Cav's Place

I was definitely hoping to make this week’s first post, the non-personal one, about what should have been the actual start of the Artemis Program, at least because it finally aims to take humans beyond Earth once again, even if it only means returning to where we obviously could already go over half a century ago and the methods and spacecraft used are so far from anything that’d actually be desirable that it’s questionable whether they could even be considered tolerable at the present time. But it’s quite clear that NASA has for some reason attempted this test flight too early, the Space Launch System obviously not being ready for actual use. I mean, scrubbing the first launch attempt wasn’t that surprising, but scrubbing the second attempt as well, also for technical problems, raises an increasing number of questions. And the fact that the problem was a different one only makes things worse, since it means that there are multiple failures that weren’t noticed in time… Or maybe they were but those who raised the warnings were ignored and somebody decided to push ahead and hope that things will be solved in time. After all, it’d hardly be the first time that happens…

On July 1, I left at 3:15 PM, taking some of the food that Micky hadn’t eaten behind the building, for the cats that are there. Then, having dad’s metro card, I took the metro to pick up some more of that food that Micky was supposed to eat, after having ordered it on-line from a store where it was cheaper, since at that point we were still hoping that it’ll be of use. And I just wore the mask on the metro, not even putting it back on for the brief time I spent in there, since it was just a place to pick up orders and the only other person was the cashier. But I did put it back on when I returned to the metro station, and then I went to a newly opened Carrefour Express, since there were some special discounts in that location, including for those bags of bagels, so I wanted to get a few for my mother. However, a single one was left on the shelf, and I even asked the employees and they said that there weren’t any others, so I took that one… And accidentally dropped it in a garbage can, since I meant to leave it in front of the scales for a moment without realizing that the mouth of a can was there, not a surface. But it was a can meant for labels, the one other thing that I saw in it being the packaging of some product, so I pulled that bag back out and bought it, along with some more potatoes.
After leaving that store and again removing my mask, I received an SMS from my mother, asking me to get one more thing for her, and that also reminded me to look for cabbage and toilet paper in Kaufland. So I put the mask back on when I returned to the metro station, keeping it on after that point, but instead of taking the metro for just one stop, to the Kaufland from that area, I decided to go to Dristor, quickly glancing through that farmers’ market, and also in the pet shop from there, and then going to Carrefour, getting tea and also a watermelon, after dad said that I should even though the price seemed high to me. Since the watermelon was heavy, I left the purchases in a cabinet, and that was the first time I used one that day, after having just entered with what I had until then. Then I had a look at the small Roman exposition that was in that mall and also glanced at the Turkish Festival taking place in the park before returning to the metro station and going to Kaufland Basarab.
After spotting a pet shop there as well and having a quick look, I got what my mother had asked for and what was actually the last cabbage left, but still couldn’t find that toilet paper, only seeing the empty spot where it should have been. However, at the self-checkout I noticed that one of the kinds of cans bought for my mother looked rather suspicious, and while I bought them anyway, after getting back I sent messages to the manufacturer, the store and the National Consumer Protection Agency (ANPC), asking them to check that lot… And was surprised when I received a reply from the manufacturer, telling me that the unusual look was caused by using a different kind of cover on that lot and actually attaching the results of a test performed on it, stating that it was completely safe, as well as one from ANPC, stating that they had checked the store and found nothing wrong, both of these coming sooner than I’d have expected them. And Kaufland also replied, but some days after the others and only to tell me that they checked and found that I had already received the necessary explanations from the manufacturer.
Returning to July 1, I got back on the metro and also went to the Kaufland which I should have checked first, and on top of the fact that it was already late, I also lost a couple of minutes because I used the wrong exit from the metro station, the crossing being at the other one, and if I’d have chosen that direction I wouldn’t have needed to use it at all, since there are exits on both sides of the road on that side. Either way, I put the purchases in a cabinet, wanted to wash my hands but couldn’t because the men’s bathroom was being cleaned, and just went in and out, not even finding the place where that toilet paper should have been and also seeing that they were out of that kind of bread. But that confectionery didn’t just have those mini meringues, but they were also shockingly cheap, so I asked for a few and, while I didn’t also get a receipt, I could buy them even though it was around 9:20 PM and the place was probably closed, possibly since 9 PM, the person who was there adding some numbers and writing them down at that point.
After retrieving what I had placed in the cabinet, getting back to the metro and managing to return to Carrefour Park Lake and also retrieve those purchases from the cabinet before closing time, I arranged everything a little in the bags and backpack, rushed back, got here a little before 10:15 PM, having carried 16.5 kg… And found that dad had already left. I had assumed that he was going to leave at the normal hour and rushed to still catch him, but found a note stating that he had to get to work early and had left at 8:30 PM! So I beeped him and when he called back I asked why hadn’t he told me about that, at which point he said that he thought he had, but in that case it definitely wasn’t that day or even over the course of the previous couple of days, and with everything that happened during that period, he couldn’t have expected me to remember a detail which might have possibly been mentioned a week or so earlier. And I also asked if he hadn’t needed the metro card and he said that he managed, which probably meant that he had bought himself one to just cover the trips he needed to make then, but I didn’t ask for more details, just saying that he could have just told me to get back earlier, or he could have called me when that time approached to ask where I was and whether I could get back, at least to give him the card. But there was nothing left to do about it at that point, so I ate an orange and two of those mini meringues and it was 12:15 AM when I started eating dinner, finishing in 15 minutes but taking ten more before going to the bathroom, to use the toilet and shower. Still, even though I got back in the kitchen at 1:20 AM and still had things to do, including dealing with Micky, I just managed to stick to the dinner schedule as well. It was 5:20 AM when I got in bed, however.

