From a story by Sotiib (Author's name transliterated from some language to Hebrew and then to English)
A sudden heavy rain surprised an ant. "Where shall I hide so I won't get wet?" She saw a small mushroom, ran to it and go under it's dome. Rain fell harder and harder, but it was dry under the mushroom.
A wet dragonfly came up to the mushroom. "Ant, let me hide under the mushroom."
"How can I?" said the ant. "I can barely fit here myself."
"Move over a little! We can squeeze together!"
So the ant moved over and let the dragonfly enter.
The rain continued. A little mouse came by. "Let me get under the mushroom," he said.
"How can we let you under? There's no room!"
"Squeeze a little!"
So they squeezed together and let the mouse under the mushroom. And rain kept coming down.
Along came a bird. "I'm so wet and tired. Please let me rest under the mushroom till the rain's over," said the bird.
"But there's no room," said the other three.
"Please, squeeze together!" said the bird.
"OK. We'll try," they answered. So they squeezed together and found room for the bird.
Along came a rabbit. "Save me!" he cried. "The fox is after me!"
"We need to have pity on the rabbit," said the ant. "Let's squeeze together a little more."
As soon as they received the rabbit, along came the fox. "Have you seen a rabbit?" he asked.
"How do you think a rabbit could fit under this little mushroom?" replied the ant.
And the fox ran off.
The rain stopped. The four creatures came out from under the mushroom. "How is this?" asked the ant. "At first there was barely room for me. How did all five of us fit under the mushroom?"
A frog jumped out and said, "When it rains, the mushroom...." And he hopped away.
They all looked at the mushroom, and immediately understood.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Thou shalt neither vex a stranger, nor oppress him... for ye know the heart of a stranger, seeing ye were strangers in the land of Egypt...and thou shalt love him as thyself..."
December 29, 2011
December 28, 2011
MORNING
Morning is the best time to do everything. It's too bad we can't have two mornings every day. Morning is the best time to eat breakfast. Morning is the best time to clean house or tackle a difficult project. Morning is the best time to study, solve problems, or do anything that requires clear thinking. Morning is the best time to research refugees/infiltrators from Africa to Israel. (I don't like it when they call them infiltrators.)
There is an economic side (and several other sides) to absorbing many immigrants. It should be possible to do the morally right thing in a legal way. Why does it always have to get so complicated. I think the missing factor is faith. If you do what is right, even if it costs you something, God will bless. God will return to you what you give, whether in this life or in the next.
It is difficult, in my mind, to tell a nation or a government, "You need to have faith." But it is not so difficult understand that every individual needs to have faith.
Consider the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin, but God arrays them in glory. They get more than they ask for, and they don't have to work for it. Human beings are required to work, but the blessing on their work comes from God, and when you have faith, the blessing is far more than the amount of work you did.
There is an economic side (and several other sides) to absorbing many immigrants. It should be possible to do the morally right thing in a legal way. Why does it always have to get so complicated. I think the missing factor is faith. If you do what is right, even if it costs you something, God will bless. God will return to you what you give, whether in this life or in the next.
It is difficult, in my mind, to tell a nation or a government, "You need to have faith." But it is not so difficult understand that every individual needs to have faith.
Consider the lilies of the field. They toil not, neither do they spin, but God arrays them in glory. They get more than they ask for, and they don't have to work for it. Human beings are required to work, but the blessing on their work comes from God, and when you have faith, the blessing is far more than the amount of work you did.
December 27, 2011
Reading Hebrew
I solved the problem with vowel-covered websites. Simply click Encoding, Hebrew ISO.
I read the Little Red Hen in Hebrew, which was quite easy, and I learned one useful phrase, "And that is what she did," or "And so she did." There are jillions of stories about chickens, for some reason or other. There probably was a time when everyone was familiar with chickens and probably had a few in their house. I used to raise chickens, and I counted at least a dozen meaningful sounds they make.
By the way a man told me that the other day a chicken was running back and forth on the bus and noone seemed to care or be at all surprised.
I have been taking lessons from a tutor, so I can ask questions about whatever I want to know, including the rules for shwa's and dageshes. I am also learning some things that I would have never asked for. Like some of the horrible things the Christians have done to the Jews. Such as spreading rumors about Jews making matzos with the blood of Christian children, etc, till pretty soon everybody believed it. Sometimes Jews were forced to convert to Christianity, etc.
There seem to be several unconnected areas of language learning. Reading children's stories, studying grammar, reading the Bible, reading labels on jars and signs along the road and in stores, listening and speaking--it seems like a never-ending process, and all these different tasks never blend together. I don't remember going through all this in English. I just started reading. (But of course I had already been listening to English for several years.) I remember asking my mother "what's this word," and fearing that I would ask the same word more than once. In Hebrew I sometimes can't get a word to stick in my head and have to look it up twenty times. Sometimes I hear a word and a minute later have to ask my tutor, what was that word again? And a minute later, what was that word again? What tense is that? How do you say it in past tense? How do you spell it? What's the difference between that and this?
And whoever heard of eating breakfast at ten o'clock. Guess I better run and eat.
I read the Little Red Hen in Hebrew, which was quite easy, and I learned one useful phrase, "And that is what she did," or "And so she did." There are jillions of stories about chickens, for some reason or other. There probably was a time when everyone was familiar with chickens and probably had a few in their house. I used to raise chickens, and I counted at least a dozen meaningful sounds they make.
By the way a man told me that the other day a chicken was running back and forth on the bus and noone seemed to care or be at all surprised.
I have been taking lessons from a tutor, so I can ask questions about whatever I want to know, including the rules for shwa's and dageshes. I am also learning some things that I would have never asked for. Like some of the horrible things the Christians have done to the Jews. Such as spreading rumors about Jews making matzos with the blood of Christian children, etc, till pretty soon everybody believed it. Sometimes Jews were forced to convert to Christianity, etc.
There seem to be several unconnected areas of language learning. Reading children's stories, studying grammar, reading the Bible, reading labels on jars and signs along the road and in stores, listening and speaking--it seems like a never-ending process, and all these different tasks never blend together. I don't remember going through all this in English. I just started reading. (But of course I had already been listening to English for several years.) I remember asking my mother "what's this word," and fearing that I would ask the same word more than once. In Hebrew I sometimes can't get a word to stick in my head and have to look it up twenty times. Sometimes I hear a word and a minute later have to ask my tutor, what was that word again? And a minute later, what was that word again? What tense is that? How do you say it in past tense? How do you spell it? What's the difference between that and this?
And whoever heard of eating breakfast at ten o'clock. Guess I better run and eat.
December 19, 2011
1500 Children's Stories in Hebrew
I found an interesting website for practicing reading Hebrew. It has many children's books in Hebrew. Some are actual photocopies of very old books. Some are the Little Golden Books that I read when I was little. Some are folk tales from varous countries. There are several versions of old classics like "Little Red Hen" and "Gingerbread Man" and many others. There are books by Thornton Burgess and Beatrix Potter.
One of my favorites books to look at is called "A Day in the Life of Tony," written in 1900. The drawings are especially good. It was back in the days when women had long hair and wore long skirts and aprons. Tony's bed is a wooden box. Clothes are hung on clotheslines and father comes home from work carrying a spade. Geese wander through the street and there are no cars. Tony, who is just a toddler, cries easily and is pacified easily. He has many toddler adventures. He manages to escape from his mother while she is trying to shop, falls in the washtub, tries to eat a piece of coal, falls asleep in his father's arms at supper time.
The problem with this website is that the homepage is all vowels. I don't know what story I will get until I click a link.
One of my favorites books to look at is called "A Day in the Life of Tony," written in 1900. The drawings are especially good. It was back in the days when women had long hair and wore long skirts and aprons. Tony's bed is a wooden box. Clothes are hung on clotheslines and father comes home from work carrying a spade. Geese wander through the street and there are no cars. Tony, who is just a toddler, cries easily and is pacified easily. He has many toddler adventures. He manages to escape from his mother while she is trying to shop, falls in the washtub, tries to eat a piece of coal, falls asleep in his father's arms at supper time.
The problem with this website is that the homepage is all vowels. I don't know what story I will get until I click a link.
December 7, 2011
Psalm 6
This is a really interesting Psalm. It has lots of colorful vocabulary. It also comes in handy for many different circumstances in many different ways.
Some of it is rather mysterious. Like verse three, which doesn't sound like a complete sentence: "But thou, O LORD, how long?" I'm sure it's left open and indefinite for a reason. That's the way trials are--you don't even know what question to ask.
"..in the grave who shall give thee thanks?" If I were dead, would I wish I were alive so I could give thanks? (Pardon the oddness of this remark.) But I am alive, so I can give thanks. No matter what my situation now is, I am alive, so maybe I can even give thanks for this seeming mess/ disappointment/ catastrophe. After all, it's part of life, and I do like being alive.
"I am weary," so weary, but "the LORD will receive my prayer."
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Some of it is rather mysterious. Like verse three, which doesn't sound like a complete sentence: "But thou, O LORD, how long?" I'm sure it's left open and indefinite for a reason. That's the way trials are--you don't even know what question to ask.
"..in the grave who shall give thee thanks?" If I were dead, would I wish I were alive so I could give thanks? (Pardon the oddness of this remark.) But I am alive, so I can give thanks. No matter what my situation now is, I am alive, so maybe I can even give thanks for this seeming mess/ disappointment/ catastrophe. After all, it's part of life, and I do like being alive.
"I am weary," so weary, but "the LORD will receive my prayer."
| הוֹשִׁיעֵנִי | save me! | עָשְׁשָׁה | she was consumed, wasted |
| חַלְּצָה | deliver! | כָל-צוֹרְרָי | all my enemies |
| חָנֵּנִי | have mercy on me! | כָּל-אֹיְבָי | all my enemies |
| יָגַעְתִּי | I was wearied | בְּאַפְּךָ | in thine anger |
| תְיַסְּרֵנִי | you will chasten me | בַּחֲמָתְךָ | in thy hot anger |
| תוֹכִיחֵנִי | you will rebuke me | אַמְסֶה | I will water |
| אֻמְלַל | weak | אַשְׂחֶה | I will make to swim |
December 2, 2011
Food Prices
Vegetable prices.These we bought at a vegetable market. At grocery stores the price might be double.
In Dollars per Pound.
eggplant .68
bananas .79
local apples .85
onions .45
plums 1.70
cucumbers .85
carrots .45
strawberries 4.86/package - expensive. In a couple weeks they'll be a lot cheaper.
Other prices:
Instant coffee: $16/pound
Ground coffee: $17/pound
Bread: 3 dollars for 1.6 pounds. Usually pretty good bread, not white stuff.
Butter is roughly 2 dollars a pound.
Old-fashioned oats: $3.24 for 18 oz.
Mayonnaise: $4.00 for 1.1 pound
110 teabags: $4.86
Ground beef: $8 a pound
Extra large eggs: $6/dozen, guaranteed UnFresh
Canned tuna: $6 for 6 oz
Chicken breasts: somewhere around $7.00/pound
Cocoa powder, unsweetened: $4.48 for 5 oz. A little goes a long way, provided you're not drinking it. I put a teaspoon on my cereal every day. (A day without chocolate is like a day without sunshine.)
