The Most Necessary Equipment in This Day and Age

my portable charger

Nowadays, when cellphones are more than just phones, a major problem is when the battery begins to run down and we're stuck without an electric outlet for charging the phone. My old cellphones could easily go a couple of days without needing to be recharged. All they did for me was to allow me phone contact with others and were also my alarm clock. But now when a "phone" is more like a laptop (portable) computer and even a library in some cases, the standard battery power is never quite enough.

That's why a portable charger, like this one (which my husband once gave me,) can be a lifesaver. I keep one fully charged with me when traveling or going to work, so that I can charge my phone wherever and whenever. I've even stuck the charging phone into a pocket, wires and all.

Last night I lent it to the people driving us from a wedding to Ariel, since they were following directions on Waze, and their phone was almost empty battery-wise. (They were in a rental and didn't have a phone charger.)

Besides the protective case and screen cover I got my phone immediately after purchase, I consider the charger the most necessary of accessories.

"Lucky Night," Night Photography 52 Frames

I took a lot of photos for the Night Photography theme/challenge on 52 Frames. But none of the photos came out the way I wanted. I guess night photography is not for cheap cameras, even a Canon IXUS 145.

After much cropping, I managed to get a pretty clear image of this electronic billboard advertising a lottery drawing at 22:00, that's 10pm at night.

No doubt that it was a lucky night for someone.

Grand Bus Tour of Efrat

As I blogged yesterday, my husband and I spent Shabbat in Efrat at a family simcha, joyous occasion. One thing that bus travelers learn pretty quickly is that you should take the first bus that comes, even if the route is a bit indirect, because, especially on a Friday, you don't know what and when will follow. And considering that we did have the time and hadn't been in and around Efrat for quite a long time, it seemed like a very good opportunity to see how much the city has grown.

Just in case you're interested, we had looked into joining the very first families for Efrat and had signed up, but for various reasons we decided against it and moved to Shiloh. No doubt that our lives and our children's lives would have had been very different if we had moved to Efrat. Besides having some relatives there, we have many friends who live in Efrat. It is a place I'm fond of, but for many reasons I'm glad that we decided on Shiloh.

So here are the photos of the ride to Efrat from Jerusalem and the grand tour until we got off at the "Te'ena Commercial Center."

We also took the bus back to Jerusalem, and ironically had the very same busdriver both ways. To make it more interesting he had once been a driver on the Shiloh-Jerusalem route. And to make the trip back even easier, the second to last stop on the Efrat bus is the second stop on the buses to our area which leave from the area of Binyanei Ha'uma. We got off the second bus at the "northern city line" and traveled the rest of the way by tremp to Shiloh. We certainly would have taken a bus, but none came.

Trip Back from Efrat

My husband and I spent Shabbat in Efrat with family for a simcha, joyous occasion. Unlike previous visits, I didn't run into any old friends, besides those who are connected to our relatives there. I guess it's because we didn't doven in the main shul this time. The dovening and meals were in a nearby neighborhood with younger families.

We traveled by bus and at a later date will post photos from the trip, which are many since on Friday we took a bus that gave us a great scenic tour of Efrat. There was time to spare, so I didn't bother waiting for the other bus.

Going home was amazing. The bus from Efrat took us directly to a bus stop, the String Bridge across from Kiryat Moshe, just before Binyanei Ha'uma and the CBS where there are buses to the northern "city line," aka machsom  or Hizme.

It's a very busy stop where lots of other buses also pass and stop, as you can see here. After 10-15 minutes a bus to Beit El came, and we joined the masses piling on the bus. When we got off at the "city line," aka machsom  or Hizme, there was an immediate tremp ride to Shiloh. But then we found ourselves at the gate. OK, we could have walked it, under two kilometers, maybe just a mile straight up to our house.

Considering how long we ended up waiting, we should have walked. There were no rides. All of the cars passing were full for the longest time. And considering the hour, there was no strong sun beating on this side of the world. It was a good 6-7 hours until sunrise. Probably, if I had been on my own I would have started walking. But we waited. Eventually there was a ride with one spot in. Being that I was the only female waiting the gentleman let me be the lucky one. It was just to the "center" of Shiloh, so I started walking up the hill homewards. Soon someone stopped and took me to my door. And then my husband walked in a couple of minutes later.

All and all, no complaints from me. It was nice to be with family and share in smachot, joyous occasions.

