Friday, 28 February 2014

Both of us had a hard time getting to sleep last night, but we finally did. The sleeping pill the doctor gave David was too much, despite being the smallest dose. It made him have slurred speech and made it hard for him to even stand up to pee. It also made him feel a bit "drugged" in the morning and very sleepy until nearly lunchtime. He won't take it again, and I totally agree. The increased dose of the other med, however, does seem to be having some effect, as he is not depressed and has been somewhat less irritable today.

I slept well but got up a bit late. I still had time to get down to recycle the cardboard and buy challah for Shabbat before breakfast.

I taught only one 2-unit class today: 9:00-10:30. The student who had had a 4-unit class scheduled (10:30-1:30) canceled yesterday just in time to avoid a late cancellation, saying he was sick. So, he doesn't lose the units, but I, of course, did lose that lesson and the income from it. That's just the way Berlitz works.

We ate lunch at Chooka, where we had our usual dishes: sushi for me, and chang mai for David.

Just before sundown we made Shabbat by lighting candles, sipping sweet red wine, and eating challah. Of course, Pascal also got his rolled oats and seeds.

Thursday, 27 February 2014

I slept well again but also slept in and did NOT get up early.

I taught a 2-unit Berlitz lesson this morning as a replacement for someone else: 10:00-11:30.

We had lunch at Il Pentolino today, a day earlier than usual.

David's appointment with the neurologist was rescheduled to next week, but we did go to his appointment with the psychiatrist. We are both quite impressed with him -- he respects and listens to the patient, and he explains the possibilities, what he is doing, and why. We're lucky to have found him! After the visit, David seemed to be feeling noticeably better. We'll be doubling the dose on his main psych med, and we have some hope that this will improve things for him. We'll be going back to the psychiatrist a week from tomorrow.

After the doctor, we went to the pharmacy to pick up the new meds, and then we continued to Ice Park for frozen yogurt.

Wednesday, 26 February 2014

Last night at about 11:00 p.m. David woke up with a feeling that his blood sugar level was very low (an "insulin reaction"), so he got up to test. He had some trouble, so he brought the meter back to the bedroom to have me help him. Both of us were rather shocked by the answer: 32! The normal range for blood sugar is about 70 to 126, so this is extremely low. I've think he's only been this low once or twice before in the time that I've know him (over 18 years). Strangely enough, he was still able to walk and talk coherently (we do know that not all insulin reactions are created equal). We got a couple of dates into him and tested about 15-20 minutes later, finding that the level had risen to 41, still very low. Two more dates and we felt safe to let him go back to sleep. Sure enough, in the morning all was well, with his blood sugar at 96.

Despite the interruption to my sleep, I slept quite well overall, woke up early, and got out for a walk for nearly half an hour (to the highway 12 kikar and back) this morning.

We had an appointment with a family doctor this morning (not our regular one, who wasn't available) to get referrals for David to see the neurologist and the kidney doctor.

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers today. Miri, one of the 2 owners who is also the main chef there, prepared a special dish just for David, with whole-grain rice, vegetables, and gluten. He LOVED it! I had something I hadn't tried before: a toasted tortilla with vegan cheese, olives, smoked tofu, and tomato sauce in it (somewhat like a slightly weird quesadilla). It was quite tasty.

I taught on only one 2-unit Berlitz class today: 5:00-6:30, after which we took a short drive up into the Eilat Mountains, just to get out of the house (and enjoy the view, including the lights of Hakl, Saudi Arabia).

David's migraine was gone today, but, unfortunately, he has moved from slight mania to pretty serious depression. Luckily, we have an appointment tomorrow with his psychiatrist. It's likely, though, that he will have to be hospitalized.

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

I slept well last night but woke up not feeling so good and didn't go out for a walk this morning.

Before breakfast, we went to the Maccabi downtown for David's blood test. His psychiatrist needs to know some levels by the time of his next appointment, on Thursday.

This morning, we went to the weekly WIZO meeting. There was no particular program, but the main reason we go is for the social contact, and I did enjoy chatting with several people there today.

Unfortunately, at about the time of the WIZO meeting David began having a bad migraine headache, which has continued all day. Hopefully, he'll feel better tomorrow.

