Murphy's after me!

Usually Murphy visits, most annoyingly, when I've finished work in Beit El and I have to go to Jerusalem, rather than home to Shiloh. It's hard to get a ride to Shiloh, or even to Ofra which is on the way. The vast majority of rides from Beit El are to Jerusalem. But when I need to go to Jerusalem, yes, you guessed it. They're all to Shiloh, Ofra or further north.

Otherwise, bli eyin haraa, Murphy's pretty polite. Of course he only comes, when he does, uninvited, and I didn't invited him to today's family get-together. My Israeli kids and the grandkids, who still aren't the age to travel alone, are coming for candle-lighting, latkes and my famous vegetable soup. I also found a bag of ground fish in the freezer and made my easier than you would expect gefilte fish.

So last night, after I had wrapped all the gifts, for the big kids, too, of course, I suddenly noticed that the ceiling over the front hallway was wet. I've seen those sort of drops before... Yes, it means that the boiler is leaking. It was late at night, so I called the cellphone of our plumber, who doubles as the local synagogue's Ba'al Koreh, and was a childhood friend of my older girls... I figured I'd just let it ring a couple of times, in case he's sleeping... Good news, he answered quickly. Bad news, he's in the army, reserve duty. He promised to send someone over in the morning.

My husband decided to check it out in the attic. He climbed up and reported a small leak from the tank. How long could that have been going on? So he set up a pail underneath, and we went to sleep.

Good news, this morning, just over six hours later, it was only a third full.

And... more news when there is some...

Party's still on. Chanukah Sameach!