I guess the above paragraph is the last time I’ll mention Micky, since I’m now moving on to July 5, when I set the alarm to ring at 9:30 AM, but was awake a little after 9:20 AM, so I got up and turned it off, took the recyclables, those things that I usually take to Kaufland and some oil and perfume bottles and left at 10:45 AM, again having dad’s metro card. After dropping off the recyclables in a bin, I walked to Kaufland, initially putting those things in a cabinet and going right in, to look for toilet paper and the beer that I wanted to get for dad, since it had a 50% discount in exchange for recycling five bottles or cans. I only found the beer, however, so I went back out, retrieved those things from the cabinet and dropped off the rest, but had to hold on to the masks, since the bin meant for those had vanished, and I’m actually yet to see one again anywhere.
Either way, I then went to the recycling machine, but after identifying one bottle as glass instead of plastic, which didn’t matter, it stopped after the second and gave me the receipt, obviously without the discount voucher, since there were just two items. And while an employee immediately appeared, went in and eventually restarted the machine, she nevertheless told me to take the remaining bottles to the information desk in order to get the discount voucher. And I also asked whether those small perfume bottles would be accepted and she said no. So I had a problem, since cooking oil bottles probably wouldn’t have really been acceptable either, so I didn’t want to try to hand them over to a person who could reject them and then remember me. That made me stick around the machine for a while, waiting for someone else to test it, and a woman did soon come and put some things in, the machine accepting everything except her last can. She tried several times, and I couldn’t see why that can would be refused either, but she eventually gave up… And asked whether I had an item to spare. I said that I had exactly the number I needed, but looked around, spotted a plastic bottle on the ground, mentioned that more can be found in the area, and when she didn’t seem willing to go and take it I did, bringing it to her. Then, after she was done, I put my remaining three bottles in and got the second receipt, then also tried those perfume bottles and confirmed that the machine won’t accept them, so I put what I still had back in the cabinet and went to the information desk… Only for the employee to say that she had nothing to give me, the machine needing to do that. So I said that I had been told to come there, and the message on the machine also tells people to go to the information desk in case of errors, so she called someone, was told what to give me in exchange for the two receipts and finally did so.
After going back in, I got the one remaining bread for dad and one of those beer bottles, needing an employee to authorize the sale of alcohol at the self-checkout. Then I retrieved those things from the cabinet and took the metro in order to check that new Carrefour Market again, but they hadn’t brought any more of those bagels, so I got back to the metro and went to the Kaufland from that area, albeit only to try those perfume bottles in that machine as well, without entering the store after again confirming that they won’t be accepted. Instead, I went to that Auchan, just walking in with everything, and while I couldn’t find the bread that I wanted to get for dad, I found some muesli that had a discount that made the price acceptable and also grabbed an expiring product. Then I got back to the metro and got back here a little before 1:45 PM… After dropping my phone at the building door. A woman and a man were in front of me and the woman went in, but I guess the man was delivering something, so he held the door for me and remained outside after I walked in and tried to return the favor, noticing too late that he had moved behind the door in order to use the intercom. So I probably ended up pushing the door towards him and it’s possible that he pushed it back a little, and I had my phone out at the time, so when I probably pushed it back yet again, out of reflex, I ran out of hands and the phone fell on the floor, the headphones also getting unplugged, which probably wasn’t a good thing for that contact either. But at least there don’t seem to be any problems as a result of that.
I wanted to return at that time since dad had said that he had to leave at 2 PM and needed the metro card, though it was almost 2:20 PM when he actually left. Either way, I made tea, sliced that bread for him and left again a little after 2:35 PM, going to Carrefour Park Lake and finding an expiring product for dad and finally some of that bread that wasn’t sliced, so I got one of those as well, plus some canned herring. I forgot to look for paper towels, however, and didn’t get garlic because the price had increased. But I didn’t have to rush anymore, so I then had a look through the farmers’ market and then also checked that Supeco, just entering with the purchases and getting a little garlic from there, the price still being the old one, and also an expiring bread for dad. Then I went back to the farmers’ market and got a bundle of green onions, some cheap but pretty bad apples and some pretty cheap cucumbers. But that system that sprays water from above in that farmers’ market is definitely annoying, and those umbrellas that were added are also pretty low, and one of them knocked off my cap after getting the green onions. And since the cap fell right into a puddle created by those sprays, I put it in a bag, which meant that I had nothing to protect my head from those sprays while I was still there, and then from the Sun and heat, and also from what was falling from the trees, since I was stopping here and there in order to pick some fruit.
Got back just before 4:45 PM, but while I had checked the site before leaving and it said that the hot water should have returned at 3:30 PM, it still hadn’t, and the new estimate was 3:30 PM on the following day. But such problems are expected, the yearly maintenance taking place during that period, so I showered with cold water, the heat making that somewhat more bearable. And in the evening I made mamaliga again, and while I started eating before 2 AM I took it easy and also did some other things between finishing what I could eat in my room and going back to the kitchen to scrape what I could off the pot, and that was harder to do because I had somehow burned it quite badly, so it was 3:50 AM when I finished. I got in bed at 5:20 AM… And five minutes later there was a power failure. But it lasted less than three minutes, fortunately ending just after I got back to the computer, meaning to turn it off, but before actually giving the command.