In Dollars per Pound.
eggplant .68
bananas .79
local apples .85
onions .45
plums 1.70
cucumbers .85
carrots .45
strawberries 4.86/package - expensive. In a couple weeks they'll be a lot cheaper.
Other prices:
Instant coffee: $16/pound
Ground coffee: $17/pound
Bread: 3 dollars for 1.6 pounds. Usually pretty good bread, not white stuff.
Butter is roughly 2 dollars a pound.
Old-fashioned oats: $3.24 for 18 oz.
Mayonnaise: $4.00 for 1.1 pound
110 teabags: $4.86
Ground beef: $8 a pound
Extra large eggs: $6/dozen, guaranteed UnFresh
Canned tuna: $6 for 6 oz
Chicken breasts: somewhere around $7.00/pound
Cocoa powder, unsweetened: $4.48 for 5 oz. A little goes a long way, provided you're not drinking it. I put a teaspoon on my cereal every day. (A day without chocolate is like a day without sunshine.)
December 1, 2011
Psalm 5, Tableizer
Tableizer sort of works. However I don't know how to align the first column to the right. And it doesn't like Hebrew and puts periods in the wrong places. Easy to fix--simply put the cursor on the right side of the word and type a period and it types it on the left side. Elementary, my dear Watson.
<><><><><><><><><>
| יַחֲלִיקוּן | they will flatter | .ח.ל.ק | hifil future | ||
| יְרַנֵּנוּ | they will shout for joy | .ר.נ.נ | |||
| הוֹלְלִים | the foolish | ||||
| הַאֲשִׁימֵם | destroy them! | .א.ש.מ | bring the consequences of sin | ||
| הַדִּיחֵמוֹ | cast them out! | .נ.ד.ח | hifil | cast down, thrust, drive, bring down | |
| בִּינָה | consider! | .ב.י.נ | |||
| אֶעֱרָךְ-לְךָ | I will direct to thee | .ע.ר.כ | |||
| אֲצַפֶּה | I will look up | .צ.פ.ה |
November 25, 2011
A and B and C
A and B and C with normal spaces.
Method for putting in extra spaces: (secret)
A and B and C
So it is possible to put in extra spaces by typing -- well, I can't tell you what I typed, because it will just put a space.
Method for putting in extra spaces: (secret)
A and B and C
So it is possible to put in extra spaces by typing -- well, I can't tell you what I typed, because it will just put a space.
Psalm Four
More exasperating attempts to cut and paste from Excel onto Blogger. It doesn't work, so I try plain typing. Replacing tabs with 9 spaces doesn't work. What's so hard about typing 9 spaces? Shouldn't 9 spaces take up more space than 1 space? I guess I just don't think like a computer.
ד.מ.מ. דֹמּוּ domu - be still!
פ.ל.ה. הִפְלָה hifla - he set apart - hifil
ז.ב.ח. זִבְחוּ zivkhu - offer! - piel
נ.ש.א. נְסָה nesa - lift thou up
י.ש.ב. תּוֹשִׁיבֵנִי toshiveni - thou makest me to dwell - hifil
ד.מ.מ. דֹמּוּ domu - be still!
פ.ל.ה. הִפְלָה hifla - he set apart - hifil
ז.ב.ח. זִבְחוּ zivkhu - offer! - piel
נ.ש.א. נְסָה nesa - lift thou up
י.ש.ב. תּוֹשִׁיבֵנִי toshiveni - thou makest me to dwell - hifil
November 24, 2011
Psalm Three
This one wasn't too hard, probably because I've read it many times.
One important word:
ש.י.ת. שתו shatu they set, placed
Now I have vocabulary lists on excel for Psalms 1, 2, and 3, with 43, 64, 48 words.
One important word:
ש.י.ת. שתו shatu they set, placed
Now I have vocabulary lists on excel for Psalms 1, 2, and 3, with 43, 64, 48 words.
Psalm Two
This one is twice as long and quite a bit harder. There are seven words that I have seen infrequently. The hardest ones are:
י.ס.ר. הוסרו hivasru nifal imperative masc pl - be instructed or admonished
נ.פ.צ. תנפצם tenaptsem - thou shalt dash them in pieces
ר.ע.ע. תרעמ teroem - thou shalt break them
Whew. Typing Hebrew and English together causes serious directional problems. It's best not to look at the screen when you are typing because the cursor and sometimes periods jump all over. I'm not even going to attempt nikud at this point. (Ha-ha-ha, bilingual pun).
י.ס.ר. הוסרו hivasru nifal imperative masc pl - be instructed or admonished
נ.פ.צ. תנפצם tenaptsem - thou shalt dash them in pieces
ר.ע.ע. תרעמ teroem - thou shalt break them
Whew. Typing Hebrew and English together causes serious directional problems. It's best not to look at the screen when you are typing because the cursor and sometimes periods jump all over. I'm not even going to attempt nikud at this point. (Ha-ha-ha, bilingual pun).
Pumpkins
Yesterday I saw at the store what look like sections of an odd kind of large pumpkin. Today I realized that it probably was pumpkin, and the reason is that it's Thansgiving. Someone told me that he does celebrate Thanksgiving, but on Friday. You can't get whole turkeys here, but you can get turkey.
I'm not crazy about the holiday--all that cooking and eating--but it's the best family time ever. Or could be. Or was.
The best part is the meal is the pumpkin pie. I like to make it my own way, and make enough pie to have at least half a pie for myself. And more for leftovers.
I could make pie just for old times' sake. And because it tastes good. But I'd have to buy pumpkin, flour, eggs, spices, sugar. I would probably cook the filling in my toaster oven and fry the crust in a frying pan, since I wouldn't trust my toaster oven to do a good job on a pie.
But that means I'd have to go out in the miserable rain and go to the store. Maybe I could do that tomorrow. We'll see.
Tonight it's beet-carrot-cabbage soup and leftover chicken. Not too bad, but it seems like something's missing.
I'm not crazy about the holiday--all that cooking and eating--but it's the best family time ever. Or could be. Or was.
The best part is the meal is the pumpkin pie. I like to make it my own way, and make enough pie to have at least half a pie for myself. And more for leftovers.
I could make pie just for old times' sake. And because it tastes good. But I'd have to buy pumpkin, flour, eggs, spices, sugar. I would probably cook the filling in my toaster oven and fry the crust in a frying pan, since I wouldn't trust my toaster oven to do a good job on a pie.
But that means I'd have to go out in the miserable rain and go to the store. Maybe I could do that tomorrow. We'll see.
Tonight it's beet-carrot-cabbage soup and leftover chicken. Not too bad, but it seems like something's missing.
November 23, 2011
Psalm One, Bibles
Psalm One wasn't too bad. I just need to remember עדת and עצת. Adat is congregation and atsat is counsel. And then there is על-כן, al-ken, therefore.
I use a Bible that has Hebrew on one side and English on the other. It has errors in it. For example it says "now sweet are thy words" instead of "how sweet are thy words." Also it capitalizes all the letters in "LORD" whether the original is יהוה or אדוני. There is also an error on one page in the verse numbering, and on another page The Hebrew and English aren't lined up right. This Bible is published by the Society for Distributing Hebrew Scripture. It is a nice size Bible for a diglot and easy to read, but pages are a bit thin and wrinkle easy.
I use a Bible that has Hebrew on one side and English on the other. It has errors in it. For example it says "now sweet are thy words" instead of "how sweet are thy words." Also it capitalizes all the letters in "LORD" whether the original is יהוה or אדוני. There is also an error on one page in the verse numbering, and on another page The Hebrew and English aren't lined up right. This Bible is published by the Society for Distributing Hebrew Scripture. It is a nice size Bible for a diglot and easy to read, but pages are a bit thin and wrinkle easy.
November 22, 2011
Where's the House?
I can't find it! What do I do now? I used Blue Letter Bible to look up every use of the word "house" in the Psalms, and the verse I want isn't there!
It's a verse where there is a group of words where there is some dispute about where the space goes. There are about three places you could put the space, and they all make sense. I thought one of the words was בית , but now I'm not sure.
So that means I'll have to simply read through the entire book of Psalms again until I find it.
Oh well, it's time to read through them all again, anyway. This time I'll make a vocabulary list as I go, skipping over the ones that are infrequently used.
Psalm 1 I have read numerous times. It makes sense when I read it, but if I copy all the words and alphabetize them, will I still know the words out of context? That will be the test.
It's a verse where there is a group of words where there is some dispute about where the space goes. There are about three places you could put the space, and they all make sense. I thought one of the words was בית , but now I'm not sure.
So that means I'll have to simply read through the entire book of Psalms again until I find it.
Oh well, it's time to read through them all again, anyway. This time I'll make a vocabulary list as I go, skipping over the ones that are infrequently used.
Psalm 1 I have read numerous times. It makes sense when I read it, but if I copy all the words and alphabetize them, will I still know the words out of context? That will be the test.
November 21, 2011
Robert Louis Stevenson
Rain
The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.
The Seaside
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup,
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.
Escape at Bedtime
The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out
Through the blinds and the windows and bars;
And high overhead and all moving about,
There were thousands of millions of stars.
There ne'er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,
Nor of people in church or the Park,
As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,
And that glittered and winked in the dark.
The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,
And the star of the sailor, and Mars,
These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall,
Would be half full of water and stars.
They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,
And they soon had me packed into bed;
But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,
And the stars going round in my head.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I've never seen stars in a bucket of water. The moon, maybe, but not stars. I'll have to try that sometime.
The rain is raining all around,
It falls on field and tree,
It rains on the umbrellas here,
And on the ships at sea.
The Seaside
When I was down beside the sea
A wooden spade they gave to me
To dig the sandy shore.
My holes were empty like a cup,
In every hole the sea came up,
Till it could come no more.
Escape at Bedtime
The lights from the parlour and kitchen shone out
Through the blinds and the windows and bars;
And high overhead and all moving about,
There were thousands of millions of stars.
There ne'er were such thousands of leaves on a tree,
Nor of people in church or the Park,
As the crowds of the stars that looked down upon me,
And that glittered and winked in the dark.
The Dog, and the Plough, and the Hunter, and all,
And the star of the sailor, and Mars,
These shone in the sky, and the pail by the wall,
Would be half full of water and stars.
They saw me at last, and they chased me with cries,
And they soon had me packed into bed;
But the glory kept shining and bright in my eyes,
And the stars going round in my head.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
I've never seen stars in a bucket of water. The moon, maybe, but not stars. I'll have to try that sometime.
November 17, 2011
Gray
Cold and rainy. And I feel totally gloomy. Yesterday I lit a candle. Just an ordinary pillar candle. No scent, not especially pretty. After a while there was enough melted wax in the bottom that I could stick a taper candle into it, since the wick was about gone in the pillar, and I didn't have a regular holder for the taper. It burned away rather quickly (a couple hours) so then I stuck another taper into it. So today I have a red taper stuck in a white pillar, which looks sort of funny, and I don't want to light it because when it's gone it'll be gone.
I wrote a good tune yesterday. But I don't know if it quite fits the words. So I wrote another tune today. It's maybe a little better. But I couldn't refrain from playing gloomy music on the piano. So maybe it's time to do something completely different. Go to the mall. What mall? Play a game of Set. Or Scrabble. With whom? Better yet, play train with Elijah and Noah. Hard to do at this distance. Or clean somebody's oven. What somebody?
