan and rushed in, finding some of that bread but no price label, so at first I just took one and looked for a price checker, to confirm that it was still at that old price. Since it was, after wasting some time checking expiring products and yogurts, the discounts being too low for the former and the prices too high for the latter, I got four of those breads. Also looked for the other kind of bread that I’d get for dad from there, even asking an employee when I didn’t see any in the spot where it should have been, but she just said that if they still had any then it should be there. So I grabbed two more things and then went to the self-checkouts, finding that more had appeared and seeing signs stating that cash was also accepted. However, after an employee probably noticed that I looked rather lost while standing in line, asked whether I’ll pay with cash or card and pointed towards one side after I answered, I just waited for one of the machines from that side to be freed, used it to scan my purchases, saw that by scanning dad’s store card I received a 15% discount for one of the other products… And only then noticed that I could only pay by card, so not even all of the machines from one side accepted cash and I had assumed that they did, not checking again before that point. So I walked away and moved to the first machine that became available and actually did accept cash… Only for it to keep saying that the bar code was wrong. So I called the employee and she also tried, first with dad’s bread, then with the other products, then she logged on and tried again, but nothing seemed to work. Yet it finally did work after she logged out and tried again, that time starting with the other products.
Those problems with the machines had caused me to lose time that I didn’t have… And then I lost a little more by going to the other exit, since I remembered that the bin for plastic bags was there… But that had apparently been removed as well, so I just threw that torn bag in the bin meant for plastic and hurried back. However, on top of not actually running, when I reached the farmers’ market I decided to have a quick look, since I needed apples, and actually found a small quantity of cheap ones. So I picked some of those, handed the bag to the girl who was there, she weighed it, asked whether she should add a few more, to get to one kilogram, I agreed… And she picked those that seemed eaten by worms. But at least she gave me 1.2 kg, according to what I saw when I got back and weighed that bag. That detour really caused me to run out of time, however, so I started jogging after leaving the market… And finding that it was really hard to do so, the fact that I soon pulled my mask down not making it that much better either, so I really struggled and was soon drenched in sweat despite carrying only a few kilograms, one problem being that the bags didn’t allow my arms to move, and I couldn’t step properly either.
I got back a couple of minutes after 6 PM, even did the day’s squats, ate one of those apples, lunch and the large plain pastry which I had purchased, adding honey on it, and later I went to the bathroom… And only came out three hours later, after using the toilet, washing the stove top, also struggling for a while with those supports that the pots are actually placed on, though I didn’t put much effort into cleaning those and they were still soiled after I was done, and then showering. Forgetting to take gloves made cleaning that stove top a little harder as well.
After eating dinner that night, I also finally replaced that old Sudoku magazine which had been on my desk for so long with the other one, realizing that I should have done so when I cleaned my room… Not that said other one hadn’t also been in my room while I had COVID-19, but it had at least been behind me instead of right in front of me. Either way, before going to bed I took the teddy bear back as well, since it seemed dry enough, after having placed it in the washing machine two days earlier, along with the blanket, at which point I had also sewed a little tear which I had noticed in one of its legs. On the other hand, I again had that feeling of having fluid in my abdomen, and when I weighed myself the next day I saw 49 kg, and that was after going to the toilet, so I was obviously accumulating something at that point.

And now I’ll get to the last two sections, which I added to the post Monday evening, starting with the morning of August 20, when I couldn’t sleep at all, which unfortunately seems to now be the rule after running. I kept tossing and turning and there was no chance to fall asleep, so at 7 AM I got back on the computer and finished writing the notes about August 19, getting back in bed just after 7:45 AM… And, since there was still no chance to sleep, getting up again half an hour later and deciding to start reading a book… Which I have only “used” in this manner since then, just reading a little more on two other occasions when I couldn’t sleep, plus one chapter read while waiting for the family doctor, so I really should actually get to it. But, to return to August 20, I got back to trying to sleep at 8:55 AM and some time later finally did fall asleep. I got up to pee at 10:25 AM, but could get back to sleep quickly after that, albeit not for long, since the next time I woke up it was just after 1 PM and I got up at that point, so I only slept for a total of just over three hours. On the other hand, that evening I saw that the price of that TV tuner had dropped sharply, so I did finally order it… Apparently just before it went out of stock even for that store.