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers today. David had a pizza with vegan chorizos on it, and I had their shnitzel dinner (breaded vegan steak with mashed potatoes on the side).

I taught 5 units of Berlitz lessons today, all back-to-back: 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, and 5:30-6:15. After the last lesson, I took a few minutes talking with Javier, one of the tech support guys (who happens to be located in Colombia!), to download some small upgrades to the Adobe software we are now using for our lessons.

Finally, David and I drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt. We are scaling that back a little in two ways: we order the small cup instead of the medium one, and we have them add only fruits to the yogurt (no white chocolate, like we did before). We are both trying to lose weight (and need to!).

Monday, 24 February 2014

I woke up early this morning and felt quite good, so I got up and took a nice walk. The cold is still definitely NOT gone, but I am feeling better today, so I'm thankful for that.

I taught 8 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:00-1:00, 2:30-4:00, and 5:00-6:30. We ate lunch at home.

After my last class, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt.

Sunday, 23 February 2014

I slept fine, then was awake for about 3 hours, and then slept pretty well until morning. But I got up very late. The cold is still causing a lot of troubles.

This morning we went to Shufersal for the weekly grocery shopping.

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers, where we ran into a couple of our friends who had just finished eating and were getting ready to leave. After that, I went into the pharmacy to pick up the prescription for the larger-dosage pills of David's new psych medicine.

Since we hadn't gone out of town at in several days, we decided to take a drive around the short loop, going first up highway 12. It was a lovely day for such a beautiful ride in the desert.

In the evening, our landlord came over, checked out a few problems that we had, brought us the contract for the new year to sign, and took the rent checks for the next year that I had already written.

Shabbat, 22 February 2014

My cold is still giving me trouble (not surprisingly), so I generally took the day off to rest today. We did go to Barbis for lunch and to Ice Park in the afternoon for frozen yogurt. Later still, we talked for quite a while with David's sister. She and her husband are currently in Kentucky for the weekend.

Finally, I finished my 4 required evaluations for my "Write Like Mozart" class.

Friday, 21 February 2014

I slept well last night but woke up too late and too tired to go out for a walk. I'm getting really annoyed with this lingering cold. Unfortunately, it's only serving to illustrate my theory that really bad colds pass quite quickly, whereas mild colds hang around for weeks and even months!

Before breakfast, I walked down to recycle the cardboard and buy challah at the local bakery.

I taught 5 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30 and 10:30-12:45.

We ate lunch at Il Pentolino today, and after that we went to an appointment with David's psychiatrist. He's upping the dosage of the new medicine he started David on, and we're hoping that this will help with David's disposition. We'll still be below the normal dose, so there's room for further increases if necessary.

Shortly before the sun disappeared behind the hills, we made Shabbat, lighting candles, sipping a bit of sweet red wine, and eating challah. As soon as I got the candles down out of the cupboard Pascal was there, patiently waiting for his Shabbat seeds and rolled oats!

This really should have gone in yesterday's post, but I forgot about it: when David went to the family doctor by himself, I sent a letter to the doctor that I had written earlier in Hebrew. It probably wasn't quite perfect, but hopefully it helped the doctor understand what had been happening, and I'm just happy that my Hebrew is good enough to be able to do this!

Thursday, 20 February 2014

I slept well but long last night and woke up feeling quite a bit better. It was still too late to go for a walk, though.

I finally got over to the car repair place today to pay for the work that they did a week ago. They didn't seem to be at all upset about the delay, fortunately.

This morning we heard a dripping sound. At first, we both thought it was something from the refrigerator, which sometimes makes strange sounds but continues to work just fine. But when I went to the laundry room (really, just an alcove off the kitchen), I could tell that there was water dripping in there. I quickly saw that it was coming from some kind of wrapped pipe that comes down from the ceiling and goes into the wall. We've had some dripping from it before, when it rained for more than a few hours, but this was putting out more water (although still only dripping). I immediately called our landlord, and he came over quite quickly. However, even before he arrived, I went outside to take the trash out and heard water out there, too. When I looked up, I could see what the problem was -- there was a fountain of water shooting upwards from the roof of the building! Someone's solar water heater (nor ours, thankfully!) had sprung a leak. The building "manager" later told us that it was one of the apartments on the 2nd floor, and, apparently, they did something about it, because the fountain and the dripping stopped before very long.