There were no visits in either view on July 6, July 31 and August 3, but I know that on August 3 at least one person did visit, which shows how unreliable Google Analytics is now, considering how many block it. On the other hand, while there were no visits in the proper view on July 27, in the unfiltered one I had almost 1500 spam pageviews. I think that’s the first time when I saw filtered visits but no unfiltered ones.

Getting to July 13, I went out at 11:40 AM and went straight to Kaufland, again taking the used masks and again having to come back with them. But I did find what I was looking for, starting with toilet paper, finally, and had no problems with the self-checkout. Then I had a quick look at the stores from the farmers’ market and then went to Supeco, moving everything else into one bag, which I put in a cabinet, even though those don’t lock, and leaving the one with the toilet paper next to the cabinets. And I found paper towels that were “only” 45% more expensive than those that used to be the cheapest ones, from Kaufland, the price of those having increased by 73% and matching that of the cheapest ones from Carrefour. So I got some of those and a little more garlic.
After retrieving my things, managing to make everything fit in one of the largest cabinets from Carrefour and walking in, dad finally called, since I had left him a note to do so after waking up properly. But he told me to not get anything else, so I just got some cheese for myself, finding that Carrefour doesn’t charge for those plastic things after all, plus a bag of corn puffs. I also made use of the voucher received for that beer bought for dad on July 8, and at first the cashier placed the receipt next to my purchases after scanning the voucher code, but I wasn’t sure about taking it, put a hand on it and then removed it, and she said that she’ll give me my receipt right away, taking that one away before doing so, which made me wonder whether she had thought that my hesitation indicated that I had thought that the old receipt was the new one and when I realized that it wasn’t I actually meant to leave that old one for her to throw away. Either way, I then took some time to arrange everything in the bags and got back at 2:55 PM, having carried just 11.5 kg, though that large, unwieldy bag with the toilet paper and paper towels had made it rather difficult.
When I asked dad whether I should go back out and also get something from Penny, he said yes, then asked for one more thing after checking their catalog on-line, and also for that zacusca from Mega Image. So I put most of the purchases in their place and left again at 3:20 PM, first getting that zacusca from the Mega Image that’s on the way and having the total rounded down for once, or more exactly being allowed to round it down, since it was 7.04 RON and I just handed over 7 RON and the cashier didn’t ask for more. Then, after stopping after walking out and putting the jars in the backpack, I just walked in with them when I got to Penny, grabbing what I wanted. Since I saw that another product that he might have been interested in was discounted, I beeped dad, but he told me to not get any when he called back, so I didn’t… And when I gave the cashier exact change, she handed back the five 0.01 RON coins, saying that she had no use for those and also telling me to not worry about it when I started searching for a 0.05 RON coin to replace them with. So I just took those back, then spent some time arranging everything in the backpack and meant to get myself something sweet and maybe one more bakery product on the way back. However, after making the small detour to one bakery and then also checking that newer one, I couldn’t find either of those products, nor anything else that I cared to get, and that was also the case when I crossed the road after getting here and having a quick look at the bakery area from this Mega Image. So, after stopping to pick a few more fruit from the tree that’s in front of the building, I got back just after 4:45 PM. And around midnight I didn’t just do the day’s squats, but also timed them, though the time was only 2:11.