HEY!!! I know, make some cream of broccoli soup!!!
I wrote a good tune yesterday. But I don't know if it quite fits the words. So I wrote another tune today. It's maybe a little better. But I couldn't refrain from playing gloomy music on the piano. So maybe it's time to do something completely different. Go to the mall. What mall? Play a game of Set. Or Scrabble. With whom? Better yet, play train with Elijah and Noah. Hard to do at this distance. Or clean somebody's oven. What somebody?
HEY!!! I know, make some cream of broccoli soup!!!
Piglet
"Supposing a tree fell down, Pooh, when we were underneath it?"
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh after careful thought.
Piglet was comforted by this.
"Supposing it didn't," said Pooh after careful thought.
Piglet was comforted by this.
November 15, 2011
Keyboard
My keyboard (computer) has 120 keys or buttons on it. Ridiculous. Many of them I don't use and never will. It just makes it easier to hit a wrong key. One of them I accidentally hit and everything freezes.
Then there is the problem of typing in two languages. I can type in English, and I can type in Hebrew. However my English typing ability has taken a setback because I sometimes can't remember which is where, so I type E for Q because the E key is the Hebrew Quf, and K for L because the K key is the Hebrew Lamed. And several others. In Hebrew I constantly mix up Mem and Nun, which are one key over from the English M and N, and Dalet is one key over from D.
You could probably invent a code by exchanging every other letter for the similar key in another language.
doud mornhns = good morning. That one's fairly obvious. Or you could say
guos murbibg.
But then there'd be a problem of what to do with diphthongs and digraphs.
Then there is the problem of typing in two languages. I can type in English, and I can type in Hebrew. However my English typing ability has taken a setback because I sometimes can't remember which is where, so I type E for Q because the E key is the Hebrew Quf, and K for L because the K key is the Hebrew Lamed. And several others. In Hebrew I constantly mix up Mem and Nun, which are one key over from the English M and N, and Dalet is one key over from D.
You could probably invent a code by exchanging every other letter for the similar key in another language.
doud mornhns = good morning. That one's fairly obvious. Or you could say
guos murbibg.
But then there'd be a problem of what to do with diphthongs and digraphs.
Fair Weather
I decide to hang half the clothes in the house, where there's a 50 percent chance they'll dry, and half outside, where there's a 50 percent chance it will rain.
It did rain in the evening, so I left the clothes out all night and they were dry by morning. (How did that happen?!)
Today is a lovely day. We went to a clinic where I had to get some blood tests. The building looked normal on top, but we parked underneath it. We entered at ground level, which was the sixth floor, and descended from there. Afterwards I had breakfast at a little coffee shop. A typical Israeli breakfast. (Typical blogger lack of complete sentences and correct punctuation.) A salad with perfect dressing (vinegar and oil with a touch of mustard) and a sweet potato-mozzarrella quiche. I'm not sure if that's correct spelling, but when you combine Italian and French you don't have to be too exact, do you? And a small cappuccino, which seems suitable, somehow. It won't keep me awake this time. I could easily go to sleep, but I am so relaxed I don't need to.
Afterwards we strolled unhurried around a few stores. I saw a good felt hat, but I don't need a hat. Or do I. Maybe I'll change my mind when it gets colder, and I'll wish I had bought that hat. I looked at some toys and some art kits and some cut-paste packages and wished I had grandchildren here to do things with. There were stickers of Hebrew letters, and coloring books with Bible stories in simple Hebrew. I saw several really neat scarves (mitpahats), but prices were a bit high. And how many scarfs does one woman need, anyway. (Probably 35 minimum, maybe 300.) The whole time I was there I had a sort of undergroud feeling -- the ceilings were a bit low and the lighting less than the best. It was a relief to come out to daylight again.
And it's a lovely day. I think I'll get outside while I can. It's apt to rain again and for the next few days. I feel free today from the pressure of "get something done." Rather, enjoy life.
Hmmm. That Was a Nice Hat.
Hmmm. Maybe it would be good to have coloring books on hand Just In Case some little ones, or middle-size ones, ever come to visit.
Hmmm. I like art kits and cut and paste myself. But, no, I'm grown up now and I haven't finished fixing the curtains yet.
It did rain in the evening, so I left the clothes out all night and they were dry by morning. (How did that happen?!)
Today is a lovely day. We went to a clinic where I had to get some blood tests. The building looked normal on top, but we parked underneath it. We entered at ground level, which was the sixth floor, and descended from there. Afterwards I had breakfast at a little coffee shop. A typical Israeli breakfast. (Typical blogger lack of complete sentences and correct punctuation.) A salad with perfect dressing (vinegar and oil with a touch of mustard) and a sweet potato-mozzarrella quiche. I'm not sure if that's correct spelling, but when you combine Italian and French you don't have to be too exact, do you? And a small cappuccino, which seems suitable, somehow. It won't keep me awake this time. I could easily go to sleep, but I am so relaxed I don't need to.
Afterwards we strolled unhurried around a few stores. I saw a good felt hat, but I don't need a hat. Or do I. Maybe I'll change my mind when it gets colder, and I'll wish I had bought that hat. I looked at some toys and some art kits and some cut-paste packages and wished I had grandchildren here to do things with. There were stickers of Hebrew letters, and coloring books with Bible stories in simple Hebrew. I saw several really neat scarves (mitpahats), but prices were a bit high. And how many scarfs does one woman need, anyway. (Probably 35 minimum, maybe 300.) The whole time I was there I had a sort of undergroud feeling -- the ceilings were a bit low and the lighting less than the best. It was a relief to come out to daylight again.
And it's a lovely day. I think I'll get outside while I can. It's apt to rain again and for the next few days. I feel free today from the pressure of "get something done." Rather, enjoy life.
Hmmm. That Was a Nice Hat.
Hmmm. Maybe it would be good to have coloring books on hand Just In Case some little ones, or middle-size ones, ever come to visit.
Hmmm. I like art kits and cut and paste myself. But, no, I'm grown up now and I haven't finished fixing the curtains yet.
November 14, 2011
Nothing to Say
What do you say when you have nothing to say? It's not that nothing ever happens, but it's hard to pick out the most important or most interesting or most relevant, and I don't feel like sorting things out or analyzing them.
So I stick with simple obvious and somewhat trivial things. Not that they're totally trivial. All put together they make up life.
Planes have been flying overhead. Makes me wonder what's up in Gaza or Iran.
It's cold out. "Cool," I was recently corrected. I call it cold. It's cloudy, too, and might rain. I washed some clothes but I don't know how I'm going to dry them. Cold and cloudy doesn't dry clothes. Rain is even worse. Ironing them works, and is sort of fun if you don't think about all the other things you could be doing.
The ice cream truck is playing Rock-a-bye Baby plus about 3/8 of another tune. I would prefer the other tune plus 3/8 of Rock-a-bye Baby. Or better yet, just shut the music off and go "ding-ding-ding."
Cold weather makes you appreciate a warm bed. Cold floors make you appreciate dry socks. Ice cream doesn't sound too appealing right now. Home-cooked food doesn't sound too appealing, either. What do you do when you're hungry but you don't feel like eating? Now, if someone else were to cook me a home-cooked meal, that would be a different matter. So I should simply get someone else's recipe and pretend I'm her while I cook it, and then be me while I eat it. Then I could be both of us while I/we wash the dishes.
Why does the refrigerator sound louder when you're in the living room than when you're in the kitchen? Maybe I should put the refrigerator in the living room. It would look fine with a lamp on it.
I have about a hundred tune ideas. However there are certain phrases in the Psalms that just don't sound very musical to my English ear. One such phrase or another manages to crop up in many of those tunes, so it is hard to finish them to my satisfaction. I should quit trying to be a perfectionist.
I had a moment one day of feeling useful. That's a good feeling. I used to feel useful when I was painting walls. And doors. And baseboards. Here I don't often feel useful. But one day I was sitting on a park bench and a tame cat jumped up beside me. After a few minutes she crawled into my lap and went to sleep. So a cat found me useful anyway.
We cook on a single burner. A hot-plate. When it is plugged in and the heat turned all the way down, it still goes on and off. Probably because the lowest thermostat setting is about room temperature. My kitchen is simple but sufficient. One thing I would like, though, is a tomato slicer. I have lived 40 years without one. I think now is the time to buy one, if I ever see one.
I got a blender, thinking it would give me more options. It helps some, but not as much as I had hoped. I make tomato juice with lots of carrots in it. Or fruit juice. I like mangoes with a little orange juice; but for some reason, mangoes don't taste very good with lemons or apples. Apples and peaches don't go together, either. I haven't yet tried mangoes with peaches.
That's all I have to say.
So I stick with simple obvious and somewhat trivial things. Not that they're totally trivial. All put together they make up life.
Planes have been flying overhead. Makes me wonder what's up in Gaza or Iran.
It's cold out. "Cool," I was recently corrected. I call it cold. It's cloudy, too, and might rain. I washed some clothes but I don't know how I'm going to dry them. Cold and cloudy doesn't dry clothes. Rain is even worse. Ironing them works, and is sort of fun if you don't think about all the other things you could be doing.
The ice cream truck is playing Rock-a-bye Baby plus about 3/8 of another tune. I would prefer the other tune plus 3/8 of Rock-a-bye Baby. Or better yet, just shut the music off and go "ding-ding-ding."
Cold weather makes you appreciate a warm bed. Cold floors make you appreciate dry socks. Ice cream doesn't sound too appealing right now. Home-cooked food doesn't sound too appealing, either. What do you do when you're hungry but you don't feel like eating? Now, if someone else were to cook me a home-cooked meal, that would be a different matter. So I should simply get someone else's recipe and pretend I'm her while I cook it, and then be me while I eat it. Then I could be both of us while I/we wash the dishes.
Why does the refrigerator sound louder when you're in the living room than when you're in the kitchen? Maybe I should put the refrigerator in the living room. It would look fine with a lamp on it.
I have about a hundred tune ideas. However there are certain phrases in the Psalms that just don't sound very musical to my English ear. One such phrase or another manages to crop up in many of those tunes, so it is hard to finish them to my satisfaction. I should quit trying to be a perfectionist.
I had a moment one day of feeling useful. That's a good feeling. I used to feel useful when I was painting walls. And doors. And baseboards. Here I don't often feel useful. But one day I was sitting on a park bench and a tame cat jumped up beside me. After a few minutes she crawled into my lap and went to sleep. So a cat found me useful anyway.
We cook on a single burner. A hot-plate. When it is plugged in and the heat turned all the way down, it still goes on and off. Probably because the lowest thermostat setting is about room temperature. My kitchen is simple but sufficient. One thing I would like, though, is a tomato slicer. I have lived 40 years without one. I think now is the time to buy one, if I ever see one.
I got a blender, thinking it would give me more options. It helps some, but not as much as I had hoped. I make tomato juice with lots of carrots in it. Or fruit juice. I like mangoes with a little orange juice; but for some reason, mangoes don't taste very good with lemons or apples. Apples and peaches don't go together, either. I haven't yet tried mangoes with peaches.
That's all I have to say.
October 27, 2011
Real Player
Real Player has its own way of doing things. When I download a file, and the title is in Hebrew, it downloads with a bunch of question marks. So I have know way of knowing what's what. Sometimes, but not always, I can go by the number of question marks and spaces, and compare it to what I was watching, and then rename it. But then when I want to save something on my flash drive, the question marks are spaces, and my replacement name doesn't show up.
