Life, Travels, and Daily English Posts

Today, after my trip to Kazan, I went for a ride on my bike along my usual route. But this ride wasn't very successful, as I got caught in the rain twice while riding through the meadow and forest. Luckily, I didn't get completely soaked, but my sneakers and legs got wet, especially in places where the grass was very tall. Still, I couldn't skip my ride today because I had already missed it yesterday. So I decided to give it a try, even though the sky was cloudy and the weather forecast said there could be rain within the next two hours. Of course, they were right, but I still didn't give up and reached my goal of keeping my consistency.

Yesterday I took several blood tests: a complete blood count, a coagulogram, glucose, and infection tests for HIV, hepatitis B and C, and syphilis. They emailed me all the results except for the infection tests, since they're considered sensitive information. So I'll need to visit the clinic one more time to pick those results up in person before the surgery and bring them to the dentist's office. After that, they should decide whether I can go ahead with the dental implant surgery.

This is so crazy: I drove to refuel my car's tank in the middle of the night without any rest or sleep. But I had my reasons, as all the gas stations were crowded and had huge traffic jams during the day whenever fuel was available. So instead of waiting under the hot sun during the day and wasting my time, I had one plan: try to refuel at night. Luckily, it was successful.

Today I decided to take my next blood test in Kazan at a private clinic before my next dental implant surgery. My family members also decided to go on this trip with me so we could visit our relatives afterward. But something went wrong. When I finished my business at the clinic, we got a message saying they had already gone from the city to their country house. So we changed our plans and drove there instead, as we had some presents for them and couldn't just cancel the visit.

My usual outdoor activities started closer to 5 o'clock, once the weather became sunny and dry. Despite the rain earlier in the day, the ground was still comfortable enough for a bike ride, so I headed out as usual, wearing my damaged New Balance sneakers. I had cut them during one of my previous bike rides while trying to avoid obstacles on a forest trail, but they're still comfortable enough to keep wearing. Other than that, the ride was pretty ordinary. I cycled through forests and along highways, where I noticed horses and a wild rabbit sitting on the forest trail. It didn't get scared of me—it just noticed me, looked around for a moment, and then calmly continued on its way.

The day went quite well, without anything unusual or unexpected. I tried to spend it as productively as I could and complete some of my tasks while staying at home during the cloudy weather. Fortunately, the weather improved during the second part of the day, which gave me another great opportunity to leave my place for a bike ride among the trees on the forest trail.

These days have been a bit cloudy, but without any rain that could bother my outdoor activities. So while the weather gives me the opportunity, I keep working on the goals I've set for myself. Even though it's just 10–15 km across fields, meadows, and forests surrounded by hills, every ride is enjoyable. Not only do my bike rides help me keep my body toned, but they also give me the chance to enjoy nature and take photos along the way. Because of that, I've been especially busy experimenting with photography during my rides over the last few days. This time, I tried taking photos where I included my mountain bike along with parts of my body, like my hands and legs. I think that kind of perspective is interesting and a bit unusual.

Yesterday, I was wrong about the obstacles in the forest, saying that all of them had been removed. Today, when I reached the forest and started riding along the trail, I noticed that all of those obstacles had been restored. But after restoring them, some of the obstacles became much stronger than before. If they had used only small branches and fallen trees before, now that crazy guy—or guys—used huge, long logs, which can be quite challenging to move without extra help.

The day was unusual, even though I didn't do anything special or new. I just visited my relative's place and talked with my nephew about my former workplace and the military clarification summons. He didn't know that I had been fired a month ago, and he only knew about the summons from the military office through my blog when he checked it. I also returned his drill, which I had borrowed two weeks ago when I fixed the balcony floor.

Here I’ve shared some moments about how I was fired, and since that day I haven’t looked at the job market. I didn’t even update my resume because I had no plans to start working again. But today, a few messages from Telegram caught my attention. They came from my former workplace's channel, where they had forgotten to remove me. Unfortunately, after a few minutes, they realized I was the odd one out, and I was removed from the channel.