Shabbat, 31 January 2015

I got up early enough this morning to get in a nice 45-minute walk.

I did several Hebrew lessons today, and I also watched some Israeli TV via the internet: part of a program about real estate, part of a cooking show, and part of some kind of a news show dealing with a family who feels that their father died because the doctors didn't pay enough attention to him in the intensive care unit. Anyway, the important thing is that I was actually able to catch a fair amount of it, although there was also quite a bit that I missed. Progress at least!

We ate leftovers for lunch at home today: a vegan meatball from Buddha Burgers and pizza.

I put a towel down on the mirpeset (balcony) and lay in the bright sunshine for a few minutes. It felt great!

Friday, 30 January 2015

I got up early this morning and walked for about 45 minutes. Then, a little later but still before breakfast, I walked down to recycle the cardboard and buy challah for Shabbat.

I taught 5 units of Berlitz lesson today (although the last 2-unit student was a no-show): 9:00-9:45, 10:00-10:45, 11:00-11:45, and 12:00-1:30 (the no-show).

We went to Greg Café at Mercaz Big for lunch today. David had vegetable curry with rice, and I had a yam quiche.

As the sun was about to leave our beautiful valley we lit candles, sipped wine, and ate a bit of challah to welcome another Shabbat.

התעוררי, התעוררי, כי בא אורך! קומי, אורי

עורי,עורי, שיר דברי; כבוד יי עליך נגלה

Hitoreri, hitoreri, ki va orekh! kumi, ori

Uri, uri, shir daberi; k'vod Adonai alayikh nig'la

Awake, awake, because your light has come! Arise, shine

Wake up, wake up, song of my word; the honor of Adonai on you is revealed

[5th stanza of L'cha Dodi, the hymn to welcome Shabbat]

Thursday, 29 January 2015

I felt tired and achy this morning when I woke up, so I ended up getting up very late. I felt better after I got up, but I didn't have time to go out for a walk.

I taught 10 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:00-11:30, 11:30-1:00, 2:30-4:00, 5:00-6:30, and 7:00-8:30.

For lunch, I called Buddha Burgers and ordered food, which I then drove over and picked up.

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

I woke up early this morning but with a bit of a sore throat, and so I didn't go out for a walk. Later, after it got light, I could see that we had had a few sprinkles sometime during the night. I don't know if it was earlier or around the time I would have been walking. In any case, it wasn't much because none seemed to have gotten in the cat litter boxes, which sit out on the balcony. The balcony has a roof, but it's not at all intended to be water-proof.

I taught only 4 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30 and 3:00-4:30.

I succeeded in making 2 appointments for David today -- one for physical therapy, and the other for a halter heart test. It was actually somewhat complicated in both cases, and I had to talk at some length to several different people, all on the phone and all in Hebrew. I'm kinda proud that I was able to do it, understanding what they said and being able to say what I needed to say. I guess my Hebrew really IS getting better!

I ordered pizza delivered here for lunch. Of course, I ALWAYS do THAT in Hebrew.

After my last class, we drove down to Ice Park and had frozen yogurt, something we hadn't done in quite some time.

Tuesday, 27 January 2015

I got up early enough to get in a nice walk this morning -- nearly 40 minutes. Along the way, I met a nice cat who looks almost exactly like Pascal (our indoor cat) except that he is probably less that half the size of Pascal, and he has just a bit more white on him. Anyway, he enjoyed having me pet him, and he followed me for several blocks, until I was getting outside the territory he is comfortable in.

I enjoyed the weekly English speakers' meeting at WIZO this morning. We played a version of trivial pursuits, and it was quite fun.

David and I ate lunch at Greg Café and Mercaz Big today. David had French fries and an omelet sandwich (although I ate half of the sandwich), and I had a nice vegetable curry with rice.

I taught only 3 units of Berlitz lessons today: 4:30-5:15 and 6:30-8:00.

Monday, 26 January 2015

I woke up surprisingly late this morning and so didn't have time to go out for a walk.

I taught 12 units of Berlitz lessons today (9 hours!): 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 3:00-4:30, 4:30-5:15, 5:30-7:00, and 7:30-8:15.