Saving to Favorites isn't so great either. When your computer crashes, as it inevitably will, you lose them. There ought to be some way to copy your list of Favorites and print it out, but I don't know how.
I try to find usable tunes to Psalms. I haven't had a whole lot of success. Psalm 126 was once considered for Israel's national anthem. Psalm 128 is often sung at weddings. Everybody likes Psalm 121. Of course everybody likes Psalm 23, and there are many versions of it, but I still haven't found a version I like. There are just a few good choruses, but I'm looking for more than choruses. Now that I can do searches in Hebrew I might be able to find a few more, or I might be stuck with writing my own. There needs to be someone else for this job. I can do the transcribing, but to actually create good tunes is not especially my talent. But I'll keep at it anyway.
Saving to Favorites isn't so great either. When your computer crashes, as it inevitably will, you lose them. There ought to be some way to copy your list of Favorites and print it out, but I don't know how.
I try to find usable tunes to Psalms. I haven't had a whole lot of success. Psalm 126 was once considered for Israel's national anthem. Psalm 128 is often sung at weddings. Everybody likes Psalm 121. Of course everybody likes Psalm 23, and there are many versions of it, but I still haven't found a version I like. There are just a few good choruses, but I'm looking for more than choruses. Now that I can do searches in Hebrew I might be able to find a few more, or I might be stuck with writing my own. There needs to be someone else for this job. I can do the transcribing, but to actually create good tunes is not especially my talent. But I'll keep at it anyway.
October 26, 2011
Imams
This morning before dawn, we heard the imams calling quite clearly. There is one in particular that is loud and clear and has a nice voice and an interesting tune. The first three notes are like E, D and C, but he ends the phrase with a D# slightly flat and an E slightly sharp, and the final note like a low B slightly flat. These are strange notes to the western ear, but they are true notes in some eastern scale, and they are sung exactly the same every time.
My electric piano, according to the manual, has a function for tuning the keys to Indian scales, but it doesn't work, or doesn't work on this particular model. I should stop in a music store sometime and see what kinds of harps or un-fretted stringed instruments there are that I could experiment with. Not that I have time for such explorations.
My electric piano, according to the manual, has a function for tuning the keys to Indian scales, but it doesn't work, or doesn't work on this particular model. I should stop in a music store sometime and see what kinds of harps or un-fretted stringed instruments there are that I could experiment with. Not that I have time for such explorations.
October 17, 2011
Traditions and Superstitions
Judaism contains more rituals, traditions and superstitions than you can imagine. I don't actually know anyone who believes and practices them all, but I hear of different ones here and there.
For example, you can't hold a baby while you're in mourning. If you do, something bad might happen to the baby.
If you're having trouble finding an apartment, you can hold a dead chicken over your head and say the chicken prayer. The people that did this found an apartment the next day, so they said, "It worked."
And it goes on and on.
Some traditions might have been quite sensible in the beginning, and some are based in some way or other on the Bible. Others are just nonsense.
"A sukkah must have at least two and a half walls covered with a material that will not blow away in the wind. Why two and a half walls? Look at the letters in the word "sukkah" (סכה): one letter has four sides, one has three sides and one has two and a half sides."
I haven't the energy to deal with too many traditions. Even birthday parties are too much. We buy kids toys they don't need and clothes they don't care about, but we think are cute. We put candles on the cake, make a wish, blow them out, then eat poison (sugar), and encourage small children to eat adult-size portions of cake and ice-cream. Then I go home and crash from the sugar, wake up and drink 2 liters of water to keep from getting a headache, and worry that my children will learn too late, as I did, that sugar is bad for you.
Traditions, rituals, and habits have a way of creeping into you life even when you don't want them to. True Christianity is diluted and polluted by all these. Family worship, morning and evening--very reasonable. The Lord's Supper, as often as once a week, but no Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. If I had to worry about what time to light a candle, or whether I said all the right prayers, I would be a mess.
But,
I Thes. 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered .
For example, you can't hold a baby while you're in mourning. If you do, something bad might happen to the baby.
If you're having trouble finding an apartment, you can hold a dead chicken over your head and say the chicken prayer. The people that did this found an apartment the next day, so they said, "It worked."
And it goes on and on.
Some traditions might have been quite sensible in the beginning, and some are based in some way or other on the Bible. Others are just nonsense.
"A sukkah must have at least two and a half walls covered with a material that will not blow away in the wind. Why two and a half walls? Look at the letters in the word "sukkah" (סכה): one letter has four sides, one has three sides and one has two and a half sides."
I haven't the energy to deal with too many traditions. Even birthday parties are too much. We buy kids toys they don't need and clothes they don't care about, but we think are cute. We put candles on the cake, make a wish, blow them out, then eat poison (sugar), and encourage small children to eat adult-size portions of cake and ice-cream. Then I go home and crash from the sugar, wake up and drink 2 liters of water to keep from getting a headache, and worry that my children will learn too late, as I did, that sugar is bad for you.
Traditions, rituals, and habits have a way of creeping into you life even when you don't want them to. True Christianity is diluted and polluted by all these. Family worship, morning and evening--very reasonable. The Lord's Supper, as often as once a week, but no Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. If I had to worry about what time to light a candle, or whether I said all the right prayers, I would be a mess.
But,
I Thes. 5:17 Pray without ceasing.
Rom 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered .
October 15, 2011
Sing Hebrew Psalms
Last week I made a most interesting discovery. There is a woman in Japan who is writing tunes for the Psalms in Hebrew. She started publishing them on YouTube about the same time I started working on tunes here. She has written more than a hundred. Only a few of them are the type I would use for my collection, but I hope to include a few of them. Don't ask me how many I have written--I haven't the slightest idea. Nowhere near a hundred. I have many starts, but few finishes.
I have spent hours and hours on the internet looking for Psalms suitable for congregational singing. Some are too complicated, some are too simple, some are too jumpy or jazzy. I did find a good tune for Psalm 100, written by an Englishman named Charles Kensington Salaman.
Here is a link to Psalm 115. I think it goes through the whole psalm twice, and then finishes with verse 9.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=567IHfwCb4I
I have spent hours and hours on the internet looking for Psalms suitable for congregational singing. Some are too complicated, some are too simple, some are too jumpy or jazzy. I did find a good tune for Psalm 100, written by an Englishman named Charles Kensington Salaman.
Here is a link to Psalm 115. I think it goes through the whole psalm twice, and then finishes with verse 9.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=567IHfwCb4I
October 2011, Succoth
I managed to get one picture of a succa on a balcony. Our neighbors have one in the parking lot in front of the building (takes space of one car), but I feel sort of nosy taking a picture of it. I think Succoth would probably be the most enjoyable of all the holidays. You get tired of living in a small apartment in a rocky city, but being outside in a little booth for 7 days (eating meals there, maybe even sleeping there), would be a refreshing change.
Some of the Sukkot are crude frames covered with old sheets and blankets. Others are quite nice. Some are plastic frames and fabric walls, with nice designs or a picture of Jerusalem. Some are wood panels with windows and curtains. I don't know what people do who have no place to put one. There are a few in a park down the street, with extension cords up to the fourth floor windows.
A man came to trim leaves from the two palm trees out front. The leaves were used to cover the top of a succa. That doesn't make a water-tight roof, but it's not likely to rain this time of year.
October 3, 2011
Abjad Hawaz Hoty Kalamon
Last week was an interesting week, for several reasons. One was that we got our first lesson in Arabic. Learning the alphabet will be the worst part. How worst I don't know yet. I'll just take it a day at a time.
Abjad Hawaz Hoty Kalamon is a way of remembering the first 14 letters. They are similar to the first 14 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. There are 28 letters in all.
Street signs are written in Hebrew, Arabic and English. At first glance it is 2/3 gibberish. I wish I had started 30 years ago. It's getting better, though. Arabic looks a little bit like shorthand, sloppily written, which I find intriguing. I am looking forward to deciphering the code.
Sometimes when I am speaking Hebrew, I wonder if what I am saying is gibberish. But usually you can tell you said something wrong when people give you a funny look. The funny look they give you is itself sort of funny. It's so automatic they don't even know they're doing it.
I found some you-tube videos that I hope to listen to soon. They are the Tanach in cartoons. The Hebrew spoken in them is very clear and easy to understand. And since I already know the stories, I can guess from context the words I don't know. And I can back up and re-listen as many times as I need to. In real life you can only test someone's patience so far. You can say, "Once again, slowly." Or "Did you say...?" Or "What does .... mean?" Or "Anglit, bevakasha?" "English, please?" but that's kind of a cop-out.
Something else really interesting happened last week. I'll save that for the next post.
Abjad Hawaz Hoty Kalamon is a way of remembering the first 14 letters. They are similar to the first 14 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. There are 28 letters in all.
Street signs are written in Hebrew, Arabic and English. At first glance it is 2/3 gibberish. I wish I had started 30 years ago. It's getting better, though. Arabic looks a little bit like shorthand, sloppily written, which I find intriguing. I am looking forward to deciphering the code.
Sometimes when I am speaking Hebrew, I wonder if what I am saying is gibberish. But usually you can tell you said something wrong when people give you a funny look. The funny look they give you is itself sort of funny. It's so automatic they don't even know they're doing it.
I found some you-tube videos that I hope to listen to soon. They are the Tanach in cartoons. The Hebrew spoken in them is very clear and easy to understand. And since I already know the stories, I can guess from context the words I don't know. And I can back up and re-listen as many times as I need to. In real life you can only test someone's patience so far. You can say, "Once again, slowly." Or "Did you say...?" Or "What does .... mean?" Or "Anglit, bevakasha?" "English, please?" but that's kind of a cop-out.
Something else really interesting happened last week. I'll save that for the next post.
October 1, 2011
Old Book Find
Sometimes people leave clothes, usable food, books, and household items sitting beside the garbage containers. Poor people (and others) can help themselves to it. And sometimes people make tours of all the garbage containers for things they can sell.
Garbage collection occurs only after all the containers are full to over-flowing. I don't know if that is a pre-determined schedule, or if they deliberately wait until the last possible minute.
Last week I found a pile of books to look through - partially-used school workbooks (falling apart), a couple magazines, and one (ok, I need a word here. What is it that you call an item of great value that you find in an unexpected place?). [For example, I once found a book that I had been wanting to buy, Andrew Murray's "With Christ in the School of Prayer," and it was at a large auction/sale on a table with no other books, but lots of jars and old household gadgets.]
The book is "Complete Verb Chart: conjugation charts of all the constructions, groups, and forms of all the verb roots in the Hebrew langauge from Bible times till now with detailed conjugating instructions." Ninety-six pages of code to decipher, if I were so minded. It is awesome to think of the work someone went to to compile it. Even more awesome to try to imagine learning it all. Maybe later. Much, much, much later.
Garbage collection occurs only after all the containers are full to over-flowing. I don't know if that is a pre-determined schedule, or if they deliberately wait until the last possible minute.
Last week I found a pile of books to look through - partially-used school workbooks (falling apart), a couple magazines, and one (ok, I need a word here. What is it that you call an item of great value that you find in an unexpected place?). [For example, I once found a book that I had been wanting to buy, Andrew Murray's "With Christ in the School of Prayer," and it was at a large auction/sale on a table with no other books, but lots of jars and old household gadgets.]
