Camping In

it is midnight here in the holy city of zefat. the kids just went out to eat some local thai food in the neighborhood. sahar was still awake. we just had 12 paying people arrive who are staying downstairs for 3 days.

the kids are camping upstairs with me. they gave up their 5 room apartment to make some money this summer. their shoe shop has been very slow this month. we miracuously, had last minute renters before shabbat and the realtor just brought over a group this evening. i should say, rather, this night. he called us at 10:00 p.m. the entire town is renting out their homes. gal and i scrambled to add mattresses, sheets and pillows. the place was more or less in order. sahar was doing summersaults off the mattresses.

some people in zefat are making out like bandits. we are on the low end of the spectrum because we don't have airconditioning. the nights have been so chilly here that you really need blankets. the folks from the center of the country do not rent without airconditioning. hence, we lower our price.

the guests seem nice enough. they promise to be out for most of the day. last year i had a large family here who stayed downstairs all day long. the mother cooked all day and everyone had to have a hot shower. despite, a record heat wave that had us all melting, they insisted that i turn on the hot water boiler. they even filled up a pool with my water. their 3 day stint here cost me a $50 water fine. what was i to do? i was desperate for cash.

this realtor has been calling us all week long with all sorts of offers of groups. he doesn't call before midnight. not one of his leads paid off until tonight. the family from last year called a few weeks ago but i told them that we were no longer renting. i wasn't sure if the kids really wanted to bother. they surely do and we are all hustling to make the bucks before september.

so far we've made only about $1500. we split it down the middle. it will pay for a month's rent of the shoe store and hopefully, my water bill and city tax. i had to replace the toilet tank downstairs, so there went half of my profit. what can you do?

we just had a 3 day klezmer music festival in zefat. i didn't leave my house or neighborhood for the duration of the festival. sahar went to his other grandma all week long. i stayed in and watched television and stuffed face. zvi worked until 1:00 a.m. each night at the winery tourist center and gal stayed at the shoe store until 11:00 p.m. we are all on financial survivial mode.

i was planning on visiting the seniors on thursday but i got a call from a group of 10 who were desperately seeking a place to sleep in this area. they were hardly here. the place was untouched. we really locked out with that group. the realtor, is another story. he is a price gouger and takes 20 to 30% from us. we are at his mercy. it's not nice at all.

my niece and family are in from india and we still haven't gotten together with the kids for a play date. my nephew just came in before shabbat and we haven't connected with him, either. i'd love to make a dinner for them. we'll see. gal and zvi don't usually come home until after 8:00 p.m. i think it's hard for my niece to deal with two small kids now. anyway, the downstairs will be off limits until wednesday.

it's a bit hard on sahar. he doesn't quite understand why he can't go 'upstairs'. that's what he calls the downstairs. it's equally frustrationg for the dogs. i don't have leashes for them. it's a bit of a strain. the things we do for money, heh!

Back To Business

it's 8:00 a.m. in the holy city of zefat. we are all busy trying to get the house ready for tourists. we survived the 24-25 hour fast which ended on tuesday night and went into work mode on wednesday.

i couldn't, exactly, jump out of bed yesterday. i was sore and dry. i stayed in bed until the afternoon. i then got up and started gathering the laundry. i had nine days worth of wash to do. the 'baby' has been sick and throwing up lately. the dogs have busy pishing on my beds. how absolutely, lovely!

i rearranged the clothes closets downstairs for the kids. i reattached some of the shelves that had been used to keep the dogs out of several of our rooms, for the past few years. sahar will be moving into an adjoining bedroom this winter with the advent of a new arrival. that's right, we are 'expecting' again. i say 'we' because we are all involved in this process. and, if you saw my bloated stomach, you'd think that i was the pregnant one.

a real estate agent came over to check out our premises. we took photos and set up props. we are all prepared to camp out together on one floor and rent the other two floors to make some cash. we are all hurting, financially, right now. the store had a very slow month and the kids are quite anxious to make some cash.

i had a builder come by to give me a quote for making a separate entrance for the studio apartment. that was last week and he never came back. there just isn't any income coming in right now. it's all about the $. i hate the enormous pressure that we're all under right now.

i have some red eye like infection going on right now and reading is almost impossible. of course, i ran out of eye drops, not that they have been so effective. my right eye is always burning. i think that i may have had a bells palsey blow up. my right cheek has had little feeling. here we go again.

i have been very busy with sahar, recently. he has championed 'terrible two's' to another level. oh please grant me the strength! he comes up here every day for his morning bottle. he will fling anything in his eye's presence at the dogs. it can be a shoe or some lego, or even a broom. he's fast. the dogs are traumatized. i have been a victim of his 'arm' quite often, too. are we having fun yet?

i haven't made it over to the senior's in a while, so i am hoping to get over there this morning. i have had a stomach bug two weeks in a row. it may be a reaction to the new remedy that i took. i have been a lot calmer about family issues lately, but i have been a lot less healthy, too. i think that the whole, recent, facial paralysis virus thing, is a result of the remedy. i need to write to my homeopath today.

i went to see my sister this week. it has been months, since our blow out. my niece and her family are in from india for the month. i finally got to meet my 9 month old grand niece. she is so lively! her older brother was more contained. he didn't remember me. he doesn't see me because i can't skype. i still haven't bought a camera. this normally, would have sent me into an emotional tail spin, but not so, now. i invited them over for a pool day. the only problem is that sahar is sick.

my sister and i hugged and kissed goodbye. it was a beginning. i still have issues. who doesn't. i still feel left out of the loop. but i have to learn to get over it. i have to focus on the good in my life. i have to stop having expectations. we all have to start loving freely. less judging and more loving!