We ate lunch again today at Buddha Burgers. David had a shwarma burrito (ate half of it and brought the other half home), and I had "seitan fingers" (breaded and fried glutton sticks).

I taught 5 units today, all back-to-back (although the middle one was a no-show): 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, and 5:30-6:15.

David needed an appointment today with our family doctor, Dr. Vaknin, to get a prescription for the medicine that the ER doctor had prescribed (Maccabi only pays to fill prescription written by THEIR doctors, of course). The only appointment available was at 4:30, right smack in the middle of my teaching time. David insisted that he could go alone to the doctor, and he did! He went there by taxi, but he actually walked back. I have an app on our phones called "Find My Friends" that I can use to track where he is (as long as he has his phone with him), so I used that to keep tabs on him. The taxi driver took him around Robinhood's barn to get to the doctor, but at least he got him to the right place eventually (and well before his appointment). On the way back, David walked past our building and started down the street, so it was lucky that my middle student was a no-show so that I was able to walk out and retrieve him. All in all, it's really wonderful that he can manage that well by himself and can walk that far!

After my last class, I took the prescription he had gotten from the doctor and another one that they hadn't had the last time I was at the pharmacy and got them filled.

Wednesday, 19 February 2014

I slept quite well last night but woke up late with a rather bad sinus headache. Even the 800mg of ibuprofen I took hardly touched it. I finally took a daytime cold medicine, and it helped a little. Eventually, the headache went away, but the sinus problem continues.

This morning we went in to see the nurse because David's new psyche medicines don't seem to have been working as well as they should. The nurse, who speaks fluent English, talked to both of us for a bit and then for a while more with just David. She also was able to arrange an appointment for him with the psychiatrist this Friday (as opposed to the earliest I had been able to get: a week from tomorrow).

However, shortly after we had returned home, she called to tell us that she had sent an e-mail to the psychiatrist and that he had written back that David should go immediately to the ER! This surprised us both, and, in retrospect, I think we should have questioned her (and perhaps, indirectly through her, the doctor), but we proceeded to the ER. Unfortunately, we left without David's bag, which contains all his IDs, and the receptionist at the ER wasn't very happy about that. Nevertheless, they accepted him. I think I'm still supposed to go back there sometime with the IDs, but I'm not quite sure about that.

Of course, it was quite some time before we even talked to the triage nurse, and then it was more than 2 hours more before we talked to the doctor there. Basically, they didn't know anything to do there, and so the whole trip was pretty much a waste, not to mention that I had to cancel all 4 units of Berlitz lessons that were scheduled for today: 3:00-4:30 and 5:00-6:30. Oh well, that the way it goes -- c'est la vie -- מה לעשות!

When we finally left the hospital, we made a quick trip back home to get David's bag, which also contains his glucose meter, and headed to Buddha Burgers to eat a VERY late lunch. We did both enjoy that very much, though, so not all was lost, I guess.

Tuesday, 18 February 2014

I slept fairly well last night but still woke up late and still fighting this cold (or whatever it is).

This morning we went to the weekly WIZO meeting. The program was entitled "Words and Music" and presented stories behind some well-known songs followed by recordings of them. It was quite nice, even though I actually didn't know most of the songs.

After the meeting, we took our friend, Isobel, to lunch at Landwer Café at Ice Park. David and I had been there once or twice quite some time ago, but for a long time it was out of the question because one has to go either up or down quite a few stairs to get to it (it's located about half-way between the upper and lower levels of the mall), and David simply wasn't able to do steps. But today, he went right up them like nobody's business! Even coming down afterwards, he did fairly well. The food there was really nice, too, and somewhat different from our usual fare.

I taught 7 units of Berlitz lessons today: 2:30-4:00, 4:00-5:30, 5:30-6:15, and 7:00-8:30. It felt very busy because of all those back-to-back lessons, which are always a bit nerve-wracking. In the 45-minutes break before the last lesson, I zipped over to our friends' house to feed their cats. They're on a short overnight trip to Tel Aviv.

Monday, 17 February 2014

Both of us slept very well last night, but I didn't get up and go for a walk this morning. This was at least partly because of the cold/sinus infection that I'm battling.

