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Honey is Sweet

Life goes on - 2008-03-07

I'm grateful for: my great-grandlady cat curled up on my bed-table; both dogs laying at my feet; nothing important to do today.

I could go on about the shooting in the Jerusalem school, or I could talk about the rocket which smashed into a home not too far from here. Then there's the fact that the UNSC has elected to not condemn the murder of eight teenagers who were simply studying in their school library. However, perhaps one of the most human parts of living here is that despite, and even during, these sorts of tragedies, life goes on. Children in Sderot continue to attend school. Families in Jerusalem do their Friday shopping and prepare for the sabbath. And I spent the day doing absolutely nothing related to any of the acts of violence intended to produce terror.

I went shopping. I took my daughter, D2, out for pizza and saw her new apartment for the first time. It's very nice for a tiny little studio apartment. One long wall is just about all windows. It's light, and it manages to not feel to cramped. I made it up all 45 steps, and even more miraculously back down again.

Skipping a little ahead, it won't surprize anyone that I didn't get on my exercycle for further exercise last night.

I dropped D2 off at work, and drove home to start the campfire for a cookout to which we had invited a bunch of people. Sadly, the people we had really started the whole thing for didn't show up. A young man who was blown off his bicycle in the most recent bombing in Tel Aviv, and has relocated with his family to our neck of the - desert? Well, anyway, we'd wanted to meet them all, having become a bit friendly with the young man already. We also invited friends and neighbours, and had a good enough turnout despite the newcomers not coming. A good time was had by all.

There is a young man (younger than the bombing victim) who lives on the moshav and would like to have his eye to my daughter, D2. Unfortunately he's a bit of a mess, always drunk or on drugs, or just off his head. I don't know his history, but there is something not right between his ears (I mean, besides the various chemical substances). Still, he's fun to have around for a bit. He was impatient with my slow and safe method of building a fire, and grabbed a large bunch of sticks, and threw three logs on top, and quickly had the fire burning high and hot. Fortunately, since it's still winter, there's no danger of any for of chance fire spreading. I'll have to remember if he comes by again for a cookout to limit the available wood.

Our next door neighbour, and very good friend of TH came by. He's sick, with a bad sore throat. Or maybe he had too much vodka the night before. It sounded like a good party.

Also D&L, two other Americans on the moshav. D has a massive pulmonary embolism after they had discovered a 30cm blood clot in his left leg. Total negligence in the hospital, unfortunately, and he is going to get a settlement someday. There's no question of if, only of when, the lawyer seems to think a couple of years. L was severely injured in a crash when the truck D was driving hit a patch of ice - somewhere in the U.S. - and spun, skidded, and fell on it's side. She was in the sleeper. We don't see much of them because between D's, L's and my disabilities, we just aren't mobile. TH keeps us all connected (which is amazing, truly) and they are good friends.

We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows, ate falafel and L's delicious homemade potato salad and vegetarian chili (she also made the hummus for the falafel). We talked about the situation here - you know, the rocket attacks, the helicopter gunships overhead, the situation of the Druzi, the people in Azza. We also talked about campouts, being disabled (and how it happened to each of us), smores, jackals, and so much else I can't remember. When everyone went home we agreed we had to do that again, and I insisted they borrow Charlie v'Hetzi (Charlie and a half) - a wonderful Israeli movie I knew they would enjoy.

We laid in a supply of beer, soda and things like chips and ketchup, and I was surprized that what was most in demand was the soda. Fanta and Coca-cola. So, if you are ever giving a party on a mostly Moroccan moshav, you know what to provide. ;-)

I was really sore and aching, and I haven't even written about the shopping. I did go by myself, and I managed to get in and out of the car BY MYSELF at least five times. Absolutely unheard of. Seriously. I had a lot of fun, spent money on things I probably shouldn't've - like a couple of wildly coloured string bags and the health food store. We got supplies to make S3's Purim costume, various art and school supplies, and eco-friendly dishwashing cakes. It seems kind of silly, doesn't it? Worrying about the dishwasher detergent while using a dishwasher to wash the dishes? But we use the waste water for irrigation, so it's kind of more important than it might otherwise be.

