I'm grateful for: patient friends; managing my time a little bit better; weeding through piles of stuff (and making more space thereby).

I, wow, life keeps moving at a terrific pace. And in the time it took me to type that, another minor crisis occurred. Okay, two actually. Minor crises around here include S3 tripping over a bit of a rug and falling, not being able to get up; and a neighbour on our moshav being asked at the misrad hapnim (interior ministry) to prove that he is Jewish.

BTW, this is ugly religious politics of the worst kind. Our neighbour, who has lived here (on this moshav) for longer than we have, has four Jewish grandparents. But he doesn't have any paperwork to prove it, because when they fled Europe they were afraid of anyone knowing they were Jewish in Canada/U.S.A. It's ugly, nasty s*** - also, whether or not he's Jewish has no bearing on anything anyway - plenty of people who are not Jewish live here and are citizens of Israel.

Interrupted again, this one is not a crisis, S3 wants to know about job possibilities in the armoured corps for a game he is making up.

Oy, vey, and now I have lost track of the interruptions. Mind you, this is in about 40 minutes. This is my day. I'm not necessarily doing anything really worth writing about, but I am quite, quite busy.

TH is going off with the neighbour to meet with the rabbi (the moshav rabbi), to try and sort that out. We are involved both because TH can translate, and because we've been in on this particular balagon (mess) from the beginning.

S3 is now happily playing some game on the computer, it looks like a Scooby-doo game, and he is, mercifully, quiet for the first time since I woke up.

This morning S1 went off to take the 'theoretical' test (that would be the written test) to get his drivers license. He didn't pass because of confused terminology. He's passed this test before - in Israel - so we know it's not because he doesn't know the answers. However, anything in English is subject to dispute because of there being English, Scots, Irish, Australian, South African and Canadian English speakers in addition to people from the U.S. in Israel. For instance: one of the questions he got wrong - he looked at a roadsign and said it described a 'serpentine curve.' The answer they wanted was that it described a 'right turn and then a left turn.' What can you do? We'll take him back to test again as soon as we can.

One bright side is that the whole testing apparatus has changed since S2 went, and not only is it more streamlined and you can actually (le-GASP!) make an appointment, but the price is less than a third of what it used to be.

On other notes, I've been getting other things done besides not reading or writing here. I got some postcards written last night, and I've been copying movies from vhs to dvd. All kinds of things - one-of-a-kind movies, home movies, and in between all of that the occasional video that we bought on vhs over ten years ago that is dying and we want to still be able to watch occasionally. Yesterday I did Ruthless People - which may not be ten years old, but then it could very well be older. All movies are being copied solely for our own use, not only because it's the right thing to do, but also because there is certainly no one here who is interested in old English language light entertainment.

I've been working on time management, and getting a lot more done than I was. At this point I'm using the extra productive time trying to get caught up on who knows what all I've laid aside to do when I get the time. I finished knitting a test swatch in an orange yarn last night - I haven't managed to measure it, but that will happen. I've also been clearing up space on my hard drive, a harder job than it might be because pretty much everything on my hard drive is stuff I need and am working on - except my music. Oy! It tears at my insides to delete music. What can I do? I need to work more than I need 30 days of music on my computer. At least, that's what they tell me... ;-7

I have no idea what has happened this time, S3 asking questions, S2 using my computer and wanting to know about printing photos, something else... Somehow we all manage. It's a happy, buzzing, busy household, isn't that what I want?

I have seen D3 this morning, but she popped in for a moment while S3 was chewing on my ear (family euphemism for talking non-stop) and vanished again. Aren't girls supposed to be the non-stop talkers? Not in my family.

Since I haven't mentioned it in the last ten minutes, it is Just Too Hot. August is in some ways harder than July, even though July is hotter here, because by August I've just had enough. This week it is supposed to stay unbearably hot all week, although it will cool off at night to about 22C (72F). Thank goodness for desert nights that let the heat get away.

I haven't been doing anything with photos, it just takes too much time. I LOVE photos, but in terms of priorities the amount of time they take isn't worth it for me at the moment. I hope that will change soon. I know I prefer to put lots of photos in my diary.

Oy, I would like to say that photos take me a long time because I am very fussy. Extremely fussy. I take a hundred photos or more for each one I think is good enough to show to people. It takes time to take that many photos, it takes time to look through them. I take a lot of time deciding which of my photos to show to people. This is actually easier when there are a lot of good photos I want to share than when there are few or none that I think are good enough, but I need (or think I need) to put up some photos. I'll agonize over those.

If I didn't care so much it would be much easier. And quicker. But there it is.

I'm running out of steam. I think I wrote quite a lot. It's hard to tell when I keep getting interrupted. I lose track. Anyway, I'm off to cope with my day. I can't be interrupted if I'm not trying to write anything, right? Nice dream.

I forgot to mention - I rode the exercize bike yesterday - not for the first time either. Doing a bit better. I can't do it every day. The heat makes that impossible.

I'm listening to They Might Be Giants: They Got Lost

:: 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