The book is "Complete Verb Chart: conjugation charts of all the constructions, groups, and forms of all the verb roots in the Hebrew langauge from Bible times till now with detailed conjugating instructions." Ninety-six pages of code to decipher, if I were so minded. It is awesome to think of the work someone went to to compile it. Even more awesome to try to imagine learning it all. Maybe later. Much, much, much later.
Happy New Year
Rosh Hashana was Wednesday evening, September 26. The year is now 5773.
We go off daylight savings time Sunday, October 2, at 2:00 a.m.
We are currently 8 hours ahead of Houston time. After Sunday, for one month, we will be only 7 hours ahead. After November 6, when Houston's time changes, we will be 8 hours apart again.
We go off daylight savings time Sunday, October 2, at 2:00 a.m.
We are currently 8 hours ahead of Houston time. After Sunday, for one month, we will be only 7 hours ahead. After November 6, when Houston's time changes, we will be 8 hours apart again.
September 17, 2011
Weekend
Friday. I must get out of the house today. I feel like I need an adventure. So I will take a walk around the block. That might be mostly boring, but you never know.
I'm going to go a long way today, but I will take my time. A woman asks me something as she goes by. I know enough Hebrew now to be able to say "I don't know," and I even know what it is that I don't know. This time I catch the words "Sabbath, to buy, and time" and I conclude that she said she wants to know what time Sabbath begins because she needs to go buy something.
Every time I come to a bench or a low stone wall, I sit down. But I don't sit long at the first bench because there are a few small annoying flies. So I move to another bench. I am at a park that I call the "grown-up" park, because I have never seen children here. There is a jungle gym and a little merry-go-round. Occasionally a small group of teenagers returning from an event will crowd onto it and take a few turns around.
Farther down the street I pass a pomegranate tree with pomegranates as large as softballs, with newspaper wrapped around each of the largest ones.
I sit on a bench under a tree that smells rather bad. A man on the other side of the street is smoking a cigarette that smells delicious by comparison.
I head downhill a couple streets. Between each street are several flights of steps and a gradual incline between the steps. Beside the steps is a smooth path. A really fit biker can just manage to slowly bike up the hill without coming to a stop. This time there are three boys pushing their bicycles up the path. The third boy is lagging behind, so a fourth boy decides to help. But does he push the bike up the path? No, he carries it up the steps!
I go on to the next bench, but it's in the sun, and there are flies here, too. So in a minute maybe I'll head for home. But here comes a little boy down the steps. He's wearing a bright orange shirt and has a pacifier in his mouth. I don't see any grown-ups around. I ask him where his mother is, but of course he doesn't answer. He doesn't appear the least bit worried, and climbs onto a little wall and starts walking along it.
An older man comes along with a bag of greens. He hands me a myrtle branch, used in the closing sabbath ceremony. It smells wonderful! He doesn't know who the little boy is, but he takes him over to a nearby building where he knows some people, and they don't know him either, and are going to call the police.
So I go back up the hill and notice some people at the end of the street, who turn out to be the boy's parents. When I told him where the boy was, his father took off at a run to get him. I ran after him because he didn't wait long enough for me to explain exactly where the boy was, but he found him anyway. The little boy looks happy when his father picks him up, but evades his mother when she tries to pick him up. She frowns at him and exclaims "What did you do!?" He walks away from her with a look like "I did something big and I'm pleased with myself." [If you've read "Bored, Nothing to Do" you'll remember "a spank, and kisses."]
On the way home I pass a building with a 4-inch thick vine planted in front and climbing to a trellis over a third-floor balcony.
That was Friday.
Today was Saturday. A little kitten died. Not much else happened. I drank some coffee-flavored soy milk. Too good! and too much sugar. We took a late walk after dark and came across a young man lying on the sidewalk doing crunches with one leg propped up on a light post and a young woman coaching him.
Sabbath is over now , and the Lord's Day begins tomorrow. It will be a good day.
I'm going to go a long way today, but I will take my time. A woman asks me something as she goes by. I know enough Hebrew now to be able to say "I don't know," and I even know what it is that I don't know. This time I catch the words "Sabbath, to buy, and time" and I conclude that she said she wants to know what time Sabbath begins because she needs to go buy something.
Every time I come to a bench or a low stone wall, I sit down. But I don't sit long at the first bench because there are a few small annoying flies. So I move to another bench. I am at a park that I call the "grown-up" park, because I have never seen children here. There is a jungle gym and a little merry-go-round. Occasionally a small group of teenagers returning from an event will crowd onto it and take a few turns around.
Farther down the street I pass a pomegranate tree with pomegranates as large as softballs, with newspaper wrapped around each of the largest ones.
I sit on a bench under a tree that smells rather bad. A man on the other side of the street is smoking a cigarette that smells delicious by comparison.
I head downhill a couple streets. Between each street are several flights of steps and a gradual incline between the steps. Beside the steps is a smooth path. A really fit biker can just manage to slowly bike up the hill without coming to a stop. This time there are three boys pushing their bicycles up the path. The third boy is lagging behind, so a fourth boy decides to help. But does he push the bike up the path? No, he carries it up the steps!
I go on to the next bench, but it's in the sun, and there are flies here, too. So in a minute maybe I'll head for home. But here comes a little boy down the steps. He's wearing a bright orange shirt and has a pacifier in his mouth. I don't see any grown-ups around. I ask him where his mother is, but of course he doesn't answer. He doesn't appear the least bit worried, and climbs onto a little wall and starts walking along it.
An older man comes along with a bag of greens. He hands me a myrtle branch, used in the closing sabbath ceremony. It smells wonderful! He doesn't know who the little boy is, but he takes him over to a nearby building where he knows some people, and they don't know him either, and are going to call the police.
So I go back up the hill and notice some people at the end of the street, who turn out to be the boy's parents. When I told him where the boy was, his father took off at a run to get him. I ran after him because he didn't wait long enough for me to explain exactly where the boy was, but he found him anyway. The little boy looks happy when his father picks him up, but evades his mother when she tries to pick him up. She frowns at him and exclaims "What did you do!?" He walks away from her with a look like "I did something big and I'm pleased with myself." [If you've read "Bored, Nothing to Do" you'll remember "a spank, and kisses."]
On the way home I pass a building with a 4-inch thick vine planted in front and climbing to a trellis over a third-floor balcony.
That was Friday.
Today was Saturday. A little kitten died. Not much else happened. I drank some coffee-flavored soy milk. Too good! and too much sugar. We took a late walk after dark and came across a young man lying on the sidewalk doing crunches with one leg propped up on a light post and a young woman coaching him.
Sabbath is over now , and the Lord's Day begins tomorrow. It will be a good day.
September 14, 2011
Dead Computer, Dying Kitten
Actually, it's not quite that bad. The computer is fixed now. We found a guy nearby that could fix it right away. I got it back within 24 hours.
The kitten however, is without much hope. It is only a couple days old, and cries all the time. Its mother must have abandoned it. It is too young to raise by hand. I put some cottage cheese out in hopes of attracting the mother cat if she is in the area.
Cats do sometimes misplace their kittens. They can have one kitten in one place, and then if they are alarmed by a dog or something, they run off and have the next one somewhere else.
I lost track of a baby once. I was gathering up the loppers and a basket of clothes to hang out. I decided to leave Mercy in her seat by the washing machine, take the clothes and loppers outside, and then come back to get Mercy. When I set down the clothes, I got distracted for a moment and started lopping the bushes. After a few minutes I realized that Mercy wasn't there! I ran upstairs and down, and then remembered I had left her in the garage by the washing machine.
You don't have to be old to be forgetful. But it helps.
The kitten however, is without much hope. It is only a couple days old, and cries all the time. Its mother must have abandoned it. It is too young to raise by hand. I put some cottage cheese out in hopes of attracting the mother cat if she is in the area.
Cats do sometimes misplace their kittens. They can have one kitten in one place, and then if they are alarmed by a dog or something, they run off and have the next one somewhere else.
I lost track of a baby once. I was gathering up the loppers and a basket of clothes to hang out. I decided to leave Mercy in her seat by the washing machine, take the clothes and loppers outside, and then come back to get Mercy. When I set down the clothes, I got distracted for a moment and started lopping the bushes. After a few minutes I realized that Mercy wasn't there! I ran upstairs and down, and then remembered I had left her in the garage by the washing machine.
You don't have to be old to be forgetful. But it helps.
I Have a Piano!
Second-hand electric, that is. But it works! It is going to be tremendously useful.
I have had my home-maker hat on the last few days, rearranging furniture and things. My piano fits at the end of the kitchen. A pillow case provided material for a dustcover for my piano. The living room is turned around now, with the computer cords and extension cords all in a heap in one corner, partly hidden by the computer. Eventually I hope to replace my 7-foot extension cord with a 3-foot one, which is all I need for the current arrangement. My curtains are under-going some adjustments. Books are being re-organized. Books I don't need very often have to stay in the bedroom. That leaves me with four important books close at hand: a Hebrew-English Tanach, a lexicon, a Heb-Eng dictionary, and Barron's 501 Hebrew verbs (actually 1580, or 565 roots). Plus Bibles and psalters. I feel a little better about the kitchen after hanging a few utensils on the wall, making drawer-space available for all kinds of miscellaneous. The fridge needs de-frosted, but I guess it can wait till next week.
I went to an office supply store to get a three-ring binder and found that there's no such bird here. The usual binders are two-ringers, which for my purposes are about worthless. I saw one nice padded-cover D-ring 4-ringer, but it wasn't thick enough and it cost 75 shekels (21 dollars). So I ended up with a couple of plastic accordion folders from which I will probably cut off the cover flaps. Next time I am in Texas maybe I'll get a couple 3-ringers (and then manually punch holes into wholly un-holed sheets of paper).
Cool breezes are soothing us from time to time. (Nyah-nyah-nyah, Houston!) (Just kidding--if you want, you can say to me "We have no trash on our streets -- nyah-nyah-nyah!") We actually live on a nice street with only a little trash (paper and plastic) around our building, and lately I've been picking it up myself. Most of it is in the vacant lot next door. The lot is full of thistly plants, and any loose paper blowing in the wind gets caught there. Other apartment buildings not far from here are not so nice. They aren't poverty-level apartments, either; but no one seems to be assigned to picking up trash, and the tenants don't take it on themselves to do it, either. Must be a different frame of mind. (After all it's not my
trash.)??
We shopped at a good vegetable market today and got oranges, kohlrabi, tomatoes, peppers, avocados, red cabbage, cucumbers, beets, carrots, and one banana. The bananas are different here. They are not as white inside, and they are ripe before they look or feel ripe. Sometimes they'r short and fat. They taste about the same.
I bought two jars of instant coffee. I thought I was getting a two-for-one deal, because of the way they were packaged together. It turned out that the second jar was only a tiny one. That's what happens when you can't read Hebrew (not fast enough to examine all the labels in the grocery store).
