Cav's Place

I need another quick non-personal post and did mention the bad news about the end of the fourth incarnation of The GOG.com Community Giveaway, so I might as well also mention the good news about the start of the fifth incarnation, now called The GOGmmunity Monthly Giveaway. The new manager isn’t Doc0075, as he backed out, but Lone_Scout, who jumped in and acted with surprising haste, so let’s hope that’s not because he’s rushing into it but quite the contrary, because he had already been thinking about it and preparing for a while, only holding off because Doc0075 had announced his intentions first. After all, such an endeavor implies a commitment, putting in quite a lot of time and taking on a significant workload, preferably for a longer period, so I hope he’s fully aware of what he signed up for and prepared for it.
Not that this does much to revive the community on the GOG.com forums, which has been and continues to be destroyed by the actions of those in charge of the store, or even of its parent corporation, completely changing the target audience, alienating or even more or less directly driving away and silencing the more discerning users and having staff moderators implement ever more troubling policies. In fact, just for those reasons, I still can’t in all honesty say that I truly still want something like this to continue on the GOG.com forums at all, but just like it was sad to see the fourth incarnation end in spite of that, it’s equally nice to see this fifth incarnation start. How long it’ll last and how much of an active community it’ll still have to bring together and reward, it remains to be seen.

On March 7 I left a little after 9:50 AM, with dad’s large backpack, a great sale on cat litter making me want to go early. So I was at Kaufland just after 10:15 AM and, after seeing that there was no danger of them running out of the cat litter right away, I looked for the other things that were on that limited sale, finding that the labels still listed the normal full price, but the discounts did apply correctly, so I got those other things and then also the cat litter, which actually had the regular sale price listed when I first looked and the additional, limited one added before I got back there. Then I looked around for a while and eventually used the self-checkout without problems.
Getting back wasn’t that easy or free of incidents, however, two bags of cat litter plus a little over a kilogram of other things in the backpack and the third bag of cat litter in one hand making me move rather like a tank, and at an intersection I meant to wait for the car that was just turning and then cross, so I stepped on the crossing as it was going past it, but those coming right behind it showed no intention of even slowing, so it’s a good thing I stopped in time for one to pass just centimeters in front of me at full speed. Since another car was alongside it, on the next lane, the driver would have had nowhere to even try to turn away if I’d have taken another step. And after getting halfway across and putting one foot down, to take another step, I looked and saw a car with no intention to stop coming from that direction as well, so I had to wait for it to pass too, despite being on the crossing. But I eventually made it back a little before 11:45 AM, having carried 25 kg.
After having something sweet and lunch and spending some time on-line, I went out again just before 4:55 PM, taking the recyclables… And somehow just walking past the bin, so I had to turn back to drop them off. Either way, I then went to Auchan and got some things from there, including one of those breads, the real weight being only eight grams under the listed one that time around, and some of those purple potatoes, though the price was 25% higher than when I first meant to get some and then forgot about them. Also looked at slippers, to compare them with those from Carrefour, but was probably too set on getting those I had seen there, because while I didn’t like the soles of the others that were around that price or less, there was one model that seemed all right and was even 10% less than those I had in mind from Carrefour, but I didn’t even check whether that model was available in size 43… Either way, I then also went to that Penny, put the purchases in a cabinet, but just found garlic and canned mushrooms, which I later also found in the other location I went to, so I shouldn’t have gone there. But I couldn’t know that at the time, so I got those things, retrieved the other purchases and continued on my way.
As if I wasn’t already running late, I then lost even more time by somehow getting lost in Park Lake, I guess because I kept changing my mind about going to the toilet. But I eventually put the purchases in a cabinet, peed and washed my hands, and rushed in Carrefour, first checking the frozen products and finding one last 1 kg bag of cheaper green beans, which I initially picked up, since my mother wanted one. However, it was more expensive than they are when they go on sale at Penny, and we still had one that dad could take there, so I eventually put it back, albeit after getting those slippers… Despite not finding any of the kind I wanted in size 43, that being the only size that was missing. Sure, 42 is what I wear, but that’s for shoes, slippers should be a little bigger, yet I made do with what was available, getting a pair in size 42, just like three years ago, when I got those I then replaced, being really torn and falling apart… And that was a bad idea, since on April 12 I noticed that they were starting to tear, the rubber at the heel splitting, so I guess they’re meant to last just the 30 days listed on the warranty slip they come with. Actually sent an e-mail about it to Carrefour that evening, and on April 20 I received a reply and a code for free shipping for an order from the site as an apology, not that it’ll do me much good.
Back to that evening, I then went to get some more of the large mucenici, or sfintisori, I had bought to reward myself two days earlier, after that half marathon run, wanting eight since four were to be taken to my mother. I couldn’t see the big sign advertising the four for the price of three offer anymore, however, so I asked the guy who was there, but he didn’t really seem to know, and the way he was dressed seemed to suggest that he was mainly a production worker in that department, only filling in at that time. So I looked and found that the whole bakery page from the catalog was displayed there, that offer also being listed on it, and when I pointed it out to him he said that in that case it applies. However, the one who should have been selling, or at least one of them, showed up at that point and when he asked her she said that the offer wasn’t valid anymore, because it had supposedly been for the frozen ones and they ran out, which was why they had taken down the big sign. But the guy actually took my side, and firmly, repeatedly pointing out what it said on the catalog page and the dates while she kept saying that it no longer applied, and in the end he told me to tell the cashier that they should be on sale. And he also made sure to add quite a few fistfuls of the ground walnuts spilled in the trays. Then again, I guess that mentioning the discount to the cashier wouldn’t have made any difference, since when I did she said that she didn’t know about that and will just see what happens, but it did indeed apply automatically to the total, so there were no problems… Except the fact that the change she gave me was 0.07 RON short. But there were a few coins in front of her and I just brazenly grabbed a 0.10 RON one. Forgot to use the discount voucher I had on the receipt from two days earlier, however.
Since I still needed frozen spinach and some other pastries for my mother from Penny, I then rushed to the one that’s close to the newer Kaufland, finding just one of each to get, a second 1 kg bag of that cheap frozen spinach being available but torn. Then I also rushed to that Kaufland, walking in minutes after 9 PM, putting my things in a cabinet, washing my hands and heading straight to the bakery area, where the employee was just placing additional discount labels. They were out of the kind of bread I’d usually get from there, but I got two of the second kind, the 75% discount applying even though it also had a regular discount those days, albeit of only 10%. Since I couldn’t find the three of that other kind that I had been asked to get from Penny, I also got some sweet pastries, two to send to my mother and one for myself, those being at an eighth of the price, and also a baguette that just had a label listing a 50% discount, but which ended up being an eighth of the price as well. Then I looked around, picked the last of the onions that seemed all right and, after having found none in the location I had been to in the morning, also found a few pieces of the large chocolate I wanted to get for dad. I think four were left, but just one was of a kind he could want, so I got that as well, waited around for a while longer, went to the self-checkout at 9:50 PM… And saw that the couple who was ahead of me had three of those large chocolates, along with several others, so maybe they had cleared out that area after me. Either way, I had no problems with the machine, then took a little time to put some things in the backpack, after retrieving them from the cabinet, but after the store closed I went out while I could still use the main doors and really took my time to arrange everything, using one of those tables that are outside.
On the way back, yet another car almost ran into me. I was crossing the street that’s right after that Penny, noticed lights that seemed to be coming towards me and froze in place, but did so a step too late, a car stopping just before hitting me, after having tried to turn in from the other side of the other road at some speed. Since he was also coming from behind, he could have seen me while I couldn’t have seen him, but it nevertheless sounded like the driver had some choice words for me. I just said out loud that it’s a crossing and kept going, however.
I got back at 10:50 PM, having carried almost 16 kg, so it was easy compared to the morning, but I was so tired… Couldn’t rest quite yet, however, so I had a banana and that sweet pastry from Kaufland, put some things in their place, and went to the bathroom right at midnight, not leaving much in the toilet but having good water to wash. I was out just before 1 AM, but still had much to do, so after putting more things in their place and washing what dad had left, it was 3:20 AM when I started eating dinner and 3:55 AM when I finished, and that was without even dealing with the bread. Sadly, the exact same start and end times applied to the following night’s dinner, after dealing with two of the three breads and also some lettuce, though that was after having a large lunch in the evening.