I taught 6 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30, 2:30-4:00, and 5:00-6:30. All day long, though, we were having problems with the Berlitz system, and most of the students had a lot of trouble logging in. I also had some trouble, so the tech support people were really busy today!

We ate lunch at Café Café at Ice Park. David had their eponymous salad, and I had their great Italian shaksuhka. Both were very delicious! Afterwards, we drove over and got Rosa (our car) a much-needed bath!

After my last class, I made a quick trip to Shufersal for the "weekly" grocery shopping.

Sunday, 16 February 2014

Because of a bit of rain last night, we fed the cats indoors and let them stay in for the night. In fact, they were so well-behaved that we've decided to continue this tradition indefinitely, even without any threat of rain. Both of us slept well and woke up at a good time.

Today was the day for another trip to the dentist at Asuta Hospital in Tel Aviv. David's dental work there is now almost done -- we have to go one more time.

We were a bit worried about the rain today, because we know that some of the streams that cross the roads can flood and prevent passage, possibly on BOTH of the routes that we could take. I decided that highway 40 was probably a better bet, and, indeed, we encountered no water on the road at all going up that way, including נחל פארן Nakhal Paran, which was the one that concerned me the most. Even coming back, highway 40 was fine, even though it was raining. However, we DID cross several streams flowing across the 4-lane highway 90 between Yotvata and here. None presented any serious problem, but I DID slow down considerably to cross them. On the way back, we saw several beautiful rainbows on and off from Mitzpe Ramon to the south end of the "Rafael Valley" (that's what I call it -- I don't know if it even HAS an official name).

After we returned home, we read the news that terrorists had bombed a bus of Korean tourists at Taba as it was waiting to cross the border into Eilat from Egypt. Four of the Koreans, as well as their Egyptian bus driver, were killed, and many others were injured. We have driven down near that border crossing many times (although we have never crossed into Egypt). I think we will NOT be traveling to Egypt any time soon, either.

Shabbat, 15 February 2014

I slept well, got up early, and went for an interesting walk this morning. After crossing the nakhal (on the way towards the gym) I followed it down on the other side to the next bridge back. I discovered that, next to the high school over there, there's some kind of a driver training area, with scaled-down roads, intersections, kikars, and even a traffic light. I guess it must be used for young people to begin learning about how to drive, but I previously had no idea that such a thing even existed!

In the late morning, David and I drove up highway 12 to the point where it turns away from the Egyptian border. There, we turned right onto a dirt road and followed it for a kilometer or so. Then we parked the car and walked over to a nearby nakhal (dry stream) and just enjoyed nature for a bit. One bush there was already blooming, and another species had buds that appeared to be about to bloom. In particular, we were happy that David was able to walk so well. The weather was just perfect -- partly cloudy but with warm sunshine much of the time and a cool breeze. All we needed to feel comfortable were our light jackets.

When we returned to town, we drove down and ate lunch at Barbis, having our regular soyaburgers. We found out that one of the waitresses there, who is from England, is actually a vegan (working at basically a burger place!).

In the afternoon, we talked with David's sister in Ohio. The news today was that her son and his girlfriend (who is barely out of high school and has a myriad of problems) had suddenly decided to get married yesterday! OY, OY, OY!!!

Next, we drove down to Ice Park and had our traditional frozen yogurt there.

I turned in my composition for my final project for my class "Write Like Mozart". If you'd like to see the score and hear it played at the same time, click on this link to it in NoteFlight.

Friday, 14 February 2014

I got up early, felt good, walked to the gym, worked out, briefly there, and walked home. It was nice out this morning, too! Later, I also walked down to recycle the cardboard and buy challah at the bakery.

I taught 4 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30 and 11:00-12:30. Afterwards, we went to lunch at Il Pentolino.

In the evening, we gave Pascal rolled oats, lit candles, drank a sip of sweet red wine, and ate whole-wheat challah to welcome Shabbat.

Thursday, 13 February 2014

I almost went out for a walk this morning, but I still just didn't feel quite up to it. I think I've been battling some kind of cold or sinus infection, but I do think it's finally beginning to ease a bit (not that it's really been that bad, anyway!).

This morning I took the car in to get a new thermostat and also to get its 100,000 km service done. So, we were without it for most of the day and took several taxi rides.