As for August 21, I had been thinking of going out if I’ll clearly decide to not do the half marathon run the next day and when dad got back and said that he hadn’t looked for some limescale remover from Mega Image after all, I had a good reason to go, so I left at 8 PM and went to the Mega Image that’s close to Penny, eventually finding that limescale remover, though I had to search for it for a while. Then I also grabbed some zacusca for dad and wasted some more time searching for a bag of raisins in dark chocolate in the pile, finding everything else from that line of products except for that. But I was able to find them when I looked in the candy section, so I grabbed a bag, and then also got two packs of those biscuits that were still on sale… And I accidentally gave the cashier 10 RON more, which she handed back.
After taking some time to arrange the purchases in the backpack and a bag, both inside and after walking out, I rushed to Penny, getting there just over five minutes before it closed. The guard told me to hurry and I grabbed some roes, but I was also looking at some sweets, reading the ingredients, when he walked past me and said that they’ll close the door in two minutes, and when I didn’t reply he stopped next to me and insisted until I said that I had heard him. So I didn’t get anything else… And since I was feeling so rushed and the cashier didn’t give it to me along with the change, which was rounded down, I forgot to take the receipt. On the other hand, the other guard asked whether I had walked in with what I had in my backpack, since I obviously hadn’t taken the time to put it in a cabinet, but when I told him that I could even show him the receipt he said that there was no need, he had just asked, and pointed me towards the emergency door, the main exit already being closed, at which point I also told him that all of those products were of Mega Image’s store brand anyway.
With Kaufland also closing at 9 PM on Sunday, going there was no longer an option, but I still went in that direction, to Carrefour Mega Mall, peeing and washing my hands after I got there, putting the purchases in a cabinet, walking in a couple of minutes before 9:30 PM and seeing piles of bags of discounted fruits and vegetables, plus some expiring products, including quite a lot of bakery ones. But before taking the time to search through what was there, I rushed to have a look at the bakery area, confirming that the sign stating that everything was discounted by 50% was there and that several breads of a kind that I could get for dad were left. So I thought that someone else grabbing something that I’d have been interested in from the expiring products area presented the higher risk, since a few other people were there at that time, and I turned around and went back there… Only to not find anything interesting after all. But, being confident that at least some of those breads will still be there for a few more minutes, I grabbed a bag of corn puffs and had a look at some sweets before finally getting back to the bakery area… And finding that it had been cleared, the employees having taken everything away, even though it was only around 9:45 PM. And since then I learned that they had actually left it a little late that evening, since they usually seem to do that around 9:30 PM, which is infuriating. But there was nothing left to do at that point, so after taking another look around I went to the self-checkout just with that bag of corn puffs, at least being able to use the voucher received for the garlic bought two days earlier without having the receipt taken away. Then I retrieved what I had in the cabinet and took quite some time to arrange everything in the backpack, stopping once more after going up the escalator in order to also find a way to get the empty bags back in there.
With the area around the stadium being closed at that hour, I had to walk back on Vatra Luminoasa and Tony Bulandra, and all the streetlights were off on those streets for some reason, which made some areas almost completely dark. But I got here at 10:25 PM, put the purchases in their place, ate a few plums, washed what dad had left, wrote some more of that day’s post while eating some of the corn puffs that I already had, to post what I had just before midnight, then arranged some things in my room, even did the day’s squats, and it was at least 12:45 AM, and possibly even later, since I first cleaned the litter box, when I went to shower, finishing at 1:10 AM. And before dinner I had a slice of the old cozonac, adding honey on it. I had bought that one back in January and a small part of it was still in the freezer, but it still seemed to be good enough.