Moving on to March 10, I had lunch after waking up and was eating in my room and being on-line when dad got back and I didn’t hear him and he turned on his computer. I went out of my room some five minutes later, noticed him and ran back to disconnect, but the harm was done… And his “excuse” was that I hadn’t left him any note! Excuse me? A note to say that I woke up? I had taken the note he had left for me off the table, cleaned up after him, made tea and took it to my room, also took the plates with my food…
Either way, I left a little after 4:15 PM, with the electric grill which had burned out and some other such things that no longer worked in dad’s large backpack, since I was taking them to the collection center that’s close to Obor. I had to rush, since it closes at 5 PM, and in fact I got there at 4:50 PM and the last container was being closed and a truck was leaving, though the guy who was closing that container opened it again when I asked where could I drop off what I had and apologized for closing earlier, saying that the snow was coming over them, and it had indeed been snowing lightly almost since I had left, and it was windy as well. He told me to just dump everything at the entrance of the container, since they’ll clean up the next day, so I did just that, rushing even though he was telling me not to.
Another small event in support of Ukraine was supposed to start at 5:30 PM at Victory Square, but I knew that people won’t gather right away and I wasn’t going to have time to go everywhere on the way back, so I decided to first pass through Kaufland, peeing and then checking what the cereals that were on sale contained and looking for but failing to find their cheap batteries, so I couldn’t compare the price with that of those that were on sale at Carrefour. And then I also went to Penny, looking for paper towels for dad, seeing none at first but finding that two packs had appeared when I got back there after having a look around the rest of the store. They had probably just been returned there, one being completely torn and with one roll outside of it and the other being just a little torn, but I took that one that was just a little torn… And then struggled for a while to stuff it in the backpack, walking outside after at least managing to get it in, then placing the backpack on a bench and struggling a while longer, until I could finally manage to close it.
I was finally walking away at 5:55 PM and reached Victory Square at 6:40 PM… Only to find absolutely nobody there. I tried to look across, to see whether they had moved, but it didn’t seem like it and I didn’t actually go all the way around, in order to have a close look, just trying to make my way to the Ukrainian Embassy instead. I didn’t correctly remember its location, however, so I ended up walking almost all the way to the end of Kiseleff instead of going on Aviatorilor, after a while realizing that something was wrong and being increasingly hesitant and eventually starting to search, but even then remaining certain that it was there, only thinking that the entrance might perhaps be on another street. I eventually put together a mental image of the map of the area and finally realized that there was no way it could be there, and just after 7:30 PM I managed to find it, but couldn’t even light a candle. At first I also meant to try to light at least some of the many that were already there again, since only one was still lit, but neither the lighter nor the matches I had seemed to work and my hands were freezing, so after a few minutes I gave up and walked away. My hands were utterly frozen and painful, and I was cold in general, and also needed to pee again.
After reaching the mall from Obor, I peed again and started warming up a little, then went inside that Carrefour with the backpack, not bothering with a cabinet, and got sugar, two beets for dad and, after happening to buy one kind two days earlier, also the other three kinds of cereals included in those that were on sale at Kaufland, the difference being that those from Carrefour were bio (organic)… And yet ended up being even cheaper, for the same quantity, despite not even being on sale! And one of those kinds of cereals was cheaper than the others and I noticed that the cashier got confused while scanning them, so when the total was different than what I had calculated, I ended up thinking that it was a little more than it should have been, since I had just calculated the coins, to make sure that I had exact change, and I told her that I’ll be checking the receipt. At that point, she also had another look, but whether she realized what had happened and decided to let it slide or still didn’t notice, she said that everything was fine… And when I also checked, I realized that it had actually been more than fine, because she had scanned those slightly cheaper cereals a second time instead of one of the others, the total being 0.83 RON less than it should have been, not more. So I decided to set 1 RON aside and donate it at some point.
It was past 9:30 PM when I walked out of that mall, so I rushed to Kaufland, had to try three cabinets until I found one that worked, put my things in it, washed my hands again and, finding nothing else that was discounted and interesting, ended up only buying a few onions that had an evening discount and still seemed all right, after digging through all the crates to even find those. Since the price was even less than the small amount left in my account, I paid by card at the self-checkout, though I still used one of the machines that also accepts cash. And I managed to do that in time, the announcement that the store had closed coming as I was arranging everything in the backpack, though I then took a couple more minutes to finish doing that, after which I walked out and finished arranging my clothes before walking away, a little after 10:05 PM.
I got back at 10:55 PM, ate an apple and something sweet, put the purchases in their place, and it was 12:30 AM when I went to take a shower, the water being good enough to drive that cold out of me. I was back in the kitchen at 1:15 AM, but still had things to do, including washing what dad had left, so I started eating dinner at 3:05 AM, but still managed to finish at 3:40 AM. As for that event, I later asked Remus Cernea what had happened and he said that some ten people had showed up but it was too cold and windy and at 6:30 PM they had decided to go and have a hot tea somewhere, so on the one hand I just missed them, but on the other I didn’t miss anything relevant.