I worked on my final project for my "Write Like Mozart" class. My entire grade for the class will be based on my peers' assessments of this project, but the guidelines for assessment are strictly about meeting the given requirements and NOT about whether it's "pleasing" or "artistic", and I KNOW I've fulfilled the specifications. Nevertheless, I am, of course, trying to make it as nice as I can, and I'm pretty pleased with the results. I could submit it now, but it's not due until next Tuesday, so I think I'll sit on it and listen again in another day or two. Perhaps I'll decide to make some additional tweaks to make it more interesting.

We ate lunch today at Chooka at Ice Park. David had chiang mai, a rice dish with a green curry sauce, and I had one of their vegetarian sushi combos.

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

I slept quite soundly and well but only woke up gradually and slowly, so I didn't go out for a walk.

This morning we decided to go out for breakfast and went to the local bakery. David was not very pleased with the experience, though, so we probably won't do it again.

I had only one student for a 2-unit lesson today: 11:00-12:30.

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers again. David had the shnitzel meal but only ate part of one shnitzel and the mashed potatoes. I had a vegetable stir-fry over rice and ate the rest of David's meal.

We had a nice talk this afternoon with David's sister in Ohio, who is doing quite well these days.

In the evening, we went to a concert given by young people at the local music conservatory. It included pieces for string orchestra, for full orchestra, for concert band, and for jazz ensemble, all of it performed excellently! The admission was 20 shekels per person, and all the proceeds go to the organization תנו לחיות לחיות t'nu lakhayot likhyot "Let the Animals Live".

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

I woke up a bit tired this morning despite having slept quite well. I did not STAY tired after getting up, though.

David & I went again to the WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization) meeting this morning. They were celebrating a birthday of a woman who has lived in Eilat since 1958! She got up and told us about Eilat in the old times, and it was very interesting indeed. As usual, we really enjoyed ourselves.

We once again ate lunch at Buddha Burgers. I had hummus with vegan shwarma, and David had their vegan shnitzel dinner (with mash potatoes on the side).

I taught 6 units of Berlitz lessons today: 2:30-4:00, 5:00-6:30, and 7:00-8:30.

Monday, 10 February 2014

I slept well last night but woke up somewhat slowly and did not attempt to go out and exercise.

I taught 7 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 2:30-4:00, and 5:30-6:15.

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers today, and I tried something I hadn't had before: I had their shnitzel dinner (with mash potatoes on the side), and it was really good!

I made a quick trip to the pharmacy to pick up David's new psych med (which they had not had in stock when I went in last Friday) and a couple of other things. Then I went to the pet store to get more cat food, too.

Sunday, 9 February 2014

Last night I slept well and woke up feeling pretty good. It's a good thing, too, because today we had to travel once again to Tel Aviv for David's dental appointment.

We left the house at 8:00 a.m., filled the tank with gas, got sodas, and headed up the Arava. I decided to take the Arava all the way to the Dead Sea and then go up highway 12 to Be'er Sheva. It's about the same time and distance as the other route (up highway 40). It is, however, the truck route, so one does sometimes get stuck for a while behind a truck. Still, we made good time and got to the Asuta Hospital in Tel Aviv (where the Maccabi dental clinic is) at about 12:15.

After eating lunch at the Arcaffé there (minestrone soup for David and a Mediterranean salad for me, both with nice little loaves of bread with seeds on them), we went upstairs for David's appointment. The dentist finished quickly, and so we were back on the road time at about 2:00 p.m. On the way back, we took highway 40, which is more curvy but also more beautiful. In particular, Makhtesh Ramon looked stunning in the waning daylight as we drove down into it from Mitzpe Ramon.

When we arrived back in Eilat, we headed directly to Ice Park for frozen yogurt. Then, we stopped at the Yellow gas station by the airport to fill up and returned home.

Shabbat, 8 February 2014

I woke up feeling VERY tired this morning, even though I had slept well. And I didn't get up until very late, either. I think it's the cold, or sinus infection, or whatever it is, that's causing this. In fact, most of the morning I felt quite tired and did almost nothing. Luckily, it was Shabbat, so I really didn't HAVE to do much, either.

For lunch, we drove down and ate at Barbis, enjoying their delicious soyaburgers. Afterwards, we drove up highway 12 until a short distance after it turns away from the Egyptian border. Then, we turned around and drove back home.

