Cav's Place

I had also signed up to plant trees with this other NGO on November 30, but I had done so tentatively, just because the deadline was Wednesday, meaning to say that I won’t be able to confirm until Monday if they’ll call me before yesterday’s event, since I wanted to see whether I’ll think that I’ll be able to go through something like this again so soon. But they made the decision for me, since they did call, Friday morning, when I had taken the unusual step of switching the phone to silent, wanting to at least sleep then, knowing that the next morning I’ll need to get up at a time when I’d normally get in bed. So I didn’t answer and they didn’t even try again later, only sending an e-mail in the afternoon to say that they had to limit the number of volunteers for that event to 150, even though before the deadline they had been asking for 200, and they already had 150 who confirmed, so I won’t be able to participate, since I didn’t.
At least that meant that I could focus completely on yesterday’s event, since it was going to be the last one for me this year, so I managed to have dinner much earlier than I normally do, shaved even though my shaving brush’s bristles finally came completely off the handle, so I’ll need to glue it once again before using it again, then got ready for the morning, actually got in bed at 2:15 AM and even fell asleep rather quickly… But I got up to pee at 3:40 AM and couldn’t get back to sleep after that, ending up checking the time at 5:15 AM and getting up at that point, even though the alarm was set to ring at 5:30 AM. So, seeing as I didn’t need to pee again until just before leaving, it might have been better to wait until 3:30 AM or so, go once more and then get to bed and have a chance to sleep an hour and a half or so instead of only around one hour. But that wasn’t certain, and just lying in bed and resting probably helped as well. Either way, I did the day’s squats right after getting up, then had breakfast and left at 6:50 AM, taking some trash, which I threw in a bin.
The backpack made it hard to jog, mostly because I had taken the book which I had started reading on Monday, so I only did so a few times, briefly and lightly, but I reached Dristor in 15 minutes and the metro came a couple of minutes later, so I had time to use the toilet from that park after reaching Opera Square and still get to the parking lot a little after 7:25 AM. Then I received that bracelet from the coordinator after saying my name and got on the bus, obviously keeping my mask on until we reached our destination, taking it off just before getting off the bus, even though I didn’t notice anyone else wearing one, though later I saw one guy who wore one even while planting. Interestingly, I ended up sitting right behind that same guy who was my teammate four years ago and whom I had ended up sitting in front of three years ago and across from this spring, but I didn’t say anything after I noticed it, and was relieved when nobody sat next to me, so I put on the headphones, turned on the radio and started reading, managing to do so without getting carsick until I didn’t think that I had enough time for one more chapter. And at that point we were also far enough from Bucharest for the radio frequencies to change, so I just looked out the window until we got there, right at 9 AM, after having left at 7:40 AM.
Before moving on, I’ll also mention that the bus was half full, my quick count getting to 30 people, though I could be a little off, and I’m pretty sure that it had 60 seats. And it was cold, others kept complaining, I saw two girls who had taken a blanket and wrapped themselves in it, and at one point someone went to talk to the driver about it and came back saying that it was 9°C inside and the driver was just as unhappy with the situation, or even more so, since the windows were fogging over, but there was nothing he could do about it. He also offered an explanation, but that woman had walked past me by the time she repeated it and I couldn’t understand what it was. And at least the complaints about the cold eventually put an end to the infuriating conversation about Ukraine taking place behind me, where one woman kept spewing forth Russian propaganda, justifying the war.
This time around, the buses parked close to the site, and while getting there was far less of a problem for the small one, the driver of large one that I was on had to show his skill in order to somehow squeeze through a narrow street, the bus getting scraped by branches and, at least as far as I could tell, somehow just managing to avoid scraping the parked cars. So we only had to make a short walk before being able to get breakfast, and I got a sandwich and a tea, and after I was done I also grabbed a bottle of water and put it in the backpack. However, nothing sweet was offered, and the only equipment that was provided were the gloves, and there were problems even with those, since they decided to have someone grab a pile and walk through the volunteers in order to hand them out, which resulted in many ending up with two gloves for the same hand. But the guy who knows what he’s doing realized it pretty quickly and started checking, fixing the problem even before I checked mine, so I only learned that I had also received two gloves for the same hand when he told me, and then I once again wore them over those latex ones, for a small amount of additional protection.
