Whether Weather? Which is Right?

I'm a bit of a nutcase. I'm super-highly sensitive to the weather. I'm horrendously phobic about housework and cleaning. I need just the right light and weather to clean my house. The sky must be clear and blue. I need the bright cheery weather to cheer me on.

Last week, when I checked the forecast app on my phone, I saw predictions of perfect pre-Pesach (pre-Passover) cleaning weather, even for my nutty standards. But this morning, when I looked at the sky, at what photographers call "Blue Hour," all I saw was a yellowy grey. I got gypped.

Could this be some temporary aberration?

Sitting at the computer, the view was even worse, and it wasn't just the dirty window panes.

So I checked the phone's weather app again.

IMHO that's a forecast for almost ideal weather.

There's another weather site on my computer, which is also calibrated to Shiloh, so I checked that one.

It predicts a different scenario. Which weather forecast is the correct one?

Adding to my mounting panic is that yellowy tinge I see in the sky. It's a clear sign of desert dust storms. That's a weather phenomenon we never experienced on Long Island.

During our first spring in Israel I learned about dust storms and sandstorms, when the clean wet laundry morphed into awful, sandy yellow dirty laundry after hanging outside on dry but yellow days. Days like today.

If I'm forecasting correctly, from the color of the sky, this may be a very difficult and challenging week to clean the house. Spring cleaning must be done when I can safely open up the windows and hang out lots of laundry. True Passover, Pesach cleaning can still be done. I don't need the outdoors all that much to clean the refrigerator, just good music.

So, now I must motivate myself, recalibrate to plan my pre-Pesach cleaning differently. And that also means that non-kitchen, non-chametz cleaning must be after Passover, when the skies are clear and dust-free.

Busy Thursday, Gd Willing JBBL will be IFL Champions

Let this yellow sky be the only disappointment today.

A sky this yellowish color in springtime Israel quite often heralds a sandstorm. And one thing I learned in our first year in Israel was not to hang out laundry during a sandstorm, because it will dry with sand thoroughly embedded in the fabric, yes, dirtier than before being laundered. So, I'll postpone doing the wash until tomorrow or next week. It's also not a good day to open up the windows and certainly not to wash them.

Yes, there are two very good reasons not to wash windows before the Passover Holiday, even though lots of people like a totally sparkling clean house.

1. The dirt on the windows is not the forbidden chametz.
2. There's an excellent chance of sandstorms during the Jewish Months of Nissan and Iyar. And sandstorms really dirty/soil windows. 

Yesterday I had a totally fantastic day in Jerusalem. My chevruta, learning friends, and I spent the morning in Matan attending the Pre-Passover Yom Iyyun. Dr. Yael Ziegler, Rabbanit Shani Taragin and Yael Leibowitz provided an inspiring learning experience for the hundreds of attendees who overpacked the Matan auditorium. After that we went out to lunch together, since we wouldn't be seeing each other for a few weeks.

Tonight I'm Gd willing attending the IFL IsraelBowl #10 Championships and hope and pray that the Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions will be victorious!! I pray for a great game, no injuries, and that the championship will be ours. We have a wonderful team and a super-fantastic coach.

Today, until I start my trek/tremp to Petach Tikvah, I'll be busy preparing for Shabbat.

Yaala Big Blue!!!

B"H, Blue Sky Has Returned!

actual color, not sepia
photo taken early in the dust-storm 

Israel generally has the most boring summer (from April to October, sometimes interrupted in May-June by a couple of short desert sandstorms) weather which varies between hot and hotter, and the sky stays sky blue for months on end, but this year was different. For the last week or two we've been suffering from a long, almost never-ending unseasonable and unprecedented sandstorm.

For those with all sorts of health problems, especially connected to lungs, like asthma, this has been very trying times and dangerous, too. The only thing to do was to stay in air-conditioned buildings and keep all windows closed. Even awful housekeepers like myself have been continuously dusting. The fine sand has even snuck into closets and no doubt lungs, too. And for those of us who hang our laundry outside to dry, this has been a time of minimal clothes-washing, because wet clothes particularly attract the dust and sand.

I was going to do a lot of wash yesterday, as I usually do on Tzom Gedalia while fasting and staying home, but the air was still pretty dirty, although the forecasters had been predicting that it would end for days if not longer. I had decided that dust, sand or not, I had no choice but to launder today, even if it meant hanging laundry to dry all over the house.

But miracle of miracle, finally this morning the sky is clear and blue!! Thank Gd!!!!

Crazy Week, Every Day a Different Season

This week dawned very wintery.

