Repair Day: Washing the Internet?

OK, to make sense, both the washing machine and the internet connection needed repairs. Honestly, I really can't complain. It's not like I'm always stuck home waiting for repairmen. It's actually pretty rare. And considering that I was expecting two in one day... Now, that's timing one must thank Gd for!! For sure.

Just like with illnesses, I don't rush for professional help when there's a technical glitch. I hope that it will "heal"itself. It did start seeming strange and suspicious when the "locked" light would suddenly be lit on the washing machine... while it was off and even when the door was open. It's supposed to remind us that the door can't be opened, even if you pull real hard. And if you pull hard enough, you may cause serious damage to the washing machine. But the light kept suddenly going on, and it didn't keep the door locked. And then the whole house shorted when I turned on the machine. Yes, that couldn't be ignored, like Hillary Clinton's fainting in public. There are times you must call in the professionals. So, while Hillary was home in Chappaqua trying to beat her pneumonia to submission, I took a break from my laundry and waited for the repairman.

And as you know, since I had blogged about it last week, we have been having internet connection problems. The idiots Bezeq customer service telephone staff kept trying to offer me a new router box. They would even have it delivered any place in Jerusalem, so we could install it ourselves. I declined and demanded a technician. It took a week, but he finally arrived.

And as you can see, the problems had nothing to do with that little box. As I had suspected, it was all in the cables.

Now we can get back to business washing and blogging... and a bit of facebook and email, too.

Jerusalem Train Stop in Center of Town and the Jewish Calendar

Indian summer in Jerusalem. Well, actually it's normal weather for September before Rosh Hashanah. this year the holidays will seem a bit late, since they are celebrated according to the Jewish Calendar and not the "regular" aka goyish one. The Jewish is lunar, according to the moon's cycles and the "other" calendar is solar. The Muslim one is also lunar, but it doesn't work like the Jewish one. 

Jewish Holidays must be celebrated in the right season, so since twelve lunar months come up short in terms of the solar, we add a month every couple of years by a special formula which keeps our holidays in the correct season. The Muslims don't do that correction, so their holidays float all over the solar calendar and have no seasonal connection. 

One of the reasons the Jewish Holidays must be in the correct season is because we are an agricultural people connected to the Land of Israel. And the Muslims aren't connected...

Happily 52Frames

"Cheery"
These colorful umbrellas make me smile!

Location: Jerusalem, Israel

This week's challenge for 52Frames was "Emotion," and I ended up sending in a picture of these gorgeous umbrellas which have been hanging in the sky of downtown Jerusalem, instead of the photo of my husband looking so serious at his computer.

Both photos were taken with my phone, a rather primitive/limited Samsung Galaxy II Plus. That's because we're having trouble, still, with the modem in the house. Gd willing the technician will be over tomorrow and get it all fixed/replaced.

Strange Visitor- Hope He Really Eats Bugs!

The other day I walked into the kitchen and saw this thing.

People say they eat bugs, and I hope that's true.

Cooking Lamb? Looking for No Fail Healthy Recipes

For the past few years just before Rosh Hashanah, my husband has been hinting for me to cook some lamb. So, maybe I'll take the plunge. Here are some giant frozen "things" labeled as "lamb" in Rami Levy, the discount supermarket I sometimes/frequently shop in, since it's next to Yafiz where I work.

These "things" are a bit large for my freezer and my oven, but I trust that they shrink when thawed out. The recipes I've seen aren't very appetizing. So, I'm asking my loyal, trusted and creative readers for help. And of course it must be kosher, meaning no adding dairy or fish products.

You should know that I'm not interested in adding a jar of jam or bottle of juice (especially not concentrate) or a cup of oil or things like that. I'm not that sort of cook...

So, please comment with your suggestions, guidelines and recipes. If you're a reader of this blog, you know that I'm not very good at following recipes and measuring, unless it's a cake. So, let's see if this request helps, thanks.

Wabi Sabi, When Imperfect is Simply Stunning, 52Frames

This week for 52Frames the theme/challenge was Wabi Sabi. Wabi Sabi? You may wonder what it is:

Wabi-sabi (侘寂^?) represents Japanese aesthetics and a Japanese world view centered on the acceptance of transience and imperfection. The aesthetic is sometimes described as one of beauty that is "imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete".^[2] It is a concept derived from the Buddhist teaching of the three marks of existence (三法印 sanbōin^?), specifically impermanence (無常mujō^?), suffering (苦 ku^?) and emptiness or absence of self-nature (空 kū^?).

