31 January 2013

Last night we both slept well and got up quite early. David ended up going back to bed again before breakfast, though.

I taught 7 units today: 9:00-10:30, 11:00-12:30, 3:00-4:30, and 8:00-8:45. The first class, though, was a last-minute replacement which I had not been scheduled for but agreed to do when then called me about 15 minutes before it started.

Our dear friends and former next-door neighbors in Tsfat, Shimon and Hava, drove down to see us today! They had been staying for several days at Ein Bokek, by the Dead Sea. The weather was a little iffy today, but they decided to come despite the possibility of flash flooding in the Arava. Luckily, they made it through without any trouble. They took us out for dinner (at Café Café in the Ice Park & Mall), and we all had a wonderful time. We enjoyed visiting, and they enjoyed seeing the new mall. After we had eaten, David continue to sit in the restaurant and chat with Shimon while Hava and I walked all the way around the circle on both levels. It was so nice to see them again! They're staying the night in town (at Blue Hotel) and driving to their son's house in Rechovot tomorrow, planning to stay there for Shabbat. I sure hope there won't be any flash flooding tomorrow in the Negev!

30 January 2013

Both of us slept pretty well last night and got up a little after 6:00 this morning. David seemed to feel a little better today, but he's still not very strong at all and has a nasty cough.

I taught 9 units today (including 2 that were a late cancellation): 9:00-10:30 (an Israeli guy born the same year that I was, who built the Thai-style resort here in Eilat!), 11:00-12:30, 1:00-2:30 (the late cancellation), and 3:00-5:15. We ate a quick lunch at home between 12:30 and 1:00, and we didn't go out of the house at all today.

I got just a little more work done on my music today. I am starting to orchestrate my arrangement of "Esa Einai" that I previously did for organ.

29 January 2013

I slept well last night but woke up before 4:00 this morning, when David was getting up. I couldn't convince him to come back to bed, and then I couldn't get back to sleep. About an hour later, I decided to get up, just as he was finally coming back to bed. However, I didn't get sleepy until just a few minutes ago, and now it's getting on towards bedtime anyway.

Theoretically, I taught 10 units today, but the first 2 and the last 3 were actually late cancellations: 9:00-10:30, 11:00-12:30, 1:00-1:45, 2:00-3:30, and 4:00-6:15. We had to eat lunch quickly between 12:30 and 1:00, so I heated up take-home food, and we were fine.

David talked with his sister and her husband today, mostly while I was waiting for my last student (who turned out to be a late cancellation anyway). Then I joined in the conversation for a bit, too.

David has really not been feeling very well today at all. He went with me this evening to get food and more litter for the cats, but he stayed in the car. After that, we drove over to Ice Park and walked around to Greg for ice-cafés. It was almost too much for David. When we got back home, he lost his balance trying to step up onto the curb and fell next to the car beside ours. Two young guys were in the car, and they helped me get David back up on his feet. His dark glasses made a small cut on his nose that bled a bit, but he had gone down slowly and gently, so he wasn't otherwise injured.

28 January 2013

Both of us slept well last night, and our coughs are better today, too. Of course, David's is still worse than mine, and he's still quite a way from feeling "normal".

I was finally back teaching again today, after being out sick all week last week. I taught 7 units today (although the last one was actually a late cancellation): 10:00-11:30, 2:00-3:30, 4:00-5:30, and 8:00-8:45.

We ate lunch at Greg again. David didn't eat very much of his dish (tortellini), though, so we'll have the rest of that for lunch tomorrow at home.

This evening I did some more work on my Folk Song for Strings. Some of the passages were too strident, so I had to back them off a bit. The sound is definitely improving, but it's still not quite where I want it to be. I really do love this virtual orchestra!

27 January 2013

I slept quite well last night, David hardly at all. Both of us continue to have pretty bad coughs, although his is quite a bit worse than mine.

This morning I did the weekly grocery shopping. David came along for the ride, but he stayed in the car.