We ate lunch at Buddha Burgers today. I had a shwarma burrito, and David had delicious vegan meat balls and potatoes with a tomato sauce.

Sunday, 25 January 2015

I got up late this morning and so didn't go out for a walk before breakfast.

After breakfast, though, I did walk over to our local branch of Maccabi to find out what I need to do to schedule the various things that the neurologist ordered for David. The woman who works there was very helpful, as I knew she would be.

After that, I drove over to the vet's to buy more food for our cats.

Later in the morning, I did the weekly grocery shopping at Shufersal.

We ate lunch at Rachel Café today. I had their "Celebration Salad", and David had a mushroom quiche.

After lunch, I went and got the prescriptions that the psychologist had written filled at the pharmacy.

Shortly after 5:00, David had his first guitar lesson with a new teacher, Niv. This guy thinks that he may be able to help David play, and I also think there's at least a possibility and that it's worth trying.

Shabbat, 24 January 2015

I got up early this morning and went over to feed Moshe's cats and play a bit with them.

I listened today to the orchestral music that I have arranged so far. Some of the pieces are basically ready to be finalized, but others need more work. I'm still not quite ready to do that, though. When the time is right, I will (I hope I'll realize when that is).

We had lunch at Landwer Café at Ice Park. David had their shakshuka (although I think I ate more of it than he did), and I had their vegan breakfast. However, there was some problem with making the vegan "omelet" (I couldn't catch exactly what the waitress said), so I told me to bring me a regular omelet (made from actual eggs, ha ha!).

After lunch, we drove up the Arava as far as Samar and then back home.

Friday, 23 January 2015

I got up early this morning and walked over to feed Moshe's cats and check on them. This was the first time I had met his newest one, a beautiful and very sweet calico who actually is mostly white.

Later, before breakfast, I walked down to recycle cardboard boxes, buy a few more packets of individual soup mixes, and get challah for Shabbat.

I taught only one 2-unit Berlitz lesson today: 11:00-12:30.

We had lunch at Il Pentolino.

As the light began to fade this evening, we lit candles, sipped a bit of wine, and ate a little challah to welcome the Shabbat Queen.

התנערי! מעפר קומי! לבשי בגדי תפראתך, עמי

על-יד בן-ישי, בית הלחמי, קרבה אל-נפשי גאלה

Shake yourself off! Rise up from the dust! Dress in your glorious outfit, my people!

At hand is the Son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, my soul's redemption is approaching.

[4th stanzas of L'cha Dodi, the medieval poem, written in Tsfat, greeting the arrival of Shabbat]

Thursday, 22 January 2015

I got up early this morning and walked for nearly 50 minutes. A somewhat small, off-white dog followed for more than half of the walk!

This morning, we went to see David's neurologist. I had scheduled the appointment only yesterday in the early morning, the first time that ANY appointments were listed as available for him (and only TWO were available then, both today!). Anyway, the appointment went well. The doctor says that David had some kind of stroke as some point, but none of us have any idea when it might have been. He ordered several more tests of various kinds, and he also gave us a referral for physical therapy. I asked about the part of the CT report that mentioned "brain atrophy", and he said it's likely that this is the result of some many years of HIV, as it has been observed in other long-term survivors.

I was scheduled to teach 7 units of Berlitz lessons today, but one student (2 units) was a late cancellation due to illenss: 11:30-1:00, 4:00-4:45, 5:30-7:00 (the late cancellation), and 7:00-8:30.

For lunch, we went to Buddha Burgers.

Wednesday, 21 January 2015

I didn't get up early enough for a walk this morning, but I did walk for about 40 minutes around noon. This time, I wore sandals and a tank top (instead of shoes and socks and a t-shirt), and I was careful to walk as much of the time as I could in the sun, so I didn't get too hot. In fact, it was very pleasant and beautiful out.

I had 9 units of Berlitz lessons scheduled today, but one student (2 units) turned out to be a no-show: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 2:45-3:30, 3:30-5:00 (the no-show), and 6:30-8:00.

We went to Rachel Café for lunch today. David had a mushroom quiche, and I had a nice toasted sandwich with cheese, cream cheese, a hard-boiled egg, and black olives in it. Both of our orders included a small salad, but I ate both of them.

