Blog/October 2010/Oct 29th

Oct 29th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

Sorry about the short blog last week; I really did run out of time! I'll try to do better this time around. The weather was very nice this week. I nearly walked out of work. More medical mayhem. Everyone working as usual. Progress and more progress. God, I love this place!

Finally, after months of very hot weather, autumn has started to arrive, and this week was very pleasant. Just so you know (those of you who don't live here, that is), Israel usually experiences sharav weather bursts (very hot and dry) in October, and sometimes into November -- but their intensity and duration diminish. Yesterday we had a one-day heat-wave, and today the temperatures are supposed to drop 11C (about 22F) from the previous day! We may even have some rain. Now that's something to look forward to!

Work, ah, work. The stress level has been very high for a while, but this week it hit a ludicrous level. I was so angry one day I almost quit. Fortunately, I'm not as prone to sudden decisions as I once was, so I still have a job. Ultimately we were able to hit our deadlines, and everyone (meaning, 'the bosses') is happy. I'm not so sure how happy the not-everyone are; I can only vouch for my own situation.

As I was sitting at my desk yesterday trying to work, my vision got blurry -- as if I had looked at the sun. It didn't go away, and I started getting concerned. After a while I figured to check my peripheral vision and noticed that while my left eye was fine, my right eye had almost no peripheral vision! Then I got really concerned and called the ophthalmologist I had only just seen last week, and also my regular doctor. Long story short: it went away after half an hour; my doctor thinks it was a "visual migraine", and that there is nothing really to worry about unless it recurs and last more than half an hour. The eye doctor says there's nothing wrong with my eye, and that probably it would be a good idea to get checked out by a neurologist. In retrospect, it probably would have been a smart thing to go to the emergency room...

Apart from that, all of us were busily ensconced with work. Sarah's job working with the elderly has some very interesting moments. This week she worked with Holocaust survivors, making sure they were properly enrolled with the various governmental programs designed to assist them. Daniela finished a paper, and is now a contributor to her school's paper.

Good news! I finally made a release of the translation of the introduction to the Mishne Torah to my team of proofreaders. So B"H, a public release will be coming along sometime soon. Stand by!

My friend and hevruta Fred decided to check out kubuntu -- not, please note, because of anything I said to him. But I did help him set it up on his machine ("side-by-side" with Windows, so he can still do whatever he used to do). According to him, "(K)Ubuntu is much faster than Windows and is probably less likely to crash or attract viruses, but I suspect that a lot of people with limited computer skills would find it too daunting". I suspect he is correct; although the installation was really pretty easy.

On the bus, wandering around the city, pretty much anywhere -- one encounters interesting, beautiful and diverse Jews from all over the world. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: it's an incredible honor to live where you can see the powerful words of our Prophets come to life every day. God, I love this place!

This shabbat we have two guests; one Sarah's friend, and her friend. It will be a dairy shabbat: vegetable lasagna, baked salmon, chocotorta, black lentil salad, taboule, eggplant salad, onion soup, lentil soup, quiche and salatim.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

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