Even though it's the week after Yom Ha'Atzma'ut, I had to turn the heaters back on, and you can see from this picture, that there was lots of humidity at dawn.  I hadn't turned on the heaters for a few weeks.  My house is well insulated and retains the temperature pretty well, so the warm spring weather we had around Passover kept us very comfortable, as long as the windows stayed closed.

But then the cold and rain won out, and I was back in winter clothes and heavy waterproof shoes on Sunday and Monday.  Tuesday, when my friends came on a pilgrimage to Shiloh, it was suddenly spring.  We didn't need extra sweaters and coats, especially in the afternoon down the hill at Shiloh HaKeduma, Tel Shiloh.

And then yesterday when in Jerusalem, which is a drop colder than Shiloh, I had to strip off the lightweight jacket which had been perfect only the day before.

I hope that those last couple of rains cleaned off the koltei shemesh, solar water heaters from the dust of the spring dust and sandstorms.  I should be turning off the timer of the electric water boiler/heater soon, as soon as the night air warms up a bit more.  The living room heater is already off again.

Well, today is Thursday, and I have a lot to do.  Is winter over?  One thing I've learned after well over forty years in Israel is that this sort of weather is a typical spring.

Nu! Will The Weather Make Up Its Mind Already?

Spring, summer or winter?  What's going on?

Spring to summer seemed on schedule before Passover and even during the holiday here in Israel.  It was a very normal Passover season, but not we seem back in winter mode.  Maybe that's why the dawns are still beautiful.

Sunsets are usually prettier in the summer.  With daylight savings time, we have to wait longer, but it's sure worth it.

At work, customers are coming in begging for winter clothes, but we don't have any to sell.  One woman told me that she couldn't get heavy clothes for her one and a half month old baby who was born just after Purim.  She keeps him bundled in blankets.

It's crazy that the suppliers and those who order for the stores don't take into consideration that many newborns, even summertime, need heavy clothes. I don't think ordering and producing baby clothes should be a man's job. It's a job for grandmothers.

This year I finally had apple blossoms and flowers on the lemon tree.  I wonder if they've survived the rains and winds.

We pray for rain at the right time.  Is this the time for rain?  I know that it rains in other places all year long, but it doesn't rain in Israel in the summer/spring.  OK, some years it does rain in the spring.  And spring here is crazy weather, summer, winter, sandstorms, rain, winds and heat.  That's spring and that's what we have now.

Will The Sun Shine Today?

OK, as a philosophy exercise, I must stress that the sun always shines.  It never changes.  What changes is the atmosphere around the earth.  The clouds come and go, bringing all sorts of precipitation, sandstorms etc.  So, don't get me wrong here.  The title of this post is just a title not some science mistake.

The world is how we perceive it.  That's an exercise we must learn well.  I do my best to be happy with my father's present condition, because I know that at his age and health, things can only get worse.  So, I keep up his medication and see that he eats and drinks and gets some exercise and stimulation to preserve what we have as long as possible.

And back to the bright sun and blue sky I can see even from the dirty den window...

I must quickly throw a wash in the machine.  It's a perfect day to hang out wash to dry.

Sorry, couldn't take a picture

Why is the sky always most fascinating on Shabbat when it's forbidden to photograph?

Could it be a general lesson that G-d gives to remind us to internalize His creations, rather than than collect material possessions?

On Friday, the weather was uniquely "spring in the mountains of the Holy Land." That's my "polite" way of saying dirty yellow, like in sand storms. When I want to be honest about the weather here, I say that true spring in Jerusalem and "gav hahar," the mountain range from Hebron to Shechem, is ugly. It's not like Europe, North America and beautiful poems. Yes, there are lovely wild flowers and more cultivated color, but there are also sandstorms, and they're not pleasant.

Our mountains skirt the desert, which is the source of the sand. As long as you don't have laundry trying to dry outside, freshly cleaned windows or have to take a long walk, it's possible to see some beauty in the yellow light. I was mesmerized by the way the setting sun hit our water tower. The sky was golden yellow, like my favorite "white wine."

None of this resembled anything I saw in my Long Island youth. I wonder if the camera could even capture it accurately.

Shavua Tov
Have a wonderful week!

Winter's Back

It rained today, and the sky's a funny color. It has gotten much colder, much. But that frequently happens between Purim and Passover.
"Winter's last stand."
Though sometimes the cold, wind, rain, thunder and all keep returning even as late as Lag B'Omer (mid-May.) As spring comes, it's mixed with sand in this climate. The wash comes back dirty after hanging outside. Four years ago, there were sandstorms even in June.
Weather Seasons aren't like Tax Season. Spring doesn't get fined if it's late.
We just have to "take it," enjoy the weather for what it is... messages from G-d.