Tuesday, 20 January 2015

I didn't go for a walk this morning, but I did go out and walk for about 35 minutes after lunch.

The English speakers' WIZO meeting this morning was fun. Two sisters who live in Jerusalem but come here for a few weeks in the winter led us in a fun game of rhyming words.

For lunch, I went to Rachel Café and brought food home for us.

I taught only 3 units of Berlitz lesson today: 3:30-4:15 and 4:15-5:45.

Monday, 19 January 2015

I got up early this morning and walked for more than 45 minutes.

We had breakfast early so that I'd be sure to have time to zip over to the pet store and pick up frozen mice at 8:30. They don't have a freezer to keep them in there, and thus it was important for me to get them first thing. I got 10 of them and put 9 in the freezer (wrapped multiple times and in a sealed container instead a sealed bag). The other one I kept out to thaw, and then I fed it to Goldfinger in the early afternoon.

I had 9 units of Berlitz lessons today, but one 2-unit student turned out to be a no-show: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 2:30-3:15, 3:30-5:00 (the no-show), and 5:30-7:00.

We had leftovers at home for lunch today.

Before my last class, I walked down to the pharmacy to get more lozenges for David. They help him keep from gagging on the drainage from his sinuses. On the way back, I also stopped at the small neighborhood Shurfersal that just recently opened and picked up a couple of items. It's amazing how well-stocked it is, given its small size.

Sunday, 18 January 2015

I got up too late this morning to get out for a walk.

I did the weekly grocery shopping today and watched a video or two from my Hebrew lessons, but that's about all I got done today.

For lunch, I went to Greg Café and picked up food to bring home and eat.

Shabbat, 17 January 2015

I woke up early this morning and had a nice walk for almost 50 minutes. It was really very nice out!

David was up for brief periods several times during the day today, which is a good improvement over sleeping essentially all day, as he had been doing. We didn't go out for lunch, however, because we got a little rain around the middle of the day and the early afternoon. So, instead, we ordered food delivered from Barbis.

I watched some videos from my Hebrew lessons today, and I think they're helping me gradually improve my understanding of spoken Hebrew, my ability to speak it myself, and, to a lesser extent, my vocabulary.

I played a few preludes and fugues from book 1 of J. S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier today on my piano in harpsichord mode, as I do from time to time. I always marvel at the genius of the fugues especially. Two of my favorites are number 4 (in C# Minor) and number 12 in F Minor. What majestic and intricate fugues! How thankful I am for all the years that I studied music, giving me the possibility of enjoying such beauty for all these years!

התעוררתי מוקדם בבוקר ועשיתי טיול יפה לכמעט 50 דקות. היה ממש נחמד מאוד בחוץ!

דוד קם לתקופות קצרות כמה פעמים במהלך היום, וזה טוב יותר משינה כל היום, כמו שהוא עשה בימים האחונים. אנחנו לא יצאנו לארוחת צהריים, לעומת זאת, כי היה לנו קצת גשם סביב אמצע היום ושעתי אחר הצהריים המוקדמים. לכן, במקום, הזמנו משלוח אוכל מברביס.

ראיתי כמה קטעי וידאו משיעורי עברית שלי היום, ואני חושב שהם עוזרים לי לשפר את ההבנה של עברית מדוברת שלי בהדרגה, את היכולת שלי לדבר, ובמידה פחותה, אוצר המילים שלי.

אני ניגנתי כמה פרלודים ופוגות מתוך ספר 1 של יוהאן סבסטיאן באך בפסנתר שלי במצב צ'מבלו, כפי שאני עושה לפעמים. אני תמיד מתפעל מהגאונות של הפוגות במיוחד. שני המועדפות שלי הן מספר 4 בדו נסק מינור, ומספר 12 בפה מינור.מה פוגות מלכותיות ומורכבות! כמה אני עסיר תודה על כל השנים שלמדתי מוסיקה, שנותן לי את האפשרות ליהנות מיופי כזה במשך כל השנים האלה!

Friday, 16 January 2015

I got up a little late today and so didn't get out for a walk other than the short one to recycle cardboard and buy challah for Shabbat.

