Get Charged

In Israel a battery charger (charges 4 double A's) costs $30. No, actually they cost $60. First you buy one, lose it, spend three days looking for it, buy another one, then find the first one.

Where did this whole dreary day go, anyway. Oh, I remember. I was researching language programs. I was trying to decide whether to study Rocket German or Transparent Russian. I wasn't impressed with either, but then beginning lessons are always pretty dull. So for the time being I guess I will study neither.

There are an average of 12 rain days in Jerusalem during January and February. After that it tapers off to zero rain days in May, June, July, and August. Today it rained off an on, but the sun came out for a few minutes.

Not a Chemist Nor a Cook

Mixing several small bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel didn't produce any strange gases. I assume they're all pretty much the same thing.

Mixing several strange Indian spices to make some tasty snacks didn't produce anything either. Because I don't have any of those spices. Nor do I know where to find them in Israel. And besides, looking at recipes makes me sleepy, too sleepy to cook.

This week's winding down. Surely there has to be more to life than this. If I can't think of anything more interesting to do tomorrow, I will....uh....

play computer games -- NOT
sleep -- not much
clean house -- not much
write dismal poetry -- Possibly
do all my usual studies -- Maybe
cook -- NOT
work a puzzle -- NOT
get depressed -- well, of course
exercise -- YES
write music -- ONLY if I can get organized
get organized -- NOT
dry clothes one at a time on the heater -- YES
check my e-mail 15 times -- maybe twice
go somewhere -- Impossible
wait for something to happen
and wait
and wait
and wait

Saul, Son of a Year

1 Samuel 13 KJV   "Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel,"

The note in my Bible says "one year in his reigning."

You can read many translations that change "one" to "thirty" or "forty," and some translations leave a blank. Some change "two" to "forty-two." If you go to Bible Hub and read several commentaries, you can find several explanations for this, including some really bad ones, such as "errors in the original manuscripts," so they start speculating on what numbers really belong there. Or they'll say that "son of a year" means he was like a child, while others say it means he was an adult. (?!)

But you really don't have to go to great lengths to understand this verse. You can simply read David Kimchi. Or if you don't read Hebrew, you can trust the Authorized Version. The language in Hebrew is very simple -- "son of a year in his reigning." Either he was one year old, OR, as is obviously the case here, he had reigned one year.  The expression is commonly used today to say a person has been in office or in a position for one year. A good commentary gives good explanations as to why these first two years are listed separately from his total reign.

So I got curious and checked several other translations to see which ones changed "one" to "thirty" or "forty." The New American Standard, Revised Standard, NIV, ESV, French, Portuguese, Romanian, and Hungarian Bibles and many others say "thirty" (sometimes in italics), or "forty" or leave a blank. 

The Reina-Valera, Statenvertaling, Authorized Version, Geneva, Young's Literal, New King James, Russian Synodal and Ukrainian Bibles have it correct.

The Sabbath, the Lord's Day

There is really only one Sabbath Day per week, but in a world where hardly anyone anywhere keeps any kind of Sabbath, you appreciate it when Christians keep any Sabbath, including Saturday, as is done in Israel. But there is one fold, one Shepherd, and no middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles. So how can there be two Sabbath days?

But I am not actually interested in debate over which is the correct day. I would just like to find any kind of information on why and how to keep the Sabbath day. I have rarely ever read any good articles on the Sabbath. There is one book, Market Day of the Soul, Dennison.

"Keeping" the Sabbath is immediately labeled as legalism by some. In fact, there are those who say you are a legalist every time you use the word "should." You "should" get some rest for your body every night, but that doesn't make you a legalist if you do. I would say I "should not" stay up past midnight if I want to be healthy, and I "should not" tell lies, and I "should" get my Bible out and read it, and often when I don't really feel like doing it, but I am not a legalist. I might even make a few rules for myself, or have certain methods, for the sake of order and productivity, but that doesn't make me a legalist or a methodist.

Getting Things Done

After a couple days of rain, the sun comes out for a bit. The water heater is fixed--well, mostly--it does produce hot water now. But the control mechanism is still hanging out of the wall, partially held in place with tape.

My computer has its ups and downs. Sometimes it starts up and then stalls. To unstall it, you can unplug the printer and then restart, or you can unscrew the plug from the monitor, or you can just jiggle the box. One day the keyboard quit working, and the solution was the same, unplug something and restart. I guess I better get busy on backing up in case something worse happens.

I read Dave Allen's book on getting things done, and it seemed okay as far as it went, but I still don't know how to get things done. I think the problem is deciding on relative importance. There should be both minimums and maximums for various projects. It's easy enough to stay busy. But how to get lots of little distractions out of the way to free up time for a big project, that is the question. I spend most of my time trying to get organized or to get ready for the big project I really want to do. But the littler ones can't be eliminated entirely, and there are a lot of them.

And after all is said and done, more is said than done.

Snow At Last

Maybe an inch. But it looks so nice that it's almost worth getting cold and wet for a minute or two just to look at it. Everything shuts down. Most roads leading in and out of the city are closed. Meetings are canceled. Someone said there are several bags of salt at the corner, but since it's Shabbat, they're just going to sit there.