Bad things happened in the first and last moments of July 15, the first being that my Emsisoft Anti-Malware license was expiring that day, and since the starting time also included the hour, which was 7:12 PM, and the expiration time didn’t, I assumed that it’ll be the same, or at least that it won’t “notice” that the license had expired until I’ll update. Plus that I had discussed it with their support people and they confirmed that I will still be able to renew even after it’ll expire… Though they advised against renewing if I intend to stay on Windows 7, since while it was decided to continue to offer definitions updates past the originally announced end date of June 30, they have no idea for how long and have apparently also stopped offering partial refunds in case the product will stop being usable while the license is still valid, even though I know that they have done that before. Then again, the guy that I had been talking to doesn’t seem to work there anymore, and they didn’t answer when I asked about him, and the people that I talked to were far less helpful, but they did also confirm that I had 30 days to ask for a full refund in case of a renewal as well, so I asked dad to pay for it, but he came back close to midnight and, considering what I thought about the expiration time, I actually told him to wait a little more, so he went to take a bath first and I got back on-line… Which was a big mistake, since it apparently checked even if I didn’t tell it to update and, while it continued to list the license as valid, around 12:30 AM it reconnected to the workspace and changed settings, probably to the default ones that were on the account, since I had remote management disabled. And it remained connected to it after the renewal, and the support people said that they can’t disconnect it again, even though that guy had done it for me before. But at least I eventually fixed that.
Moving on to the evening, not long before midnight, after dad got back I heard something from the freezer and quickly realized that it was defrosting. Dad’s bread, being fluffier, didn’t feel quite frozen anymore, there was much less ice in the freezer and I think that some water was starting to pool at the bottom, and in the fridge there was no trace of ice anymore and at the top it was dry and not cold to the touch. But the worst part was that it refused to start again. I mean, while I never saw the freezer visibly defrosting on its own, it does automatically defrost the fridge occasionally, but as far as I know it will immediately start running again if you change the setting to a higher one, and also if the door is open for a minute or two, yet that time I unplugged it and plugged it back in a few times and set it to maximum, and dad moved it, looked behind it and threw out the small amount of water it had gathered, but it refused to start again. So we started looking for options, for both repairs and replacements… Until it just decided to start again on its own, close to 1 AM. It was a serious warning, however, so we should probably replace it before it actually will stop working. But that’s a huge decision to make, a fridge being something that you keep for a decade or more, and as far as I know this one is 18 years old, so you must choose one that you’ll be really content with for a very long time.

The plan for this post, postponed from a week ago, was to include all of the remaining odds and ends from July, which I might have just been able to manage without making it the longest post I ever wrote, but I went out again today and what I managed to post before midnight ended with the first paragraph of the section about July 15, the second one and this one being added a little later. So, with the first day that will be left to write about being July 22, I’ll consider that I covered two thirds of the month and end this by mentioning that on July 16 I finished The Tower of Fools, after having started it on July 4, and wrote the quick review. I also timed the squats again, the time again being 2:11, despite really pushing. And my feet were burning again, the sensation actually going up my legs as well, to a point. On the other hand, I also meant to try to restore from that backup that day, to see whether Emsisoft Anti-Malware would return to functioning as it used to, without being connected to the workspace, but it didn’t seem like I could disable drives from the BIOS and I didn’t open the computer to unplug them just then… Though I did so the next day, just reaching in and managing to do so without removing the computer from the desk, but still not managing to restore in that manner, since I obviously wanted to test on another drive first, without replacing the current system installation, and I was yet to learn how to do that.

Of course, the term isn’t one that can in any way apply to the situation, but for lack of a better one, it is something of a relief that The National Day of Ukraine, which was also the day marking six months since the start of this invasion, was more or less “normal”. Admittedly, the relief is the result of the expected major attacks not materializing and, somehow, the lives of those who are away from the front lines pretty much continuing, but at the same time there may be a level of disappointment resulting from the fact that Ukraine didn’t report any notable achievements or victories on this day either, unless you somehow count the assassination of the puppet head of Mykhailivka, which took place a day earlier.
Speaking of assassinations, I can’t avoid mentioning that of Dugin’s daughter, which gave Russia even more potential ways to justify a massive retaliation these days, considering the fact that they claim that Ukraine was responsible for it… Even though that seems highly unlikely, Ukraine having far more to lose than to gain from something like this. Of course, that doesn’t mean that some misguided Ukrainians, acting completely on their own, couldn’t actually be behind it, but it does seem more likely that Russians, from one side or the other, are to blame. But that goes far into the realm of speculation and conspiracy theories, which I’m “allergic” to, so I’ll just stick to saying that the culprits and their motives are unknown and will remain so until and unless particularly strong evidence will be presented.
To return to this “normal” day, I can only hope that it does not and will not become “normal” for the rest of the world, that we won’t look away, that we will understand the necessity of choosing “blood, toil, tears and sweat” over “peace, no price rises, a quiet life and a nice holiday” and act accordingly, to paraphrase a great opinion piece published these days. Or, to quote Zelenskyy’s National Day speech: “Being indifferent, inactive and slow is a shame. Being indecisive and too cautious is a shame. Speaking sluggishly, vaguely and too diplomatically is a shame. Not supporting Ukraine is a shame. And saying about fatigue from Ukraine is a shame. This is a very comfortable position: fatigue is a cover to close your eyes.” And that, of course, applies to all other major problems as well.