At 1:00, we had an appointment with Bat-El, David's social worker in the municipal welfare department. She said there is finally a doctor in Be'er Sheva who does (or will soon be doing) examinations of applicants for a teudat iver (certificate of blindness). Since the position has been vacant for months, he or she may have a long backlog. Let's hope that David will receive his letter inviting him for the examination soon, but we'd probably better NOT hold our breaths! Bat-El was also surprised to find out that the mobility instructor has NOT contacted us yet, and she promised to look into that. She was not able to come up with any other help for David, claiming that it's difficult in a small city so far from the rest of the country. Personally, I don't think it would actually be much better anywhere else, either. There IS a blind club here, but she didn't think any of them were English speakers (that's probably also true just about everywhere!). In any case, it was a VERY discouraging meeting for David. So MUCH depends on having the teudat iver. For example, he would like to get a Brailler, a machine that writes Braille. The full price is 5,000 shekels (!), but with a teudat iver, he can get one from the Center for the Blind for only 500 shekels. So, 5,000 now, or 500 who knows HOW many months down the road? Forty-five hundred shekels is equivalent to 1.5 month's rent!

We ate lunch after the meeting at Greg. It was nice to go there, but David was so agitated that he ate very little.

This evening, we had an appointment with the doctor to get medicines to help David sleep and to help with the cough. Afterwards, I went over to the pharmacy while David stayed in the car. There were a LOT of people ahead of me at MaccabiPharm, so I had to wait quite a while. When it was finally my turn, I found out that they were out of the cough syrup! So, they filled the other prescription and checked that I could get the cough syrup at another pharmacy. We then headed over there. Luckily, there was NO wait at that pharmacy!

26 January 2013

We both slept quite well last night, although I was awake and even up for some time in the middle of the night. This morning, we got a late start, but we both felt a little better.

We enjoyed a beautiful drive around the short loop in the reverse direction (up highway 12 and back on highway 90) around the middle of the day. The sky was blue, the sun was warm (I had my window rolled at least partway down throughout the entire trip), and the desert colors were vivid.

In the afternoon, we talked again with David's sister and her husband. After that, we made up rich lentil soup (that's what the package said, in Hebrew, and it really is rich and good) for a very late lunch. We also ate up the rest of the cheese that we had.

Although our colds are better than they were, they still are not over yet. In particular, we both still have rather bad coughs. At least they are productive, which means that our bodies are getting rid of junk (maybe NOT the technical term? LOL) in the lungs.

25 January 2013

I had chafed for a long time at having to buy packages of cold medicine that included two different kinds of pills, one for the daytime, and one for the nighttime, since I rarely need ANY kind of cold medicine in during the day but frequently need one at night to keep of from tossing and turning all night to clear alternate sides of my sinuses. It's particularly annoying that the packages all contain MORE day pills than night ones! When I mentioned it to the pharmacist yesterday, she showed me one that I could take at night. She warned that it could make a person drowsy, but, as I replied to her, isn't that the point of a nighttime pill? So I bought two packages and took one of the pills last night. And, boy was I glad I had! I slept better than I had for numerous nights. David slept pretty well too, but he took a half of one of his prescription sleeping pills (not the new ones I bought for me).

I felt better today, but I still have a pretty bad cough. I expect that it will take some time to get rid of it. Late today, it began affecting my voice, as well (more on that a little later). At any rate, I was glad that I had taken yet another sick day.

I walked down to the bakery around the middle of the day and bought challah and cinnamon rolls, the latter for David, who really likes them. A little later, we drove over to Il Pentolino and ate lunch there.

When it came time to light candles and make Shabbat this evening, my singing voice was completely shot, so I had to just say the blessings instead of singing them. That's when I discovered that, while the wine and bread blessing were just fine, I really only know the special kiddush Shabbat blessing by memory when I SING it! Oh well.

This evening I have been working on my music. First, I did some more editing on the Flor Peeters Prelude that I am transcribing for orchestra. I made the first crescendo longer and more gradual over several of the opening measures. Then I got the auditorium defined and figured out a good placement scheme for the players. The net result is that the piece is beginning to sound really nice! After working on it for a bit, I went back to my Folk Song for Strings, applying some of what I had learned to that piece, as well. It's also continuing to improve.