I taught 3 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-9:45 and 11:00-12:30.

David had an appointment with his psychiatrist today. This was the first time he had gotten out of the house in more than a week. Afterwards, we drove down to Rachel Café where I picked up food for us to eat at home since David was already worn out from walking between the apartment and the car and between the car and the doctor's office.

On our way home, it began to rain, but we didn't mind walking from the car to the apartment in the rain. It's such a rare thing here in Eilat that it's actually an event. It didn't continue for very long, though, and soon the sun was shining again.

As the sun was disappearing behind the Eilat Mountains, I lit candles to welcome Shabbat. We'll do the kiddush with wine and challah later, before we go to bed.

מקדש מלך, עיר מלוכה, קומי צאי מתוך ההפכה

רב לך שבת בעמק הבכא -- והוא יחמל עליך חמלה

Temple of a king, royal city, rise up and go out from the midst of the destruction

Long you have dwelt in the valley of crying -- and He will truly have compassion on you

[3rd stanza of "L'cha dodi"]

Thursday, 15 January 2015

I woke up very early this morning and thus was easily able to walk for a little more than 45 minutes.

I taught 9 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:00-11:30 (although this one was actually a no-show), 11:30-1:00, 2:30-4:00 (I agreed to this one at the last minute because they needed a replacement for another teacher), 4:00-4:45, and 7:00-8:30.

For lunch, I went to Greg Café and brought us home an omelet sandwich. I also brought a piece of "ribat khalav" (dulce de leche -- I don't think there really IS an true English for this) cake for me -- yum!

I took Goldfinger out and held him for a few minutes this afternoon, and I really enjoyed that.

Wednesday, 14 January 2015

I didn't sleep very well during the later part of the night, so I didn't get up in time to go for a walk.

I taught 7 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30, 12:00-1:30, 3:30-5:00, and 6:00-6:45.

We had leftover pizza for lunch today.

I went over to the pet shop to order frozen mice for Goldfinger, my snake. I'll pick them up on Sunday.

Between 5:00 and 6:00 I went to vote in my party's primaries. I had the address for the polling place, but its location according to Google Maps turned out not to be very accurate. Finally, I saw a religious woman walking by, so I asked her where the address was. She knew immediately that I was looking for the Jewish Home Party's polling place, and she said she was just coming from there herself. She then told me exactly how to get there. All of this conversation was in Hebrew, and her directions were right on. There was quite a line of people, mostly young men, already waiting, but I managed to vote successfully and get back home in time for my 6:00 lesson.

Tuesday, 13 January 2015

I got up early enough this morning to walk for more than 45 minutes, and it was good. How lucky I am to be able to walk on streets with names like "דבורה הנביאה Devora the Prophetess", "שרה אמינו Sarah our mother", "רות המואביה Ruth the Moabite", "אברהם אבינו Avraham our father", "יעקוב אבינו Yaakov our father", and "אסתר המלכה Esther the queen"!

We had an interesting speaker this morning at the English speakers' WIZO meeting. She told about her experience playing a 15-century Jewish mother in Italy in an upcoming episode of "Da Vinci's Demons". It was very interesting.

We had soup for lunch at home today.

I taught 4 units of Berlitz lessons today, all back-to-back: 2:30-4:00 and 4:00-5:30.

Monday, 12 January 2015

I slept well last night and woke up fairly early, but I postponed my walk until after lunch, when I walked to the gym and back (more than 45 minutes).

I taught 10 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 3:30-5:00, and 5:45-7:15.

For lunch, I ordered pizza delivered.

I think I've decided the candidates I'm going to vote for in the Jewish Home הבית היהודי primaries on Wednesday. We have to give 2 votes each to 3 of them, and 1 vote each to the other 4.

Sunday, 11 January 2015

I got up early this morning but saw that it had been raining, so I didn't go out for a walk. I did go out later, though, in the middle of the day, and I walked for more than 40 minutes.

I swept the whole house except for my office today. Our house cleaner had called me last night and told me that he had to go back to Jerusalem to help his father. He's not sure when he'll get back to Eilat.

