Blog/March 2022/Mar 25th

March 25th

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nota bene: We have now switched to “IDT” — “Summer Time” — here in the Land, so we’re currently at GMT+03.

I engaged in very manly work this week, removing the “trisim” — blinds built-in to the wall — in our dining-room. This involved removing them (obviously) which was a bit easier than I had thought it would be, and much dirtier than I had considered. After removing the tris roller mechanism and the slats, and the ugly housing box affixed to the wall above the window, it remained to seal up the gaping maw. And I do mean, “gaping maw”.

You see, while the roller was inside the house, the slats slid out through the wall of the house to the outside of the windows. You might think a narrow slot would be sufficient, but the builders were content to make a rather large opening. So to seal that up, I repurposed slats to cover the maw, and used expanding insulation foam-in-a-can to glue them in place and fill in various cracks and holes.

Once that was done, I had to board up the big hole in the wall where the roller had been. For that, I got a sheet of drywall and some plaster, and had at it. End result: the wall looks almost like it was built normally, and we just have to paint (next week) so the room looks nice again.

Some stuff:

• A fair question: if SCOTUS nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson doesn’t know what a “woman” is, why does she use the word so much?
• The US is the worst “friend”, ever. Now the US State Dept. is offering up to a $1M dollar grant for projects reporting “human rights abuses by Israel”. Well, the State Dept has never been Israel’s friend, but it’s getting ridiculous.
• Passover shortages predicted, due to Israeli port chaos. This is unconnected, ironically, to Biden’s warning of food shortages due to the Ukraine-Russia war.
• Konstantin Kisin on what you’re not being told about Russia. Including a link to a fascinating interview with a former Putin advisor. Uncomfortable truths, be forewarned.
• The Ukrainians have destroyed nearly 10% of Russia’s tanks. Having served in the tank corps back in the day, I’d be pleased to see the end of tanks.
• A software developer sabotages an “open-source” package. Not the first time this sort of thing has happened.
• The best commercial ever: Jeremy’s Razors.

A notable side-effect of the aforementioned manly work is that we no longer have the wind whistling through our dining-room, and I rather expect the quantity of dust we have to deal with will be lessened. One can hope, anyway.

Esther’s part of the project is to create drapes. We did get a curtain-rod, which I’ll have to hang; but she’s the Mistress of the Needle. As it happens, we had brought a roll of fabric with us when we made aliyah years ago; fabric which we had used for a project we did for our shul at the time. It’s enough to make drapes, the MotN says, so we’re good. Should be done in a few days, B”H.

I will just note: the trisim did serve a useful purpose: blocking the sun in the late afternoon. Now I get blinded by the light, and my instinct is to curl up in a ball and cry.

The weather was, once again, cold and wintry; with some heavy rain towards the end of the week. That pattern breaks starting today, with warming up to seasonal averages by Monday, and a heat-wave scheduled towards the end of next week…

We’ve got guests this week for one of the meals. We’ll try to provide:
ḥalla, carrot-leek soup, baked chicken, roasted potatoes, seared sea-bass in lemon sauce, various salatim, and lemon cake.

Yes, we have lemons…

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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