Sundays

i remember sundays in new york when everything was closed. we stayed inside and watched million dollar movie all day long and mom did the new york times crossword puzzle. dad watched some sports. and we ate left overs for dinner. buying the times for mom, was my life long task. if you waited til sunday afternoon, you took a chance that it night be sold out. my coming home without the sunday times crossword puzzle was a really big deal for mom. i used to buy it on saturday night at the train station on avenue m. , on my way home from a night out in the 'city'. it didn't matter if there was a ton of snow on the ground, someone would have to trudge out to buy the times. i am certain that it didn't happen too many times that mom didn't get her paper. i can probably recall each time it happened. there were actually times that it didn't get delivered to our neighborhood in brooklyn due to strikes. i think that later in life, mom started to get the times delivered to her home. she eventually cancelled her subscription due to the times' anti israel policies. when mom moved to zefat it became a major mitzvah for me to get her the friday edition of the jerusalem post and of course, the monday edition, that had the crossword puzzle. mom did the crossword puzzle the night before she died. i can also count on one hand, the number of times that i couldn't 'score' a newspaper for her. i try not to read newspapers and i cancelled our subscription to the jerusalem post because of their anti-charedi politics. i ocassionally, read arutz 7 on line to find out what is happening in the country. sundays in israel is like mondays in the u.s. it's all business as usual. i wanted to go to town this morning and sort out my water bill. i also made plans to meet a friend in the maul. the 'maul' in zefat is about 6 or 7 stores and some offices. i woke up with a really bad headache and pain in my right foot. i had actually, enjoyed a couple of days without pain, but i guess with the advent of rain, the pain returned. i helped keep my grandson amused for a couple of hours today, while his mother straightened out the clothes closets. afterwards, i was given two batches of laundry to do. last night i cleaned my electric burners, and i think i may have shorted out the wires. i tried to cook some eggs and lost all of the electricity. it didn't last too long, but i was really hungry and wanted warm food. not having any gas or electric burners, made it a bit tricky. i thought about heating up the leftovers in the toaster oven, but instead, i called the gas company to order a canister or two. they told me that they could come on friday. i panicked and explained that i was completely out of gas. they then told me that i needed an inspection because the new law states that it must be done every five years. i couldn't believe that five years had already passed since the last inspection. it seems like it was just last year. i was just watching a movie about the murder of the jewish journalist, daniel pearl, and i was shocked to learn that it had happened seven years ago. i don't know what it is with me and time. i 'm stuck in a perpetual time warp. anyway, the lady at the gas company told me that i could not get any gas until i had an inspection, and that wasn't going to happen any time soon. i thought about running to town to buy a new electric burner. the next thing i know, the gas inspector was at my door. he promised to call the office and let them know that it was okay to bring the gas balloons. the lady from the gas office called again, to let me know that the inspector could come tomorrow. i explained that he had already been here and had given me a clean bill of 'gas' health. she told me that she would check it out and call me back. of course, she called back a little while later and i got my gas. not bad for a sunday! so i cooked some eggs in tomato sauce. it's a sephardi dish. i lost about four pounds but i'm still bloated. i'm going to continue the south beach diet until i see some real weight loss. sundays, sundays!