I felt occasional pain around my left kidney before getting up the next day, and it returned at night, while making and having dinner and after that, though it seemed fine during the day. But when I felt it again before getting up the following day, I was wondering whether it wasn’t actually caused by my lower back. If so, I strained it even more that evening, since dad came earlier than he had said and we defrosted the fridge, so he moved it, cleaned behind it a little, tried to balance it better and sorted a few things at the end, and I worked away for some five hours, most of that time being spent cleaning it, and otherwise holding it while he was trying to balance it better, taking things out, scraping the ice and taking it away, then putting things back. It was past 1 AM when I was done and went to shower and 1:30 AM or just after that when I was back in the kitchen. Then I had half of an expired bar and left most of what was to wash for later, to at least manage to start eating dinner at 3:10 AM, and that was after having lunch in the early evening. I might have still managed to finish at 3:40 AM, but accidentally knocked three slices of bread off the plate and spent a few minutes dealing with that, so I finished just after 3:45 AM. My back was hurting, my arms, also my legs to some extent… But I still also washed most of what was in the kitchen after all, and got in bed at 5:20 AM.

After running on March 14 and everything I had done in the previous days, I was really tired on the morning of March 15, but as it tends to happen in such cases, I slept little. I woke up after some three and a half hours of sleep, needing to pee, but just couldn’t get myself to get up, and I guess it was a good thing I took a while, because there was a call from the organizers of the planting event on March 19, so I answered and then went… But couldn’t get back to sleep after that, spending some three more hours mostly in bed, albeit getting up twice more during that time and on one of those occasions spending a few minutes in the kitchen, feeding Micky and then staying there while she ate. In the end, I’m not sure I slept more than half an hour more, and it quite certainly was less than one hour.
In spite of that, and of already needing to take care of laundry that day, I decided to also clean my room a little, doing that in the evening, after having lunch after dad got back. I was so exhausted, feeling quite out of it, my feet were also burning again, mostly after cleaning, my back wasn’t happy either, but oddly enough my nose got better over the course of that day, despite the cleaning, though it had been quite badly irritated in the morning… On the other hand, I’ll also mention here that I finally ate the last of the Granny Smith apples received back in October, when “paying” with PET bottles, that day.
I did feel much better the next day, but couldn’t quite say why, after sleeping badly again. I did get somewhat more sleep, but I’m not even sure I had been sleeping for three hours when I woke up to pee and while I did get back to sleep after that, an hour and a half later I woke up screaming. Only got up at 2:55 PM, but what little sleep I got in the nearly four and a half hours until then was plagued by awful dreams that I had a hard time realizing weren’t actually “real”, seeing as I’d just fall asleep and dream myself right there and then, but with something awful and, at least to some extent, plausible happening.