I ran several errands today: the weekly grocery shopping, the monthly medicine pick-up at the pharmacy, filling the car with gas, and getting some lunch. I had a Fatoush salad from Greg Café, but David just had some soup that I made for him at home.

Shabbat, 10 January 2015

I again woke up too tired to get up and go for a walk in the morning. However, I DID go later in the day, after lunch. At that point, it was so sunny and nice out that I was comfortable wearing only a t-shirt, jeans, and socks and shoes.

I spent most of the day doing Hebrew lessons and completing work for my data science class. In fact, I've now done ALL the work for the first 3 weeks, and the only remaining work will be evaluating my fellow students' projects, which I can't do until after the submission deadline (which is still more than 2 weeks away).

For lunch we had leftover food from the last week: half a sandwich from Rachel and ravioli from Il Pentolino.

Friday, 9 January 2015

I again got up too late to go out walking, although I did, of course, walk down to recycle cardboard and buy challah for Shabbat. I also stopped at the new Shufersal next to the cardboard recycling bin and bought more packets of instant soup.

I was supposed to teach one 1-unit lesson (9:00-9:45) and one 2-unit lesson (11:00-12:30) today, but the second one turned out to actually be a late cancellation.

For lunch, I ordered a couple of our favorites delivered from Il Pentolino since David didn't feel like going out.

I made progress in watching videos in both my Hebrew learning and my data science class. I also got set up for GitHub and learned a bit more about using the command line interface on my computer. It's like back to the 70's and 80's!

As the light was fading from the mostly cloudy sky, we lit candles, drank a bit of wine, and ate a little challah to welcome another Shabbat.

לקראת שבת לכו ונלכה, כי היא מקור הברכה

מראש מקדם נסוכה, סוף מעשה, במחשבה תחלה

Come, and let's meet Shabbat, because she is the source of blessing

From the very beginning anointed, last to be made, in conception the first

[2nd stanzas of "L'cah dodi"]

Thursday, 8 January 2015

I was tired this morning and so didn't get up in time to go out for a walk. Besides, it was cold out there (the forecast low for last night was 7ºF = 45ºF)! All of you in the rest of Israel (where it's raining and even snowing) and, even more, in most parts of the U.S. can now laugh hysterically!  LOL

I taught 8 units of Berlitz lesson today: 10:00-11:30, 11:30-1:00, 3:00-4:30, and 7:00-8:30.

For lunch, I went over to Greg Café and got us an omelet sandwich. I also made a cup of chicken-flavored soup (but certainly no chicken, since it's kosher parve!) for David.

I walked over to the doctor's office for a 5:00 appointment to give him the results of David's CT. He said the brain atrophy is somewhat similar to that seen in Alzheimer's. Of course, we'll need to see the neurologist for more details and for any possible medicines that might lessen the effects. Unfortunately, the neurologist only comes to Eilat once a month, and it's not know when his schedule of open appointment will be available, so I'll just have to keep checking regularly.

Wednesday, 7 January 2015

Last night, the wind was blowing very hard in the evening. By morning, however, when I got up very early and went out for my 45-minute walk, there was a dead calm. Later in the day, though, the wind came back and along with it a dust storm. The forecasts refer to it as a "sand storm", but it's really dust, not sand.

I taught 6 units of Berlitz lessons today (down from the 12 that were scheduled for today at the beginning of the week): 9:00-10:30, 10:30-12:00, and 2:30-4:00.

For lunch, I drove down to Rachel to pick up food to bring home. While I was in that neighborhood (and while they were preparing the food), I walked over to the hospital and picked up the report from David's CT scan, together with the CD. At that point, it was mostly sunny with a cold breeze, but not dusty and not a really strong wind. That came later in the afternoon.

The report from David's CT scan doesn't look so good. Of course it's in Hebrew, but I think I've fairly well translated the summary. It talks about brain and cerebellum atrophy, about results consistent with a vascular event, and about a sub-severe blockage somewhere. They recommend an MRI to further check on this. I made an appointment with out family doctor for tomorrow. We'll most likely also need to see the neurologist (who ordered the scan), but I couldn't book an appointment with him online -- I'll probably need to go over to the Maccabi office sometime for that.

Tuesday, 6 January 2015

I walked for more than 40 minutes this morning.