Chodesh Tov everyone!!

Rosh Chodesh Ellul, Already?

Yes, Rosh Chodesh, the First of the Jewish Month of Ellul is Shabbat and Sunday. Hmm you may be thinking: 

How can it be two days if it's one/first?

Yes, the Jewish Calendar can seems rather confusing. But just like I'm not interested in the mechanics of my washing machine as long as it gets the clothes clean, I really don't care about the why's of those doubleday Roshei Chodesh, as long as the holidays fall in the correct season.

Nu, what's so crucial about Rosh Chodesh Ellul? Simple. It's exactly a month (Jewish style) before the Month of Tishrei, Rosh Hashannah and all those other late summer/early fall Jewish Holidays. Another year is about to end and begin, and I've just gotten used to writing the Jewish year 5775. It's an easy one to remember.

For many years now I've been celebrating Rosh Chodesh by going to Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh for morning prayers. There are a group of us that go each month. Join us!

Women's Prayers at Shiloh Hakeduma, Tel Shiloh Rosh Chodesh Ellul

Sunday August 16, 2015

1st of Ellul, 5775, 8:30am

Hallel and Musaf for Rosh Chodesh

Tour of Tel Shiloh

Dvar Torah, Short Torah Lesson

Please come and invite family, friends and neighbors

תפילת נשים ראש חודש אלול בשילה הקדומה, תל שילה

יום א' 18-8  א' אלול, תשע"ה 8:30

הלל ומוסף לראש חודש

יהיה דבר תורה קצר וסיור בתל

כדאי לבוא ולהזמין חברות, משפחה ושכנות

Come  visit Shiloh! Please save the date, publicize it and join us.

Please mark it on your calendar and make arrangements to come. Also, whether you can come or not, please let friends and family know about it, thanks.

You're welcome to join our facebook page.

Mark your calendar, and join us. For more information, please contact me at shilohmuse@gmail.com with "Rosh Chodesh at Tel Shiloh" as subject, thanks.

You can visit the holy site anytime. Guided tours can be arranged through the Shiloh HaKeduma, Ancient Shiloh office. Email visit@telshilo.org.il or phone 02-994-4019.

A Day With The Grandkids

We had grandkids over the other day. It was a very busy one. First I took the girls to the pool, and in the afternoon, when my husband had the grandson at the pool, the girls made fancy soaps.

My neighbor lent me a kit for the soaps. All we needed to buy were bars of soap in different colors. 

I hope that they had as much fun as I did.

Trust, Edited by Somebody Else, 52 Frames

For a  photographer a photograph is a special thing, and many find it hard to trust someone else's editing touch and taste. So, davka for this week's 52Frames photo challenge, we had to hand over our "baby" to somebody else for editing.

I was extremely lucky that the  very accomplished Fran Vegh Rosenwasser offered to edit my photo. Here's the finished product:

And here's the original:

Fran, thank you!

A Day Home

lovely swimming pool water, Shiloh

Today I'm home in Shiloh. OK, it's not a quiet day. We're having most of the grandkids over. We'll go to the pool. Females in the morning and males in the afternoon.

And there are activities for kids that we can go to, also. But I wonder if we'll be able to drag them away from the tv/dvd and their books.

At night there's a meeting of the local book club. I haven't finished reading the book, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, but I've been enjoying it and promised the organizer I'd make an effort to come.

Yes, one doesn't have to leave home to be busy.

A Chiastic Trip Home

First of all I must give credit to my favorite Tanach, Bible teacher, Yael Ziegler, whose frequent mentions of the chiastic structure of various Biblical stories and passages is the only reason I am familiar with the term.

Chiastic structure, or chiastic pattern, is a literary technique in narrative motifs and other textual passages. An example of chiastic structure would be two ideas, A and B, together with variants A' and B', being presented as A,B,B',A'. Alternative names include ring structure, because the opening and closing 'A' can be viewed as completing a circle, palistrophe,^[1] or symmetric structure. It may be regarded as chiasmus scaled up from clauses to larger units of text.
These often symmetrical patterns are commonly found in ancient literature such as the epic poetry of the Odyssey and theIliad. Various chiastic structures are also seen in the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament, where biblical writers used it to illustrate or highlight details of particular importance. (Wikipedia)

C.W.Vong

Last night I made an effort to leave work early enough to catch the 9:30pm to Shiloh from Pisgat Zeev in Sha'ar Binyamin. The Rami Levy was pretty empty, and I didn't see any neighbors shopping there. Sunday is a pretty quiet night in general.