Characteristics of the wabi-sabi aesthetic include asymmetry, asperity (roughness or irregularity), simplicity, economy, austerity, modesty, intimacy, and appreciation of the ingenuous integrity of natural objects and processes. Wikipedia

I had a few pictures to choose between and then I saw these leaves on the walkway near my house and realized that they were just the epitome of the concept. And for once my camera caught them perfectly.

"Lonely Leaves"
I had taken lots of photos for this "challenge" and was about to send one in when I noticed these lonely deserted, rather dried out leaves. I just took one shot, not expecting much, but when I looked at the photo... I just knew... This is what Wabi Sabi is all about!

Camera: Canon Canon IXUS 145
Shutter: 1/250th of a second
Aperture: f/11
ISO: 100 and below
Location: Shiloh, Israel

These two photos were those I thought were good as Wabi Sabi, but that was before the leaves. Did I choose right? What do you think?

"Lonely Leaves" isn't at all popular with the 52Frames crowd...

People Should Pay Compliments, Too...

This is a rant, sorry:

As you know, I work in a store, which is part of a chain, and the chain is part of a very big Israeli retail/discount business, Rami Levy. And I'm going to admit that during the close to six years I've been working here in Yafiz, I've been reported as "nasty" to customers more than once.

It's just too easy for people to find a "higher up" or just call the main office or say a few negative words to someone in the "office" by the Rami Levy cashiers.

Generally the complaints are about my asking that their children stop doing dangerous things like running through the clothes racks. Just the other day a woman, who claimed to know my bosses well, threatened me, because a I had asked her child to stop his shrill whistling in the tiny shoe store where I was attempting to serve/help her and other customers.

After she had finally left, another customer said:

"It's obvious that she doesn't work with the public."

And I replied:

"People love to make formal complaints, but they don't bother to send in official compliments on good service."

That's the truth. On a personal level, people are nice and thank and compliment me, but they don't take it further to the "bosses." So many people find it easier to criticize than compliment. It's the same with parenting and teaching. The negative is emphasized much more than the positive. That's something we should all work on, Gd willing.

Internet Problems

Here's what I wrote on Facebook a short while ago:

We didn't have internet since last night. So this morning when the top light was still red, on the router, I called Bezeq, and within minutes, we're back in business, B"H.

And then we lost connection yet again.

That red light on top is bad news.

I don't know what's going on here, but apparently the problem isn't in the house exactly, or the phone call wouldn't have helped.

Last night, when I got home from work, very late, and my husband complained that he didn't have any internet on his phone, we sent out a couple of notes to the yishuv/local email group to see if we're the only one with problems, and nobody replied.

Bli eyin haraa, so far so good. Right now we're connected.

Baile Rochel: Trying to Clean

This was first conceived as a regular blog post, but then when I was towards the end of writing it, I realized that not only would some of you consider it funny, but you'd think I was exaggerating... Honestly, it's 100% accurate! Yes, I'm the one and only Baile Rochel, and this is all true!

First of off, to be perfectly honest, I'm an awful housewife. Granted that I can cook and I do love hanging out the wash--problems are with folding and putting it away... But basic cleaning of windows, floors, dusting, decluttering ad nauseum are just... ignored or done too infrequently. Of course it doesn't help that our double windows, which do help keep the house at a "reasonable" temperature sort of, were so badly planned, some are literally impossible to clean, but that's another story...

Well, yesterday I was home alone and decided to find a way to clean the blinds in the dining area. I couldn't attempt the ones in the living room, since my husband has a ton of books under them. They have been awfully dusty for years. I guess that some people know how to take them down and wash them in the bathtub and then put them up again. But I don't have any construction engineers in my house, certainly not any more.

So I figured that all I'd need would be a good long-handled brush and a tub or pail with multi-purpose cleaner slightly diluted. That shouldn't be too hard. But I couldn't find a suitable brush it the house. The one I found had very rough bristles, OK for the bathroom tiles, but not the blinds. And then I discovered that I must have used up all of my multi-purpose cleaners, and the floor cleaners didn't seem suitable when I checked all the info on the container.

So, off I went down to the grocery store, way to the back where all the cleaning supplies are kept. There was no familiar looking multi-purpose cleaner, the type I'd buy every year or two and had used up. It must have been a very long time since I had last bought any.  Finally I found two types of spritzy things, one mostly for windows and the other, not sure. It did claim to be a multi-purpose cleaner... Then I looked for a brush. No long-handled brush. The closest thing was a children's broom. A young neighbor looked at me a bit strangely. All I had in my hands, I hadn't even taken a shoppingcart, were those two liquid cleaners and a kiddie broom. I told her that I was looking for a long-handled scrub brush, and she admitted that she, too, needed one. So, I proposed a deal, if one of us ever finds one, we'll get two.

