I taught 6 units of Berlitz lessons today: 9:00-10:30, 11:00-12:30, and 3:30-5:00.
After my second lesson, I went down to Ice Park, where I got a massage at Dream Spa (in one of their wonderful machines) and then ate lunch at Landwer Café. Afterwards, I went over to the tombstone place to finalize the writing for David's tombstone and to try to pay. I was very successful in the former, but not in the latter. The guy was very helpful and worked with me to get the words and the spacing just right. I think he was using Corel Draw. In any case, I know exactly what it will look like, and I think it will be nice.
The problem with paying was that they can't accept foreign credit cards, and I need to pay with my American money since my shekel income is quite limited. After I got home, I found a way to get cash from my U.S. Visa card, so the problem is now solved, except that it will take a few days to get it all due to the daily limit on cash.
In the evening, I did the weekly grocery shopping at Shufersal. I got some corn on the cob, a package of already-cooked beets, and a package of chopped vegetables so I can have at least one lunch at home this week and still get a healthy variety of food. I hope that, in the long run, this will be a way to save a little money without comprising my health.
I generally felt quite good today. I think there are a number of reasons for this. First, there is the simple passage of time. Second, and maybe the most important, was BCC's wonderful memorial for David. Third, there's the social contact that my dear friends here in Eilat have been providing for me. Fourth, there was my success today at the tombstone place, where I comfortably did everything I needed to do in Hebrew. All these factors, and probably others, are helping me get through the darkness and moved forward. Thanks to all of you who have been a part of my healing (and I know will continue to be)!
Here's today's story of David, a much happier cat story:
Stories about David: Beatrix
After we had been living in Tsfat for a while, David saw a wild female cat with two young kittens. She was clearly not well-fed at all, and, of course, neither were her kittens. He took pity on her and insisted that we feed her, so we did.
For quite a while, she was so afraid that she wouldn’t even eat if she knew we were watching. But gradually she became less and less afraid, and eventually she even let us pet her. We decided to name her Beatrix.
One of the kittens disappeared (probably died), but the other survived. Since he looked so similar to his mother, we named him Mini-Me. They both became our outdoor pets, and we fed them every morning.
Not too much later, Beatrix became pregnant again, and we were pretty sure the father was a yellow male that also had begun hanging around and whom we named Ts’hovi. He could be a nice cat, but unfixed males are always a bit ornery. Still, we rather liked him, partly because he “talked” -- meaning he made a lot of varied sounds instead of just a few simple meows. He had a hoarse voice, like someone who had smoked heavily for many years.
One day in late March, when Beatrix was obviously near full term, she disappeared for a couple of days, and then reappeared one morning, obviously NOT pregnant anymore. We continued feeding her every morning, but after a couple of months had passed and we had seen no kittens at all, we began to wonder if they had survived. We needn’t have worried. One day we saw a couple of them on our neighbors’ front porch. One was a tabby (like Beatrix), but the other was a beautiful black cat with some white on him.
We eventually learned that there were SIX kittens in the litter. Besides the two mentioned, there were 2 more tabbies, a tortoise shell, and a calico. In due time, we gave them all names and, in due time, got them all fixed. We also got Beatrix fixed so she wouldn’t get pregnant again. We continued feeding them outdoors but eventually decided to adopt Pascal (the black-and-white one) and, later, Peachy (the calico) as indoor cats (much to the distress of Katom, our American cat!).
Peachy died about a year ago, but Pascal is still going strong and is one of the most amazing and intelligent cats I have ever known. He also “talks” like his father, except his voice isn’t hoarse (because we didn’t let him smoke, hah!).
No comments:
Post a Comment