24 January 2013

We both slept fairly well last night, and this morning I felt better except for quite a nasty cough which continues to this very moment. David, however, was VERY weak this morning, so much so that I had to use the wheelchair (which, thankfully, we own!) to get him to the doctor. He also kept asking me who was here although no one has been here in a long time. He was a bit out-of-touch in general, in fact.

The doctor examined David and couldn't hear anything in his lungs, so he ordered an x-ray to rule out pneumonia. For this, we had to go to the Maccabi facility in town (Maccabi is our קופת חולים kupat kholim, literally "sick fund" but actually better translated as HMO). Thank goodness again for the wheelchair and the fact that it fits nicely in the back of our tiny car without even having to put the back seat down! The x-ray showed some congestion in his right lung but not pneumonia. The doctor gave him a prescription for 10-day course of an antibiotic as a preventive measure. Later in the day, David felt somewhat better, but he's still very tired and still has a very bad cough.

I got a letter from the doctor approving the whole week off for me (Monday through Friday). I'll send a scanned copy of it to Berlitz (which requires such a letter for sick time).

We had another nice chat this evening with David's sister in Ohio.

23 January 2013

I could tell during the night that I had a fever, and I didn't sleep very well at all. In the morning, I took my temperature and found that it was 100.2˚F = 37.9˚F, which is significant but not high. I didn't check it anymore after that, but I can tell that I've continued to have some fever through most of the day. Nevertheless, I generally feel better today than yesterday. I couldn't get us appointments with the doctor today, but I did get them for tomorrow morning.

This afternoon, I had to go out to the market to get some vital supplies. Then, later on, David wanted to go to Greg for ice-café. We went and enjoyed being out, but it really was too much for him due to his lung congestion. I hope he'll be better tomorrow.

22 January 2013

I slept better last night but still woke up a number of times, including one time when I got up for a couple of hours because I couldn't sleep. David was a little weak, so I had told him NOT to go further than the bathroom when he got up. He remembered my instructions, but he still fell one time when he was getting up from the toilet. I had to leave him there on the floor for a while (it was NOT cold, and I put a blanket over him anyway) until he got a little more strength. Then I managed to get him to use the bathtub edge to get up, and we got him back to bed. Luckily, he didn't seem to be at all injured from the fall.

I had already told Berlitz yesterday that I would be taking another sick day today, and now I have already told them I'll take yet another one tomorrow. I actually am definitely feeling noticeably better today than I did yesterday, but I'm still getting some hot and cold spells (maybe a very low fever?) and am having trouble with a deep cough, the kind that makes your abdominal muscles sore. David is still feeling quite a bit worse than I am today.

Despite our colds, we still managed to get out to vote today around the middle of the day. We walked over to the school (one short block away) where our polling station is, but I had to walk back up and get the car to bring David back home.

As we entered the school, there was a woman who looked at our voter cards and told us which way to go. The voters are spread out through numerous rooms since they only let one voter at a time in each of them. I told her that David was blind and asked if I could help him. Yes, replied that I absolutely could. When we entered the room, I again told them about David, and there was again no problem. One man (who was wearing a kippah, so we can assume he was religious) asked me what I was to David (a common question), and I gave my regular reply: אני בן זוגו ani ben zugo (literally, "I am the son of his couple" but perhaps better translated "I am his significant other"). Every single time that I have said this anywhere here in Israel, it has always been immediately accepted without even a TRACE of prejudice!

For those of you who may not be familiar with the voting system here in Israel, here's how it works. Rather than voting for individual candidates, we vote for a party. Then, each party that gets at least 2% of the votes get allocated seats in the 120-member Knesset proportional to the number of votes they got. Each party has an ordered list of its candidates, so that if they get n seats, the first n candidates on their list enter the Knesset. Never in the history of the country has any one party gotten a majority, so one party, usually the one with the largest number of seats, is invited to try to form a coalition of parties that WILL include at least 61 seats. In this particular election, EVERYONE agrees than Binyamin Netanyahu, the current prime minister, will get the most votes and thus will be forming the coalition. The big question, then, is which parties will be in it. We won't know until several weeks of wheeling and dealing have taken place.