As for March 17, I left a bit after 7:20 PM, taking the plastic and metal, which I dropped off in a bin on the way, and also the caps and Tetra Paks to take to Penny and five cooking oil bottles, wanting to see whether the machine at Kaufland would accept them, for that 99% discount on a bottle of Pepsi Max. So I first went to the nearest Penny, but even though the sign was still there, when I asked whether the Tetra Pak campaign was still valid a guard told me it wasn’t. So I just threw the bag in a cabinet, without locking, and went in to look for the cornmeal that was supposed to be on sale. Didn’t even find a label or an empty area where it should have been, however, and when I asked an employee she took me to the spot where the one other kind was and said that was the only kind they had. That made me assume that they were already out of it, also saying so when I walked out, told that same guard that I was looking for that cornmeal and couldn’t find it and he said that maybe it’ll show up later, but he might have actually been right, seeing as large bundles, still wrapped up, were all over the store that evening and two days later, when I found it in another location, it had just been brought.
Either way, I then retrieved that bag from the cabinet, dropped the caps in the proper place and continued to Kaufland, to try that machine. At first it wouldn’t take the bottles, but I then noticed that a discount ticket was still in it, and another on the floor, so I grabbed those and taking out the one that was still in the machine made it accept the bottles, so I ended up with three tickets. But I didn’t actually go to Kaufland just yet, first going to that mall and buying a code to recharge my prepaid phone card, then having a quick look in a sports store, and then throwing the bag with the Tetra Paks in a cabinet and entering that Carrefour, finding two of the packs of batteries that I had been looking for, for dad, and getting both. Then I had a quick look in another store, retrieved that bag and finally went to Kaufland.
After putting the bag in a cabinet and washing my hands, I went to the bakery area, since it was a few minutes past 9 PM, but no bread was left… And, as I later confirmed, the label indicated that the price of the one that I prefer to get from there had increased yet again. But I got two sweet pastries, then checked for evening discounts for fruits and vegetables, grabbing the last two bundles of green onions and adding a few more pieces that were scattered in the crates to them, checking the handful of remaining bananas one by one and just getting two, digging a lot through all the crates of potatoes and getting close to six kilograms, and also taking a few beets. But I had mainly meant to get a bottle of the bio (organic) olive oil that was on sale at a shockingly good price, it was getting late and I was yet to even look for it… And when I did, I didn’t even find a label, so I asked an employee who was in that area and she said that they were out. Even though the sale had only started the day before, I didn’t find that surprising, considering the price, but later realized that it had been listed in a separate section of the catalog and site and I should have probably looked for it elsewhere in the store, and in fact I did find it in an entirely different place two days later, in another location. Either way, I then also looked for that Pepsi, but couldn’t find any small bottles of Pepsi Max, so I just grabbed three of the regular kind, which had the same price, and went to check whether the discount would also apply to those.
Well, it didn’t. I got to the self-checkout a few minutes before closing and just scanned the Pepsi and the discount tickets at first, and when I saw that no discount applied I looked for an employee to cancel that and allow me to scan the other purchases. But, if one had been running around that area until then, they all seemed to have suddenly vanished at that point, which left me and a couple who needed one to clear an alcohol sale looking around and waiting, blocking the available machines that also accepted cash after the store had closed and with a line forming behind us. And after an employee finally came and sorted things out, an old woman kept getting ever closer to me, almost pushing me from the machine as I was trying to hurry to scan my other purchases. And an employee, which I actually think was the same one who had sorted things out, was starting to clean the cabinets when I left the checkout area, so I rushed to take my things out, then moved a few steps away in order to start trying to stuff the bag with the potatoes in the backpack. But I thought that I might be getting in the way even there, so I then moved to the other set of cabinets, from the area with the stairs, and when I still wasn’t done when she came there as well I went down the escalator and continued there, finally managing it and putting on the backpack before walking out.
I was walking away from Kaufland a little after 10:10 PM, got back at 10:40 PM, had a banana and one of the sweet pastries, took a quick shower, did another thing I had to do, and only had lunch after that, taking it to my room and also checking some things on-line, so it was past 1:20 AM when I finished. In spite of that, I managed to stick to the schedule for dinner. On the other hand, I only got in bed at 5:20 AM, after finally managing to ensure that my computer won’t run out of work.
I’m referring to the fact that the problems that MilkyWay@home had at the time got worse and if for a while it worked intermittently and I could just manage to get enough work to keep the computer busy between outages, that was about to end that night and things weren’t going to get fixed in time, and with World Community Grid also taking a break, I urgently needed other options. Following someone’s suggestion, the first attempt was Universe@home, but after at first it wouldn’t connect and I needed quite some time to finally manage to get an updated ca-bundle.crt and fix that issue, the BOINC warning that the project may not have work for my type of computer proved correct. So I tried Cosmology@home next, remembering seeing that its legacy app was supposed to run on 32-bit systems, and that did the trick… Eventually, because at first it kept saying either that the work cache was full even though I had it set to 1+1 days and just had MilkyWay@home work units for a few more hours, or that tasks weren’t needed because it’s not the highest priority project even though I even set its share to 2000, with the rest being at 100. But after setting the work cache back to the previous 5+5 days and giving it a little time, it finally downloaded work units… The problem being that, because of that setting, it downloaded too many, and since I just used it to take me through that MilkyWay@home outage, I ended up abandoning the rest. And the time spent working on that project was unpleasant, because if at first I saw it use 120 MB of RAM per work unit, that amount increases in time, and I saw it reach 750 MB, which made it quite a problem to actually use the computer. And the following day I was trying to let one of those work units finish and then switch back to the few remaining ones from MilkyWay@home while I’ll be using the computer and missed the moment, one core being idle for three and a half minutes. But at least that wasn’t much.

It seems that this year Earth Day is flying rather under the radar, but that’s neither surprising nor, in this particular case and in my view, that much of a problem. Of course, in general, every day should be Earth Day and marking one specific date in the calendar for this purpose shouldn’t make much of a difference, and not paying much attention to such an event at a time when so many terrible things are going on in the world is unsurprising, the problem being that people, whether we’re talking about the masses or about those in positions of authority, don’t recognize or accept at any point that they have a responsibility towards the world, much less act in the manner which such responsibility would require. But the theme of this particular Earth Day, or more exactly the manner in which the topic is approached, strikes me as something that probably should be more or less ignored, if not even fought against.
Yes, we obviously must invest in the planet, but it must be done for the sake of the planet, and in a manner that will break away from the systems that got us in this terrible situation, from exploiting, the environment as well as people, for profits, from endless growth, from corporations, from the finance-based economy, from the private sector setting these directions… And yet, while there are also parts that deal with government intervention and regulations, what I’m seeing there mainly focuses on the crucial role of the private sector and how such investments boost profits and earnings and aid growth, when infinite growth, profits and private sector decisions with large scale impacts are fundamentally incompatible with sustainability on a finite planet where many other species should also have good lives and people should also be guaranteed a decent standard of living and fair treatment.

Under these circumstances, I find the report released by the IEA and EC yesterday, specifying a few key actions that individuals can take in order to reduce the reliance on Russian energy imports, to be more interesting. Of course, individual actions, and individual responsibility, is the least part of this puzzle, far less important than the systems that govern human society and the actions that governments and others in positions of authority need to take, but this was actually only the most recent such report that was released, the previous two, dealing with reducing the reliance on Russian natural gas and, respectively, reducing oil demand, focus on the policies which should be implemented by the authorities, and mostly make very good points, with the notable exception of pushing for maximizing the power generated from nuclear plants and delaying even the planned closures, the mention of bioenergy also being potentially concerning, considering what it often implies. And there’s also that part listed under additional options, stating that switching from gas to coal would also go a long way, though that’s something that should have never even been considered, the fact that it’s specifically not included in the actual plan because it would increase emissions definitely not being enough to stop the potential damage caused by the very fact that such a possibility was even taken into account. But, again, with those exceptions, those plans are more worthy of being mentioned and promoted at the present time than the theme of this year’s Earth Day, considering the manner in which it was approached.