In the evening, we went down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt.

Friday, 7 February 2014

I slept well but felt quite tired this morning, so I didn't go out for a walk, except to recycle the cardboard and buy challah.

I taught only 2 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30. I had been scheduled to teach 2 more, but I had to ask Berlitz to cancel them (actually, to give the work to another teacher) in order to take David to see the doctor.

We had been scheduled to see the family practice doctor in the morning and the psychiatrist afternoon. The family doctor was not our regular one (he wasn't in today), so we really didn't know either of them. Naturally, then, when we went in in the morning, we assumed that it was the family doctor. Very quickly, though, I figured out from his questions that he was actually the psychiatrist! In fact, he turned out to be very good, so I'm really glad we found him. Then, after we were finished with him, we did see the family doctor, who looked at the blister on David's foot, cleaned it, pierced it a little to let some of the fluid out, carefully disinfected it again, and wrapped it in a new bandage.

We ate lunch yet another time at Buddha Burgers today. We both had vegan shwarma burritos, which we enjoyed very much.

I watched all the videos for the last week of my "Write Like Mozart" class. How I just need to get to work on my final project for the class, which is what ALL of my grade will be based on.

We talked to David's sister in Ohio this afternoon, something we had not managed to do in quite some time. She's doing fine.

Just before sundown, we lit candles, sipped sweet red wine, and ate challah to welcome Shabbat. And, of course, Pascal got his rolled oats and other seeds.

After dark, we took a short drive to get out of the city and look up at the moon a bit from the dark of Nakhal Shlomo.

Thursday, 6 February 2014

I woke up early this morning and walked over to the gym. I went for a short time on the cross-trainer before heading back home. It felt a little chilly out.

We went back in to the nurses for them to check the blister on David's foot and then to bandage it up again. They also told us we need to see the doctor tomorrow, so I canceled my second class so that we'll be able to do it.

We ate lunch yet again at Buddha Burgers. David had hummus with vegan shwarma, and I had hummus with tofu. David's was better, of course. :-)

I taught 6 units of Berlitz lessons today: 2:30-4:00, 5:00-6:30, and 7:00-8:30. The first student I had is interesting and quite unusual -- she is Japanese and married to an Israeli; they have a couple of kids; and she works at the Israeli embassy in Tokyo promoting tourism to Israel! Their kids are trilingual, of course.

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Both David and I slept well last night and woke up quite early this morning. But we felt lazy, so we waited a while before we actually got out of bed, and I didn't go out for a walk.

The first order of business after breakfast was to take David to the Maccabi nurses. He has a rather large blister on the inside side of one of his heels, just above the ground. He began noticing it because of some pain a day or two ago, but we don't know how long it's actually been developing there. It has to be due to his shoe, but he wasn't even wearing shoes when he was in the hospital, only slippers (which don't even touch that area!). Anyway, the nurse bandaged it up with some antibiotic cream (in case it pops, which it hasn't yet) and called our family doctor, who wrote a prescription for a week-long course of oral antibiotics. We picked the prescription up, and I got it filled at the pharmacy after lunch. We have to go back in to see the nurse tomorrow.

We ate lunch again today at Buddha Burgers. This time, David had hummus with vegan shwarma, and I had vegan weenies with ketchup and sauerkraut. I also got them to bring another side of their delicious sauerkraut for David.

David is feeling almost unbelievably better; his vision is quite good (although his eyes get tired); and he is having remarkably fewer cognitive problems, as well. It's hard to believe that that med change could have such a dramatic effect!

I was scheduled to teach only 1 unit of Berlitz today, but that student was a no-show: 5:30-6:15.

After that, we drove down to Ice Park for frozen yogurt. We didn't walk around, though, since David can't wear shoes for the time being, and that much walking is a bit too difficult in flip-flops.

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

We both slept well last night, but I didn't get up early enough to go out for a walk.

This morning, we went to the WIZO meeting and really enjoyed it. We sat next to the two sisters who had done the presentation last week. They are from New York, but they now live in Jerusalem and spend a few weeks in the winter down here in Eilat. The one who sat right next to me is a retired high school math teacher, so we immediately had a lot in common. Besides, they are very nice ladies!