As for the actual voting, it's very simple. When the election board folks have checked your ID (yes, you MUST have your national ID card to vote!) and located you on the list, they hand you an empty envelope. You proceed to the voting booth, out of sight from them, of course. In the booth are shallow bins, each one with pieces of paper for one of the parties. All of the parties have one-, two-, or three-letter symbols that represent them, but their party name and the name of the leader are also printed (all of this in Hebrew, of course!). You select the one you want to vote for, put the piece of paper in your envelope, seal it, and bring it out and drop it into the ballot box right in front of the election panel. And that's it!

21 January 2013

I slept pretty well last night, but David did not. However, BOTH of us have been VERY sick today. We can't even remember when we had colds this bad before. Of course I called in sick this morning and, by this afternoon, decided to extend it to tomorrow. I did attend a feedback session for a lesson that I was observed on (last Thursday evening), but even that may have been a mistake, since I was quite irritable.

We did get out and drive the short loop around the middle of the day, stopping at Yotvata to replenish our supply of dates. The drive was actually a bit too long for us, but we made it.

Tomorrow is the election day here in Israel, so we've got to try to get up enough energy to walk over to the school (one short block from here) and vote.

Neither of us felt hungry or ate anything until after 6:00 p.m., and even then it was only a bit of yogurt.

Poor David has felt so sleepy that he has been more confused than usual today. I certainly hope he feels better tomorrow (not to mention, I hope that I also feel better!).

20 January 2013

Both our colds were even worse today! So, we've gotten very little done, naturally. I did take out the trash and the plastic bottles to the recycle bin. And we managed to eat lunch at Chooka, at the Ice Park. Both of us had sushi.

We also had a short Skype visit with David's sister and her husband.

That was about it. I sure hope I feel better tomorrow because I have classes to teach. Sure, Berlitz does give a sick days, but they require a note from the doctor, and it seems a little strange, because if one is well enough to go see the doctor, one is probably well enough to stay at home at teach!

19 January 2013

Both of us have annoying chest colds, but David's is worse than mine. He didn't sleep that much last night at all, and we started our morning about 2 hours later than usual today.

Before lunch we took a drive up the Arava as far as Samar and then turned around and came back. Next, we proceeded to Ice Park and ate lunch at Greg.

I got a bit more work done on my orchestral arrangement of a Flor Peeters piece for organ called "Prelude". It's on one of my organ albums, and David really likes it. He says it reminds him of the beginning of Genesis, where it says the spirit of God was hovering (the Hebrew word is מרחפת m'rakhefet) over the face of the water.

We're going to try to get to bed early tonight and see if we can start getting over these colds.

18 January 2013

Both David and I are dealing with some kind of cold, I think, involving mostly coughing. David seems to have it quite a bit worse than I do, though. In particular, it's interfering with his sleeping, and it's causing him nausea, as well.

I taught 4 units of Berlitz today: 9:00-10:30 and 10:30-12:00. After that, I walked down to the local bakery to buy challah and cinnamon rolls. Then we went over to Ice Park and ate at Greg. David had their Home Fries Salad, and I had their omelet sandwich.

This evening, we made Shabbat together and then mostly relaxed, listening to some music.

17 January 2013

I taught 8 units for Berlitz today: 10:00-11:30, 1:30-2:15, 2:15-3:00, 3:00-4:30, and 6:00-7:30.

David and I went to the market to get several items that we were low on. Then we returned home and ordered pizza for lunch.

Unfortunately, David has not been feeling well today. He's got some kind of cold or flu, which he may well have picked up at the hospital.

This evening, I went to the pharmacy to get the prescription filled that we got from the doctor yesterday. Luckily, I didn't have to wait much at all, and so I got home plenty early to get to bed on time.