Leaving the earlier odds and ends that I still haven’t written about aside, I’ll start this post with March 28, when I got up when the alarm rang, at 2 PM, and stuck to the idea of running, since the forecast wasn’t going to allow it during the following few days, despite still being exhausted and also having no hot water, the site stating that it won’t return until at least the morning of March 30, though it actually returned the next day. So I had the usual stuff plus almonds, with the sweet thing being a slice of cozonac, with added honey, and left a little before 4:35 PM, wearing the full running gear, the reported temperature being 17-18°C, holding steady or even increasing by 1°C by the time I finished.
The time was 48:24.52, with sector times of 4:29.92, 5:10 (5:09.28), 6:01.41, 4:34 (4:33.75), 5:09.12, 5:53.25, 4:27 (4:26.44), 5:06.22, 5:52 (5:51.78) and 1:43.35, making for lap times of 15:40.61, 15:36.12 and 15:25 (15:24.44). At first I was thinking that staying under 50 minutes would be good enough, after planting trees and sleeping so little two days before, and the first sector made me worry even about that, while seeing over six minutes on sector three of lap one added to the reasons for concern, yet the first lap’s overall time seemed all right, and I was thinking that if I’ll stay under 16 minutes on all laps I should just manage 49:30. But lap two was better, which made me aim to stay under 49 minutes and push from the start of lap three, which resulted not only in that lap being the fastest, but actually in each sector being the best of the day. That made me think that I might even have a shred of a chance of getting under 48:30 if I gave it absolutely everything on the final sector, and while it seemed crazy to even consider it, I pushed every step of the way and managed a great time on that sector, and to be safely under 48:30 at the end. It was still the slowest time over this distance in over two months, but nevertheless much better than expected under those circumstances.
I first had to briefly stop because of roadblock almost right away, just as I got to the bridge on the first sector, while a second brief stop, in order to avoid a cyclist, was on sector one of lap two, actually in the same spot where I had barely avoided one the week before. There were some other moments that made me question the threshold between slowing a lot and briefly stopping, but I’d say that I did briefly stop again on sector two of lap three, when a woman with a pram was walking next to the lane, on one side, and the guy who was with her looked either terribly bored or upset and was lazily weaving on the lane. And, in general, there were plenty of people, dogs, children, often blocking the lane, so I had to do a lot of weaving and going the long way around, squeezing through and slowing plenty of times, and it seemed to get worse from sector two of lap two. But at least just a couple of small areas were still actually fenced off, though the fences hadn’t been moved in the areas which had been fenced off the week before, usually just those from the ends of the areas being taken away and the ribbons being torn, so I picked what path I could, sometimes using the lane, sometimes going around, occasionally even off the path. As for physical issues, I felt tired at first, but then I actually seemed to feel less so as I went along. And my nose felt irritated right after the run, but the feeling quickly went away… At least at first, since it returned the next day.

After getting back, I had lunch, changed, and left again a little after 7:40 PM. After very briefly entering a smaller Profi on the way, I went to Obor, first checking Carrefour and getting a discounted bread for dad and some discounted apples of a kind I had never heard of before, Pinova, again being charged for the bag even though they force you to take it when it comes to spoiling fruits and vegetables. Then I went to Kaufland, put those purchases in a cabinet, washed my hands, but saw no evening discounts even though it was a few minutes past 9 PM. So I wandered around until the bakery discounts were announced, I think at 9:15 PM, then waited along with a few others as the employee placed the labels and got two of those breads, the price having indeed increased yet again, plus some buns and sweet pastries. Then, seeing big evening discounts there as well, I also got five bundles of green onions, plus mushrooms and a few parsnip roots. Then I also grabbed two more breads for dad, at the regular price, and a pack of some yogurt I hadn’t tried before. But it was the last one and I wondered why it had been left, so I tried to open it and an employee saw me and told me to not do that if I won’t take it. I said I wanted to take it but wanted to see why it had been left, whether any of the cups was cracked, and she said none were, not that she could know that… And then she went on to open other packs of yogurt, priced so one was free, and place them to be sold individually. Either way, I also got some sour cream and then went elsewhere and opened that pack, seeing that there were no cracks… Though I ended up worrying that some might have appeared when it fell after I got to the self-checkout. But that didn’t happen, and there were no problems with the machine, and I was just paying when the store closed.
After retrieving my things from the cabinet, arranging everything in bags and making another little change after walking out, I was back at 11 PM. Then I put some things away and ate one of those apples, finding that they’re very good, and the sweet pastry bought for myself, the other two being for my mother, while heating water to wash myself with. It was after midnight when I went to the bathroom, and as I was washing my arms, bent over the side of the bathtub, I decided to also go to the toilet again, then got back to washing, using cold water for my arms, legs and private parts and mixing the heated water with the cold one to have warm water for my torso, back and underarms. Still, after struggling to get myself to do it for a while, I did use the shower on my upper body as well, just a little, to get the soap off somewhat better. And I managed to do all of this quite quickly, being back in the kitchen before 1 AM. There were things to wash, however, and a few still to put away as well, so I only started eating dinner at 3:25 AM and finished at 4:05 AM. Not good at all…