D2 showed me a new-to-me grocery store in Petakh Tikvah, which was terrific, and I really liked shopping at it. A small local store, not quite a ma&pa shop (it's part of a national chain), but it looks and acts like one.

After the cookout, and after S3 was settled in bed - WAY after his bedtime :-) we watched the second of Blackpool. That's the name of the series I couldn't remember last time. It is so weird, but a lot of fun. I doubt Americans reading this have heard of it (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong). I don't know enough about it, I've only watched two episodes after all, to really say anything about it, other than that it's a bit of a drama, but at odd moments the main characters burst into song and (sort of) dance routines, singing along to popular music hits. Very silly.

I was utterly exhausted, too exhausted to read or write, but I wasn't destined to get any sleep. S1 couldn't sleep, he's having nightmares (I believe from watching some clips of Nightmare on Elm Street), but whatever caused them, he was too freaked out to go to sleep alone in his own bedroom. We talked, I think I helped, as he told me he knew what he needed to do to cope, and went off to bed sometime around 3am. Which would have been enough for me, but then S3 had a nightmare. I sat with him until I don't know when.

I did eventually get to go to sleep, but then my friend MS phoned me before 9am. Her youngest daughter is sick, and she was worried and wanted to talk to a more experienced mom. It is nothing serious really, but her daughter who so far has only been sick for a couple of days, three at most (she's three, I think) in her whole life, is still sick going on day four. So I was able to reassure her, listened in detail to the history of daughter's symptoms, and all of her previous illnesses, and finally got off the phone to try and fall back asleep. Lessee, I can't remember who phoned next... And then D2 phoned, I left my hat at her apartment, and she wanted to know about a book she'd found at a used book store. There was more, but for the life of me, I can't remember it.

I slept on and off between interruptions until about noon. TH had put collars on the goats so they could browse outside the yard on leads, but the goats just wanted to chew their cud in the shade. Did I mention we're having the first heat wave of the year? It's 34C, which is in the 90'sF I think. The goats took refuge under the house, and I was disturbed by S1 hollaring from directly under my bedroom, as he tried to roust them out.

S1 took his drink stand down to the Kalaniyot fields, but it is so hot no one was showing up. D3 has twisted her wrist (like a twisted ankle, only a wrist) and is out of commission. Fortunately she finished making cupcakes before she hurt herself. S3 fell outside and scraped up his arm and side on the rocks outside. My tooth is still hurting me and in general life goes on.

I have to phone FB to see that he is okay after the shooting yesterday. He wouldn't have been there, but he lives in the neighbourhood. We got hold of our one friend who might have been studying at the school last night and thank goodness he wasn't there. Don't tragedies like this make us awfully selfish in a way?

One thing we were talking about is, is it worse to have a school shooting as a random act of violence, or when committed by a known enemy? I don't mean worse, exactly, the tragedy is the same. But - when there is a school tragedy here we don't have the browbeating and endless questions of 'why?' and 'how could this happen?'. No one is trying to pick apart the childhood of the perpetrator to find out what could have led him to such a heinous act. It's a curious difference.

Anyway, on that cheery note (that's irony, people), I'm off to coping with minor household disasters. The cupcakes are slightly overcooked, the large dog stood up under D3's skirt and woke us ALL up by the attendant shriek, just in the last minute. I'm hoping for an uneventful shabbos, and I really hope your weekends are equally uneventful (unless you have happy events planned).

Be well, all, and Gd bless.

I'm listening to The Klezmatics: St. John's Nign (which means 'tune').

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:: Yesterdays : Tomorrows ::

~~~Last Five Entries~~~
Hi and goodbye - 2010-10-15
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