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Just Catching Up Before Planting Trees at Videle Again
Tomorrow I’ll be going to plant trees again, and again at Videle, since I signed up for the event of the same group that organized the last two such events I took part in, back in spring, this actually seeming to be the only such event open to volunteers from Bucharest this autumn. So I’m planning to try to go to bed early this evening and at least rest, even if I won’t be able to sleep, since I’ll be waking up at a time when I normally would just be getting ready to go to bed, and then I doubt I’ll be writing anything tomorrow after I’ll get back, meaning that I have to throw something here now to avoid a Sunday update. Not even sure if I’ll manage to read more of Sapiens this evening, since I finally got around to starting that this Monday, but I’ll try to at least go through one more section and then see if I’ll have time for more.
So I’ll be starting with Monday, when I had set my alarm to 9 AM but woke up just moments before, having it ring just as I was thinking to check the time. Would have just managed to leave at 10:15 AM, as planned, but as I was about to go out the door, with jacket and headphones on, I wanted to get the cable of the headphones under my shirt and realized the shirt was on backwards, so ended up leaving almost five minutes late, and didn’t run to the metro station either, just walking quickly. But the metro came quickly and it still required only walking quickly after getting off to get to that morning’s protest at 10:59 AM, so right on time, since it had been announced for 11 AM. But, even though some 20 people eventually attended, only a few were there then, mainly the organizers themselves, who had just managed to hand a sign to an old woman who kept coughing, so I just hope I didn’t catch anything, since I had to stand just in front of her.
The reason why I had to stand there is the same as that for not taking any pictures. Admittedly, hadn’t taken the camera, but had pulled out my phone to try to take a few, regardless of the poor quality, yet as soon as I got there Roxana waved enthusiastically and when I walked over she asked whether I wanted to hold her side of the banner, which I couldn’t refuse. That freed her not just to give more interviews, since Tudor was doing that quite fine while holding the other side, but also to go inside eventually, to meet with the Ministry’s representative, after somebody had walked out the second time to ask whether somebody was ready for the scheduled meeting after all, since it had apparently been scheduled for 11 AM too. Unfortunately, that meant I was stuck holding that banner and, with the guy giving interviews one after the other holding the other side, I was extremely visible, likely more so than even those who came after me and picked up the “golden chainsaw”, at times holding it as requested for pictures. Could only leave that spot some time after Tudor did, since he first asked me to hold the banner by myself so he’ll have a picture as well, leaving me with it as he moved away to chat with other participants, so after a few more moments I just rolled it up and stepped into the small group, leaving it on the “chainsaw” after that was also set down by those who had been holding it.
After that protest ended, at 11:55 AM, I went to what I understand to be the “main” Kaufland, which I hadn’t been to before. Had the metro card, so could go there, and wanted to take the opportunity to look for that kind of toilet paper that only they sold and which seems to have vanished for some time now, even if another kind from the same manufacturer still is available. But couldn’t find it there either, so guess it really is gone. But did grab the coffee my dad had asked me to get and a couple of things for myself, plus some more of those snacks Liza is addicted to, just to get to a rounder total, the problem being that I only noticed when I got back that the pomelo I had bought was rotten in a spot, that spot having been hidden under the “label-handle” of that mesh it comes in. Didn’t lose too much of it though, since that area did go deeper and had spread a bit inside, but in the end wasn’t as bad as I was starting to fear once I started digging it out. There was actually something else dad had asked for which I had noticed being cheaper there, but forgot about it and when I remembered, after checking out, I decided against going back, since I wanted to check the price at Auchan too anyway.
So I went to Auchan, after dropping off the stuff and taking the plastic bottles which had gathered. Used their free bus again, and of course I went to the stop five minutes early and it was at least five late, but at least that allowed me to read on the way there, and even while waiting, after reading on the metro earlier as well, since I took the book with me, and continued on the way back too, using streetlights to see, since the lights in the bus were these very faint blue things that offered no usable light at all. Unfortunately, the recycling machine again didn’t work, so there sure seems to be a pattern lately, with it working when I decide against taking bottles and not working when I do. It said there was an error and I know I managed to clear errors in the past, opening it and doing something to make it print an error receipt and move on, but I couldn’t figure out how to do that again now, though it would seem that others did, since there were five or so error receipts left on it, the one on top stating that 44 bottles had been inserted since the previous error, so it kept running into a problem but could be made to work for a while before it happened again. But since I couldn’t figure it out and couldn’t get myself to ask, I just left the bottles there again, losing clearly over 1 RON, and they were still there when I went out, so nobody even bothered to clean up. And I got a bunch of stuff from there at least, covering much of the next period as well… But I forgot both one more thing dad had asked me to get and the main thing I had gone there for, that being toilet paper, since I hadn’t found that other kind earlier.