To also cover the period until the next run, I’ll now get to the early hours of March 31, since it was 1 AM when I finally managed to finish peeling those mushrooms and removing the bad bits, so I stopped at that point to have a can of sprats and a bun as lunch, then just managed to stick to the new schedule for dinner, returning to cooking after that and going to bed at 6 AM, after finishing… And then I took a very long time to get back to sleep after waking up to pee just after 10:05 AM, and soon after I finally did so I woke up again because of the noise made by dad and the cats, after which I’m not even sure I managed to catch another very brief nap or two by the time he left, at 1 PM. And I couldn’t get back to sleep after that either, despite staying in bed for another hour, so I eventually got up and had lunch in the early afternoon.
I went out at 7:25 PM, also taking the recyclables, which I dropped off in a bin on the way to the Carrefour from the park, from where I just got some more yogurt. Then I again stopped at that Mega Image on the way to the newer Kaufland, put the yogurts in a cabinet and found some cheese with the 50% discount applied despite not expiring soon, maybe because they wanted to get rid of it, probably being the last, since the normal spot was empty. Then I retrieved the yogurts, put everything in one of the cabinets at Kaufland once I got there and went right in, not washing my hands since I didn’t mean to go to the bakery area, mainly looking for evening discounts for vegetables I could use to make salad. Only found some wild garlic, however, and as a little free bonus also grabbed two lettuce leaves that still seemed usable out of those left scattered in the crate. Then I got some bread for dad, deciding against also getting some for myself when I passed by the bakery area, and then returned to the vegetables and managed to find a few larger potatoes that weren’t that bad among the deeply discounted ones, weighing all of them together as red, since they were a bit cheaper, though I think two were white. Also got a few onions, without an evening discount, since we were running out, and was looking for expiring products when I heard the announcement that the bakery discount had increased to 75% and rushed back there. Still didn’t get anything, however, since that bread was already gone and a man grabbed the few remaining sweet pastries right in front of me. But when I returned yet again to the fruits and vegetables I saw an evening discount for bananas as well and grabbed some that were still quite good, after searching carefully through all the crates. Then, after another look around, I made my way to the self-checkout, the only problem being that I again had to take an item, the potatoes, back off the scales to be able to continue.
I was arranging everything in the bags when the store closed, and then I rushed back, getting quite sweaty, since I hoped to still catch dad. And I did, finding him just outside the building even though it was just past 10:30 PM, so I told him that I had bananas and he took one. Then, after getting back here, I found that he had left plenty of things to wash, so I did that, put the purchases in their place and had a banana and some of the apple pie from my mother. It was just after midnight when I got to the bathroom and just before 1 AM when I got out, but instead of focusing on dinner, especially since I had wild garlic to deal with and also some things to move and mix, I first sliced two of those breads for dad and washed another pot that was still in the sink, so I only started eating dinner at 3:35 AM, admittedly after licking some of those things that I was moving and mixing. Either way, I finished at 4 AM.

With April 2 already covered, I’ll now move on to April 4, when I left a little before 7:40 PM, going to Obor. I first got some kefir for dad from that Auchan, then just checked Carrefour, not getting anything and entering with the kefir, so the guard stopped me when I left to check the bag, but it was clearly from Auchan, which was why I hadn’t bothered with a cabinet. I did put it in a cabinet when I got to Kaufland, but went in without peeing because the men’s bathroom was closed for cleaning, so I just quickly washed my hands in the women’s and tried to hold it, though it was going to be a serious problem. It was just before 9 PM, but the evening discounts were already applying for vegetables, so I got some carrots and the one lettuce I still found, in a crate that was underneath another, and also some potatoes. Then I got the other things I wanted, but also meant to pick some more deeply discounted grapes and simply couldn’t, needing to pee too badly to be able to stand in one place long enough to pick through the small pile of loose ones left in the crate. I did, however, manage to pick three good bananas, when I saw an evening discount applying for those as well, despite the repeated recalls of bananas from Ecuador from Kaufland that I saw… And of the fact that they don’t even display the notification there, as they should. Then again, with those notifications coming even up to two weeks after the products are sold, they’re rather pointless when it comes to such things that quite clearly can’t be kept that long.
Either way, despite the desperate situation, I wanted to wait a little longer, to see whether any discounts would increase at 9:45 PM, only then finally making my way to the self-checkout… And having a guy walk past me and to the first machine that freed up, which added to the waiting time. But I nevertheless somehow just managed to still hold it until I finished scanning and paying, and even managed to get back to the cabinet where I had the kefir, and then to put my purchases in another when I couldn’t unlock that one right away. That one also seemed to have problems, as it wouldn’t immediately lock, but I just left it unlocked and rushed to the bathroom… Only to feel those muscles giving up during the few seconds it took me to get there and a little starting to spill out, and then I likely let loose before aiming after I got to the urinal, but in the end what I got on myself wasn’t as bad as it might have been. And the next embarrassing moment might have also been worse, since I retrieved my things, arranged them in the bags, managed to walk out before 10 PM, but stopped around the corner to make sure my jacket was fully zipped up and my attention was grabbed by an arm I saw through a window, so I stared in surprise and a woman stepped back and peeked back at me, having apparently been changing. She frowned and tried the door, probably thinking that I had stopped to spy on her while she was changing and meaning to tell me off, but the door seems to have been locked, so she turned off the light instead… And I probably made myself look even more suspicious by standing there a little longer, to wipe off the dirt I had noticed on my jacket, probably as a result of digging through those crates of potatoes.
At least there were no other incidents by the time I got back, at 10:50 PM, though those muscles were weakened and I really needed to pee again at that point, again starting before managing to aim properly. Then I had a banana and some of that apple pie from my mother while putting the purchases in their place, washing what dad had left and moving something in a smaller pot. It was past 12:10 AM when I went to the bathroom, wasting time on the toilet despite having put that other thing off all day, then showering and being back out just before 1 AM. I first went to my room to clip my toenails, however… And moments later, just after 1 AM, the power went out. And when I called, a few minutes later, the recorded message stated that it was a scheduled outage, for some work that was being done, though there had been no notification at the entrance. So I made dinner by candlelight, with some help from flashlights, but while that message had stated that the outage was supposed to last until 5 AM, the power returned at 2:40 AM and that helped me stick to the dinner schedule, though I had to put off a few things in order to do so… And I was in the kitchen, taking care of those things, when the power failed again, a little before 4 AM. It returned seconds later, but the fridge again sounded strange after that and worried me, though that keeps happening after brief outages and I’m thinking that it may actually be some protection system it has. And everything seemed fine when I plugged it back in before going to bed, after having unplugged it again after that brief outage.