Considering the weight of the cleaners, I was pretty lucky that a neighbor drove me all the way up the hill home. I got to work pretty quickly and made quite a mess.

Of course, I forgot to prepare lots of rags and newspaper. So, in the middle of the mess I had to take off my rubber gloves and search.

Nobody in their right mind, or with halfway decent vision would say that the windows and blinds look really clean and sparkling, but they do look much better, at least to me.

uncleaned blind; look at dust/sand

cleaned, sans sand/dust

The windows still look awful, but I know that there's less dirt, sand dust on the ones I cleaned. I used oodles of the cleaning liquid, which did not come in large 3 liter containers. I'll check out what multi-purpose liquid cleaners they sell in Rami Levy. Hopefully, this cleaning adventure will get the "cleaning bug" out of my system for a while....

PS Some of you may remember that just as I was about to do my "heavy" Passover cleaning this year, three days before the Holiday, my father passed away, so many things weren't done at all.

46 Years in Israel

Living in Maon Betar in Jerusalem's Old City, 1970-71

Living in Maon Betar in Jerusalem's Old City, 1970-71

It's now 46 forty-six years since the boat docked, the Greek Line Annamarie, in Haifa Port. It was a Saturday night. Ministry of Interior clerks came on to assist in a few bureaucratic things, and there were some journalists, too. It was a record-breaking day for immigration from the United States to Israel, as we weren't at all alone. There were another four hundred plus Jews making aliyah, olim chadashim.

In 1970, there were great differences between life in Israel and the USA. Israel was technologically behind and still very much in the grips of Ben-Gurion's mindset and Leftist pre-June 1967 Orthodoxy.

• Not everyone had a telephone, and some were still "party lines," shared numbers.
• There was no Israeli television.
• Dirty diapers were still boiled on the stove, or people used a "diaper service," since not everyone had an "automatic" washing machine, and clothes dryers were "science fiction." And disposable diapers were brought in from abroad as gifts along with toilet paper, tampons, sanitary napkins and paper towels.
• Overseas calls were via an operator, "person to person" or "station to station."
• Many housewives were enjoying their very first electric refrigerator, happy to no longer have to get "ice."
• For many the oven was a "first," too, and their seer pele, "wonder pot" was still in use.
• Cars were so rare and precious that owners had to register them for army service. Yes, true, a car did "reserve duty" in the IDF.
• Even into the 1970's and 1980's one of the perks for MKs Knesset Members was the free unlimited bus pass. That's what Geula Cohen used to visit us in Shiloh, and Benny Begin, also an MK in those days, took the bus to Machane Yehuda for his shopping. 
• Besides in hotels, elevators were very rare. Most Israelis lived in three story "walk-ups."
• You could count the amount of supermarkets in Jerusalem on one hand. There was a small makolet, grocery store on almost every block, and we shopped daily. 
• Not only did stores close for the mid-day lunch/siesta, but many people came home from their jobs to eat. At 4pm everything reopened. 

Today's olim chadashim come to a very modern country, among the most advanced in the western world. But I'm glad we came on aliyah when we did and had the privilege to be part of this major adventure of living in the State of Israel these last forty-six 46 years.

Israel, Excellence in Education

School Year Opening Ceremony in Ofra


In various articles I've read about the opening of the new school year here in Israel, NRP aka Jewish Home's Education Minister Naftali Bennett's aim is "excellence" in education. That's nice, but I don't think he's going about it in the right way. If I've understood correctly, in recent years, the Ministry of Education has forbidden doing the the Mathematics and English Bagrut (Matriculation exam) in the Tenth Grade. They want the students to continue studying the subjects more years, which makes sense, but what they do by that ruling is actually "dumbing down" to "very good" rather than raising the level to "excellent."

High school students should be studying those basic subjects until the end of their senior year, 12th grade, but those who are capable of passing the highest "5 point" test in 10th or 11th grade should be given the chance, and if they pass, they they must take higher level courses. That's what my eldest did when she was in high school. A group of parents pushed the school to allow their English-speaking daughters to take the test in the 10th grade, and then in the 11th grade they took an extra, 6th point, English Literature course. That excellent high level course opened up a whole world of knowledge and interest, which led to her majoring in the subject in university.