I got out on time, before the bus and just as I was calling my husband who may have been on it, a woman stopped and said she was going to Ofra, half way home. I got into her car and thought to myself that I could always catch the bus in Ofra if I don't get a ride first. And when she mentioned that she needed to fill the tank on the way at the gas station at the Psagot/Tel Zion/Kochav Yaakov/Migron Junction I calculated that I'd still have time to catch the bus.

When we got to the gas station she began to honk the horn and explained that she couldn't get out of the car to do it herself. Nobody came out to help her. So I volunteered to go into the store and ask. When I got out of the car, I saw "my bus" already at the stop and knew I'd never make it. We would be in Ofra long after the bus. The worker told me that it's self-service only. I reported back, and she was upset because she was in too much pain to do it herself, and I haven't a clue as how to deal with the gas and hose and all. So, I told her I'd find her help and walked over to the only other car nearby explaining the problem. The driver (male) said he'd be right over. He parked his car, took her credit card, filled the tank and returned the card.

We drove to Ofra talking like old friends, and she blessed me with wishes for a safe and fast ride home, and I blessed her with refuah shleimah, a complete recovery.

I immediately got a ride to the Shiloh Junction and a few minutes after I got off, I got a ride to Shiloh. It ended up not being all the way to my neighborhood. I walked up (literally up the hill) with a very heavy backpack full of shopping, but no ride. When I made it up I was exhausted and could hardly move. Luckily I met a neighbor who kept me company walking me to my house. She volunteered to carry my bag, but I didn't want her to know how heavy it was. I had already done the hard part.

This seemed so much like the Chiastic Structure in that my neighbor helped me, just like I had helped that woman.

• A- I helped the woman
• B- ride from Ofra to Shiloh Junction 
• C- at Shiloh Junction I see the bus already leaving for Eli
• B- ride from Shiloh Junction to Shiloh
• A- neighbor helped me

Busy With Havel Havelim

The latest Havel Havelim is posted on Shiloh Musings. Enjoy = read, comment and share, thanks.

Another Amazing Gd-Planned Trip

As you should know by now, we don't have a car. And considering our ages and financial position, it doesn't look like we ever will. So, we're dependent on public transportation and the siyate d'Shmaya aka Hand of Gd or tremping/hitchhiking.

Last week on a day off, I had been invited to the Psagot Yekev/Winery for Scholarship Award Ceremony of the Simcha (Simon) and Chana (Jana) FALIC and BARAD FAMILIES SCHOLARSHIP AWARD of Chesed Menachem Mendel – Colel Chabad. It's not far from Shiloh. All the buses to Jerusalem stop nearby. It's Just literally on top of Migron which is across from the Gas Station on the way to Tel Zion, Psagot and Kochav Yaakov.

I calculated when to leave in order to catch a bus, and then a few minutes before that I got a notice that a neighbor would be going to Sha'ar Binyamin in half an hour. I quickly called him to see if he would drop me off at the stop I needed, the "gas station," just a kilometer from his destination, and he said yes. He said he'd call me five minutes before leaving. Then just when we should have been leaving, I got a message from him that he wouldn't be going at all.

Oops! I was stuck. The chance of getting there on time was just about impossible. I would need a miracle. I grabbed my bag and ran to the bus/hitchhiking stop. A neighbor came by, but she wasn't going that far at all. She was only going to the main road, where I wasn't going to wait. So I asked to get off at the Shiloh-Shvut Rachel Junctions which does get more rides. Immediately after getting out of her car there was a car to Ofra. I jumped in. At Ofra immediately there was a woman with kids in the car who said she was going to the "gas station," just the stop I needed. As we drove, it occurred to me that maybe she was going to the Yekev, since I didn't think she was getting gas. There is also a gas station in Ofra. So I asked where exactly, and she replied Migron, so I asked to go there since it was on the way. Even better was that she was going to one of the uppermost houses on that hillside.

It wasn't a bad walk up, and I arrived in time for the ceremony!

The Phone Kept on Ringing

Suddenly there were a whole bunch of phone calls. I was at work, and I'm not really supposed to be on the phone, but I had to answer. I had to reassure all those calling me to ask how I was.