I wonder if Russia shutting down gas flows through Nord Stream 1 indefinitely and then even spelling out the terms of the blackmail, not that such a statement was needed, right after Ukraine began its counteroffensive is a sign of how worried they are, possibly thinking that they will no longer be in a position to make demands by November, when they were probably expecting the European Union to completely give in to the blackmail and stop supporting Ukraine or even force it to accept Russia’s terms. If so, it would be a piece of good news, but the outcome relies on Ukraine’s ability to gain some major victories within a month and a half or so, and even that may be stretching it, so it more exactly relies on the support it will receive, which needs to be immediate, more massive and more direct than it has been so far.
A reason for concern is Erdogan again showing his true colors, considering the impact the Turkish drones had so far. But relying on that guy for anything is as unwise as relying on Putin, and the sooner that’s finally understood, the better it will be. These are people who should simply not be seen as potential partners, not even for negotiations, instead needing to be isolated and then removed from power as soon as possible, preferably by aiding and empowering the better groups who oppose them internally… Though that may only work for Erdogan, the situation in Russia being different and likely calling for complete isolation and tightening the screw on all citizens who didn’t and aren’t fleeing the country in order to escape the regime, a positive change from within not seeming to be a plausible scenario… Not that it seems plausible in Turkey either, especially considering the attitude of the countries and organizations who should be pushing for it.

I guess I’ll first mention that on the evening of August 14 I was concerned because I again had a weird feeling in my chest and it was starting to make me feel like I had to cough. Then, in the first moments of August 15, when I got back out of my room to let dad know that I had disconnected after posting what I had written until then of the post about July’s runs, he talked over me right away, angrily asking why was the litter box stinking of pee again and if I was again “experimenting” with spreading it, just continuing to talk over me when I tried to say something, insisting that I can’t do that, that you must gather the pee and add new sand, or more exactly bentonite, to not have Liza use a wet litter box like I had done with Micky and so on. And he had gathered the pee and spilled bentonite on the floor, just in those ten minutes or so when I was connected, couldn’t even wait and ask me after I was done… And I had just “escaped” that bathroom, after needing to use it before the negative test, so I simply hadn’t wanted to look there that day and therefore hadn’t cleaned the litter box, and he could have just nicely reminded me to do that. So, after cleaning what he had spilled, going to pee and taking some deep breaths, I reminded him that most arguments actually don’t start from what is said, but from the manner in which it’s said, and that when he attacks like that I just want to lash back and the resulting conflict is personal, the topic becoming irrelevant. Either way, I then started eating dinner at 3:05 AM and finished at 4:05 AM, after going back to the kitchen to put honey on the last slices.
Speaking of Liza and the litter box, she woke me by going there at 12:25 PM, and after going to pee then, I kept waking up, being awake for a few minutes when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, and only managing to catch a few brief naps in between. Then, with just one apple left, I had an orange instead, and started the bag of muesli, adding some of that in the yogurt, along with the almonds. The sweet thing were again some expired “digestive” biscuits, with added honey. Then I put on the full running gear and left at 4:25 PM, when the reported temperature was about 29°C, holding steady.
The time was 49:40.42, with sector times of 4:34, 5:19, 6:10, 4:41, I think 5:10, I think 6:03, 4:42, 5:10, 5:58 and 1:53.00, making for lap times of 16:03, 15:54 and 15:50. Over the course of sector three of lap two, I was sure that I had covered the previous sector in 5:10, but at the end of the lap I was also sure that I had covered sector three in 6:04, which didn’t add up, and I suddenly couldn’t recall whether I had seen 25:53 or 25:54 after sector two, so I’ll go with the first impression, assuming the 5:10 to be correct, but I’m far from certain. Either way, at first I just wanted to be less slow than the previous time, and when I saw that first sector that was even slower than then despite not holding back, I feared that I’ll need to just aim to stay under 52 minutes, and also decided that there was again no point in looking at the exact times. I still hoped to stay under 16 minutes on lap one, however, and even though I failed to do so, I felt that I won’t get much slower, so from lap two I was thinking of staying under 51 minutes. I didn’t know whether it was possible, but had reasons to hope after sector two of lap two, and towards the end of the lap I even started thinking of 50:30. So I gave everything on lap three, keeping it up even when I was getting really exhausted, and after sector two I realized that I might just have a little chance of staying under 50 minutes, being surprised to already be safe at the end of the lap. And each lap being less slow than the previous one was nice, though the times themselves were anything but.