16 January 2013

I taught 7 units of Berlitz today: 10:00-11:30, 3:00-5:15, and 6:00-7:30. All were level 7 students (advanced) though at different points in their programs. In fact, today was the last lesson for the first student of the day, a woman from Slovakia whom I have very much enjoyed working with.

We got an appointment with our family doctor today in order to show him David's release letter from the hospital and get the necessary prescription for one of his medicines that was changed slightly. After that, we went to lunch at Greg and enjoyed being there again.

David talked to his sister and her husband this evening, but almost all of their conversation was during my last lesson, so I didn't get to talk much with them.

15 January 2013

I got up early this morning and got over to the gym for a decent work-out and, of course, a good walk over an back. It felt pretty cold, though, since there was a bit of a breeze.

I got several important errands in town accomplished this morning before my first class.

I taught only 3 unit of Berlitz today (11:00-12:30 and 1:30-2:15), although there was 1 additional unit (2:15-3:00) that was a late cancellation, so I'll still get paid for it.

The big news of the day, though, is that David is back home!!!!! I drove up to Be'er Sheva after my last class and picked him up. Then we drove back together.

14 January 2013

I taught 7 units today, although a couple of them ended up being canceled, the first because they couldn't get the student's microphone working, so we couldn't hear her: 9:15-10:00, 10:00-11:30, 12:30-1:15 (also canceled); 1:30-2:15, 3:30-5:00.

I went twice to the Maccabi office today, but didn't end up getting anything done there either time. The first time, it was because I didn't have enough time to wait (I had to get home for the 12:30 lesson). The second time, they were closed.

I went to the post office today to try to pick up registered mail items, one for me and one for David. But since I hadn't brought his ID card with me, they wouldn't give me the package for him. So I'll have to go back there again.

I talked twice with David on the phone today (and one more time I talked with the nurse to help her give him the correct amount of insulin to bring his blood sugar level down). David is feeling much better. He has been walking around there at the hospital a lot and has chatted with several people. It's good that he's doing so well.

13 January 2013

I got up early this morning and thus had plenty of time for a nice walk to the gym and even a bit of exercise while there. It was cold, but certainly not bitter.

After getting some chores done, including the weekly grocery shopping, I headed up to visit David in Be'er Sheva. He is in MUCH better spirits! He talked with the doctors, and they promised to help him speed things up and get the help he needs to be more mobile and to have more options of things to do. There no word yet, of course, on when he'll be coming back home.

This evening, after I got home from Be'er Sheva, I got a call from the nurse where David is. They had tested his blood sugar, and it was, of course, high since they hadn't given him a bolus to cover his meals. She told me the number, and I did the calculation to determine how much insulin they should give him. Then I proceeded to walk her through the process of actually getting the pump to give it to him. All of this was in Hebrew!

12 January 2013

In the late morning today I finally did the hike to Ein N'tafim. I parked the car along highway 12 just north of the southern checkpoint and walked down the 4x4 dirt road. It was about a 15-minute walk, downhill all the way through desolate, rough, lifeless, and yet very beautiful terrain, to Nakhal N'tafim. The nakhal is broad and gently sloped at that point, and there's little to indicate what happens just downstream: a sudden drop-off! If there were any water running in the stream, it would be a great waterfall, but, of course, there was none today. I took quite a few pictures, and some of them seem pretty nice, but I don't think ANY of them really give enough sense of scale to convey the impact of the actual precipice! There are actually 2 trails to descend to the bottom of the falls. One of them goes way around in some way that I didn't even try to follow. The other one descends literally vertically via metal climbing loops attached to the rock! It's like a ladder in a rather tight space between the rocks. I decided I wasn't brave enough to attempt that (although it's probably not really so hard). Besides, I didn't want to have to climb back up, and I kept in my mind that I already had quite a bit of exercise ahead just going back up the road I had come down.

