I'm grateful for: a quieter day; making progress in Hebrew, however slow and frustrating; cats and dogs and goats and chickens.

Returning to our regularly scheduled life, ...

I wish. The booms continue. Fortunately most of the booms are us hitting them, not the other way around. A much more quiet day today, with only one 'drill,' of course during the time TH decided to go out to Netivot to pick up some vital necessities. Chocolate, candles, that sort of things. ;-)

Other than TH not going to work, and the booms, and of course the one tzeva adom drill, it actually was a largely normal day. I did schoolwork with S3. Didn't actually accomplish much other than that, because as usual I have only limited functioning before things start shutting down. But I did succeed in making supper which was a big success despite the fact that the cheese glopped up instead of spreading smoothly. It's been something like 22 years since I cooked like this, except for last week, so I can't really be surprized if things don't always turn out like I remember them.

Oooh, that was a long series of rolling booms!

And then TH showed up, which was convenient as I hadn't taken the cough medicine, and it really does make a huge difference in my sleeping. The thing is, the big dog Balta gets scared and wants to crawl under my bed. So she did. TH decided to try leaving her in here, but that didn't work. As soon as she decided it was safe, she was on my little rug, wanting to come up on my bed, but besides the fact that there simply isn't enough room, Chamudah was growling at her. So now I'm back to just me and Chamudah, the small dog who somehow manages to take over the whole bed, but loves to snuggle up to me.

I read what I thought was a very interesting news article a little bit ago. In the article, interviewing various spokespersons (spokespeople?, spokeswomen and spokesmen) about the problem with getting our (Israel's) side of the story into the media, they reported that the spokes--whatever wouldn't name names, but that certain news outlets simply refused to give us any airtime, to the point that people (and countries) served by these outlets had absolutely no idea that the *reason* Israel is attacking Hamas in Gaza is that they have been shooting rockets and morters at us for years, at a civilian population, children live and sleep in bomb shelters, shock victims cannot carry on with their lives, not to mention the people who have been injured, maimed and killed.

The spokes-- were at great pains to avoid pinpointing any particular news outlets, at least on the record, but then two paragraphs later the reporter writes that the BBC and Al Jazeera hadn't been able to be reached for comment. Naming no names, huh? Cute.

Of course you expect it from Al Jazeera, certainly not a name famous for it's unbiased and professional reporting. But I mean seriously, when someone ran amok and drove a bulldozer down a main street killing (I think it was) six people, wounding a couple of dozen others, and an off-duty soldier and a police officer managed to climb up to the cab of the (still moving) bulldozer and shoot the guy when he refused to stop -- the BBC report said that an Arab had been killed by Israelis.

So, yeah. I guess we might have a bit of cause for complaint there. It doesn't really surprize me that so many people are completely clueless as to the nature of the situation here. It's not that the facts aren't available. It's not that what is going on here isn't readily apparent if you merely pay attention over a period of time. But, really, most people are busy with their lives. They read the headlines, and move on.

So, in addition to a minor war with a terrorist organization posing as a government (not building any schools or repairing and roads, but they ARE taxing smugglers on items brought in through the tunnels that are NOT terrorists or weapons) we have a real serious P.R. problem. It is possible, not likely, but possible, that we wouldn't be getting *quite* so much pressure on the international front about defending ourselves if most people were actually aware that that is what is going on. *sigh*

But I'm not tilting at windmills. I just appreciate how artfully they managed to *not* directly name any *particular* news outlets, but, oh, wait! they did! Cute.

Another series of rolling booms and Balta is back in my room and now on top of my bed. I've surrendered and both TH and I will keep our doors open so she can go back and lie on his bed (where she usually sleeps) when she feels safe enough, and come back here if there are any more booms.

The only other thing I accomplished today was to study some Hebrew with S2. It's becoming a bit difficult for me to keep up, he is definitely zooming ahead of me. But, there are things I know better than he does, so at least it's not all one-sided. He can read and speak (and understand) faster than I can, which really is good. He's cramming for a test for the army in a few weeks so the better he is, the better.

It turns out that the city next to where D3 and S3 have their horseback riding lessons was hit by two bombs yesterday, so now we have to phone and see if they are actually having lessons tomorrow. We'll take the kids - I don't see that they would be in any greater danger there than they are here - but I would perfectly understand if the teacher of the ranch owner decided it wasn't a good idea just now. It would be really sad for the kids if not.

I'm not even sure they have any protected place they can put the horses. That would also be a tragedy, if one or more of the horses were hit. *sigh*

I just remembered why I was so worn out today, I spent half the day on the telephone, talking to Israeli friends who called to see how were are doing. It really is nice of them to call, but the phone calls completely wear me out. You can't just say 'I'm fine, thanks, goodbye.' You have to chat with each of them. And some want to offer us to come stay with them if we decide we can't take being in the war zone any longer. Others want to explain why they aren't offering, or share their own experiences of the last couple of days. And after just a few of those conversations (really any phone conversation of more than say fifteen minutes) I am about as strong as cooked noodles. Not even.

We came up with a good, workable solution. TH took my phone. If someone called me, he was to say that I wasn't up to talking on the phone and deal with whoever/whatever it was. The whole time TH had my phone it didn't ring. So now we figure that whenever I want no one to call me, I give him the phone, and I get a break.

People phoned from all over the country today. It really was very nice. It's hard changing my perception of myself as all alone, with no friends and no one to count on, always struggling against the slings and arrow and so on. It's a mental map of the world that was accurate for so very many years, that it just doesn't come naturally to assume that there are people I can count on, people who care, people who will just do the decent thing. It is obvious even to me that my mental map is out-of-date. But changing it isn't as easy as going to the store and getting a new one. It's work. *sigh* Isn't everything?

I'm going to stop. It's late (but still before 1am). I'm not the only one who is not asleep yet, but I have to try. Or, if I don't manage to sleep, at least I could read some of one of the books I have been working through for months.

I'm listening to Mitch Miller & His Gang: Happy Days

:: 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