I felt warnings from my right knee and left thigh and hip even before starting to run, as I was walking down those stairs, and they continued for most of the first lap, but then lessened and eventually went away. On the other hand, while I gradually got used to the tiredness, which I also felt from the beginning, on sector two of lap two I started feeling exhausted, even a little lightheaded, and it got worse on lap three, even more so from sector two, and on sector three of lap three it was like there was not enough energy for my brain to function, it seemed that I was losing track. I wasn’t quite blacking out, however, and it didn’t feel dangerous, my body seeming to know how to handle it. Otherwise, I felt the heat when I wasn’t in the shade, but after feeling like it was burning on the way to the park, it actually ended up being less of a problem than I feared. The fact that it was occasionally windy, mainly on sector three, might have helped with that, but fighting against the wind was quite a problem on the early part of sector three of lap one. And another problem was that, after the rain from the previous evening and night, the lane was wet in plenty of places, feeling like a wet sponge, so I was avoiding some areas and trying to deal with others. As for people, there were plenty of them, but also less than I feared, considering that it was a free day, so I had to weave and go the long way around a lot, but I wouldn’t say that there were notable problems, even the roadblocks that I had to squeeze through, on sector two of lap two and sectors one and two of lap three, having openings just in the right place and therefore probably not costing me noticeably more time. And a guy who was in front of me at the end of lap three probably helped, since I pushed to catch him, doing so just before the end of the lap.
After getting back, I had watermelon, changed and went out again at 7:25 PM, going to Carrefour Unirii. It started to rain minutes later, but I had taken the jacket, so I put it on, only taking it off again when I got there, though the rain had stopped earlier. I was mainly looking for eggs, and while just a few of those sold by piece were left and I couldn’t find any that I wanted to get among them, there were some in the expiring products area, so I got a carton of ten from there, plus a bag of bagels… And, as I was wandering around, saw a guy that I knew from protests, but pretended not to and quickly walked away when I recognized him. Then I used the voucher I had, after getting that chocolate for dad, and of course the receipt was again taken away.
There was no more rain on the way back, and I was here at 9:45 PM, after stopping at this nearby shop and getting another cabbage, since it still had that price and I managed to find one that still looked good. Then I washed some of what dad had left and put the purchases in their place, and after he left I went to the bathroom, just finishing a newspaper while sitting on the toilet, nothing coming out even though I kept feeling a certain pressing need. Then, after showering, I made mamaliga, having a sweet pastry bought two days earlier, with added honey, before the water started boiling. I finally got in bed at 5:20 AM.

In the early hours of August 19, I made too much salad, started eating dinner at 3:20 AM and finished at 4:15 AM. That was after getting to the kitchen at 1:35 AM, after spending a good 45 minutes trying to unclog the toilet, though that time included washing and disinfecting my hands and face after giving up. It had gotten clogged again after I used it and while the water was draining quite quickly over the course of the day, everything else remained there, and then it got clogged completely, not even the water draining away anymore, after dad tried to work on it a little before leaving for work. So I made a first attempt after he left and then put more effort into it at night, also finding and trying to use the snake that he mentioned we had, but I didn’t have any success either.