Still leaving the remaining odds and ends from July for some other time, I’ll start this post right from the end of the one about getting COVID-19, so with the early hours of August 6, when I used the new cutting board for the first time, after having purchased one just before the symptoms appeared, since dad had cracked the old one almost completely in two. However, that new one was already badly warped at that point, so at night I looked up why that happens and how to fix it and actually managed to do so since then. Either way, that night I started eating dinner at 3:05 AM and finished at 3:45 AM. But the problem was that I was feeling something in my chest again, though it was in the upper left side, not that usual spot, on the right, and after getting up I kept having to cough to spit. Not that there was much to spit out, but my body was determined to get rid of it.
Otherwise, dad went to my mother that day after all, to bring her some things, including a test. It didn’t strike me as a good idea for him to go there when he refused to test himself, but at least the result was negative at that point, even though she was saying that she wasn’t feeling well at the time, and it does seem that things have gotten somewhat better since then, and I haven’t heard anything about my grandmother getting worse, so maybe they avoided it after all. On the other hand, in the evening I had to rush to the toilet again and things were, shall we say, quite explosive, and after I was done for the moment it still felt like there was more there. I held it until I went to bed, since I was shaking and felt weak and doing that again was likely to make things worse, but had to go again when I woke up to pee, though at least at that point it wasn’t that bad anymore.

Moving on to August 8, when I came out of the bathroom I felt a strange smell that made me think of overheated electronics, and I kept feeling it whenever I got on the hallway, coming from another room. But I couldn’t be sure, especially since I was wearing a mask, so I asked dad when he came back whether he smelled anything, but he said that he didn’t and just dismissed my concerns, as usual. On the other hand, it was the last day of the prescribed treatment, with the exception of the antibiotics, which had been prescribed only for five days, so I had finished taking those two days earlier… And what worried me was that, after having gotten better by then, my throat seemed to be getting a little sore again.

The plan for August 9 was to do another quick test and if it’ll be negative go for a jog, without timing myself and preferably on another route, so I’ll be less tempted to actually run. However, it was positive, and while the plan for that situation was to skip jogging but go out anyway, since I was legally permitted to do so since August 6 and was going to wear an FFP2 mask as well, I was so depressed after seeing that result that I gave up on that idea, leaving it for the next day.
When dad got back, I told him to ask the doctors what to do in that situation and he said that he sent messages to both of them, but neither answered, and he said that he thought that I should continue the treatment at least for that day. I didn’t want to, but eventually followed his advice, taking the first pills in the evening, which meant taking all of them within eight hours or so. But I got back to just making one tea, and otherwise just felt like curling in a ball, didn’t want to eat or drink, didn’t brush my teeth during the day… Didn’t even really want to breathe… But I nevertheless made mamaliga after dad left… And banged my head against the corner of the kitchen window. I knew that it was there and was sure that I was avoiding it as I was getting up, and also that I was moving very slowly, so I was completely surprised when I hit it, and again when I realized how hard, and there was some blood… And then I also cut a finger a little in the can of sardines that I put in the mamaliga. But at least I shaved at night, to force myself to at least go out the following evening.