I have had my home-maker hat on the last few days, rearranging furniture and things. My piano fits at the end of the kitchen. A pillow case provided material for a dustcover for my piano. The living room is turned around now, with the computer cords and extension cords all in a heap in one corner, partly hidden by the computer. Eventually I hope to replace my 7-foot extension cord with a 3-foot one, which is all I need for the current arrangement. My curtains are under-going some adjustments. Books are being re-organized. Books I don't need very often have to stay in the bedroom. That leaves me with four important books close at hand: a Hebrew-English Tanach, a lexicon, a Heb-Eng dictionary, and Barron's 501 Hebrew verbs (actually 1580, or 565 roots). Plus Bibles and psalters. I feel a little better about the kitchen after hanging a few utensils on the wall, making drawer-space available for all kinds of miscellaneous. The fridge needs de-frosted, but I guess it can wait till next week.
I went to an office supply store to get a three-ring binder and found that there's no such bird here. The usual binders are two-ringers, which for my purposes are about worthless. I saw one nice padded-cover D-ring 4-ringer, but it wasn't thick enough and it cost 75 shekels (21 dollars). So I ended up with a couple of plastic accordion folders from which I will probably cut off the cover flaps. Next time I am in Texas maybe I'll get a couple 3-ringers (and then manually punch holes into wholly un-holed sheets of paper).
Cool breezes are soothing us from time to time. (Nyah-nyah-nyah, Houston!) (Just kidding--if you want, you can say to me "We have no trash on our streets -- nyah-nyah-nyah!") We actually live on a nice street with only a little trash (paper and plastic) around our building, and lately I've been picking it up myself. Most of it is in the vacant lot next door. The lot is full of thistly plants, and any loose paper blowing in the wind gets caught there. Other apartment buildings not far from here are not so nice. They aren't poverty-level apartments, either; but no one seems to be assigned to picking up trash, and the tenants don't take it on themselves to do it, either. Must be a different frame of mind. (After all it's not my
trash.)??
We shopped at a good vegetable market today and got oranges, kohlrabi, tomatoes, peppers, avocados, red cabbage, cucumbers, beets, carrots, and one banana. The bananas are different here. They are not as white inside, and they are ripe before they look or feel ripe. Sometimes they'r short and fat. They taste about the same.
I bought two jars of instant coffee. I thought I was getting a two-for-one deal, because of the way they were packaged together. It turned out that the second jar was only a tiny one. That's what happens when you can't read Hebrew (not fast enough to examine all the labels in the grocery store).
August 31, 2011
Rice Fields
I don't get too many beautiful pictures from our area of Texas, but I always enjoy driving by a few small rice fields near our house. And I love to run out the door to see what kind of cropduster is turning around over our house. And sometimes I see pinkish or white birds along the ditches in the rice fields. Some clever photographer needs to get a picture of them (cropduster, birds).
August 30, 2011
Michigan
A few pictures from our trip to Michigan in August. We visited some old friends there that we'd seen twice in 17 years. They have a lovely home and we had a lovely time. We relaxed on their back patio and saw wild turkeys. Al and Mr. Timmer had long conversations while Mrs. Timmer and I went to the beach and watched wind-surfers and a boat that takes passengers for a short jaunt (and also had long conversations).
August 25, 2011
Old Friend
I can't imagine a better dog than Juneau. Sometimes I see dogs here that look approximately like he did, but they have perkier ears, which makes them look too sassy. It's the partly-droopy ears that gave Juneau his appeal. And his ears would disappear instantly every time he saw my face, even at a distance. Putting ears down is a sign of submission and respect, and also says "I'm sweet, aren't I?"
When Juneau first showed up on our property in Indiana, we didn't want another dog. Jeshurun especially insisted we didn't need another dog, and I agreed, and assured him I wasn't feeding him. "But you're smiling at him!" Jeshurun replied. Then Jesh took Juneau down the road in his pick-up truck and dropped him off somewhere. Juneau got back before Jesh did. So we didn't adopt him, he adopted us. And we said no, no, no, yes.
Once he got hit by a car and broke all his ribs on one side. For several days after that he looked very very sad and walked very very slowly. After that he was fine, except maybe he didn't have quite as much wind as he used to.
On one pleasant Indiana night, I went outside about midnight and watched Juneau running fast in large circles in the moonlight. I think he achieved what Beethoven never did -- at least one moment of pure joy.
Juneau had one sad incident when he stepped on a bees' nest and they all started attacking him. He jumped up and down yelping and finally ran through the screen in our sliding door. I have to confess that I laughed seeing him jumping up and down. We never did replace that screen.
Juneau was a moderately smart dog, and could have learned a lot if he had had more training, especially when he was younger. When I called him, he would stop and sit in front of me. Then when I said, "Heel," he would bounce into position beside me. Since it was hard to walk with him beside me and keep him from taking off, I would walk a few paces, stop, expecting him to sit immediately, and then repeat the process. Soon he would look at me with a laughing face as if to say, "I know this game!"
He was always so good-natured, but he had a few naughty spells, such as when a kitten or a small dog got too near his food dish. He beat up and chased away a neighbor's dog, and afterwards walked around with his head high, so proud of himself, but not looking at me--he knew I was mad at him.
When he got older Ben took care of him and took him on long walks around the block (3 miles?). I had a feeling he wouldn't be around much longer when I went to Israel. He's buried without a marker, but I'll never forget him.
An old song:
Old dog Tray's ever faithful
Grief cannot drive him away.
He's gentle, he is kind;
You'll never, never find
A better friend than old dog Tray.
August 24, 2011
Back to Normal
Blogspot seems to have gotten over its bugs, although that last post didn't post till sometime later, and who knows what this one will do.
Life is starting to return to normal. It took me a long time to get over jet lag, partly because I didn't try to, but stayed up till unreasonable hours every night.
Then I decided to work on a quilt project, which involved working out a pattern for some pieces that I brought from home. More pieces will have to be cut sometime; and sometime in the unforeseeable future, maybe I will start sewing them together. But that's a back-burner project now, since I have to put my composer-linguist hat back on. My hat says composer on the front and linguist on the back. Unless I turn it inside-out (which might be right-side out, I forget which is which), and then it says linguist on the front and composer on the back.
After reading a book on getting things done, I got into a getting-organized frame of mind, which may have been partly successful. If I am going to get an electric piano, I am going to have to make space for it. And if I am going to be pianolating or pianifying or pianolyzing, in addition to what I do now, I'll have to regulate my time better. I hope to get something accomplished day by day, without always getting burnt out to keep from being bored or burnt out to keep from feeling guilty.
I hope to finish reading through the book of Psalms in Hebrew (with English alongside) by the end of October. In evening worship we've been reading Genesis in Hebrew. The problem with that is that in the evening I am getting so sleepy that I can't make my eyes focus on Hebrew letters. About bedtime I get a second wind, and then I like to stay up late because it's nice and quiet. Not a good idea really. I need to get up with the sun.
I discovered a website with many children's books, originally written in English, all converted to pdf's and translated into Hebrew. I was surprised to find how few good books there are, or have been, for the last 50 years. The artwork is often terrible, and some of the stories are too much into weird fantasy and magic. And the artwork is terrible. Seems like that I need to say that twice. I can tolerate a lot of fantasy and a lot of different styles of art, but even so I find many children's books ugly and intolerable. But reading children's books is a very good way to learn Hebrew. You learn language relating to everyday situations. I'm not interested in politics or current events (however there are planes flying overhead and I wonder what's happening in Gaza about now). I just need to know about home life, plants, animals, and people doing ordinary things, speaking ordinary language, and having ordinary thoughts. A book helps you catch up on what you didn't run into in real life because you just happened to be on a different continent.
Life is starting to return to normal. It took me a long time to get over jet lag, partly because I didn't try to, but stayed up till unreasonable hours every night.
Then I decided to work on a quilt project, which involved working out a pattern for some pieces that I brought from home. More pieces will have to be cut sometime; and sometime in the unforeseeable future, maybe I will start sewing them together. But that's a back-burner project now, since I have to put my composer-linguist hat back on. My hat says composer on the front and linguist on the back. Unless I turn it inside-out (which might be right-side out, I forget which is which), and then it says linguist on the front and composer on the back.
After reading a book on getting things done, I got into a getting-organized frame of mind, which may have been partly successful. If I am going to get an electric piano, I am going to have to make space for it. And if I am going to be pianolating or pianifying or pianolyzing, in addition to what I do now, I'll have to regulate my time better. I hope to get something accomplished day by day, without always getting burnt out to keep from being bored or burnt out to keep from feeling guilty.
I hope to finish reading through the book of Psalms in Hebrew (with English alongside) by the end of October. In evening worship we've been reading Genesis in Hebrew. The problem with that is that in the evening I am getting so sleepy that I can't make my eyes focus on Hebrew letters. About bedtime I get a second wind, and then I like to stay up late because it's nice and quiet. Not a good idea really. I need to get up with the sun.
I discovered a website with many children's books, originally written in English, all converted to pdf's and translated into Hebrew. I was surprised to find how few good books there are, or have been, for the last 50 years. The artwork is often terrible, and some of the stories are too much into weird fantasy and magic. And the artwork is terrible. Seems like that I need to say that twice. I can tolerate a lot of fantasy and a lot of different styles of art, but even so I find many children's books ugly and intolerable. But reading children's books is a very good way to learn Hebrew. You learn language relating to everyday situations. I'm not interested in politics or current events (however there are planes flying overhead and I wonder what's happening in Gaza about now). I just need to know about home life, plants, animals, and people doing ordinary things, speaking ordinary language, and having ordinary thoughts. A book helps you catch up on what you didn't run into in real life because you just happened to be on a different continent.
It Did!
I don't get it.
But this one won't post either.
And it won't save.
So what if I set it to post in two minutes?
It didn't.
Would Pooh Bear have a wise comment at a time like this? Or maybe Snooopy?
blogger wogging
what's the trick here
I can't get it to edit
it won't post either
it won't save
it says it posted and nothing posted
I check options
I sign out
I do this and that
and this time it's going to work, right
wrong
it did auto-save for some reason so maybe it's ok now
nope
I'll set it to post in two minutes
it won't, of course
I can't get it to edit
it won't post either
it won't save
it says it posted and nothing posted
I check options
I sign out
I do this and that
and this time it's going to work, right
wrong
it did auto-save for some reason so maybe it's ok now
nope
I'll set it to post in two minutes
it won't, of course
Writers and Artists
Sharon says that she wants to be able to say, "I write." Here are a few of my thoughts on that subject.
Everything that you write on a blog has to suitable for those who you know read it, and also for those who might read it. Maybe "walk circumspectly" applies here -- with a view to things all around. I don't want to put on a different face for one person, and another for another. But the truth is, I have more than one face, and more than one hat, though I try to see that they are all honest and to some extent line up with each other.
I enjoy the writing of anybody that can write better than I can. Especially if they also happen to write on a subject that I am interested in, or have experiences that I can relate to. I'll never forget reading a blog by a woman who had to put ear-mite medicine in her cat's ears. It couldn't have been funnier, or more realistic.
I labeled myself "composer-linguist" at one point. Maybe I should qualify that and say "I would like to be a composer and a linguist." But you could look at it this way: If I am an artist and spend most of my time painting, and I'm not really satisfied with my painting, and no one likes my paintings and no one buys them, and it never gets any better, I am still going to call myself an artist, because that's what I am at heart, and because that's, well, what I do. Compared to another artist, I may be nothing. But compared to a non-artist, I am an artist.