Shortly after I started walking back up, I met a 4x4 vehicle coming down the road with a whole family in it. These were the first people I had seen since starting on my hike. A couple of minutes later, another vehicle came down, this one with just a single park ranger in it (from the Nature and Parks Authority). He greeted me and detected immediately from my accent that I spoke English. Of course, this was his opportunity to practice English and the end of mine to practice Hebrew. LOL. Seeing that I had emptied the water bottle I had brought with me, he offered me some water, but I didn't feel that I needed any, so I declined. A number of minutes later, he again approached, going back up the road. This time, I was standing in a shady spot catching my breath for a bit. He again stopped and offered me a ride back to the highway. Although it wasn't all that far and I'm sure I could have made it easily, I readily accepted his offer. He was a very nice and friendly young man.

I ate lunch today at Greg, having their omelet sandwich.

This afternoon, I talked to David's sister and her husband. I found out that her granddaughter will probably be able to enroll in an online program to do her schooling at home. She needs that kind of individual attention, so that will be good for her.

This evening, I did some good work on arranging Flor Peeters "Prelude" for string orchestra, specifically for the virtual Synful Orchestra. Although all the notes are already in the computer (from when I recorded the piece for organ on one of my albums), I have to edit every single one and enter and tweak values for controllers in order to make it really sound nice and correct for strings.

I talked to David twice today, the second time just moments ago. He seems to be in better spirits and has enjoyed some chats with other patients. Tomorrow, I'll be driving up to visit him and to bring some additional items.

11 January 2013

Today was a busy day. After breakfast, David and I headed north to Beer Sheva. The reason was that David's depression has been steadily worsening, and it had reached a critical, life-threatening point. After a good trip (including a refreshing stop to see the animals at 101KM in the Arava), we arrived at the Soroka Hospital there, ate lunch, and headed for the emergency room. Of course, we had to wait quite a while, but the psychiatrist who saw David was good and sympathetic. She agreed to write a letter so that he could be admitted to the psychiatric hospital in Beer Sheva. So, we took the letter and headed over there. The admitting doctor there was really great and very thorough. This made the intake process rather long but it GREATLY increased my confidence that they will actually do the right things to help David.

I left there a little before 9:00 p.m. with David in bed. Naturally, he was VERY tired after the long day. I had a pleasant drive home, and arrived here just after 11:30.

I must add a few vignettes here. Visiting a hospital in Israel is ALWAYS an interesting experience! In the area around Beer Sheva live many Bedouins, so one always sees lots of them in town, and the hospital is certainly no exception. So my first little story is about the cute young Bedouin who was sitting near me and asked me, in Hebrew, if everything was okay. When I told him "yes", his answer was "Baruch HaShem"!

As we were sitting there waiting, I saw a nurse go up to a very obviously African young man, who name was apparently Adam, and ask if he spoke Hebrew. He didn't, and he also didn't speak English. But he DID speak Arabic!

In another scene I observed, a male nurse was speaking Hebrew with a very Russian (and, I might add, queeny!) accent -- to a Muslim woman (I knew from her headdress)!

The intake psychiatrist at the psych hospital was apologetic about his English, but he actually spoke it better than most of my students. Later, I heard him speaking in Russian on the phone. Of course, he was fluent in speaking as well as typing Hebrew (he did a LOT of the latter!).

10 January 2013

Today, I taught 6 units for Berlitz: 10:30-12:00, 12:30-1:15, 1:30-2:15, and 6:00-7:30.

We ate out at Greg again today.

While nothing near as bad as most of the country, the weather here in Eilat today was quite cold. Although there were quite a few big clouds, we didn't get any precipitation at all (I think!).

David's depression has been getting worse, so tomorrow will be devoted to dealing with that. I have had to ask Berlitz to cancel all my lessons because of this.

9 January 2013

I got up fairly early and took a good walk this morning. It was quite cool out, and I could see that it had rained a bit during the night, since there were raindrops on the cars, but I was warm in my nice Yellowstone jacket. I walked clear over to the nakhal, but there was no water running in it at all.

I taught 9 units of Berlitz today: 9:15-10:00, 10:00-11:30, 1:45-2:30, 3:00-5:15, and 6:00-7:30. Between 11:30 and 1:45, we drove the short loop just to get out of the house. I barely made it back in time for my 1:45 lesson.