At WIZO, we celebrated the birthdays of November, December, and January. That includes mine, which was in November. It was very nice.

I cooked soup for us for lunch at home today.

I taught only one 2-unit Berlitz class today: 3:00-4:30.

I watched more videos from my data science class and one lesson from my Hebrew course.

David slept most of the day. When he got up in the evening, his blood sugar level was very low even though we hadn't given him any insulin since breakfast (other than the basal rates that go in at low levels throughout the day). He ate a Snickers bar, which, I'm sure brought the level up sufficiently, but he's having trouble understanding concepts about blood sugar and how high it needs to be in the evening in order to avoid it being dangerously low in the morning. Previously, he was able to deal with his diabetes very well himself, and I learned from him how to do it. But now he doesn't realize that his understanding isn't clear, and instead he sometimes tries to fight with me about it, which I don't want to do at all, of course. He finally did agree to let me lower the nighttime basal rates, and than will probably help to keep things under control.

Monday, 5 January 2015

I woke up early enough this morning to get in a 45-minute walk.

I taught 8 units of Berlitz lessons today: 10:30-12:00, 12:00-1:30, 3:30-5:00, and 5:00-6:30.

We had mushroom soup at home for lunch today.

I am starting a new sequence of course on Coursera about data science, offered by professors in the biostatistics department of Johns Hopkins University. The first one opened today and is called "The Data Scientist's Toolbox". It's an introducing to the series and to the tools that we'll be using. I watched the first lecture this evening. I thinks it's going to be quite interesting.

Sunday, 4 January 2015

I got up early enough this morning to get out and exercise for more than 45 minutes.

I did the weekly grocery shopping this morning at Shufersal.

We had delicous soups for both lunch and a light evening meal.

I did several more Hebrew lessons today and feel that I'm really making progress.

Baruch came again to clean today, this time in the evening.

Shabbat, 3 January 2015

I woke up very late this morning and didn't go out at all.

I listened to a lot of Hebrew lessons today from HebrewPodCasts.com, which I subscribed to for a year. The advanced lessons are just difficult enough for me to challenge me without discouraging me, and I think I'm beginning to understand more spoken Hebrew. There are still plenty more lessons to do, so I should be able to make a significant improvement.

David slept almost all day today and ate very little, as well. I'm beginning to be a little worried about him. Because I wanted to be sure to be here whenever he woke up, I didn't go anywhere today.

Friday, 2 January 2015

I woke up early this morning, feeling alert and refreshed, and I walked for over 45 minutes. Then, a little later but still before breakfast, I also walked down to recycle cardboard and buy challah for Shabbat.

I taught only one 2-unit Berlitz lesson today (a student from Italy who has now been living in Ireland for a year): 10:30-12:00.

We had lunch at Il Pentolino today. David had cheese ravioli with mushroom cream sauce, and I had my usual whole-wheat spaghetti with Palermo sauce.

I watched more videos today about programming and development in Swift for iOS (iPhone and iPad).

As the light was beginning to fade, we lit candles, drank wine, and ate challah to welcome another Shabbat.

״שמור״ ו״זכור״ בדנור אחד, השמיענו על המיוחד

יי אחד ושמו אחד, לשם ולתפארת ולתהלה

"Keep" and "Remember" in a single utterance, the only G-d made us hear

The Eternal is one and his name is one, for honor and glory and praise

[the first of 9 stanzas of "L'cha dodi", a traditional part of the Kabbalat Shabbat prayers]

Thursday, 1 January 2015

I slept somewhat weirdly last night, woke up with "Herr, lehre doch mich" from Brahms's German Requiem going around in my head, and didn't go out for a walk.

I watched several videos from the iOS/Swift software development course today. I'm no longer trying to actually do all the things he shows -- I'm now just observing.

For lunch, I drove down to Mall HaYam and brought home pad thai from Managa.

In the afternoon, I went to the Maccabi pharmacy to get a couple of things and then walked around and window-shopped a bit in that neighborhood. I did find some Ziploc-like bags at one of the stores and immediately snapped them up, since such things are very difficult to find here in Israel. I also bought nail clippers with an Israeli flag on them -- Zionism while trimming toenails! LOL