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Honey is Sweet

Oh - 2008-05-06

I'm grateful for: other people who write the things I can't; a week of quiet days; homeopathic remedies that work.

I'm listening to Artie Shaw & His Orchestra: Back Bay Shuffle.

S2 didn't pass his driving test again, but he had no idea why. His teacher tells us he will pass next time. I wonder how he can be so sure? That's irony, I don't doubt he's worked it out with the tester. I managed to pull myself together and find a homeopathic remedy to help him stay calm for the test, 'cause he got so incredibly nervous he was pretty well doomed to fail. It worked. He took a dose of aconite (homeopathic potency 6x) before his lesson and before his test, and it seems to have worked wonders (I wasn't there, I go by report).

D3 is having terribly cramps. She, like me and my mother before, has terrible cramping on a monthly basis. Since I had the books out for S2 already, I spent some time doing research and came up with what looks like the perfect remedy. Of course, we don't have it in the house, but I found one that is similar, and it is helping. She feels much better - not all better, but better. Chamomilla 6x. Along with Arnica Montana, the two almost all-purpose remedies for a family. *grin*

A friend of l'Empress wrote a nice piece about Yom HaZikron HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) which called to my attention that I have never written about it. I'm not going to start now, simply because I haven't the words, and someone already wrote it better than I could. So go read her if you don't already. l-empress

What I did want to write is that our experience here of the holiday is slightly different from the rest of Israel, because we live close enough to Azza (Gaza) that they don't use the air raid siren to sound the two minute tone. That is because of the concern that people might mistake the siren for a genuine warning, or alternatively that if a missile attack is launched people wouldn't be warned and wouldn't run for shelter.

So we turn on the radio (in the kitchen), tuned to army radio. Army radio is THE radio station. It has the news, plays music, interviews important and interesting people, and is not equalled by any of the other radio stations, although we do usually listen to a different station in the car because here in the South reception isn't all it could be sometimes. But I digress. We turn on the radio a bit before the siren is due (hopefully) and wait for it, standing there in the kitchen.

When D2 was in the navy, she worked in an office (the library) which was far enough inside a building that they also had to listen to the radio for the siren. One time the radio was set too low, and a girl came out from between the stacks to see everyone standing at attention, and she just crept back between the stacks.

I had a similar experience once, I was shopping in a grocery store that was underground - built into the side of a hill. I was at the back of the store, and when the siren sounded it was so strange and muffled I didn't recognize it for what it was until I also turned a corner, and saw everyone standing like statues. Oops! I had S3 with me, who didn't understand what was going on (this was a few years ago), and I felt I couldn't explain it to him during the siren, so we also crept back to where we had been, so his fussing wasn't so evident to others.

Tonight the siren goes at eight o'clock, and tomorrow again at eleven. L'Empress's friend commented that two minutes didn't seem enough, and it's not. But on the other hand it's just right, when you do it a few times a year it's enough that you don't forget, and that is the point, really.

Oh, I should add the siren goes tonight and tomorrow for Yom HaZikron, I can't transliterate the whole thing, it's Rememberance Day for the Fallen Soldiers. Some 22,000+ fallen defending the people in Israel. People also remember the 1700+ civilian victims of terrorism. It's not such a large number for people who live in a big country like the U.S., but compared to our population, which is about the same as the entire population of New York City, it's pretty significant.

Oh, and I didn't do anything yesterday besides feed the birds (and get attacked by the goats) and ride the exercise bike. But at least I did that. I spent pretty much all my energy on the phone with a woman I haven't yet met, she's an Xtian from Canada who's husband is working for some Palestinians setting up a geo-thermal system of energy generation for a resort (or resorts).

We have so much in common, at least superficially, that it's scary. We are both homeschoolers. We both lived (she still lives, really) in extremely isolated areas, where we couldn't see our neighbours, and find the adjustment to living among people to be harder than coping with the foreign language or different customs. We both worked for years counselling victims of abuse. We both are into SF (me not so much anymore, but I used to be a 'phan'), spent some time travelling around the U.S. with our families in R.V.s and, well, that kind of thing. Scary. I don't know if we'll be friends, or even like each other, but she and her family are coming out a week from Friday to visit us, get out of the city, watch a movie and eat popcorn and pizza, and generally to hang out together, someplace you can see the stars (okay, some), and hear yourself think.

It's not rural Vermont, or her spread somewhere in the midwestern Canadian plains, but it's about as close as you can come here in Israel. At least for us.

Mah od? I can't think. The email meeting I started is being a bit of a headache, but that was to be expected. I couldn't possibly do something like this without headaches (no one can). But, it's up and it's working, so that's good.

I invited a friend who lives in Minnesota or one of the Dakotas (so many of my online friends are from there) to come and visit. I wonder if she'll come? She says it's been a life-long wish to come to Israel, and I think people should get their life-long dreams. It's not as hard as one might think - especially with a friend here to make for an easier landing than going with no one to visit, just as a tourist.

I know I'm never going to be able to meet all the wonderful people I'd like to that I've met here, I can't afford it and my health wouldn't permit that much travel, but it would be pretty wonderful if a whole lot of them came here. Not necessarily in a bunch, you know. I have as a bribe an entire country a lot of people want to visit.

Enough of that. I've actually been only scanning the news the last couple of days, and not going into withdrawal. Strange but true. I wonder if it keeps up or is just a temporary aberration?

I can't think of anything else, so I'll just stop.

0 bleats so far

:: Yesterdays : Tomorrows ::

~~~Last Five Entries~~~
Hi and goodbye - 2010-10-15
I'll be moving on - 2010-10-10
Gold membership and stuff - 2010-10-10
Decisions, decisions - 2010-10-07
Days to go - 2010-10-06