We ate lunch at home between 2:30 and 3:00. I re-heated some of the cheese ravioli in mushroom cream sauce that we had brought home from Greg a couple of different times (when David didn't all of his order).

My last class today was a new one, and I'm scheduled to be their only teacher. It's a level 7 class, and it's going to be a great group. Two of the students are in Romania, two others are from Romania but now live in Austria and Ireland, and the last student is in Valencia, Spain. They all work for the same company, though.

8 January 2013

I had a relatively light Berlitz day today, only 4 units: 9:00-10:30, 12:30-1:15, and 1:30-2:15.

During the late-morning break, I got some cat food especially for Peachy, our female cat. We have been feeding all 3 cats the same food, and it's diet food (17% less calories) in order to keep the boys (who are both neutered males) from getting too fat. It works fairly well for that, but Peachy has been getting dangerously thin. So I got some regular food that we will feed only to her and try to keep her from eating much of the boys' food. Hopefully, she'll soon fill out a bit.

After the last class, we ate lunch at Greg and then took a short drive. The weather was quite chilly and mostly cloudy today, but there wasn't any rain. Of course, this is NOTHING compared to the storms that have been pounding most of the country recently!

This evening we had an appointment with our doctor in order to get more of the medicine that David previously took that helped control his stomach and nausea problems. I also got the name of the Maccabi psychiatrist who works via videoconference link (like his HIV doctor). We need to get David connected again with a psychiatrist in order to make sure his meds are properly balanced and also to get some support in dealing with the difficulties that come with his blindness (combined with his other problems).

7 January 2013

I had trouble getting to sleep last night and so naturally did not get up early this morning and get out there. In fact, I saw this morning that we had gotten some small amount of rain during the night. I also heard the wind blowing a lot for much of the night, I think.

Today was a very busy Berlitz day -- 10 units: 10:00-11:30, 12:30-1:15, 1:30-2:15, 3:30-5:00, 5:00-6:30, and 6:30-8:00. Actually, that last lesson was a no-show, so I was able to leave at 7:30.

We ordered pizza at home today (from Pizza Del Payero) because there wasn't time enough to go out and eat.

In the evening, we went over to Ice Park and had ice-cafés at Greg before coming back home and heading for bed.

6 January 2013

Again, I didn't quite make it out for a walk this morning.

This morning, I went (online, not in person!) to the monthly Berlitz "brown bag" meeting. Berlitz would LOVE to require us to attend these, but they can't, because if they did, they'd have to pay us for them. Anyway, this time I did attend but really wished that I hadn't.

We ate lunch at Greg again today and had some of our usual dishes.

This evening, I did the weekly grocery shopping at Shufersal. They have installed new self-service cash registers, so naturally I had to try one of them. When I saw the total, it seemed rather high, but I didn't check the receipt carefully, at least not until I got home. THEN, I saw what I had done. I buy 8-packs of yogurt cups, plain for me and fruited for David. When I got to them, the machine asked me how many, so I figured the code for a single cup was probably the same as for a pack, so I carefully entered 8. But, of course, when I looked carefully at the actual receipt, I could see that I had paid WAY too much for them. So, I had to drive all the way back over there to get it corrected. Of course, the customer service lady was very nice, so it was really no problem (other than the extra trip over there for me).

I once again experienced something about Israelis that never ceases to amaze me. I explained the problem in Hebrew well enough that she understood what had happened. But she used her somewhat limited English to make sure I felt comfortable and understood what she was doing. As virtually ALWAYS happens with Israelis, she acted quite apologetic about her English, and this is something that always amazes me. The American attitude is this: if you go to another country, it is YOUR responsibility to learn the language there (and rather quickly, since Americans really have no idea how difficult that actually is!). Here is Israel, they somehow feel like THEY have failed if they can't speak perfect English! So strange!

5 January 2013

I woke up early, but my sinuses were again acting up so I didn't go out for a walk.

I got some more editing work done on the Brandenburg today. It's very slow going.

