October

It is officially not-summer in Israel. It has rained a couple times, and more rain is expected. Sycamore trees are starting to lose their leaves. When I walk down the sidewalk, I deliberately crunch all the fallen leaves.

Which reminds me of a sheep we once had named May. She got really sick and I found her in the woods by herself, too weak to stand. As she started to get better I brought her things to eat. But she wouldn't eat much hay, and she wouldn't even touch red clover. She liked white clover, but I couldn't find enough of it. Then I brought her some dry, brown sycamore leaves and she loved them!

The internet is useful for all kinds of things. It is good for answering questions like, "What is the difference between..." Or "Can dogs, wolves, and coyotes interbreed?" (Yes.) What about jackals and hyenas? (Jackals are related to dogs, but hyenas are related to mongooses.) What is the plural of mongoose? (Mongooses) And changing dollars to shekels, or finding an on-line guitar tuner, or automatic chord-naming, how to respond to rude comments, and more. Twice I saved myself a trip to the doctor by finding simple explanations of odd health issues. And of course it's good for finding recipes, how to unclog your sink, origins of words, language study --Duolingo is really good, the weather, e-mail, etc. etc.

Recently I have read quite a bit of the news, but I decided I won't do it any more. It is impossible to find a sensible news source. Most are extremely biased one way or another, and international situations are so complicated that it takes a lot of research to find the truth, and when I do, it isn't relevant to what I have to do every day anyway.

Psalm 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?
Daniel: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
Isaiah: In the last days the mountain of the LORD's temple will be established as the highest of the mountains; it will be exalted above the hills, and all nations will stream to it.