It really isn't an emergency, one inch of snow. But why not just sit back and take it easy?

Actually not quite as easy as it could be. Can't take a warm shower when the water heater isn't working. And there's no popcorn. But there is a chocolate bar in the fridge. Just in case I get too stressed.

No Popcorn

It's here, whatever it is. Not a snowstorm. High winds for two days, cold air, a couple crashes of thunder, rain/snow (nothing accumulating), and misery.

Who would ever go out on a day like this?

And who could stay home without being miserable.

At the beginning of a storm you appreciate your nice warm house. But soon you fall into gloom. What can you do? Pop popcorn? If I ever get a chance I'll have to get some, to be prepared for the next gloomy day.

It's only 6:40 p.m. and it feels like it's been 9:30 p.m. all day.

Big Snowstorm

Everybody's getting ready just in case. But it may never happen. We have enough groceries, matches and candles. Not much else you can do.

Just discovered that the bedroom windows are in backwards. No wonder Al has been complaining about the room being drafty. That must have happened several months ago when we took the windows out to clean them. Once they are put into the correct slots, there is a latch that helps seal them off.

It's hard to believe it will really snow. But if it does, it will take a way a tiny bit of the monotony.

Food in Israel

And, by the way, the hamburger doesn't smell very beefy while it's cooking. Instead, it slightly resembles chicken. But I'm going to smother it with tomato sauce and add spices, so it doesn't really matter.

Cashews -- $12 a pound. But that's at an average corner store. At a good market you could probably get them for much less. I don't know because I don't get out much.

Lima beans -- I haven't seen any here. They have broad beans and some others, but not limas. And when the menu in a restaurant says green beans, you get red beans. I don't know if they even know what green beans are. But I have tasted some really, really good green (red) bean soup.

Blackened olives -- that's what they're called. So are they black olives? Yes, but no. They look black, but taste green. And not a very good green.

Pickles -- you can get them in salt or in vinegar. Only the vinegar kind tastes right to me.

A quick way to figure prices is to divide by eight. So if it says 20 shekels per kilo, that's $2.50 per pound. I have no clue about pounds or euros.

Tortillas and taco shells. I keep forgetting to look for them. I have never noticed any, but that doesn't mean they aren't there. Maybe they're hiding behind the pita bread.

But you know what the main problem is with food in Israel? There aren't any of my family here to eat it with.

Home Again

Back to Israeli eggs, e.g., STALE. Guess I'll eat them scrambled from now on.

Back to Israeli meat prices. Eight dollars a pound for hamburger.

But anyway, I'm home, which is good.

No Jet Lag

I just realized that I stayed awake for 32 hours straight!! Well, except a half dozen catnaps of 15 minutes or less. I can't remember what I did all that time. Mostly squirm in my seat with pains in one leg and twitches in the other. I took two drinks every time they offered them; but even so, you can get pretty dehydrated on a plane. I heard pieces of a conversation in Spanish, including words like Cuba, Castro, millionaires, billionaires, London, Greece, family, invest, married, earn, learn Spanish, one morning, many times, excuses, Socrates, Hippocrates, students, and "dya know what I mean?" Apparently "dya- know-what-I-mean" is a Spanish word.

I caught glimpses of other passengers' movies, (from a distance with no sound) which got me analyzing camera techniques and stupid plots, and the unrealness of super-heroes, and the non-glory of being one.

I tried to watch an informational video or two, but even there, the camera-work was annoying. If I hadn't been raised on books and developed a longer span of attention, I'm sure my brain would never have developed. I don't get a thrill out of many short close-ups. I always want to see the larger picture, and how everything fits together. Or I need time to examine what I'm looking at, so as to find what I am interested in, rather than receive impressions forced on me in flashes. The only thing I remember from it all is a close-up of water running in a stream, and wondering where the stream came from, where it went, how the rocks in the stream affected the water flow, what kinds of plants grew along the banks, etc. But they don't want you to look closely or think or analyze.

I don't get jet lag. I find it too complicated. So when it's dark I lie in bed in the dark, tossing and turning and maybe sleeping. When it's daylight, if I happen to wake up, I try to keep my eyes open as much as possible, never minding if I feel a little sick, taking short naps if necessary. After all, the sun rules. Body clocks can reset themselves. I'm not in the habit of looking at the clock anyway.

First thing I notice when I walk in the house is the mold smell. It will have to be aired as soon as possible. Next is that the living room light has no shade on it. Al didn't know what happened to it. I remember now--just before I left it melted and cracked and I threw it away. So now there are no shades on any of the lights in the house. They tend to melt or make the bulbs burn out faster. Next thing I notice is that my plants have nearly died, but maybe they'll revive. They're the slow kind--slow to grow, slow to die, so months go by before they change much.

Fortunately my suitcase that got left in Frankfurt arrived today. There is plenty to do. Just ordinary housekeeping-type stuff, but it's my own place, which can make it interesting or satisfying.