As usual in that location, and in fact as it tends to happen for most planting events organized by this NGO, it was cold, the sensation being made even worse by the fog and the overcast sky. So the speeches, which started a little before 9:30 AM, were rushed, and at 9:45 AM we started working, the planting location also being right next to that starting area, if I may use the term. My teammate ended up being a woman who was asking which would those teams be when we were told to take one spade per team of two or three, since I found myself saying that the teams are those we form as I passed by her on my way to the spades… And then I was rather surprised to hear her say that, since I took the spade, she’ll take the bucket for our team, having apparently taken my comment as an invitation to team up. Without knowing for sure how the ground was, that was somewhat concerning, since it meant that I was going to be the digger, but we had been told that the ground was soft and had also been prepared to some extent, and accepting the situation as it was meant that I didn’t have to look for a teammate on my own, so I just went with it and she followed me, even the introductions only coming after we had actually started working, after taking a moment to decide where to start from.

This is embarrassing, but this is how far I got before midnight… And even more embarrassing is the fact that I ended up deciding to end the post here after all, even though that means leaving pretty much the entire day for another one. The initial plan was obviously to edit this one in order to add the rest at a later point, but when that wasn’t happening, I just made a couple of additions in what’s above Wednesday afternoon and then reached this decision.

To continue right from where the previous personal post left off, the ground really was soft and even I could dig easily, the few difficulties being caused by roots or stones, and even then I was able to get through without too much effort. On the other hand, it seemed that my teammate was going to be a problem, since she started by kicking the soil back into the hole, making me cut in and pretty much plant on my own as well, and then she said that she didn’t attend planting events last year because it required wearing a mask and she won’t do that, and when I said that I wore one even that day, on the bus, and I actually feel much better with one, considering my social anxiety, plus that, while I didn’t manage to avoid getting COVID-19, it helped me avoid any cold or flu for the past two and a half years, she said that she was pretty much bedridden for a total of about ten weeks during this period but kept refusing to wear a mask because she can’t breathe with it, rather incredulously asking whether I was vaccinated and adding that she didn’t wear a mask even when it was required to do so even outdoors and threatened to sue the gendarmes who wanted to fine her, so she got away with just a warning. And she’d have probably continued along those lines, since she said that nobody can take away her right to breathe, but I rather angrily said that we’d better end that conversation because if I’ll say what I think of those with her behavior it’ll get ugly and she stopped, just muttering that she wasn’t sure how it even started.
The situation was obviously pretty awkward at that point, and there was also the fact that she asked me to take a picture with her phone while she also dug a hole and I thought that I had taken four but had in fact only taken one and it probably wasn’t good, since she asked me to take another. I can’t quite recall whether that was before or after that conversation, but it made me feel embarrassed. So it was a relief when she asked whether I’ll mind if she went to get herself another hot tea, since she was freezing… And then stayed away long enough for me to start wondering whether she’ll come back at all, since the fact that she had been freezing wasn’t surprising, seeing as I had barely started to warm up a little by the time she left, after digging several holes, while she had been mostly standing around, but taking so long to have a tea was harder to explain.
I was actually a little disappointed when she did come back… And then didn’t know what to think when she left again mere minutes later, after receiving a call, saying that she had to get someone who had just arrived by car. But I was definitely frustrated when she came back with that guy, since I had just planted my 19th tree and he took the shovel and started digging while she seemed to want to plant, so I ended up sort of standing around and, while it was fair for them to take over, I was worrying that I won’t even get to 20. But that guy was digging quickly and another guy went past us while digging really large holes even faster, his family being unable to keep up with him and plant in them, so I could keep planting while my initial teammate did the same. And she and that guy also took another break, and there was another shovel as well, so I could also dig some more holes and keep working until I decided to slowly make my way back to the starting area, for lunch. I remember thinking that I had certainly planted at least 30 trees by then.
It was still early, so I didn’t want to stop, even though I was tiring, but others had started walking away even before noon and lunch started to be served around that time, without an actual announcement, people just being able to grab the bags and eat, so fewer and fewer were left around me and I was starting to worry that I’ll end up having to rush to eat, so I eventually stopped working, waited for the sign to be placed in that area, took a picture, and then hesitatingly made my way down to the path, checking the time on my way to that starting area and seeing that it was only 12:40 PM. Then I peed and struggled to use one of those portable things to wash my hands to some extent, had another hot tea, grabbed an apple and a banana, since those were also being offered, keeping the apple but eating the banana, and finally asked for lunch at 1 PM. It seems like the first bag that I was given didn’t actually contain what it should have contained, but I don’t know what was missing, since the guy who gave it to me noticed that something was wrong, looked inside and gave me another one right away… And seconds later, as I was trying to decide where to sit, we were called for a group picture, so I rushed there with the bag, hiding it behind my back.