At one point during the morning of August 10, my body decided to, shall we say, clean the plumbing. It’s been a long time since that happened… Either way, some time later, as I was sort of drifting back to sleep after waking up again when dad left, he woke me yet again, with an SMS, letting me know that one of the doctors, that friend of his, had finally replied and said that I should stop the treatment if the symptoms are gone and to try another test Friday or Saturday, so on August 12 or 13, which actually improved my state of mind significantly.
I went out at 7:10 PM, obviously with an FFP2 mask. I took the recyclables and a little trash, dropping off the trash in a bin and then going past this nearby store and straight to the recycling bin in order to also drop off the recyclables. Then I returned to that store and bought cabbage, after dad had bought himself one the day before and told me the price, which was lower than the price of cabbage at the hypermarkets that had it on sale those days, and what was more surprising was that it was also really good, the cabbage from this store tending to be rather bad most of the time. Either way, I could and likely should have dropped off the cabbage before continuing to Penny, especially since I had two of them, but I didn’t, so after very quickly checking two other stores I got there, put the cabbage in a cabinet and got what I wanted for dad. I couldn’t find the plums that were supposed to be on sale and which I had considered getting for myself, but that turned out to be a good thing.
I struggled to carry everything back, and the total weight was 18 kg, but I nevertheless got back here a little before 8:35 PM, dropped off the purchases and left again five minutes later, going straight to Kaufland. Once there, I peed and washed my hands, walked in the store at 9:10 PM… But saw no bakery discounts, and just a low discount for green onions, so I didn’t get any. But there was a good evening discount for the handful of plums that were left, so I picked those that weren’t too bad. And nectarines also had an evening discount, and while most were really bad, I found four somewhat better ones and grabbed those as well, for my mother. On the other hand, not many watermelons were left and, with the exception of a couple of tiny but damaged ones, they were all huge. But I checked those that didn’t seem completely impossible to carry and found one, weighing just over ten kilograms, that seemed good enough, so I got that as well. And then the bakery discounts finally appeared and I also got a few things from there, just quickly grabbing the last bread of that kind with my hands even though they were obviously dirty before using those tools for the other things. Then again, those tools are probably dirtier than my hands were even at that point. Either way, after grabbing a few more things I went to the self-checkout and the time on the receipt was 10:02 PM, but I’m pretty sure that I started using it just before 10 PM, because it took me a while to scan the watermelon.
The thing is that starting to scan just before 10 PM might have made a difference, because the closing time had changed to 11 PM for that location. I hadn’t noticed that, and after arranging the purchases in the bags and backpack and stopping again just after walking out in order to try to arrange a few things a little better, I was about to correct the guy who was saying that the store closed at 11 PM as he walked past me when I realized that there had been no announcement and turned to look at the sign, seeing that the hours had indeed changed. So some discounts might have increased at 10 PM, but I thought that I had to rush, not that I should have waited just a little longer.
Either way, I was walking away at 10:10 PM and only made it back here just before 11 PM, having once again carried a total of 18 kg but struggling even more because of that watermelon, since it was a single item that was so heavy and there was no way to balance the weight. After that, I started eating one of the sweet pastries which I had grabbed and lunch at 12:15 AM and finally went to shower at 12:45 AM. That was the first shower in five days, and I had actually been noticing that I smelled while I was out, which was rather embarrassing. But I still had plenty of things to do after getting back to the kitchen, at 1:30 AM, so it was 3:40 AM when I started eating dinner, finishing at 4:30 AM and getting in bed at 5:20 AM. My arms and back were hurting and my knees were actually bruised as a result of the way in which I had carried that watermelon.

Since August 13 was the last day when I could ask for a refund for Emsisoft Anti-Malware, before making a final decision to risk it and not do that I wanted to be really sure that I could restore it to how it worked before I allowed the license to expire before renewing it and it reverted to default settings, including connecting to the workspace. I had tested this on July 26, after finding out how to restore on a different drive, but I obviously also made another backup first, just in case something would go wrong. Then, on August 12, I finally restored from the backup made a month earlier properly, replacing the current system installation, after first setting the date back to July 14, so the old license would seem to still be valid before updating. Since I didn’t want to have any MilkyWay@home work units running when I made the change, I suspended the remaining ones when I got up, one actually being completed right at that moment, so just one CPU core was still in use for 16 minutes, since that was how long it took for the other one to also be finished. And then four more minutes passed before I turned off the computer, accidentally doing so instead of just rebooting. Either way, one hour and 24 minutes more passed before I was done and things seemed to be working well enough for me to allow BOINC to resume working.
As for how it actually went, I formatted the system partitions, then restored from the backup, then checked all the partitions that I’m actually using, then rebooted and updated Emsisoft Anti-Malware, so it’d see that the license had been extended. Then I set the drive letters back to what they should be, the additional primary partition resulting from that earlier test having caused the restored installation to change them. After that, I rebooted again and changed the date back to the current one in the BIOS… But, for some reason, though it hadn’t indicated any problem the first time, when the system started again both the icon and the tooltip in the notification area were showing that BOINC was reconnecting to client, though I allowed it to resume working and it did so without reporting any problems. So I rebooted one more time, just in case, and BOINC no longer displayed any problem in the notification area either… But the software for my UPS did. It had seemed fine the first two times, but at that point it was reporting that the data service was not running, and indeed the process wasn’t in the list and there was an error in the system logs stating that the service hadn’t responded within 30 seconds and timed out… Even though the data that’s normally reported seemed to be displayed when I checked, so I’m not sure what data is actually handled by that service. But I started the service manually and everything seemed fine after that… Though I’m yet to reboot again, worried that something else may decide to cause problems when I’ll do so.

