Just Looking for a Home

The first time I saw the boll-weevil
He was standin' in the square
The next time I saw the boll-weevil
He had his whole fam'ly there
   Just lookin' for a home,
   Just lookin' for a home.

The boll-weevil said to the farmer
You'd better leave me alone
I done et up all your cotton,
And now I'll start on your corn.
   Just lookin' for a home,
   Just lookin' for a home.

Sounds like this guy would have made a wise farmer:

"I knows why that boll weevil done come. They say he come from Mexico, but I think he always been here. Away back yonder a spider live in the country, 'specially in the bottoms. He live on the cotton leaves and stalks, but he don't hurt it. These spiders kept the insects eat up. They plow deep then, and plants cotton in February, so it made 'fore the insects git bad."

"Then they gits to plowing deep, and it am colder ‘cause the trees all cut, and they plows up all the spiders and the cold kill them. They plants later, and there ain't no spiders left to eat up the boll weevil."

I hear that crazy ants are displacing fire ants. They don't sting like fire ants, but they will be harder to control.

But really what I was about to post was about apartment-hunting. We looked at one that was well laid out and nice and sunny and in a good location, but it had several drawbacks, including not enough space. I smile every time I think about how cheery it was and how natural it felt.

Then we looked at another one that had a totally perfect bathroom and a totally perfect kitchen. But it also had several drawbacks, that even the totally perfect bathroom and a totally perfect kitchen didn't make up for. I could about cry, though, for that bathroom and kitchen.

So we'll have to keep looking until we find something that has an imperfect bathroom and an imperfect kitchen in a somewhat acceptable location with a somewhat acceptable layout with almost enough space and not quite totally dark.

Unless I change my mind about cheery-and-natural-with-drawbacks and totally-perfect-with drawbacks. Can't have everything. But how do you choose? Guess I'll worry about it next week.

Transportation

There must be some way to get around better and do more. I'm not interested in driving a car in Jerusalem, and I can't walk far enough to really have a life, so I am considering options. Maybe I could get a skateboard. That would be good for coasting downhill.

Going uphill would take a motor. Maybe an electric skateboard? It has a remote control that you hold in your hand while you ride. I don't need to go fast. This would enable me to get there in fewer steps.

 Maybe some sort of scooter.

Or a personal transporter.

 Or a scooter with a seat.

 Better yet an electric tricycle. Something I've dreamed of for a long time.

Or I could get a puppy.

And train it to pull me.

At the end of long, exciting day,

I could relax on the couch.

That's my plan, anyway. Now I just have to carry it out.

 

Where Is My Home?

Looking for an apartment is always a time consuming venture, but we need to find a place closer to the University.
I saw the most perfect apartment several months ago, but the location wasn't right.
Then we looked at a well-lighted and aired apartment in a central location, but it was too small.
After that we saw a very large apartment with a garden, but it  was a little too expensive. The location was good, in that Al could get to school fairly quickly.
For me, no location will be as good as the present one, where I can reach several shops or parks without too much trouble. To be able to get to the store and buy some fresh cucumbers, and another day to another one to buy some good yogurt, gives me a little freedom and the satisfaction that I can do a little something for myself. If we were to live in a more spread out area, I would be able to do nothing at all unless I buy some sort of electric vehicle that you can drive on the sidewalk.
The best looking apartment, well-lighted, good price, good location, fresh warm-color paint, nice wood-look floor, was on the fifth floor. But going up one flight of stairs to get into the building, and 5 more to get to the apartment, would probably ensure that once there I would just stay. I would never get outside and I would get really depressed. The ground floor was surrounded by senseless arches. It might look nice from a distance, but after you go through the arches you are in a neglected basement-like place, with open floor good  for nothing  but crawling area for roaches or lizards--not secure enough for storing things in, or comfortable enough to lounge in.
The last apartment we saw at night, so I can't be sure what it would be like in the daytime. The living room might be nice, but the rest of it wasn't impressive. The clothesline got no sunshine at all. If you walk down a long parking lot and up a couple long ramps with high cement walls on both sides, there are some dingy but handy shops. I don't know what the purpose of all that cement is.
To be in contact with the ground or within a few steps of nature seems to me to be most important. Even in the city, near dusty and noisy streets, it seems right to be on the ground. Walking outside on warm cement, or on the same ground that trees gladly grow in, is what it takes for me to feel that I am not stuck on a shelf or in a cage or prison.
I am sure that when I see the right place, I will know it. If I can't find the right place, I will just have to pick one and make it the right place. That would mean painting it a nice color and arranging it just right. And buying all the necessary furniture and things. It could be sort of fun, or it could be a huge hassle. Probably a little of both.

