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Honey is Sweet

Whoa, what a day - 2009-05-27

I'm grateful for: an amazing day; faith that gets stronger almost every day; York Peppermint Patties. :-)

It's somewhat earlier than I've been managing to write, before 1am. Today was another one of those too-full days. Different in a handful of ways, though. For starters, TH didn't wake up when we had agreed (he's usually quite good about that now). I did. I looked at the time, realized that TH must've over-slept, and decided to nap a bit more. So instead of getting up at 7am, I got up a few minutes after 8, and TH a little bit after that.

I managed to shower and dress, despite being off to a rather slow start. TH made me breakfast, and we were able to throw ourselves out the door in pretty good time.

Then - I drove. Now I can and do drive more often than I can actually walk anywhere, but it is very unusual for me to do the driving when TH and I go out together, and NEVER in the morning. He had some kind of pain in his side, and wasn't awake enough to drive, though, so I did.

We drove to Netivot to get cash, then towards Jerusalem, stopping for gas when we got close-ish to the city. I drove the whole way - more because getting out of the car wasn't worth it, although I really think TH was happier as passenger then.

Our destination was Atarot, which we actually were able to find and get to with absolutely no problems at all. Positively unheard of. We did have a bit of a confusion by being at the wrong gate, but once that was sorted out all was good. We were at a warehouse to pick up a wholesale food order. We got a huge amount of food. Our little five-seater incredibly tiny car was full. I had to have the box of York Peppermint Patties on my lap (perish the thought!). ;-) It also cost huge sums, but we got a good discount for going to the warehouse to pick the food up, and for paying in cash, so all-in-all was good.

From there we drove to Kisalon. I'd never been there before but had seen the name on a sign. It's a hilltop community quite literally. The ground falls away on all sides, and the views are incredible. I could imagine living there if I could get some of those vertical-face-climbing goats. ;-) Not really, too many people and too close to J'lem, but still. Lovely.

There we unloaded a good portion of the food (thank goodness). It was something of a balagon (mess), what with climbing up and down stairs with the boxes and sorting out what our friend there was supposed to have and what she might not have gotten in her order. As it happens, she got one thing wrong - Greek olives instead of Calamata olives - and one thing she didn't get at all. Given that she got over 700 NIS of food, not too shabby, I think.

I would have loved to stay and visit, and see her apartment and play with her kids - she has three small children, and I love them already - but our next stop was fretting about us being late so we had to dash out of there.

Next stop: Bet Shemesh. Do I need to point out that for the rest of the day TH was doing the driving?

Oh, we did get lost getting from Atarot to Kisalon, so we have an unbroken record. Wouldn't want to blow that, now would we? Never been in or near J'lem without getting lost yet. Our friend in Kisalon said she has the same problem in Tel Aviv. Now, I have no problem navigating in T.A. Different brain patterns, perhaps?

It was a quick trip to Bet Shemesh, already known to us. There we had a quick transfer and everything went right. The only time all day. ;-7

Stopped in Bet Shemesh for some food (as if there wasn't enough in the car). At least TH could now see out the rear-view mirror, and neither of us was in danger of getting our skulls caved in by a too-quick stop. I had a hamburger, kind of dry, and fries. TH had a half-sandwich from a coffee shop and an iced coffee. It took longer than we would have liked, and I choked - badly - on a crumbly bit of the dry hamburger, and had to sit choking and hacking up for several minutes. No fun at all. Sorry if it's tmi. Just what happened. It slowed us up a bit more and then we headed off to Bareqet.

My friend in Bareqet is also disabled, although differently than I am (not M.S.) she also has an ICI - invisible chronic illness. It means we have a lot in common that most other people just don't get. Except on those occasions when she is driving me out of my tree, I love her dearly and love to spend time with her.

This visit was one of those times when everything was wonderful. It was too, too short. She was having a bad day, and paid me the immense compliment of saying that just seeing me perked her up and made her feel better. :-) We chatted just briefly, though, because I had an appointment with my acupuncturist. We dropped with her food for her family, her sister-in-law's familiy, and someone else (maybe her sister) as well. So that was three food orders and it still wasn't possible to put someone in the back seat. But the car was a whole lot lighter.

TH is going to bring S3 up to visit tomorrow with his best friend. It's good that we can manage that after such a crazy day, and just before Shavuot. I'm only sorry I can't go and spend the day there, too.