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers today. David had lentil soup and sauerkraut, and I had hummus with vegan shwarma. Mine came with two delicious pitas, of which I ate one and brought the other home. Unfortunately, I left it (in a plastic bag) on the table and didn't put it in the fridge right away. I came back later to find that a couple of bites had been stolen. I'm sure the culprit was Pascal!

I taught 6 units of Berlitz lessons today: 2:30-4:00, 5:00-6:30, and 7:00-8:30.

Monday, 3 February 2014

I slept well last night despite having to wake up and help David pee in his bottle since he was having trouble standing up. Other than that, we both did fine, though.

I taught just 3 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30 and 5:30-6:15. That last 1-unit lesson was the first for a new student who's from Chile but who is currently living in Newfoundland, Canada, working as a reliability engineer at a mining and milling operation there. Most of his lessons will be with me, and it looks to be a very pleasant experience.

David is feeling MUCH better today, although he's still having trouble standing up sometimes, is a little slow and unstable walking, and has quite pronounced shaking. Still, his mind is quite clear, and he's seeing fairly well, too!

We decided to eat lunch at Il Pentolino today, since we had missed last Friday and since it's easy to park very close there so the walking is minimal. David had his usual penne with Roquefort sauce, and I decided to try their stir-fried mushrooms. In the end, I ate about half of David's dish, and he ate a good bit of mine, as well. Both were delicious!

After lunch, we drove down to the Yellow gas station by the airport to fill the car with fuel and to get it washed. Rosa is now happy to be very nice and clean again! :-)  Next, we drove over to Shufersal, where I did the weekly grocery shopping while David sat in the car.

In the evening, after my last class, we drove down to Ice Park, where we had our usual frozen yogurt. David didn't feel quite up to walking around the mall, though.

Sunday, 2 February 2014

I woke up VERY early this morning, but I didn't go for a walk. Instead, I ate breakfast very early, showered, and headed for Be'er Sheva. I arrived there just before 10:00 a.m.

David was NOT all smiles today like the last couple of days. Instead, he was hinting as conspiracy theories. But I know that all of this is due to their changing his meds. Today, I found out exactly what they did change. The main idea is to get him off of meds that may have been causing the extremely low levels of sodium in his blood, and this is surely a good thing. I just hope it doesn't throw him off or cause any other problems. Tomorrow, I'll make an appointment with the local psychiatrist, whose number the Maccabi nurse gave me. I hope we can get David in to see him this week -- he's only in on Fridays.

They released David from the hospital today, but it took them all day to get it done. We finally were on our way after 4:00. The drive home was uneventful -- I took the Arava Road route again.

Once home out of the hospital, and even more so when we got home, David seemed more normal, with only his usual level of confusion. So, we'll see what happens over the next few days. Please continue to keep him in your thoughts and prayers.

Shabbat, 1 February 2014

I slept well last night but didn't get up early enough to go out for a walk.

Right after breakfast, I headed up to Be'er Sheva, arriving there a while before noon. David was again feeling very good but still a little confused (as he has actually been for some time now). His bed is in the hallway diagonal from the nurses' station, and the nurses often hang around there, sometimes joking with each other. It's usually in Hebrew, but sometimes in Arabic or even Russian, depending on which nurses are there at any given moment. Of course, David doesn't understand ANY of what they say, but he laughs as though he did get their jokes because he's reacting to their gestures, tone of voice, and laughter. As far as he's concerned, they might as well be putting on a show for him.

He ate most of his lunch today, but he got full before finishing it, so I ate the rest of it for my lunch.

Today I drove both up and back on the Arava Road and through Dimona. I'm beginning to like that route quite well. On the way back, I took a detour to the Small Makhtesh. The road from the highway to it was mostly NOT paved, but it was quite smooth and easy to drive on most of the way. This is because it also leads to a lot of areas where there has been considerable moving of the dirt. I think it was or still is a phosphate mining operation, based on the name of the company (in Hebrew) that I saw on a sign.

I had been to the Small Makhtesh before, but from the UPPER side, looking down at it. This time, I was at the narrow canyon where the stream flows out of it -- in other words, at its very bottom. I had to park the car and hike a bit to get the view of the makhtesh (a crater that is NOT due to a volcano or a meteorite), but it was nice to see it, and it was only a short hike.