Either way, the plan for August 19 was to run in the evening, so I didn’t set an alarm, and when I woke up a little before 2:10 PM I just went to pee and then got back in bed. But I’m not even sure that I got another very brief nap before starting to think that I had to use the small toilet again, and about how bloated I felt, and that I had to gather the sheets and blanket and my few clothes from the balcony because dad clearly won’t take care to avoid touching them if he’ll need to go there while working on the toilet, which he said he was going to do in the evening. So I got up just after 3 PM, gathered those things from the balcony, and had the usual stuff plus almonds, with the sweet thing being the last of those expired “digestive” biscuits, with added honey. I also drank most of the tea and left a little before 6:50 PM, wearing the full running gear, with some things in the pocket of my tights. The reported temperature was 32-33°C, supposed to drop by a few degrees by the time I’ll finish.
I was particularly depressed at that point, however, because I had allowed myself to get a little excited that I’d have a new and apparently interesting person to talk to, on OKCupid, only for her to block me in response to the message I sent while eating that day. Sure, I send very few messages, but she was the first one to reply in a long time, so I made the mistake of allowing myself to hope that I’ll at least have an interesting conversation partner, and preferably a new friend. But after she mentioned a guy who had sent her repeated messages that got increasingly violent over the span of about two hours and said that some people don’t know how bad they are and are self sabotaging, at the end of my reply I said that I had to ask whether that last part was also a hint, and she replied to say that it wasn’t but that it’s worrying that I asked, since it makes it seem that I think that everything’s about me or try to find fault and that’s toxic, so she’ll save me time and block me because that seems to be what I want. And things seemed to have started well, and I was eating and getting ready for the run when I saw that I had another reply, quite excitedly clicked it… And saw that, in the e-mail, since I could no longer see the conversation or her profile on OKCupid.
Either way, the time was 1:20:57, with sector times of 4:28, 5:16, 6:07, 4:37, 5:11, 6:06, 4:42, 5:21, 6:11, 4:45, 5:23, 6:19, 4:51, 5:25 and 6:15, making for lap times of 15:51, 15:54, 16:14, 16:27 and 16:31. I started by thinking that if I’ll stay under 1:20 it’ll mean that I’m recovering, albeit gradually, while going over 1:22 would be a serious cause for alarm, and the first lap made it quite clear that staying under 1:20 was out of the question, but the second made me think that staying under 1:21 was possible, if the average for the first three laps will be under 16 minutes. And I managed that, but just barely and after pushing on lap three, so I knew that it was going to be hard, and that remained the case after lap four, again pushing on sector three in order to obtain a time that was just enough to give me a chance. But I was going to cling to that chance, so I gave it everything on lap five, saw that I still had that small chance after the first sector and just kept pushing, but after struggling and maybe slowing a little in order to see the time after that first sector, since it was getting dark, I didn’t look again after the second, so I didn’t know what time I needed on sector three. Not that it mattered, since I couldn’t have done any better. But what I did was just enough to at least stay under 1:21, as bad as that is, in itself.
It was so hot during the first two laps, the air was just stifling, even in the shade, and there was also some wind and it didn’t seem to have any cooling effect, so it was just another problem. And if the little pain I felt in my left calf when I started quickly went away, I soon felt the need to snap my back and could never quite do it, and my abdomen felt strange as well, bloated and hurting a little, though after a while it started to gradually get better. But at least the people weren’t too much of a problem over those first two laps, usually just causing me to have to weave or go the long way around.