And now I’ll get to the main point of this post, the new personal best time over a half marathon distance, managed on April 6. I kept changing my mind about setting the alarm to ring at 2 PM or 2:30 PM, even changing it when I was waking up to pee, but it was set to 2:30 PM when I woke up again and saw 2:14 PM, so I got up and turned it off. Then I had the usual stuff, but with both almonds and peanuts in dark chocolate mixed with the yogurt and cereals, and also two pancakes, one with the last of the honey and the other with jam, and drank most of the tea. With light no longer being a problem, I left a little after 5:10 PM, wearing the full running gear, with a few things in the pocket of my tights. The reported temperature was 21°C, supposed to drop by a couple of degrees by the time I’ll finish.
The time was 1:42:20, with sector times of 4:23, 5:07, 5:51, 4:27, 4:56, 5:41, 4:22, 4:58, 5:48, 4:32, 5:06, 5:54, 4:38, 5:11, 5:59, 4:34, 5:12, 5:59, 1:50, 5:58 and 1:54, making for lap times of 15:21, 15:04, 15:08, 15:32, 15:48 and 15:45, plus 9:42 for that final portion. That makes it a new personal best over this distance, 32 seconds faster than the previous one, along with a personal best on that final portion and a new fastest lap six. And it’s not just that I never aimed for this, but I never even realized that it was possible, being quite shocked when I saw the time at the end, since after the time went over one hour and the seconds became smaller on my stopwatch I was focusing on seeing and remembering those properly and also stopped calculating how much I was gaining compared to my initial targets, just continuing to be surprised that I kept gaining.
Those initial target times added up to 1:45, starting from 15:20, slowing by ten seconds per lap, and with 10:30 on the final portion, but I didn’t actually think that sticking to them was in any way possible, just hoping to not do worse than the previous time. And losing a second on the first lap after controlling the pace on the first two sectors and then pushing on the third made me quite certain that I’ll have to really push to manage that. So I did push on lap two, and was increasingly surprised by the sector times, so much so by the last one that I thought I had exhausted myself and had in fact been a minute slower, having to recalculate several times to first realize and then really believe that I had in fact been so fast. And then I kept it up on lap three and started to actually hope for that 1:45, but I was still wondering when I’ll start losing compared to the target times and only hoping to still gain a few seconds on lap four in order to afford to lose a minute after that. But I gained a little more than I hoped on lap four as well, and then finally realized that I might just avoid losing time at any point and meant to just stick to the target times on laps five and six. However, I continued to gain, in fact lap six even being a little bit faster than five, and I guess that, knowing that I was over a minute ahead after four laps, at some level I must have thought that I was aiming for 1:43:30, but I just didn’t know anymore and was still so certain that I was going to lose time that I ended up thinking that I needed to push on the final portion to stay under 1:44. So I did, but despite seeing that I kept beating the sector targets, just focusing on the seconds made me end up thinking that I was pushing for 1:44:30, simply unable to believe that I was doing better.
Being able to push so hard obviously meant that I had no notable physical issues, but my right knee started giving warnings on sector two of lap four, later my ankles did as well, and throughout the second half there were occasional moments when I started feeling the need to crap. But that feeling came and went and was never a serious issue, the ankle warnings were faint and the knee didn’t get worse, even having moments when it no longer bothered me, though it’d do so again a little later. The big toe from my left foot had also been bothering me ever since the power going out just when I was clipping my toenails had caused me to take too much out of that one, but it was fine while running.
In terms of the route, there were no more fenced areas, and while there were some windy areas at first, including on straights, the wind largely went away after the first three laps. There were plenty of people, however, and they caused plenty of problems. More of those seemed to be on sector two, and that was where I had to both take to the grass and slow to squeeze through on lap one, then do one of those things on lap two and the other on lap three, though I couldn’t remember which was which by the time I finished. And there were plenty of lesser issues as well, but maybe the first actual brief stop was on sector one of lap four, caused by a cyclist coming towards me through the only space left through a roadblock. And there definitely were actual stops at the end of sectors one and three of lap five, the first because of a small dog that was off the leash and went for my legs and the second because of a kid on a bicycle weaving all over. And two more were right at the end of sector two of the final portion, so that last sector three of a lap, seconds apart and both caused by little kids running towards me with little coordination.

After the run, I rushed straight to Penny, hoping to catch that store that’s also there before it closed. And I did that, but the price of the regular cheese had increased a lot there as well, almost matching the current one from this nearby store, where the buffalo cheese oddly has that same price, so I decided to just buy some of that again and just got the sweet thing I wanted from Penny and what I meant to get for dad, except one product that they seemed to already be out of… And, as I was reading the ingredients of another product, another customer asked whether I worked there, making me pointedly glance at my running clothes after saying no… Which I had to do again in Carrefour, where I went on the way back. I put those first purchases in a cabinet, turned back after a few steps to retrieve a bag I realized I had also left in there, then started looking for some other things I could reward myself with and, actually just when I was in the section with bars and shakes and similar products for those practicing sports, which should have made my clothes state even more obviously that I was there as a customer, a man asked me for the price of something. Either way, though I had meant to reward myself with 5 RON per minute below that previous time and doubled that amount for those 32 seconds below the previous personal best, I decided to just add a bag of popcorn and one of Bake Rolls to that sweet thing from Penny, keeping the rest in order to consider the peanut butter I was planning to buy later as part of the “reward”. Then I retrieved my things, arranged everything in the bags, also got the buffalo cheese from this nearby store, and got back at 9:50 PM.
After eating a banana, the popcorn and some of that sweet thing and taking care of some of the things I had to take care of in the kitchen, I went to the toilet and to shower, being back out at 12:20 AM. I still had to wash the pot for mamaliga, however, so I only set the water on the stove at 12:30 AM, then also ate the Bake Rolls before doing anything else, and only started eating dinner at 3:15 AM… At which point I realized I had forgotten about the garlic, having set it aside but then putting off adding it in the salad until I ended up putting what I was discarding on top of it and throwing it away along with that. But that was that and I didn’t take some more. And I eventually stopped eating at 4:20 AM, and I should have done so sooner, leaving more for the next day, because by then I had stuffed myself to a painful point.