Moving on to August 13, I got up when the alarm rang, at 9:45 AM, to watch the Formula E race, and also did another quick test, and it was negative! So I had the usual stuff plus almonds, again with some expired “digestive” biscuits, with added honey, as the sweet thing, put on the full running gear, which as of that day included the t-shirt from the 2019 half marathon, after Liza damaged the one I’ve been wearing all this time, from the first one, from 2016, took some things in the pocket of my tights, unfortunately wasted time on the toilet twice after getting back to the bathroom and my body apparently not liking the change even though the small bathroom is awful, and eventually went out, at 2:15 PM, when the reported temperature was about 30°C, supposed to hold steady… Though our weather service listed 30°C at the two points that are at the outskirts and 33°C at the one that usually tells the temperature towards the center, so it might have gotten a little hotter if that mass of air came this way, as the wind direction seemed to indicate. In addition, I was really sleepy.
The time was 51:24.54, with sector times of 4:31, 5:27, 6:13, 4:47, 5:28, 6:21, 4:57, 5:24, 6:17 and 1:59.22, making for lap times of 16:11, 16:36 and 16:38. Even looking at the exact times, not to mention memorizing them, obviously had no point. Then again, the original plan had, after all, been to just jog the first time, without timing at all, but that plan had assumed that I’ll get a negative test result on August 9, so I’ll be able to jog then and then actually run on August 12. But since I only tested myself again that day, I went directly for a run, albeit controlling the pace and thinking of that last run before being hospitalized as the ideal target time but being willing to accept even just staying under 54 minutes if I had to. And I was aiming for about 4:45 on the first sector, so when I saw that I was significantly faster I made even more of a point of slowing down on sector two. Then, from sector three of lap one, I started thinking of staying under 52 minutes and mostly listened to my body, neither pushing nor holding back anymore, just maintaining a pace that wasn’t tiring. But I had told myself on the first lap that I’ll try to sprint on the long straight of sector two of lap three if I’ll be able to, and by the time I got to that point I had decided to actually run, pushing a little, albeit still not too much, for the last 2.5 km, so starting a little after the start of sector two of lap three. Sadly, you can’t exactly tell from the times, so I couldn’t do much more than that at that point. But at least the time was under 51:30, and I also managed to cover the final sector in just under two minutes even though I really doubted that I’ll be able to do it.
It was mostly sunny and really burning when I wasn’t in the shade, clouds only bringing some relief at the end, starting on the later part of sector three of lap three. While I no longer felt it on the final sector, towards the end of lap three there was some wind as well, the cooling effect being more important than the fact that I also had to fight it a little. On the other hand, even though it was Saturday, there were no notable problems caused by people, so I just had to occasionally weave or go the long way around. But I was still feeling the effects of having carried that watermelon, and there were also some warnings from my right knee on sectors two and three of lap one, which pretty much went away on sectors one and two of lap two, but returned in force on sector three of lap two, the knee rather hurting and that hip also starting to give some warnings, and I also felt the need to snap my back and couldn’t quite do it. That knee went back to just giving warnings early on lap three, but from sector two of lap three, when I tried to push a little, my left knee and hip also started giving some warnings, though at least those never got worse. And I never felt out of breath or anything of the sort, but I was feeling tired, at first even somewhat sleepy, and when I tried to push a little, on those final 2.5 km, I just couldn’t be faster.

The original plan for this post was to leave the odds and ends for another time and cover the first three runs after that negative test, since I ran twice this week and, after postponing it already, I absolutely need to cover a half marathon distance next week. But I realized that I’ll end up with too much left to add later and would have probably also referred to things that I’d have been yet to write about too many times, so I decided to do it like this instead… And, since I went out this evening as well, I ended up being unable to even finish writing about August 13, what I posted before midnight ending with the part about the run and even this paragraph being added a few minutes later. But that was, after all, the important part, and Monday evening I edited the post in order to add the part about the rest of that day.