However, if I noticed just as I started lap three that the heat had noticeably lessened, it seems that everyone else did as well, as it almost immediately became more crowded and towards the end of sector one of lap three I almost slammed into an old woman who stopped and turned right in front of me, blocking what should have been the way through what was otherwise a roadblock. And moments later, right at the start of sector two, there was a little silly dance with a cyclist in another crowded place, while at the end of that sector, under the bridge, I slowed in order to squeeze through another roadblock. Then, on sector three, I ended up stepping in a hole that’s under a wet part of the lane. Actually, there were once again plenty of wet parts that felt like a wet sponge and I was avoiding what I could, but I know to stay off the lane in that spot even when it’s dry, yet at that point the rest of the path was blocked, so it’s at least a good thing that my left heel went in that hole, so I didn’t trip and it was jarring for my left leg, not the right, where the knee tends to cause more problems, though at that point it seemed fine as well. And I think that it was also on that sector, though there may be a chance that it was actually on sector three of lap two, when the crowd gathered in front of a stall forced me to go around a bench, cutting a turn but slowing significantly. As for lap four, I was about halfway through it when I noticed that the wind died down, and I didn’t notice it again after that, but on that same sector two of lap four I did start feeling warnings from that right knee, and also from the right hip and left knee, though they were faint and didn’t get worse.
As I was pushing on lap five I realized that I wasn’t “storing” what was happening in memory anymore, and that what had happened on lap four was fading as well, so that period is quite a blur. I know that people continued to cause problems on pretty much every sector, but couldn’t remember the details, though I do recall that I had to stop for a couple of seconds on three occasions and that the first such moment was when another runner came from the opposite direction and went through the only gap in a roadblock. That was probably towards the end of that same sector two of lap four, though sector three isn’t impossible. And it definitely was on sector two, right before the long straight, and I’m pretty sure that it was also on lap four, when I had to slow a lot because a guy started moving across the lane right as I was getting to that spot. As for the other two times when I had to stop for a couple of seconds, I think that the last one was on sector three of lap five, since I was thinking that it might cost me just those few seconds that will put me above 1:21, but I’m not entirely sure and can’t recall exactly what happened, and I remember even less about the other such moment, just that it was somewhere in between the others. And I also obviously lost some time when a guy with a pram stopped and turned in front of me, to wait for the woman who was with him, after I had already committed to get past him on the inside, blocking that space and making me need to quickly avoid him, taking a couple of halting steps. That was on sector three, but I’m not sure whether it was on lap four or five.

And the plan for this post to also include the following week’s run, when I covered a half marathon distance, clearly needs to be abandoned, seeing as I only got this far before midnight and still had to edit the post in order to add the part about the rest of August 19, which I only managed to do Wednesday morning. But including that run seemed unlikely from the beginning, seeing as the post would have needed to be absolutely huge, at least unless I’d have decided to only write about the runs and leave the other sections for another time.

After the run, I put on the mask and went to that Carrefour, and when I used disinfectant from the dispenser at the store’s entrance I noticed how full of dust I was, and therefore how dusty the air had been. Either way, I wanted some chips for dad and got those, along with an expiring bread, also for him, and some yogurt and an expiring hummus for myself, plus a little garlic, since it counted as a fresh vegetable and I got a voucher for 20% of its value. Then I took some time to arrange the purchases in a bag, just leaving the garlic in the one I had taken it in, and continued to the newer Kaufland.
After taking the purchases out of the bags and putting them in a cabinet and washing my hands, I walked in just before 10 PM, went straight to the bakery area and initially grabbed the one bread of that other kind that I saw, even though a small piece of plastic, maybe from a glove, was on it. But then I saw three of those that I usually get from there, in another spot because they were also on a regular sale, and the listed price was half of the sale price, so I got all of those and put that first one back. And, while no sweet pastries that I’d care to get were left, I saw five buns that I was interested in, and while they were also on a regular sale and had no additional discount label, when a 75% discount for bakery products was announced I went to a self-checkout, checked and saw a very low price, well over 75% less than the regular sale price, so I went back and got all of them… And saw a woman taking pictures of the price labels and then checking at a price checker, so I made a mental note to try that when I’ll have my phone with me, though the one attempt I made so far seemed to indicate that its camera isn’t good enough for that. Either way, I also spotted some more of those caramelized walnuts among the expiring products, but the 30% discount was too low, so I moved on, grabbed a bag of spoiling beets, even if the actual weight was a little below the listed one, and then looked for other evening discounts, grabbing radishes, green onions, some cucumbers and the one red cabbage that seemed acceptable. White cabbage also had a good discount, but it didn’t look good and I didn’t try that hard to find an acceptable one, since I had purchased enough from this nearby shop, at a somewhat higher price but definitely good.
