Blog/January 2008/Jan 18th

January 18th (See this week's devar torah)
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Hi again!

Last shabbat, Sarah mentioned something which I had just been thinking: that the oranges here are incredible! I know it sounds like an ad for the Jaffa Orange Growers Association, but it's true: I have never had such sweet, juicy oranges in my life. I don't generally like oranges that much, but now I'm eating them every day when I can. It reminds me of the story of the spies - the fruit here is larger and better than anything I ever saw in the US - at least, if you shop in the right place it is. Click here to see an unbelievable radish, for example...

This week I made another attempt at "Pad Thai". It was in the finishing stages, with all the ingredients in the wok - when the gas went out. Thinking it may have been just a flameout, I tried to get the flame ignited again - to no avail, we had really run out of gas. We borrowed an electric hotplate from a neighbor to finish the cooking. Nebach, the Pad Thai came out very bad (though edible, barely).

Many of you will wonder how it's possible the gas "went out" - was there an earthquake or something? The answer is simple: we have gas "balloons" (tanks) which provide gas to the house, we do not have a 'centralized gas' supply like most in the US have or some here do. You might assume that we could call up the gas supplier and get a refill, and you would be right if the owners here had a legal and safe gas installation. Since they don't, the regular gas companies won't supply us unless the hookup is brought up to code. Now we are not going to pay thousands of shekels to do that, and it seems the owners aren't either. So how did the gas get supplied before? Our landlady says she had a fellow from a neighboring town who came out and supplied them. Well, he moved to the north of the country six years ago. The previous tenant used some "charitable foundation" in Jerusalem - but they no longer provide gas. The only alternatives are: 1) get the landlords to pay $$$ so we can get a kosher gas supply, 2) take the balloons to an Arab village where they'll fill them with contraband gas or 3) do without gas in the meantime.

I didn't mention that the gas supply is shared with our nasty downstairs neighbors, who apparently used up the gas to heat their portion of the house (we don't heat the house, mostly). So I'm not too keen on paying for gas when I'm 99.999% sure I won't get remuneration and even if we do, the neighbors will suck down 75% of the gas. Maybe we should get an alternative source of power? Particularly since it has been quite cold here in the Holy Land!

We finally did get new phones. Those of you who are likely to call us have already got the new numbers, but if we missed you just drop me a line and I'll give you the new numbers. We couldn't keep the old numbers, because the phones we had were rentals and the "keep your number" law doesn't cover them. We have a "shomer shabbat" plan, which gives us a lower rate generally but we cannot use our phones on shabbat. Since we don't, that works out well.

I read a review of Liberal Fascism… and that inspired me to consider Fascist vs. Libertarian code. In my job I'm writing Java code, which is definitely not my idea of fun. They do pay me, however, for which I am grateful!

Artists are supposed to be sensitive individuals. There is at least one, profound, exception: Daniel Barenboim. The man is a pig in so many senses of the word, that words escape me. Fortunate for us he is in Germany, where swine are abundant.

This week we had a couple over who are planning on making aliyah in a few months. They had had a discouraging day, being told all sorts of depressing things (by agencies who are supposed to encourage aliyah!). When they got to our house, they were tired and depressed. But B"H, when they left they were uplifted and encouraged - despite some of the stories we told them. So maybe we have a future as aliyah consultants? We sure do know the unpleasant side, as well as the good side.

I also arranged for Daniela to utilize her free trip back to New York. She'll be going to NYC in April, then heading to Seattle and bringing my mother back with her (my Mom doesn't want to travel alone on a long trip). So maybe ... just maybe, we'll get a chance to convince Mom that she should get out of soggy Seattle and move to the sunny Holy Land! It could happen, couldn't it? Too bad we'll still be in this place and not in the "new" house.

Shabbat shalom!

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