The coordinator was talking to those who had offered lunch just when I finished eating, so I went to her and asked how much time we still had to plant, mentioning that the schedule had stated that we were going to work until 4 PM after she asked whether I wanted to leave. She then said that she does notice that there’s quite a lot of enthusiasm left in those who got back to work, but many already left or wanted to, so we’ll probably stop at 2 PM, so I checked the time, saw that I had less than half an hour, grabbed another apple and said that I was going to rush back and plant a little more during that time, which made her give me a rather bewildered look.
At 1:40 PM I was back to work, rejoining my teammates and that other guy and rushing to get a little more done, but it wasn’t long before the coordinator came and said that she was trying to assess the situation, because the small bus had already filled and left and many of the remaining volunteers who had arrived by bus also wanted to leave, so she wanted to find a compromise between them and those of us who wanted to keep working, and when the others also reminded her that we were supposed to work until 4 PM and said that 3:30 PM should be a good enough compromise, she said 3 PM in a tone that didn’t really allow for further arguments. However, considering how few of us were still working, it didn’t look like we were going to even finish our area by then, and the guy who knew what he was doing had said earlier that we shouldn’t leave empty spots, and also that there was another area that we could start working on after we’ll finish that one, so after it had initially seemed like we’ll plant a lot more than planned, it suddenly looked like we were going to fall short.
Well, even though that guy also joined us at that point, we ended up falling short by even more than expected, because at 2:30 PM the coordinator returned and said that a group was already at the bus and it included a woman with a small child, so we supposedly had to show understanding and leave. That prompted that guy who knew what he was doing to say that we should at least try to finish that patch that we were working on at that point, and the guy from that family stayed just a little longer to help him, but I stopped, realized as I was walking away that I didn’t really have pictures clearly showing the planted trees among those taken that day and quickly took a last one, then went to pee and struggled to wash my hands one more time, grabbed another bottle of water from the truck, since they had pretty much gathered everything by that point, and finally made my way to the bus, with the man from that family rushing behind me, the two of us apparently being the last ones left, since the driver was rather impatiently waiting outside the bus and drove away at 2:45 PM, barely a couple of minutes after we got on. And in fact only about 15 people were on that bus, meaning that the rest had left after having lunch, with the small bus and cars, since at one point there was an announcement about free seats being available in someone’s car. Either way, with nobody sitting next to me, I put my mask back on, took my time to arrange everything in the backpack and take out what I’ll need after getting back, and then got back to reading.

We were dropped off back at Opera Square just before 4:05 PM and I decided to walk to Carrefour Orhideea, not bothering to take the metro for a single stop. And after getting there I went to the toilet and tried to clean myself a little after peeing, including getting the worst of the dirt off the jacket’s sleeves. Then I actually could put the backpack in a cabinet, the guard locking it and giving me the number, according to that annoying system that they have there, and I just got some bread for dad, finding that it was cheaper there than anywhere else and using the self-checkout without problems.
After retrieving my backpack, I took the metro to Unirii, to also check that Carrefour, putting my things in a cabinet and grabbing some expiring pancakes and seven eggs. The price of the eggs sold by piece had increased by over a third since the start of the month, but the price of eggs had exploded in general, the packaged ones were obviously even more expensive, we were running out and dad had already bought two from this nearby store, at a price that was over a third higher than the new price from Carrefour, so even though I couldn’t find any uncracked bio (organic) ones in the crate and I was also going to Obor after that, I wanted to have something, in case I won’t find any there, and just grabbed some with code one, even if they weren’t even large.