My second daughter also did a number of her Bagrut tests early, including English in the 10th grade, and found herself in the position the Ministry of Education wants to prevent. She had almost nothing left to study as a senior. At least her high school allowed her extra Jewish Studies in a neighboring seminary for women. This was before today's easily accessible internet and "elearning."

If the Ministry of Education really wants "excellence," then they should encourage the gifted students to finish the basic 5 point exams earlier and provide higher level classes for them until they finish their "twelve years of studying." These classes, when there aren't enough students or suitable teacher in a school, can be via the internet.

The other day, I saw a news clip about how the children of Chabad families all over the world study in "classes" via the internet. In some cases, the children have to be up in the middle of the night, because of the time differences. So, here in Israel, this wouldn't be a problem. Even gifted and motivated students in the smallest schools can study on a suitably high level.

A "Teudat Bagrut," high school diploma, of such a student with high level tests and grades allows the student automatic admission to university in majors related to the subjects passed on a high enough level. That means, no Psychometric Exams and courses required for those subjects.  That's a big time and money saving for those high level successful students. My third got into university like that, and ended up finishing her Master's Degree simultaneously with her Bachelor's.

Things are always changing in Israeli Education. One "reform" is replaced by a newer "reform" ad infinitum... If they want excellence, my suggestions should be implemented.

Israeli American Tackle Football Big Time!

My son, the football coach, made it into the National Team, and they are in Italy now for an international tournament. See the facebook page, Israel's American Football National Team.  Yesterday, before Shabbat they played Italy and lost.

With just two people in the house my husband and I had three computers (I got the old laptop working on the dining room table,) plus at least one phone broadcasting the game live simultaneously. That way there was a chance we'd know what was happening. Somehow even though we accessed from the same link, there were two different people speaking and one was slightly ahead of the other.

There's another game tomorrow against a different team. That will be more complicated to watch, since I'll probably be at work. Also having the live game on quickly ate up the phone's battery. But I'll do my best and hope that the family will keep me updated.

As a mother of course I first hope that nobody's injured, then I want a victory. Gd willing, tomorrow we'll have both!!

Nothing More Fun for Kids Than Crafts

Nowadays many kids are given computers, ipads, tablets etc for "entertainment." And for "construction crafts" they get lego kits that make specific objects. In all honesty, nothing beats scissors, tape, glue, papers, stapler, crayons, string etc that have no instructions at all.

My kids grew up with minimal toys but lots of these sorts of crafts. I'm glad to see the younger generation also enjoying using hands and imagination.

Lunch and Art Tour in the Israel Museum

After just too many delays, I was finally able to take my friend out for her birthday yesterday. We met at the Israel Museum's Mansfeld dairy restaurant/coffee shop, which is in its entrance. Yes, that means that you don't have to pay admission to eat there and parking is free. Mansfeld is strictly kosher, and the food is fresh and delicious. Prices are very reasonable, too. We both ordered the Quiche of the Day, which was spinach and came with a perfect salad.

Open: Sun, Mon, Wed, Thurs 8 am - 5 pm | Tues 8 am - 9 pm | Fri 8 am - 2 pm.
For inquiries: 02-5636280; fax: 02-561-8399; cafe@mansfeld.co.il To arrange events: 054-884-7133 or 050-997-8800

After having a pleasant and relaxing meal, we decided to go into the Museum. As "seniors," entrance is half price, and there are other discounts; click for information, even though basic entrance fee is very reasonable especially considering that you can easily spend a day or more wandering around. There's so much to see. As we entered, we saw a sign about gallery tours and realized that we had just missed the beginning of a free "art tour" in English. A helpful museum volunteer got us close to where the tour was, so we were able to find and join it.

It was fascinating and the perfect dessert for my friend's birthday celebration. Here are some photos:

Rain or shine, nothing is more fun, enjoyable or interesting than the Israel Museum!

3/6 Again,Nice to Be Liked and Read

I've been blogging for years on Arutz 7. They list the six most popular posts everyday. I usually have one or two among them, and I'm one of the rare bloggers who sometimes rate three out the the six. It's really nice to know that my posts and opinions resonated with other people.

Thanks!

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School Excitement, First Grade!

One of my grandchildren I starting school, the First Grade this week. I'm glad I got to the pre-school year ceremony in Ofra.  Here are some photos.

As you can see, the fathers are blessing the children. May they enjoy and learn and flourish.