So I am a composer and a linguist. Today, at least. I did indeed compose two songs several years ago that several people liked and I would like to get them printed out and/or recorded sometime. Er, yeah, sometime.
I have stayed away from Facebook, for obvious reasons, but I do feel like I'm missing something. I like to know what's going on. Blogging for me takes a lot of time, because I have to re-write every paragraph several times to make it sound right, and then maybe I change my mind and write something else. I would rather be brief, spontaneous, and somehow instantly be able to decide what is useful or edifying or necessary, without always concluding, as I most often do, that silence is safer, and therefore better.
Everything that you write on a blog has to suitable for those who you know read it, and also for those who might read it. Maybe "walk circumspectly" applies here -- with a view to things all around. I don't want to put on a different face for one person, and another for another. But the truth is, I have more than one face, and more than one hat, though I try to see that they are all honest and to some extent line up with each other.
I enjoy the writing of anybody that can write better than I can. Especially if they also happen to write on a subject that I am interested in, or have experiences that I can relate to. I'll never forget reading a blog by a woman who had to put ear-mite medicine in her cat's ears. It couldn't have been funnier, or more realistic.
I labeled myself "composer-linguist" at one point. Maybe I should qualify that and say "I would like to be a composer and a linguist." But you could look at it this way: If I am an artist and spend most of my time painting, and I'm not really satisfied with my painting, and no one likes my paintings and no one buys them, and it never gets any better, I am still going to call myself an artist, because that's what I am at heart, and because that's, well, what I do. Compared to another artist, I may be nothing. But compared to a non-artist, I am an artist.
So I am a composer and a linguist. Today, at least. I did indeed compose two songs several years ago that several people liked and I would like to get them printed out and/or recorded sometime. Er, yeah, sometime.
I have stayed away from Facebook, for obvious reasons, but I do feel like I'm missing something. I like to know what's going on. Blogging for me takes a lot of time, because I have to re-write every paragraph several times to make it sound right, and then maybe I change my mind and write something else. I would rather be brief, spontaneous, and somehow instantly be able to decide what is useful or edifying or necessary, without always concluding, as I most often do, that silence is safer, and therefore better.
August 12, 2011
Rain gets things wet
It was a good thing I decided to unpack last night, because I found out my suitcases were somewhat wet inside (the outside had already dried), due to their sitting outside a while in the New York airport. I had to hang some clothes out and throw away some soaked papers. Fortunately some photos I had were wrapped in plastic and were undamaged.
It is wonderfully quiet here. I expect that that will get old after a while, but for now I really like it. I can coast for a while, and think, and regroup (I hate that word! Please help me think of a better one!) You can think in a very fast, alert way when you're maneuvering in big city traffic; but there is another kind of thinking that is just as important, like when you're canoeing down a slow river, and you ignore deadlines, and you see everything beautiful around you, and all the other stuff goes to the back of your mind, and it's still there, but you're not fighting with it or trying to figure it out. It is vain to rise up early (or stay up late) to eat the bread of sorrows. How many sorrows we make for ourselves! Man is born for trouble, as the sparks fly upward. A spark doesn't have much say-so about anything.
But, "Fear not, I have overcome the world."
I like these words, though spoken by ungodly men: "Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee." Jonah 1:14
We wouldn't think it very good if one were to say of a man, "He does as he pleases." But it is altogether good for God to do as he pleases.
Job 37:23 "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict."
It is wonderfully quiet here. I expect that that will get old after a while, but for now I really like it. I can coast for a while, and think, and regroup (I hate that word! Please help me think of a better one!) You can think in a very fast, alert way when you're maneuvering in big city traffic; but there is another kind of thinking that is just as important, like when you're canoeing down a slow river, and you ignore deadlines, and you see everything beautiful around you, and all the other stuff goes to the back of your mind, and it's still there, but you're not fighting with it or trying to figure it out. It is vain to rise up early (or stay up late) to eat the bread of sorrows. How many sorrows we make for ourselves! Man is born for trouble, as the sparks fly upward. A spark doesn't have much say-so about anything.
But, "Fear not, I have overcome the world."
I like these words, though spoken by ungodly men: "Thou, O Lord, hast done as it pleased thee." Jonah 1:14
We wouldn't think it very good if one were to say of a man, "He does as he pleases." But it is altogether good for God to do as he pleases.
Job 37:23 "Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: he will not afflict."
Lamentations 3:33 "For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men."
2 Corinthians 4:17 "For our light affliction, which endureth but a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory"
Hebrews 12:11 "Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness..."
Hebrew 12:10 "For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness."
Isaiah 12:1 "And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou was angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me."
I suppose it is normal, when in the midst of affliction, to say "Light? Only for a moment? To me it seems terribly heavy, and lasts a long time." It should be a simple matter to just quit struggling and let God be God, and we would find out that "at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore" and "he filleth the hungry with good things." But since he does promise many things, sometimes we put up a struggle using the promises. Isn't that what Jacob did wrestling with the angel?
I ask what I will, and he says "no," so I know that I asked amiss, because the promise is "Ask what ye will and it shall be done." I try to put "Thy will be done" in there, and I know that my will should not differ from his will. My head and also something deep down in my heart knows what is right, but in actual practice it gets really complicated.
Or I pray a long time and there is no answer and I start wondering, what did I do wrong? What does he want from me? Of course I can't expect anything on my own merits, and it's only his right to make me wait, or test my faith, but I wonder why it says "before they call I will answer."
I can look back on certain events and say, "I can see that God was doing good for me when I thought he was being hard on me." But that doesn't help me at the present. I feel that he is being hard and I know that he knows how I feel, and I would rather not feel that way, but I still do.
So let me go back out on the river and see the ripples in the water that God made, and hear the dripping and sploshing of water that God made, and imagine all the air that God made holding up the jet airplanes that he taught man how to make, and dream about acres and acres of plants that God made to grow, and they grow without conscious intelligence showing them how to grow.
I don't understand all of nature or of the laws of physics, but I can appreciate and enjoy the creation. The question is sometimes asked, "Who can understand God?" I might also ask, "Who can understand man, but God who made him?" How can a little child understand himself, and how can he understand his father? The answer is, he doesn't need to.
When I ask for an egg or a piece of bread, it is sometimes a great stretch of my faith (Lord, help my unbelief) to believe that God will not give me a serpent or a stone. I have a feeling that all I ask for sometimes is eggs or bread, and forget that I can ask higher than that and ask for the Holy Spirit.
If we always think that we need to understand, we are forgetting one thing that it very important -- the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.
Isaiah 12:1 "And in that day thou shalt say, O LORD, I will praise thee: though thou was angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me."
I suppose it is normal, when in the midst of affliction, to say "Light? Only for a moment? To me it seems terribly heavy, and lasts a long time." It should be a simple matter to just quit struggling and let God be God, and we would find out that "at thy right hand are pleasures forevermore" and "he filleth the hungry with good things." But since he does promise many things, sometimes we put up a struggle using the promises. Isn't that what Jacob did wrestling with the angel?
I ask what I will, and he says "no," so I know that I asked amiss, because the promise is "Ask what ye will and it shall be done." I try to put "Thy will be done" in there, and I know that my will should not differ from his will. My head and also something deep down in my heart knows what is right, but in actual practice it gets really complicated.
Or I pray a long time and there is no answer and I start wondering, what did I do wrong? What does he want from me? Of course I can't expect anything on my own merits, and it's only his right to make me wait, or test my faith, but I wonder why it says "before they call I will answer."
I can look back on certain events and say, "I can see that God was doing good for me when I thought he was being hard on me." But that doesn't help me at the present. I feel that he is being hard and I know that he knows how I feel, and I would rather not feel that way, but I still do.
So let me go back out on the river and see the ripples in the water that God made, and hear the dripping and sploshing of water that God made, and imagine all the air that God made holding up the jet airplanes that he taught man how to make, and dream about acres and acres of plants that God made to grow, and they grow without conscious intelligence showing them how to grow.
I don't understand all of nature or of the laws of physics, but I can appreciate and enjoy the creation. The question is sometimes asked, "Who can understand God?" I might also ask, "Who can understand man, but God who made him?" How can a little child understand himself, and how can he understand his father? The answer is, he doesn't need to.
When I ask for an egg or a piece of bread, it is sometimes a great stretch of my faith (Lord, help my unbelief) to believe that God will not give me a serpent or a stone. I have a feeling that all I ask for sometimes is eggs or bread, and forget that I can ask higher than that and ask for the Holy Spirit.
If we always think that we need to understand, we are forgetting one thing that it very important -- the fear of the Lord, which is the beginning of wisdom.
August 11, 2011
For the Children
When I was a little girl I had a book of 365 one- or two-page stories, and I loved it to pieces. And recently I heard from somebody that somebody wants me to write a story. So, having just read the story about the bald frog with a wig, I decided I should tell the one about the bald toad with a wig.
Bald Toad with a Wig
There was a bald toad who wanted to wear a wig. After all, friend Frog wore one. So he bought one and all his friends said, "Cool! You look just like a frog." But he didn't want to look like a frog so he took his wig off and lived happily ever after.
Moral #1: You can (sometimes) tell a frog from a toad by his wig.
Moral #2: Sometimes your friends will think you're cool when really you look like a frog.
Also: Wog and Tog
Wog was an average worm. Tog was a very special worm. He had it all together. That's why they called him Tog. Wog was a bit envious because Tog got all the attention.
But one day, matters changed. Tog got put in a can of worms! "Oh dear!" worried Wog. "Next thing you know he'll be on a hook. I'd better try and help him!"
So he wiggled and wiggled with all his might, until boy-with-can finally noticed him and put him in the can with Tog. Together they plotted how they would get out. They decided to tie themselves together. The boy saw them and said, "Wa-hoa! A double worm! I'll hang it on my hook by the knot." As soon as he did, Wog and Tog untied themselves, fell to the ground, and immediately disappeared into the dirt.
After that, they both made a point of not wiggling around except when truly necessary. And of course, they made sure to hide themselves deep underground if they heard footsteps of boy-with-can. The End.
I'll have to try a little harder if I want to write any stories worth putting in a book, but maybe this will do for practice.
Bald Toad with a Wig
There was a bald toad who wanted to wear a wig. After all, friend Frog wore one. So he bought one and all his friends said, "Cool! You look just like a frog." But he didn't want to look like a frog so he took his wig off and lived happily ever after.
Moral #1: You can (sometimes) tell a frog from a toad by his wig.
Moral #2: Sometimes your friends will think you're cool when really you look like a frog.
Also: Wog and Tog
Wog was an average worm. Tog was a very special worm. He had it all together. That's why they called him Tog. Wog was a bit envious because Tog got all the attention.
But one day, matters changed. Tog got put in a can of worms! "Oh dear!" worried Wog. "Next thing you know he'll be on a hook. I'd better try and help him!"
So he wiggled and wiggled with all his might, until boy-with-can finally noticed him and put him in the can with Tog. Together they plotted how they would get out. They decided to tie themselves together. The boy saw them and said, "Wa-hoa! A double worm! I'll hang it on my hook by the knot." As soon as he did, Wog and Tog untied themselves, fell to the ground, and immediately disappeared into the dirt.
After that, they both made a point of not wiggling around except when truly necessary. And of course, they made sure to hide themselves deep underground if they heard footsteps of boy-with-can. The End.