After retrieving my things, I took the metro to Obor, first going to Auchan, putting my things once again in a cabinet, and getting a few products, including another cabbage… Which created a problem. The listed price was still the low one which I had seen three days earlier, but at the scales I saw an even lower one, so I assumed that they wanted to get rid of them faster, since it was hard to find a better one among the pile. However, at the checkout, the price was the listed one, which resulted in a baffling conversation with the cashier, probably caused by the stress she was under, being the only one on duty at the time. I pointed out the problem, showing her the label printed by the scales and what showed up on her screen, only for her to say that she didn’t understand what the problem was, because the product had scanned at a lower price than the listed one! So, as I asked multiple times whether 2.51 was lower than 2.26, or whether 51 was lower than 26, to make it even simpler, she became increasingly ironic, saying that she may be going crazy and it may be a long time since she finished school, but that’s what she seems to remember from math classes. And people were waiting in line and I couldn’t get myself to cause even more of a delay for that small amount, so I eventually just paid. But then I went straight to the information desk… Only to find that unmanned as well, and when the guard asked whether I wanted someone to sell me cigarettes and I told him that I wanted to ask about a price difference, he asked whether I wanted to return a product and called for a cashier for a return through the radio even though I repeated that I just wanted to ask a question. And since the only cashier seemed to be the one who had caused the problem, and she obviously couldn’t leave anyway, I just gave up. I later sent a complaint on-line, but there was no reply.
After retrieving my things and arranging the purchases a little, I continued to Carrefour, again put everything in a cabinet… And found a whole lot of eggs sold by piece, including bio (organic) ones and some particularly large ones with code one. So I spent quite a lot of time searching through them, during which time an older man also came and when I moved aside he asked about the price, looking at it but having a hard time believing it. Then he also asked what I was looking for, how do I tell the bio ones apart and what’s the difference between those and the rest, and eventually asked whether I had set those particularly large ones aside for myself and got them after I said no and moved the bio ones away from them, saying that those were the ones which I had set aside for myself, since I had only started by setting those large ones aside in case I won’t find bio ones. So I ended up getting eight of those as well, plus a couple of other things… But the self-checkout had the cash button grayed out when I tried to pay, even though it was one of the two machines that should have accepted cash, so I called an employee over and he spared me from having to scan my purchases again by making the machine release the receipt and then entering its number in the other one, which worked, saying that the first one was probably out of change. And I paid 10 RON by card, since I still wanted to have a little cash left for Kaufland.
After once again retrieving my things and arranging them a little, I yet again put them in a cabinet when I got to Kaufland, peed and washed my hands one more time, and entered the store just after 9:35 PM… Only to see the sugar that my mother wants in the spot for the one that had the special discount those days. The picture was of a different kind, and it was like that in the catalog as well, and when I took one to a price checker it displayed the full price, but my mother had been asking us to look for sales for that sugar and to buy a lot of it if we’ll find any, so I didn’t want to give up that easily and asked an employee as well, and he said that it was indeed the one that was on sale, though after I said that it had scanned at the full price and asked whether that meant that the discount applied at checkout, he hesitated to confirm. Still, the discounted price was supposed to apply for up to ten, so I grabbed an entire pack, since there are ten of them in one, then added a few other things, including something nice which I found among the expiring products, and was just getting the yogurt as well when it was announced that the store had closed. Then I rushed to the self-checkout, confirmed that the discount for the sugar did apply, and figured out how to partially pay by card there as well, using the little cash I had left for the difference, to still only withdraw an amount that’s divisible by 10 RON, to be able to put it back at an ATM. Then I retrieved my things one last time and took quite a while, both inside and after finally walking out, to arrange everything, finally walking away just before 10:20 PM… And having the machine give an error on the first attempt to read the metro card, after reaching the station. But it worked when I tried again, so I didn’t have to show the card to the cashier after all.
I got back here at 11 PM, having carried just over 26 kg, fortunately only to and from the metro, since the ten kilograms of sugar were also unbalancing me, being placed in a single bag. Some details become less clear after that, since I’m writing this over two weeks later, but I know that I ate that nice expiring thing from Kaufland and I have notes listing some times, so I can say that it was almost 12:20 AM when I went to the bathroom, probably also using the toilet before washing. I was back in the kitchen at 1:15 AM, but there was a lot to do, so it was 2:30 AM when I had some of those pancakes, only finally started making the salad at 2:50 AM and, after deciding to slice a bread for dad as well, started to eat dinner at 4:05 AM. I’m not sure when I finished, but it was most probably at 4:45 AM or 4:50 AM, and then it was 5:20 AM when I went to bed. But at least I slept really well.