If I remembered that other thing when I got off the free bus here, I only remembered the toilet paper after taking the plastics and the stuff I’m dropping off at this Kaufland and going out again, since I still had to get what I had forgotten for dad and wanted to get it all over with in one day. Thought I won’t have money left to sort it out, since I had completely forgotten about toilet paper when I calculated, and I wouldn’t have had the money to get back to Auchan the next day and get some from there, but eventually figured out a way to get some from Kaufland, so we’ll at least have something for the next period. And since the little bit I had left was just shy of what was needed for anything else, meant to get some carrots too, but then I saw that, while they were cheaper than they had been in the other one, earlier, evening discount possibly kicking in even though I’m not sure it was even 7 PM yet, it said they were imported while at the other one they were listed as being from Romania, so I didn’t get any after all… And then apparently couldn’t count money anymore, since I counted twice and it sure seemed that I had 1 RON more than I thought, so I gave the cashier what seemed the right amount, yet she said she had counted three times and it was 1 RON short, asking whether I wanted to count again myself. But I just said no and gave her the remaining amount, thinking that for once I trusted her more than I trusted myself, after three hours of sleep and wandering around all day, and especially since it worked out to what I knew I should have left, regardless of how much I came up with when I counted.
Felt like crying after all of that, and the left knee had hurt most of the day, in a different way, a duller pain that went deeper. That made it difficult to do the usual squats that evening, but managed it, and actually wonder if Sunday’s squats had anything to do with it hurting in the first place, since I did them while watching a match, timing myself that way, as I tend to do on days with matches, and managed to do the 100 squats in 2:46, which I’m quite sure is a new record. Managed it in less than three minutes a few times, but don’t recall ever getting under 2:55, and almost certainly not under 2:50, so that was rather surprising, and did leave me gasping for breath and feeling like I was close to getting cramps once I was done.
The next day I took it easy, and would have wanted to play some more Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic but couldn’t since it wouldn’t start anymore, the issue being sorted out one day later, after I rebooted to install this month’s Windows updates, and last month’s security-only bundle as well, since I hadn’t installed it yet. The issue was that, while I didn’t get another one of those conhost.exe crashes, which had last happened in September, right away, my TV tuner’s software didn’t show up in the notification area, even though it was running, and when I decided to try to fix it by just logging off and back on instead of rebooting again, I did get another one of those crashes, which was for the first time not tied to a .NET update, since I didn’t install that this month, so I really have no clue what may be triggering it. Did send the dump to the Emsisoft support guy who said he’d be curious about it, just it case it may have something to do with that, and could have a look to try help me out even if it doesn’t, but he said he couldn’t figure out what was going on at a quick glance either, just that the exception was entirely within ntdll.dll and his best guess is that conhost.exe tried to read memory which had already been freed by another, unknown, program. But at least it didn’t happen again after rebooting… Though one thing that did happen was that I seemed to be getting a few double spaces again, yet it didn’t seem to happen again after that evening, so let’s see.
Going back a bit, before installing those updates, Wednesday I ran. Wanted to leave at 3:45 PM and made it for once, and the run was good as well, the time being 47:22, matching what at the moment is the third fastest over this distance, sector times being 4:21, 5:02, 5:48, 4:21, 4:58, 5:45, 4:23, 5:06, 5:55 and 1:43, making for lap times of 15:11, 15:04 and 15:24. Though there weren’t many people on the route, in a few places they did get in my way, so actually think I lost a few seconds because of that, but the conditions were good, with very little wind and the reported 12-13°C being a good temperature for running, though it felt a bit chilly on the way. On the other hand, my knees, both of them, were not fine, bothering me from the start and requiring me to pay attention to my running posture in order to spare them a bit more… Which I guess I failed at quite badly early on sector three of lap two, when I did something that made that left knee hurt quite badly. It was tricky after that, had to figure out how to keep running since it kept hurting, definitely on left turns, but at times even on straights. Had to listen to it and do my best to move how it still allowed me to, but still did really well even so, including a final sector which I last matched in February, the week after setting what remains that sector’s record.
Moving on, with all the sales here, this evening I ended up having a look at some headphones, which seem the most acceptable out of what’s available despite still not being over-ear, having that microphone which I’ll never use and can neither remove nor retract, and that cushion at the top being impossible to clean, but gave up on the idea, the fact that the 20% discount still puts them outside my price range having something to do with that as well, even though I could cover the price if I’d have really wanted to. On the other hand, earlier, got dad to order the exhaust hood for the stove that I had my eyes on since last week. We definitely need one, as the old one, probably bought back in 2002 when all that other work was done here, hasn’t been usable in many years and with winter coming, the window likely to not be opened even as much as it was so far and dad cooking what and how he cooks, it’ll be quite an issue yet again otherwise. It had been on sale for a while and seemed like a really good deal, though of course for him it still seemed too expensive and he said we should wait and see and that he’ll have to talk with my mother as well, leaving the matter like that until I saw that the discount was even higher today, so I pressed, and apparently my mother wanted it as well, and he made the order… But just for the hood itself, firmly refusing the extended warranty even when I said I’d cover that, saying he will not pay more for warranty and doesn’t want to show any support that way for products that last longer, again adding to the many ways in which he’s a very obvious example of exactly what’s wrong with the world and needs to be defeated, because there’s no way to work with this sort of mindset.
Otherwise, he also went to the family doctor and asked about my legs as well, being referred to a doctor from the same clinic, though I’ll probably only get there the week after the next. Hope I’ll at least get to the dentist on Tuesday though, since I had at first been scheduled for Thursday but then they called to say the doctor needs to leave the city for a while and they had to reschedule.