There were also a whole bunch of SMS's from the Shiloh security with details I could give people. There was a terror attack, a drive into Jews type, like the one I was injured in almost twenty years ago. Baruch Hashem I'm fine. This time the Arab terrorist drove into a few soldiers on patrol.

It happened a couple of kilometers from the Shiloh Junction. It's not a place where Jews wait for rides or wander around, though from the descriptions on the news, people wouldn't know. I knew, because I know the area well. And "everyone" knows that I tremp, take rides aka hitchhike.

As soon as I heard the location, it was clear that it had to have been an attack on soldiers. Soldiers are someone's kids, too. It doesn't make me feel any better about it, just because the victims aren't neighbors. We're all in this together. The Arabs want us all dead and gone.

I had been at work at the time. Actually, I hadn't been home all day. I also hadn't been following the news. I don't work seated at a computer. At least I wasn't told off for being on the phone. My phone quieted down once the news made it clear that the victims weren't pension-age grandmothers.

May G-d send a refuah shleimah, complete recovery to the injured soldiers.

Missing Letter?

I'm writing this morning's post now, last night. Does that make sense?

I have a very busy day today but still want to post rather OCD on the blogs daily. Yes, I'm probably nuts.

I'm getting terribly confused.

Just before I went to the pool tonight/last night I sent a letter to friends I'm meeting today, later this morning, and when I got back I was surprised there were no replies/responses.

So, being that I sent it on gmail I checked my "sent." It wasn't there. Neither was it in the "drafts." I know I wrote it. I did really.  Our plans are all mixed up. Totally mixed up, and it's all my fault.

Gd willing it will all work out somehow...

Public Transportation Woes

On one hand the bus service here in Israel is improving. There are cell phone applications that will tell you what bus is coming when. And there are computerized signs by some of the bus stops that also indicate which bus, destination and in how much time. In Jerusalem they are trilingual (when working) with Hebrew, Arabic and English. This sign in Ariel was very useful when I went to visit my cousin.

Signs have been put up in Shiloh, too. Yesterday, when I was on my way to work I saw one.

It had just some of the information. It showed only one bus line in one direction. It said that the 461 to Jerusalem would be in 15 minutes. Then the countdown started, and the time got shorter and shorter, but before the bus arrived, suddenly it said:

אין נסיעות בקרוב

Ain nisi'ot bikarov

No trips in the near future.

That was very peculiar and a pretty obvious technical foul-up. Soon after, I got a ride to Ofra, and the sign had the same news. Another waiting passenger used his phone's application to check, and there were buses on the way. I had to delete mine from my phone, since the phone has insufficient memory.

I don't know how accurate the application was, because I got a ride to work before the bus came. I take tremps not to boycott the bus service Gd forbid, but because I don't have time to waste.

Magic aka Golden Hour for 52Frames

This week's challenge/theme for 52Frames was the Magic aka Golden Hour when the rise and/or fall of the sun causes a series of color changes.

I ended up submitting a photo of the sunrise taken from my house. I must admit that I have a perfect view of the dawn.

Here are a few of the other photos I thought captured the special light.

Dusk, Sha'ar Binyamin

Netivot Shopping Center, notice the golden color of the building.

Netivot, note how the trees turned red from the dusk, pre-sunset light

Jerusalem of Gold, note the golden cast on the buildings. I rejected this photo, because of the cluttering interference of electric and whatever lines.

Yes, Hot Summer!

This week's a scorcher, and I'm not staying home. Well, first of all my house isn't all that cool. We just have a fan, besides shades on the window and a cooling coover on our merpest, terrace. So it's not all that comfortable in the house. I've been doctoring my water with ice all day and getting out, since I do have a life.

And I do have plans for every day this week besides getting to our local swimming pool during women's hours.  I still work, part-time that is, and I have family, friends and other commitments. I'm not the type to sit at home.

Yesterday I went to see my cousin in Neve Ne'eman, Hod Hasharon. It's not all that far from us, even when tremping aka hitchhiking.

On the way back, at 3pm I caught a bus pretty quickly at Tzomet Yarkon (Junction.) I got my favorite seat by the door and looked around. I noticed a sign:

Yes, that's 38 degrees centigrade outside. Soon it switched to:

That's 22 degrees centigrade inside. According to the converter recommended by Professor Google:

38 Celsius = 100.4 Fahrenheit

22 Celsius = 71.6 Fahrenheit

It sure sounds worse in fahrenheit!