View source for Blog/August 2012/Aug 24th

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{{bheadernew|Aug 24th|http://ronware.org/devar/shoftim5772.pdf}}

Hi, again!

Repairs week at chez Aaron!  Fixing sinks, fixing knees; repairing code and repairing lack and repairing old connections.

The saga of the faucet-that-wasn't continued this week, when I returned the malfunctioning (new) faucet back to the place I got it, and demanded they either replace it or give me my money back.  They didn't have another one in stock, and they didn't want to give me money back -- so they tried to convince me to let one of their technicians come and install the faucet (in my home) and then ''if'' it didn't work, they would work out an exchange.  So I informed them that it was definitely defective, and I wasn't going to wait around for a technician to play around with it to tell me what I already knew.  So they agreed to give me a much (!) better faucet at their cost; it ended up costing me a little more money, but the faucet really is a ''much'' better unit.  I installed it (very easily) and it works (fabulously).  So all's well that ends well!

I didn't tell you about my bum knee; somehow I managed to hurt one of my knees, and it's been hurting enough to keep me awake at night.  So this week I went to the doctor, who told me it was something slightly torn inside the knee -- and he gave me a two-week supply of an anti-inflammatory medication, and prescribed physical therapy after the drugs are gone.  In fact, the knee is much less painful now, B"H!  Hopefully the situation will resolve without requiring any kind of surgical procedure.

Work was spent fixing up problems in the code for the project I work on.  Mostly small problems, a few bigger ones.  The CEO gave our team a big "attaboy" on Monday, and followed up with a big "shot across the bow" on Thursday.  I think he really does need some psychiatric care.  Anyway, they still pay my bills, so I can't complain too much.

Twice this week we had people come to our door, collecting funds for the needy.  In all the time we've lived in this house, we've only had people show up maybe three times; so it was an unusual week in that regard.  I heard one of the neighbors give one of the guys a hard time, asking all sorts of information about the fund for which he was collecting.  I'm far more liberal: I figure, I have to give ''ṣedaqa'' anyway, so I'm not bothered if the person doesn't ''really'' represent what he claims to.  If he's willing to go begging door-to-door, he deserves ''something''.  But I'm clearly not in the majority on this one.

In other "lack", Esther went to the distribution point in Jerusalem, and got us our three "protection kits" from the [http://www.oref.org.il/14-en/PAKAR.aspx Home Front Command] (פיקוד העורף).  The kits are just gas-masks, to be used if our neighboring friendlies decide to send us chemical gifts.  I personally am not sure whether or not they're intended to be serious, since they don't have special ones for the bearded (a significant portion of the male population here) and the masks don't seal properly if you have facial hair.  But we ''do'' need to take care of making sure we have emergency supplies.  Yeah, yeah; we've been saying that forever -- but really, we (and you!) should have supplies for at least several days, in the event of earthquake or any other emergency situation.

In the "repairing old connections" category, I got an unexpected call from my first boss here in Israel -- you know, the one I worked for when we first made ''aliyah'', the job I really liked but then the company went bankrupt?  Well, he called me -- apparently there is someone interested in the product/technology of the old company, and my old boss wants me to do some work (for pay, of course).  So it may very well be that in my copious free time I'll be doing some more work.  We'll see, and I'll let you know if anything comes out of this.

Daniela will be starting work this coming week, we wish her much success!  Jeremy is happy at his job, a sure sign he hasn't been working too long.  Sarah finishes her "National Service" this coming week, and we can tell you she is ''very'' happy about that!  One of her closest friends coming to spend a year in the Land, and she's ''really'' happy about that.

This week we're down to the nuclear family again.  Simple food this time:
roast chicken and yams,
zucchini with mushrooms,
chicken soup,
beet salad,
corn salad,
roasted peppers,
''schnitzel'',
''parve cholent'',
and something. good.

Until next week,<br>
''shabbat shalom''!

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