We managed to leave, although it was hard. By this time I really couldn't lift my feet, and I shuffled through the rest of the day. There had been no room in the car for the wheelchair, given the amount of food we were picking up, so I was stuck on my own two feet. There are those who would lecture me about how I ought to be 'grateful.' Well, grateful that I was ABLE to get through a day without the wheelchair I can manage, but grateful to be shuffling around and staggering and in pain? Maybe not.

My acupuncturist is in Tel Aviv, and we were amazingly lucky to exit the highway just before traffic came to a complete halt. We could see them parked from the exit ramp. TH was able to park within a reasonable distance (he dropped me at the door, anyway). I made it upstairs - there is a lift, thank goodness - and got treated, and we staggered home. I got to visit briefly with D2, who is in school there. It was a really, really nice visit. She wasn't feeling too good (sadly), but was very sweet and relaxed and pleasant.

She had some funny stories to relate, and news about her boyfriend, and she's coming down to spend the holiday with us Thursday. I only hope she will be as pleasant for us when she comes on Thursday. It is a nice treat to be able to be with her and she is not all prickly. I don't blame her, she's got all kinds of reasons to be prickly with us (meaning TH and I, and her siblings). It's so much nicer, though, the rare times that she is not.

When TH and I made it home, we were both utterly done in, but still I could sit outside a bit and enjoy Kitten frolicking in the outdoors. Our cat Sprite, who is now the old lady cat of the household, was there too. We don't see her too much, she is way more stand-offish than her mother, which is one reason why I needed Kitten. I am much more a cat person really.

And I have mountains of paperwork to do, and laundry, and a letter to write (*sigh* I've had it to do for months now), and photos to download, and, and, and... And I need to take a deep breath and remember that I am moving in the right direction, slowly, slowly, and everything will happen in Hashem's time. It's really hard, especially when the piles and papers are growing around me and I seemingly can do nothing about them.

D1 phoned to tell me that the new wife (of the father of my grandchildren) has lost her case for custody of her two older children, and they are going to live with their father presumably in perpetuity. I am sorry that D1 is upset, and sorry for the girls being dragged back and forth, but I'm not sure it isn't best for them. I mean of the available options. New wife hasn't even been a mother to them, since the new baby was born she has shoved all of their care on D1. D1 is heartbroken, having gotten very close to the two little girls, and what can you do? It is all such a mess.

That was a short call, and then there was a longer call from RS, who wanted to talk to me about her options regarding a Lumbar Puncture - which her dr. is pushing for her to get, despite not making a clear case for why it is even needed - and also to talk about writing her life story for her aliyah. WTF?? I never did anything like that, and neither did anyone else I know. What is with these people? I keep telling RS to just give up on all that, come here, and THEN make aliyah, but she's intent on making as much work out of this as possible.

Anyway, a third and even longer phone call was from S2, who is almost finished with the 'basic' basic training. He's got one more night of guard duty in the field, and then they go back to base for some crazy physical activity followed by a chance to jump around and pound each other on the back for surviving this leg of the journey. He isn't coming home this weekend because his entire group got guard duty at the base. *sigh* It is hard because not only is he not coming home for the weekend, but he also will be out of touch for a much longer time because of the chag, and also not being home for Shavuot. I'm sure we will survive, but we are both a bit anxious about it.

I also got to chat a little bit with one of S2's mates. I heard this other fellow talking while we were on the phone, and then ended up exchanging greetings and just a bit of chat. I suggested that S2 could bring him home to meet his sister, and S2 said he just might do that. I had been kidding. ;-)

So, that's pretty much my day. I have to move some laundry into the dryer and then I can get some sleep. I hope. My acupuncturist (there has to be some shorter way to say that) says I am making good progress. That was good to hear. I do feel it, but it's good to have him say it also. He managed to not say anything obnoxious today as well. What an amazing day.

The only problem with tomorrow I can see is that we might not have enough people to cope with all the animals, but was can always leave the goats in the shed I suppose. Our neighbour wants to take the boy kid to Netivot this week to sell. I don't know if we will manage it, but if not this week than next week. It is very sad, but it's farm life. Just can't keep all the boys.

We haven't done anything about the blind dog yet, Peppito. I am so saddened that our only choices are to keep him, which was really can't manage, and to have him killed. It is so unfair. So far we are coping with him one day at a time, but I know that if I put it off too long then someone is going to get hurt. I really don't want to wait for that.

Well, that's me for tonight. And it's still before 1:30am. Early night for me. I'd like it not to be an early night, unless I have some sort of occupation that keeps me up at night for a purpose. Wouldn't that be nice?

I'm listening to Malcolm Middleton: Call the Shots

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