Back to August 13, after the run I put my mask on and went to that Carrefour, getting a number of things, including some chocolate for dad, since that was one of the categories of products that they were giving those vouchers for then. However, if at first I was thinking of going right back in and grabbing one more thing in order to actually get the discount right away, I eventually decided against it and went to the farmers’ market, mainly looking for apples. However, most were “summer apples”, which tend to be quite sour, and not even those were quite cheap enough, while the other kinds were really expensive and only sold by a few. But I spotted one guy selling particularly large bundles of green onions surprisingly cheaply, so I got two. Then, after taking some time to pick some fruit from a tree on the way back, I got back here at 5:15 PM.
After eating lunch, I cleaned my room a little and asked dad whether we had another blanket that I could replace the one that’s on my bed with, to also wash that, and he took one out. It was in a bag, so I didn’t really look at it, just telling him to leave it there, the bed being something that I was going to deal with after getting back, since even so I only managed to go back out a few minutes before 9 PM and get to Penny a little before 9:15 PM. And I couldn’t find more water for dad, but I did get everything else, including one product that still had the full price listed even though it was discounted, so I scanned it to make sure. Either way, the cashier seemed fed up, upset, kept telling the guard that she won’t do anything anymore, but there were no problems while she checked me out, the only thing that I noticed being that the guard tapped my backpack after I paid, so I told him that I just had bags in there.
After taking some time to put some of the purchases in the backpack and the rest in a bag, I rushed to Kaufland, expecting that location to also be open until 11 PM, so I was in fact rushing to also have a quick look in Carrefour before that closed, meaning to return to Kaufland after that. However, the sign still listed 10 PM as closing time for that Kaufland, so I rushed in, threw my things in a cabinet, washed my hands and got in at 9:45 PM, rushing to the bakery area and grabbing a few things. Then I saw plenty of evening discounts for vegetables, but first got a beet, even though those weren’t discounted, then used the scales to find the price of onions, since there were stacks of crates but no price label, so they were probably about to be discarded. Still, even though most did look bad, after digging through the crates I managed to find a handful of passable ones, then I grabbed some lettuce with root and was searching through the tomatoes, trying to quickly find some that were still good enough, when it was announced that the store had closed… And mere seconds later a guy got my attention, waved his hands in front of me and pointed insistently to his watch, so I was left with the four tomatoes that I had grabbed until then and dashed to the scales, then only dared to have a very quick look at the non-refrigerated expiring products before rushing to the self-checkout, the time on the receipt being seconds before 10:05 PM. And that guy left right behind me, after I checked out, and even though he wasn’t wearing their uniform or anything else that’d obviously indicate him as an employee, he was saying goodbye to the others, so maybe he was a manager or something like that. Then I retrieved my things from the cabinet, arranged everything in the backpack and bag and was walking away a little after 10:10 PM, getting back here at 10:40 PM.
After seeing that dad hadn’t taken a bag with some trash out and dashing out the door again in order to do so, I washed what he had left… And noticed that the frozen spinach had leaked, and it had been in the backpack, pressed against my back, so the back of my t-shirt was stained green and I washed it a little and then hung it and the backpack to dry in the kitchen. Then I ate watermelon and a sweet pastry that I already had, leaving the one grabbed that evening for another time, changed my sheets… And found that the blanket taken out by dad wasn’t just not the one which had been on my bed before, but also full of cat hair, so I stuffed it back in the bag and looked for that other one, but when I saw that it wasn’t in a bag or protected in any other way I decided to leave it there and not use a blanket for a while, putting the sheet directly on the mattress, since I still threw the blanket that was there straight into the washing machine, putting the teddy bear in there along with it. I couldn’t wash them then and dad wasn’t going to let me wash them during the following two days either, one being Sunday and the other a religious holiday, but the bag in which I placed the clothes worn during that period was full and there was no other place to put them. At that point I just threw my belt in the sink, but before going to bed I washed it, then hung it in the kitchen to dry.
Since I mentioned that bag, I also put the towel in it before going to shower, being certain that the other one had been washed… Only to go to the balcony and only find my boxers still there, dad having gathered everything else, later saying that he just took all the briefs even though I had told him that my one pair should also be among what was washed and that he thought that my towel was also his, even though his towels are small, the only larger one being very different and hanging on the bathroom door. The next day, when he took out the briefs so I’ll be able to find mine and also told me that my towel was on his nightstand, right on top, so Liza could have sat right on it as well, I put both right back in the laundry basket, but at that point I didn’t even know where that towel was, so I’d have had a real problem if I wouldn’t have received that other one after the Dream Trek. But I did have that one, so I made do with it, even if it’s rather small, finally going to the bathroom at 12:50 AM, to use the toilet and then shower. I was back in the kitchen at 1:55 AM, managed to start eating dinner at 3:10 AM and finished just before 3:50 AM. And I took another pill before going to bed, just in case.

The Voyagers turn 45 today. Or, more exactly, Voyager 2 does, since Voyager 1 was actually launched later, on September 5. But that date is only a little over two weeks away and, despite the existing problems, there should be no risk of a major failure in such a short time. Whether they’ll both still be operational in five more years, when they’ll turn 50, is another matter, but I’m sure that the teams are doing everything possible to mitigate the problems with the thrusters and any others which already exist or may arise and improve their chances of at least still being able to communicate with Earth at that point. Remaining useful from a scientific point of view as well may be harder, considering the reduced amount of power and the fact that, for this very reason, the heaters had to be turned off, making the instruments remain at temperatures that are far below those that they were designed for, but at this point, and with years of measurements from what can be considered as interstellar space already provided, that would just be a bonus, albeit a highly desirable one.
Of course, while the fact that the Voyagers remain operational after such a long time is a reason for celebration, the fact that nothing follows them either out there, not counting New Horizons because that’s a far less ambitious mission and with a different purpose, nor to Uranus, Neptune or even Saturn, is one for disappointment, sadness, anger… And for demands of change, which is as needed in the sector of space exploration as in many others, and much more relevant and necessary than many believe. But there’s little point in just repeating this yet again here, though I will finish this by once again linking to that excellent reminder of the importance and impact of space exploration.