Take a Ride

Wednesday was Jerusalem Day. Wednesday evening I tried to get to church by bus. Some streets were closed off for parades, so the buses had to take different routes.  (The route changes are published on the bus website, but I don't think the drivers or the passengers take much note of them.)
When my bus took an unexpected turn to get around the parade area, I decided I had better get off as soon as possible--but the driver didn't stop--he just kept going and going. So I waited it out, thinking he would probably eventually circle around closer to my destination. If worse came to worse, I could get off the bus and take a taxi. Meanwhile a grouchy-looking man was yelling what seemed to be complaints at the driver, but then he went up and had a friendly conversation with him. By that time several of the passengers were asking where we were going and some of them were trying to tell the driver where to turn. I don't know if he took their advice or not. At one point he turned right onto a street that was bumper-to-bumper, so he backed out of it and turned left instead. Eventually we came to a stop, not because the driver was interested in stopping, but because several passengers insisted on it.
I got on another bus and asked if it would take me to the train, and the driver gave me the barest nod, so I got on  hoping that it really would. Whenever we stopped to pick up more passengers, they were all asking where the bus was going and can we get there from here, which implied they were being forced to take whatever bus they could get, instead of their usual bus, or they wouldn't have been asking so many questions. (Not tourists, either, but Jerusalemites, several of whom I recognized from the other end of town.) We passed several crowded bustops where people were trying to stop any bus they could get, but most of the buses just passed them up. When we finally reached the train area, a police car was blocking the road, so what does the bus driver do? He starts honking at the policeman, over and over. The policeman wouldn't give in, so the bus driver took another unexpected turn, and again the passengers had to demand to be let out. Those who wanted the train were disappointed because the train had shut down.
I got off about three blocks from my destination. I was almost an hour late, but I could only laugh. In other large cities, I would be very anxious going through unfamiliar neighborhoods, and shocked by people honking at the police, but this is Jerusalem. I'm glad I didn't take a taxi, because they will charge double on special occasions, or more if they can get away with it. Come to think of it, one of those buses was a free ride, because the meter wasn't working.

April 2013

Church here is different but interesting. The sermon the other night was preached in English and translated into Russian, while a woman behind me was translating for her husband into some other language. Some days the power goes out every so often, but we just sit patiently in the dark till it goes on again.

Basic truths like the resurrection, particular atonement, and eternal punishment are known and accepted by the regular members, but there are often visitors of all types, usually tourists, from various church backgrounds, and this results in many interesting discussions after church.

Songs are in English or Hebrew or sometimes Russian, or sometimes two languages simultaneously or consecutively. There isn't a regular hymnbook. For a while we used a projector of the kind where you print the songs on plastic. Now we use a computer projector with power point slides. Most of the Hebrew songs are transliterated into English and Russian. Some people prefer to read Hebrew in Hebrew, understandably, so one slide often contains three versions of the same verse.

We meet in a small lower room under a bigger church. It is not pretty, but it works well, and we don't need a sound system. Someone from another group would occasionally stick a small wooden cross on the wall, but a couple of us kept taking it down and eventually it disappeared for good. The only symbols we need are the bread and the wine. I have heard that the church above us is full of idols, so I am glad we have a plainer place.

Trip to Galilee

A full day just relaxing. Not totally relaxing, since it involved a short hike, but relaxing by not planning, worrying, or studying.

 I find this hilarious. Doesn't the sign need to be a little closer to the tunnel?

Fish Ponds

Farms

Lookout

Lookout over Valley of Megiddo

City on a Hill

 

Mount Tabor and part of Nazareth

WEATHER

Our record-breaking winter storm in December was quite an event. Eight inches of snow. Several episodes of hail and snow pellets. It took till the end of February before the piles of tree branches along every street were picked up. Our nice bottle-brush tree got broken, and so did the biggest rubber-tree I have ever seen. The leaning trees in the park had to be cut down, for which I am not sorry. But I don't understand why they left four-foot tall stumps, too high and slanted to sit on.

The last few days have been truly warm. I can actually take off my coat and sometimes my sweater indoors.

The cycle of spring flowers begins. I wish I were organized enough to make a flower diary with pictures. Mustard, poppies, anemone, oxalis, and various others probably bloom at very exact times, partly overlapping each other. My favorite rose bush this year has only two big beautiful deep pink-streaked flowers, instead of several small lighter-colored ones. White, lavendar and purple alyssum are blooming where planted. A hollyhock is coming up in the sidewalk. One year it had beautiful blossoms. The next year it go cut down before it bloomed. It doesn't know that it actually doesn't, according to some people, belong in the sidewalk. Judas trees are blooming, yellow puff trees are starting to bloom.

 Anchusa, which has small deep blue flowers, is blooming. It's actually kind of a weed, but the flowers are nice. One year, back in the early 70's, I planted the garden variety, which looks about the same but without the thorns. The next year I didn't want them, but they were hard to get rid of. Every piece of tuberous root would start a new plant.

Every time I see a spectacular flower display, I look for the same thing to happen the next year. But it never happens again at the same place. But there are new ones. This week I saw some well trimmed pittosporum with lots of light-green new growth.

But the brick sidewalk near our flat hasn't been swept in over three years. The row of 20 or more big flower tubs gets no care at all, except for an automatic watering system, which is in need of maintenance. What grows in them is what grows easily, including a few persistent flowers and lots of weeds. The nicest flower displays are often half overtaken with some weed. Or there are several nice plants but they are much too crowded. I can appreciate a sort of wild look, but the dirt and dust and  neglected look never cease to bother me.