Blog/October 2022/Oct 7th

Oct 7th

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Last week was Esther’s turn, this week it was mine.

On the way back from services on the evening of Yom Kippur, I missed a step (the last of a stairway) and wrenched my back. Had a brief pain, but it went away… only to reappear much more strongly the next day. Messed up my hip, knee, and back in one fell swoop! Fortunately, it was just muscle strain and has since mostly gone away.

Yesterday I had another “nose job” appointment. My long-time readers will recall I’ve been having bloody noses quite frequently, and went for a cauterisation procedure — which didn’t work. It was, however, very painful. I then had a follow-up with the same doctor, who thought my situation was fixed; which it most definitely was not: I bled thereafter about twice a week.

This time, a different ENT was on duty, and he seemed to really know his stuff. On the advice of another doctor, I asked him to use some kind of numbing agent before the cauterisation — he replied, “it won’t help”. That was not encouraging.

But in fairness, he was much quicker than the other ENT, and said he saw exactly where the problem was. It also hurt a lot less than the first time (whether because he was more expert or because my nerves had already been seared, I cannot say). He then gave me an emphatic and rather long lecture on exactly what I can and can’t do with my nose, how I need to apply the antibiotic cream, and the general state of affairs. It turns out I was wrong on all counts.

As a result, I was pretty miserable all day yesterday, and could barely sleep last night. This morning I’m somewhat better, though it will take a few days to get back to “normal”. The only thing is, the cauterising agent got on the outside of my nose as well, and burned the skin — so now I have a black zebra-like stripe on my nose, giving me the appearance of a charcoal-sniffer.

Things you didn’t know:

• The PRC establishes a police-station in NY city. No comment necessary, I think.
• Prof. Hossenfelder on “Can we make flying ‘green’?”. Not a simple question.
• Gad Saad’s excellent interview with Masih Alinejad, Iranian women’s rights activist.
• My Austrian prepper lady says “game over” for Europe, as people resort to desperate measures in the face of an impending cold winter with fuel shortages and rampant inflation.
• And the ever excellent Mallen on Putin’s plan to bring the West to its knees.

Esther’s mostly recovered from last week’s event, thank you for asking! She visited a doctor this week and was given the helpful advice to go to physiotherapy and take OTC pain relief as needed. So that was a waste of time, but she didn’t expect a lot more from this particular doctor.

Preparing for the upcoming holiday means, for Esther, massive amounts of cooking; and for me, getting the sukkah erected. I’ve cleared off the area where the sukkah is going, but only have today and Sunday on which to erect it (the holiday begins Sunday night). I would have done more yesterday, but the nose precluded all other thoughts.

Sarah and Yarin have been enjoying their European Vacation™, and we expect some appropriate gifts once they return.

Our weather was on a cooling trend this week, and hit a very pleasant 22C in the morning. We’re supposed to have similarly pleasant weather over shabbat and into the first days of the sukkoth holiday, but then! Well, summer isn’t quite done with us…

Our menu for shabbat will feature:
homemade ḥalla, matza-ball soup, grilled rib roast, veggie mash, chicken tacos, various salatim, and apple cake.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom and ḥag sameaḥ!

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