It was past 5:20 AM when I finally got in bed… And couldn’t sleep. I might have napped for just a moment, but there was too much adrenaline, my heart was racing, I was too stuffed, and also likely dehydrated, so I eventually got back up at 6:50 AM, made tea and spent some more time on the computer, only getting back in bed at 9 AM… And I was getting up again at 1 PM, after having again been awake for a while, so I probably only got some three hours of sleep. Unsurprisingly, I felt increasingly out of it as the day progressed, and the lunch I had in the afternoon and the grapes eaten in the evening actually seemed to make things worse, improvements only coming while having dinner at night, though something still felt wrong in my abdomen even after dinner.
Did catch up on some sleep the following day and felt much better. But in the evening I noticed that the earpads on my headphones started flaking. Still, more than two and a half years since purchasing them, I can’t complain that much, and I guess it’s not a reason to make use of the extended warranty. Either way, then it was almost 5:20 AM when I got in bed, and after happening to wake up just after 9:30 AM and watch most of the qualifying for the race while cleaning what dad had left in the kitchen and eating an orange, I got back in bed, but had another bad and very realistic nightmare that made me wake up at least whimpering if not screaming, and still just whimpering as I felt like crying. Had to hug the teddy bear and hold it tight, eventually getting back to sleep like that, but was again crushed when I woke up again, and again felt tired throughout the day.

And this is how far I got by midnight, and it’s actually as far as I initially meant to get in this post. Since then, seeing as this week’s run was also a particularly fast one, the second fastest over ten kilometers, I had decided to add it here as well, still meaning to do so even when I posted this, but after thinking about it for a few more minutes, while writing this paragraph, which I added a little after midnight, I decided to stick to that original plan and leave it for another post after all. It makes this post’s title somewhat less adequate, but at least I mentioned what it’s referring to, and I’ll consider this good enough for now… Though, since I started checking the post at night, I’ll also mention here that I started eating dinner at 3:05 AM and the very fact that I spent some time with this and having a look on a couple of other sites while eating meant that it was a couple of minutes after 3:40 AM when I finished.

We are now on day 51 of a war that Ukraine was at first widely expected to lose within a week or so and they didn’t merely manage to prevent Russia from capturing Kyiv and installing its own puppet government, but actually forced Russian troops to withdraw from that entire region, instead concentrating on the east and south, and even seem to have scored a truly notable victory, having likely sunk the Russian flagship. Admittedly, this comes over a month after they scuttled their own, to prevent it from being captured, and Russia maintains a nearly unchallenged naval domination and blockade despite the loss. And, overall, Russia has more than enough forces to renew its northern offensive if the opportunity will present itself, which keeps Ukraine from redeploying its own forces to aid in the defense of the areas that are currently facing even harsher attacks, and the general recently appointed to lead the war effort is likely to fix many of the blunders which have so far prevented Russians from making proper use of what, at least on paper, was their immense advantage from pretty much every point of view.
Russia’s chances of obtaining something that the regime can present as a victory now seem to focus on Mariupol, a city that they have obliterated but so far failed to completely conquer. The military situation looked grim a few days ago, and ever more so as time passed, but now even there there may be some faint signs of hope. Without a relief effort breaking through the siege, it remains a matter of time, and such a relief seems unlikely at the moment, but every day gained provides an opportunity, not so much for Ukraine as for the “civilized world” to finally grow some balls and truly step in.

The fact of the matter is that, regardless of the skill and heroism of the Ukrainian defenders, and of a president who so unexpectedly rose to the occasion in a manner that few, if any, current world leaders seem likely to have been able to match, Russia has the power, and the regime certainly has the determination, to prolong the war as long as necessary to achieve their goals, betting on the fact that the Western support for Ukraine will wane in time, which is unfortunately likely to happen… Not that said support is, or was at any point, anywhere near the necessary level anyway, the West and its allies always being both too cowardly and too selfish, or more exactly too shortsighted, to act in the manner that the current events would truly call for.
Accepting Ukraine, along with Georgia and Moldova, into NATO should have been a given for many years now. Since that didn’t happen, the next best thing would have been to deploy troops inside Ukraine, in defensive positions, before the start of the invasion, under the same guise of “exercises” used by Russia in order to mass its forces at the border. And when that also didn’t happen and the invasion did begin, Ukraine should have received direct military aid, in the form of pretty much any kind of equipment they required, from all sorts of weapons and ammunition to ships and tanks and aircraft, while at the same time any and all who desired to go there and join the fight should have been at least allowed, and preferably encouraged, to do so. Also, if closing the skies above Ukraine keeps being rejected because it’d require NATO aircraft shooting down Russian ones, at the very least the seas should be closed, with a blockade at the edge of the parts of the Azov and Black Seas that are internationally recognized Russian waters. As for non-military matters, all Russian diplomats and staff should have been expelled as soon as the invasion began and, more importantly, it should have again been a given to completely ban any and all trade with Russia, starting with fossil fuels, that very same instant, and this should have been used to spur a greatly hastened complete switch to renewable energy, as well as improved energy efficiency and savings.
Did any of that happen? Of course not. Are the last few points listed above being implemented in full even now? Again, of course not. Are they likely to be, at least in a foreseeable future? Yet again, the answer is no, for the reasons already stated. Instead, on top of the cowardice that leads to military inaction, which Zelenskyy is rightfully fed up with it, the EU pays about as much per day for Russian fossil fuels as the total amount pledged to Ukraine as military aid, and even the thought of reducing reliance on Russian fossil fuels may well slow rather than hasten the necessary overhaul of the energy sector. But, of course, that Babylon 5 quote that I keep returning to remains as true as ever, with little to no difference between those in positions of authority and the masses: “That does seem to be the rule, doesn’t it? Analyze the problem, choose whichever strategy makes least sense and then do it.”