For some reason, in recent days, breakfast has become one of the more difficult times for me. I'm not completely sure why that is. In any case, I knew that I needed to get out of the house and do something today after breakfast, so I decided to go to the Underwater Observatory. David and I had been there several times, including when we came down to Eilat to look for an apartment. But there's a new exhibit there, the shark tank, that hadn't opened recently and which we had never seen. David had heard about it and wanted to go but had been too weak and sick for it to happen.
The new shark tank is really wonderful! When you first enter, the wall on the opposite side of the room is a HUGE glass window into the tank, and you can enjoy all the sharks, fish, and other creatures swimming around. The next view is a tunnel of glass where you can see them all on both sides and above you. After that, there is a small pool for the babies, and, at the end, there is another large window into the big tank. Throughout the whole exhibit there are many displays telling about sharks in general, particular types of sharks, and the importance of sharks. Everything is in English, Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian, the four more popular languages in Israel (and easy to distinguish from each other since they're written with 4 different alphabets!).
I also checked out the rest of the area, including the underwater observatory itself (actually in a room under the sea with windows all around to look at the coral reef!).
I enjoyed my visit, but my enjoyment was marred somewhat by my memories of being there with David and by not being able to share the beautiful new shark exhibit with him.
When I came home, I was still feeling a bit blue, so it was so wonderful to receive an SMS from my dear friend, Moshe, checking on me. He invited me over, which I quickly accepted. I just hung out there for a bit with him and his roommate, Barak, and then we went down and ate lunch together at the Gulf Restaurant, which has great Israeli food. Then we went back to their apartment and the 3 of us hung out together a bit more, watching funny videos from the internet on their big TV. Needless to say, my mood improved greatly. Thank you, Moshe and Barak! :-)
I came back home in time to have a really nice chat with David's sister, Joyce, in Ohio (over Skype).
Tonight at Beth Chayim Chadashim (BCC), our old synagogue in Los Angeles, they will be devoting a part of the tikkun leil Shavuot (all-night study during the night of Shavuot) to memories of David and studying some of his favorite texts. I look forward to watching this portion through their live video feed, which they plan to operate. It will happen at about 10:00 p.m., LA time, which will be at 8:00 a.m. tomorrow morning, Israel time. You should be able to watch, too, if you like, at this link.
Finally, here's today's story about David, which is also about his favorite cat, Katom (who's sitting right next to me and purring as I write this!):
Stories about David: Katom
In August of 2001, David and I were in one of our favorite pet stores in San Bernardino, the city where we lived at that time. I don’t remember exactly why we were there, but it was probably to get mice for our snakes. Anyway, there was a cage near the cashiers with several kittens in it, so, of course, we checked it out. We held a couple of them, but one really snuggled up to us (especially David) and purred, so we decided to buy him. He’s a yellow-orange cat, so we named him “Katom”, the Hebrew word for the color orange. It wasn’t until MUCH later that I learned that, as a noun, the word can mean “spot” or “stain”, explaining some of the slightly strange looks we get from Israelis when we tell them his name.
He was only 2 months old when we got him, which means he had been taken away from his mother a bit early. At first, of course, he was rather nervous exploring our big house, but he soon became quite at home there, and we became the only mother that he could remember, I think. Somewhere, I have a picture of David snoozing in my mom’s old recliner with Katom sleeping on his chest.
When we made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) at the end of 2005, there was never any question but what Katom would come with us. It was a more arduous trip for him than for us. When we finally got processed at the airport and went to pick up our luggage, Katom and his carrier were missing! Very shortly, though, we found him over by where there were some workers. When we got to Tsfat, our new house was empty so we couldn’t stay in it, but we did leave our boxes and suitcases and poor Katom there while we slept the night in a guest room of our contractor’s mother.
When the missiles hit near our house during the Second Lebanon War (summer of 2006), Katom went and hid in an unfinished space under the lowest step in the half basement. It took me quite a while to find him! Ever since then, he has been terrified of booms, including even distance thunderclaps that most of us barely hear.
Every time David was hospitalized (and there were many!), he would always want to come home as soon as possible, and his main given reason was to see his cats, especially Katom.
Now that David is gone, I have to be particularly careful to give plenty of love and attention to his best feline friend, our beloved Katom.
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