Cav's Place

I’ll start this just hours after the previous personal post, when I entered some more of the codes on yogurts bought that are part of a contest and one of them won me one of the daily prizes worth 100 RON. It’s vouchers with that value, not the actual money, but while they’re presented as food vouchers, the contest’s claim being that they’re for a cake so you can add your celebration to theirs, they seem to be able to be used for a quite large number of things, or at least that’s what I gathered after receiving them today and looking up more information. Will probably end up using them for food anyway though, and if I do happen to pick up a few other things as well I’ll be prepared to pay for them separately in case the vouchers won’t cover them, but it should sure help these days.

And it’ll help even more because I’ll need to drop all plans that called for expenses for quite some time to come now, because Thursday a part of that tooth that had the most work done on it back in 2007 broke off. Then again, I’m sure it had broken off some time before and was just held there by something, because it snapped off while I was eating something that couldn’t possibly have broken anything. Either way, this means I now have to go have a lot of work done on it again, the roots apparently still being usable, but with little left even before and an entire side broken off now it means reconstruction and then a crown, and a total cost of over 1000 RON, maybe even over 1500.
Then again, that assumes everything will work out with the roots, as the dentist first said it broke off really nicely to still be salvageable but then, after spending an hour on it first Friday and then doing the same yesterday, she said she can’t get through whatever substance my previous dentist used there on the canals and the work doesn’t quite go all the way through, so she needs to fix it before moving on to the next part and can’t. As such, she now sent me somewhere else, to another dentist who used to work here as well, as the expert on such issues who came and brought his specialized equipment when they couldn’t handle something otherwise, but recently he said he’ll only come when it’s worth carrying all that equipment, as in there are several clients lined up one after the other for him, and since that’s not the case I’ll need to go halfway across the city and see if he can sort it out. Was told the price will pretty much be the same, and she didn’t charge me anything for what she did this second time, since supposedly he was going to be making the stuff that was to be put in there later anyway and the price is for the whole thing, including whatever else needs to be done to prepare the area.

Otherwise, last Monday I went to another “free shop”, which was the first one I noticed being announced since the previous one I went to, as the organizers had their headquarters in the same old factory that Colectiv club was in and didn’t return since the fire. This time the location was a bar owned by people who at least have similar ideas as the group that organized those previous ones as well, if not even some of the same people, and which is also the place where the event organized to support Polish women also ended, so I was there recently and knew just where it was. Just quickly went in and out though, only dropping off all the issues of National Geographic which had piled up since that previous time in the small area set aside for the few things that weren’t clothes, as that was even explicitly the focus now, the event text stating that any left at the end will be donated. Did see a guy have a look through the pile and seeming to consider taking at least one as I spent a few minutes reading the information about some LGBT rights activists posted on a wall, but that was about it, and there was nothing for me to even consider looking at.

Also last week, noticed an area on the right side of my monitor where the colors are lighter than they should be, though it also seems to depend on exactly what colors are there, at least to some extent. Now I’m not actually sure that’s something new, and I’m even less sure about the few dead pixels I spotted in the area being new, as they’re so close to the edge of the screen, but it’s giving me the impression that something’s peeling off. Unsurprisingly, since this monitor will be ten years old in February, but I sure was hoping it’ll last for quite some time yet, since I want to skip this entire 1920×1080 “era” and get right to 2560×1440 or 2560×1600 at 27″ or so, and those are outrageously expensive at the moment. So for now I’ll deal with it, and after panicking for one night I started looking through stores that sell refurbished or second hand monitors and found some apparently decent replacement options, as in the same size and resolution, not black, similar or lower power use and low enough prices, so there’s that possibility if it will actually fail, though any expenses will be quite a problem for quite some time to come, as I stated above.

As for running, last week’s run was Thursday and the time was 34:56, with sector times of 4:29, 5:20, 6:09, 4:36, 5:26, 6:01 and 2:55, making for lap times of 15:58 and 16:03. So another time under 35 minutes and the third fastest final sector ever on this route, as I gave it absolutely everything towards the end, starting with the second lap’s third sector. Not quite sure how I finished, in fact, since it was rather chilly and windy and my nostrils got stuck together on that final straight, so I stuck a finger up one to pull it open, then had to breathe in through my mouth once when I briefly took the finger out to try to do the same for the other one and ended up with both closed up right away, and then sort of fell forward more than downward for those last few steps, as I had to somehow get that hand on my stopwatch as well. But I somehow made it, and that’s good enough.
And then this week’s run was yesterday, just before the dentist appointment; just changed and went right there. That wasn’t the plan, but yesterday seemed to be the most reasonable day to run this week and the appointment was originally for today, but they called dad Monday evening to ask if I could come Tuesday afternoon instead and he said yes and then only remembered to also tell me about it after midnight. So I didn’t change my plan, but decided to take it just a little easier, not try to stay under 35 minutes, and the end result was 35:16, with sector times of 4:32, 5:23, 6:10, 4:39, 5:20, 6:10 and 3:02, making for lap times of 16:05 and 16:09.