Since I didn’t find anything interesting among the expiring refrigerated products, I also grabbed a beer for dad from the brand that was discounted and went to the self-checkout… Only for that beer to scan at the full price. Maybe such a discount, for an entire brand, applied at the end, but I called an employee over and she said that maybe it required the store card, or maybe it was for 2 liters, not for 2.5. So I said that the label didn’t say that the discount required the card and pointed to where those beers were, since it was close to the self-checkout area… And when she didn’t give any sign of going to check, I rushed back there, grabbed the price label and brought it to her, proving that the discount was listed as being for that product and not requiring the card. Even so, after agreeing with me about the label, when she logged on, actually scanned the label itself and still saw that full price, she said that she still thought that it required the card, and I hadn’t taken it with me, so I asked her to delete that beer. Then I scanned the other products, retrieved the other purchases from the cabinet and took quite some time to figure out how to arrange everything, since I just had a few bags and most were small and flimsy. And the guard who had seemed to be watching me with some interest, or perhaps amusement, as I did so meant to block the door just after it was announced that the store would soon close, which was just when I was about to walk out, so the door started to open and then stopped, causing me to almost walk into it. At least she quickly unblocked it to let me out, but it was 10:53 PM and that location closed at 11 PM, and the announcement had, after all, stated that the store would soon close, not that it had closed.
It was hard to walk back when I had to carry everything just in my hands, I had too few bags to separate the items properly, my arms were still tired after washing the stove top two days earlier, and I just felt tired in general. And at one point I also felt something in my shoe, jabbing my right heel badly, so I had to stop and get rid of it… But I had to stop by that point anyway, and a number of times after that as well, to switch hands, which seemed to help my arms a little even though there was little difference between the bag that was a little heavier and the others that were a little more unwieldy.
I hadn’t found anything sweet, however, so I checked that Mega Image on the way back, putting my things in two cabinets, and saw that some of their biscuits were on sale and the ingredients weren’t bad. But I didn’t buy them from there, since I was certainly going to find them at this nearby location as well, so I just retrieved my things and continued on my way, glad to have been able to rest my arms a little, then once again put everything in two cabinets when I reached this location, even though you can’t lock them here, and just bought one of those packs of biscuits. Just as my turn was coming at the checkout I realized that a couple of the biscuits from that pack were crumbled, however, so I rushed back and grabbed another. And the cashier was complaining of the cold, being given a jacket by a coworker, so I commented that the air conditioning must mess them up, the guard at that other location having also complained as I was leaving, and indeed the temperature in Mega Image stores is always awfully low in summer. It feels like hitting a wall of frost when you walk in from outside when it’s hot, and you’ll be shivering if you stay inside for more than a moment.
After retrieving my things, I was at the building’s door right at midnight. I had only carried ten kilograms, but I was so tired, gasping for breath when I got back here. But I put a few of the purchases in their place, talked a little to dad, who had managed to unclog the toilet, ate that pack of biscuits, and eventually went to shower when it was already past 12:45 AM, being worried that my urine was just orange at that point, after having barely been a little orange before leaving, when the large beet that I had put in the salad made the previous night should have made it dark red. Either way, I was out of the bathroom a little after 1:10 AM, put the rest of the purchases in their place, washed what dad had left, took a pill, just in case, had two apricots and some goat milk, and it was 2:25 AM when I finally started working on the salad and 3:35 AM when I started eating a combined lunch and dinner, albeit with just a slice of pizza brought by dad counting as lunch. I finished eating an hour later and got in bed at 5:45 AM, after placing the blanket back on the bed and going to the toilet again, not managing to hold it in after deciding against going before showering.