David and I took a short walk along the shore of the Red Sea this morning. The weather was perfect! I was wearing a short sleeve shirt and felt very comfortable.

After our walk, we drove the short loop in the reverse direction (going up highway 12 and returning on highway 90 via the Arava). Then we went directly over to Ice Park and ate lunch at Greg.

We had a nice conversation with David's sister and her husband this afternoon. They're still getting unpacked and settled in the mobile home they just recently bought.

This evening I spent some time listening to demos of instruments from the Vienna Symphonic Library. Truly amazing! Although the samples were recorded, note by note, from real musicians playing the various instruments, the performances were done by computer, but you'd never know it. Sorry, musicians, but you can literally be replaced by a computer now!

4 January 2013

My sinuses didn't feel very good this morning, so I didn't go out for a walk even though I actually woke up quite early.

I taught 5 Berlitz units today: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, and 12:30-1:15.

We ate lunch at Il Pentolino, having our usual dishes there.

I got some more work done on the Brandenburg Concerto, but it's rather slow going now. I also did a little more research on harpsichords. I found one for free that runs under Hauptwerk, and I downloaded it. I still think that I probably will NOT use it in the Brandenburg even though Bach actually specifies it specifically for the continuo.

3 January 2013

This morning I got up quite early, so I decided to drive up and then walk in Nakhal Shlomo. I started the walk before there was any light from the dawn at all. Instead, the waning moon, which was high in the sky, lit my way. Of course, it wasn't long before the dawn light began, and by the time I returned to the car it was quite light although still well before sunrise.

I had only one Berlitz student today for one unit: 12:30-1:15. This left me plenty of time to work on my music. One of the things I concentrated on today was setting the locations of the instruments more realistically. In the Synful Orchestra software it is possible to control the size of the room, the listener's location, the location of each section of the orchestra, the spread of the players within a section, and many other more exotic parameters. Just by adjusting the locations of the sections I was able to improve both of the performances I am working on: my Folk Song for Strings, and Bach's 3rd Brandenburg Concerto.

We ate lunch again at Greg, but we tried some different dishes. David had their red lentil soup, and I had patoush salad, which is now a new favorite of mine!

After lunch, we drove the short loop, stopping at Yotvata to replenish our supply of their delicious dates.

I also spent a little time researching harpsichord plugins that I could use if I decide to make my Bach performance more authentic. I found several, but I haven't made any decisions yet.

2 January 2013

I got up early enough for another good morning walk this morning after sleeping quite well.

I made a couple of phone calls today to try to check on things regarding helping David with his blindness. The process is moving VERY slowly. He would really like to have more independence, and in particular, he hopes to be able to get a guide dog.

I taught 6 units today (while, actually, I still have 2 of those to go at this moment): 12:30-1:15, 3:00-5:15, and 7:30-9:00.

We ate at Greg again. David has their "American Bagel", and I had sabikh salad. This time, I brought the bread home so that I wouldn't get too stuffed!

I worked more on editing my performance of the Brandenburg Concerto today. I'm continuing to tweak the first few measures because they set the tone for the whole first movement.

David and I took a short walk together this evening. We're trying to make this a more regular thing, both for exercise and to help him feel more confident using his stick. However, there are some hazards that are not easily found with a stick, so it's not completely safe for him to walk very far alone at all.

1 January 2013

I didn't sleep too well last night, but I still managed to get up reasonably early this morning and get a nice walk to the big kikar in.

We ate lunch at Pastory, an Italian restaurant in the hotel district where we hadn't eaten in some time. Most of their dishes are NOT vegetarian, but they do have a nice fettucine with a sauce that has artichoke hearts and asparagus. So, of course, that's what we both had.

This evening, we had a nice conversation with David's sister and her husband. She had been in the hospital but is doing much better now. Also, they just bought and moved into a nice double-wide mobile home, so they're getting settled in now and really enjoying the increased living space.

I got some more work done on my performance of the Brandenburg Concerto (No. 3, by Bach). Now the whole first section, though still far from perfect, is sounding more musical and less mechanical.