I'll have to try a little harder if I want to write any stories worth putting in a book, but maybe this will do for practice.
August 10, 2011
On the Way Home (not LIW)
We left Houston at 11:30 for New York. It was beautiful approaching New York. I looked down on some very beautiful houses, each surrounded by a few acres of land with lots of very green trees. Then the houses got smaller and the lots got smaller, but they were still very nice. After that the houses were smaller yet, but still not small -- nice-looking two-story houses. Then there were blockier houses and apartments, and finally we flew over the city itself, and it wasn't bad.
We were delayed getting out of New York and the rest was the usual ordeal of flying west to east, listening to the roaring air, and sitting in a seat designed for someone with a hunched back or someone who can miraculously breath sufficiently in a very hunched position. We arrived in Tel-Aviv at 6 p.m. Houston time, and home in Jerusalem at 8 p.m. Maybe now I'll reset my watch, since I need to shed my Houston skin and emerge with my Jerusalem skin. Or maybe I'll stay in my cocoon until I get a night's sleep (I got almost none on the plane.)
I dreaded entering my very small apartment after being in a house with space, but when I walked into my nice, clean simple kitchen, I felt fairly satisfied after all.
However I don't feel like unpacking, since there's nowhere to unpack to. I brought back more than I went away with. Those "space solutions" they advertise don't work unless you have some space to start with. I can hang five shirts on one hanger, but then where do I hang the hanger? Maybe I should just stuff them into boxes and get used to ironing. Not a bad idea, really.
July 5, 2011
Going Home (to one of them)
My last day in Israel for a while. Very sad. Trying to wrap up loose ends. Took a look at some music I have been working on and realized there are a lot of loose ends. But that's good in a way-- that means there are a lot of starts. Finishes are another matter. If a fraction of all my starts can actually be finished, that will be good progress.
My stack of loose papers (rough drafts of music) gets taller and taller. I should be able to condense it somehow but that never happens. It just gets taller. Loose ends get longer and longer. Some of them have knots in them so I know they won't unravel. Some are quite good but very tangled. Others are so ugly I hate them, but I can't give up on them yet. A tune sometimes can be re-worked completely, maybe after being left to rest for several weeks. Sometimes I have a tune that seems like it might work, but I don't like it, so I change it from major to minor, or from 3/4 to 4/4 or even turn it upside down. Then in the process of copying it down in Crescendo (which will print semi-professional-looking music), I make a few errors and the errors give me better ideas. After I'm about at the point of total frustration, I walk in the other room saying, "That's it! I've had it for today!" And then, suddenly, a solution comes to mind, and I'm back at it for a little longer. Then I say, "That's it! For real this time!" And I head for the kitchen and another solution comes to mind. Sometimes I end with a feeling of satisfaction. Other times I feel like forgetting music and getting out of the house and planting a garden, which unfortunately is not a possibility.
What brings me to a halt sometimes is a phrase in Hebrew that just sounds awkward to my ears. I just need to learn more Hebrew. The cantillation points can be quite a help, even though I technically don't know what they mean. I just know that when I come to certain types of rhythmical problems, I look at the points and realize, hey, a little more pause here, and it works. Or I try to look at the phrasing as indicated by the points, and less at the verse divisions. I don't actually know what I'm doing--I just follow my hunches.
When I have no ideas at all, I listen to Jewish tunes on the internet, or African tunes (simple tunes with four-part harmony), or Spanish tunes. It's hard to explain what that does for me. It keeps me from getting in a rut and getting caught in annoying details. There's something about Spanish and Hebrew together that pleases me. They're sort of complementary--don't ask me how. The African pentatonic major tunes fit in my mind easily and without struggle. The Spanish tunes have a kind of lift and lightness in them. The Jewish tunes that I have listened to range from extremely mournful to extremely rousing. Minor tunes can be quite joyful, and major tunes can be depressing.
Eastern tunes are another matter. My western ear has a bit of trouble. Can you consistently sing the interval that is exactly half of a minor third? Maybe I can get a musical instrument of some kind, like a little harp, that can be tuned to that scale, and see if I can get used to it. I have heard our neighbors sing in such a scale on Shabbat, and they're not particularly talented, but they've been raised hearing it, so it is quite natural to them.
I don't do music all the time--it would drive me batty. Many days I prefer studying language because it's like mathematics--you can tell when it's right and when it's wrong, and you can tell when you're making progress.
It can be relaxing to play a lazy tune on a keyboard, something I could really use to relieve stress and burn-out. Maybe I'll get a keyboard when I return. Provided I can be sure it won't also be a temptation and a time-waster. It could be useful in coming up with some better tunes. At present I just do them in my head.
My stack of loose papers (rough drafts of music) gets taller and taller. I should be able to condense it somehow but that never happens. It just gets taller. Loose ends get longer and longer. Some of them have knots in them so I know they won't unravel. Some are quite good but very tangled. Others are so ugly I hate them, but I can't give up on them yet. A tune sometimes can be re-worked completely, maybe after being left to rest for several weeks. Sometimes I have a tune that seems like it might work, but I don't like it, so I change it from major to minor, or from 3/4 to 4/4 or even turn it upside down. Then in the process of copying it down in Crescendo (which will print semi-professional-looking music), I make a few errors and the errors give me better ideas. After I'm about at the point of total frustration, I walk in the other room saying, "That's it! I've had it for today!" And then, suddenly, a solution comes to mind, and I'm back at it for a little longer. Then I say, "That's it! For real this time!" And I head for the kitchen and another solution comes to mind. Sometimes I end with a feeling of satisfaction. Other times I feel like forgetting music and getting out of the house and planting a garden, which unfortunately is not a possibility.
What brings me to a halt sometimes is a phrase in Hebrew that just sounds awkward to my ears. I just need to learn more Hebrew. The cantillation points can be quite a help, even though I technically don't know what they mean. I just know that when I come to certain types of rhythmical problems, I look at the points and realize, hey, a little more pause here, and it works. Or I try to look at the phrasing as indicated by the points, and less at the verse divisions. I don't actually know what I'm doing--I just follow my hunches.
When I have no ideas at all, I listen to Jewish tunes on the internet, or African tunes (simple tunes with four-part harmony), or Spanish tunes. It's hard to explain what that does for me. It keeps me from getting in a rut and getting caught in annoying details. There's something about Spanish and Hebrew together that pleases me. They're sort of complementary--don't ask me how. The African pentatonic major tunes fit in my mind easily and without struggle. The Spanish tunes have a kind of lift and lightness in them. The Jewish tunes that I have listened to range from extremely mournful to extremely rousing. Minor tunes can be quite joyful, and major tunes can be depressing.
Eastern tunes are another matter. My western ear has a bit of trouble. Can you consistently sing the interval that is exactly half of a minor third? Maybe I can get a musical instrument of some kind, like a little harp, that can be tuned to that scale, and see if I can get used to it. I have heard our neighbors sing in such a scale on Shabbat, and they're not particularly talented, but they've been raised hearing it, so it is quite natural to them.
I don't do music all the time--it would drive me batty. Many days I prefer studying language because it's like mathematics--you can tell when it's right and when it's wrong, and you can tell when you're making progress.
It can be relaxing to play a lazy tune on a keyboard, something I could really use to relieve stress and burn-out. Maybe I'll get a keyboard when I return. Provided I can be sure it won't also be a temptation and a time-waster. It could be useful in coming up with some better tunes. At present I just do them in my head.
July 4, 2011
Galilee
Mt. Tabor
Galilee. Beautiful in the springtime. And more beautiful (greener) than Jerusalem most all the time.
City of David
It's been a while since I took these photos. Since we're going to Texas tomorrow I'd better finish up doing photos before I load my camera up with new ones.
Blogspot and G-Mail have been a pain lately; so if this post comes out weird I'm not going to try to fix it.
May 30, 2011
I and א
Many years ago I was at the house of some friends, the Mertz family, and I had nothing else to do so Mrs. Mertz suggested I look at the Encyclopedia. It was the first time in my life that I had ever opened an encyclopedia. I happened to open up to the article on the letter I. I learned that it is the ninth letter of the alphabet, a fact I have never forgetten. Except for A, B, C, M, N, and Z, I don't think of the letters in terms of their place in the alphabet.
In Hebrew, letters also stand for numbers. It is quite difficult for me to find my way around in a Hebrew Bible that numbers the chapters with letters. Some Bibles have both. We have one Bible that numbers verses with numbers, except for every fifth verse, which is numbered with a letter. I don't know who thought of that or why.
א Aleph, or a number 1. In lights on signs it can look like an H or an X. In handwriting it looks a bit like a K. In modern Hebrew it takes the place of an A in words from other languages, like Texas, atlas, April or anthropology. Otherwise it is what I call a vowel-holder, which becomes a vowel when you put various dots on it, or a vowel-starter, which comes after a pointed consonant and before another vowel, as in נָאוֹר , one of my new words for today, which means glorious or bright.
I haven't been able to figure out how to get letters to show up in a different font or size on blogspot.
This will be a good day for making banana bread, something I haven't done in two or three years or more.
In Hebrew, letters also stand for numbers. It is quite difficult for me to find my way around in a Hebrew Bible that numbers the chapters with letters. Some Bibles have both. We have one Bible that numbers verses with numbers, except for every fifth verse, which is numbered with a letter. I don't know who thought of that or why.
א Aleph, or a number 1. In lights on signs it can look like an H or an X. In handwriting it looks a bit like a K. In modern Hebrew it takes the place of an A in words from other languages, like Texas, atlas, April or anthropology. Otherwise it is what I call a vowel-holder, which becomes a vowel when you put various dots on it, or a vowel-starter, which comes after a pointed consonant and before another vowel, as in נָאוֹר , one of my new words for today, which means glorious or bright.
I haven't been able to figure out how to get letters to show up in a different font or size on blogspot.
This will be a good day for making banana bread, something I haven't done in two or three years or more.
Psalm 116
What I meant was, bugs in blogspot. G-mail is ok, for the most part. But blogspot is messing up. It took several weeks for them to solve the last problem, so I suppose I'll wait patiently several weeks for them to solve the latest one.
Link to a very nice tune. The words are Psalm 116... What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me, etc.
http://youtu.be/vkPP5UEBhiQ
Link to a very nice tune. The words are Psalm 116... What shall I render to the Lord for all his benefits to me, etc.
http://youtu.be/vkPP5UEBhiQ
May 28, 2011
Bugs
I'm about to give up on g-mail. It's so full of bugs I don't want to mess with it anymore. But neither do I want to start over on something else.
The phone's not working today either. At least not for calling out.
I get a thrill out of certain Hebrew words. Like yirdefuni -- they will follow me. Or col-tagmulohi -- all his benefits. Or qavo qiviti -- waiting, I waited. A few hundred more words, or about 5 years, and I'll be able to read the Psalms. Seems like there ought to be a way to speed that up.
Going to Galilee
We rented a nice yellow car for the trip. This mirror was always in the way of taking pictures.
View from MacDonald's.
Flowers at MacDonald's
The sign says viird qM --- MacDrive.
Sheep and a few goats.
Galilee in the spring.
View from MacDonald's.
Flowers at MacDonald's
The sign says viird qM --- MacDrive.
Sheep and a few goats.
Galilee in the spring.
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