Fasting

it is 9:00 a.m. in the holy city of safed.  we started our 26 hour tisha b'av fast last night.  only 11 hours to go.  this commemorates the destruction of the holy temple.  unlike the fast of yom kippur; only observant jews keep this one.  for the rest of the population, it's business as usual.  restaurants and businesses are all open.  the cable television broadcasting is on its usual schedule.

I spent the entire Friday cleaning my house.  for ten hours, I washed all of the rooms except for the living room on my floor and all of the rooms downstairs.  I may be having summer renters.  I ran out to buy a small fridge for the downstairs.  I am short three bed frames and may have to sort this out after the fast.  I haven't received any confirmations yet.  I haven't wanted to rent the downstairs for a couple of years but the in-laws called me about specific dates and families.  we will see what happens.

the grandchildren are now reunited with their parents and living in Jerusalem.  the daughter-in-law returned on Wednesday and took the kids back with her on Thursday.  I am planning on visiting them on Thursday.  I will stay for a few days.  my friend will house and dog sit for me and we will see how it all goes down.  unfortunately, there is no cellphone reception in their new house and calling them is very hard.  my granddaughter called on friday morning and I couldn't get back to her until just before  candle lighting on Friday evening.  it was very jarring on my nerves.

I told each of the grandkids to call me when they missed me.  my granddaughter was a bit upset, too.  this is going to be a huge change in our lives.  most people think I have fallen apart.  not yet, I have been too busy getting the house back in order.  I have been cleaning up all of the slime and collecting and organizing all of the lego pieces, toys and chactchkas.  I am almost finished.  I have a good friend coming to visit soon and my sister is coming in mid august.  I managed to pack up the toys and dolls that the kids wanted to take to Jerusalem on wednesday.  I had bought travel bags in the supermarket for 10 shekels each.

I have been very stressed lately at work and home.  while the kids were at day camp, I cooked at the yeshiva so I could pick them up at 1:00 p.m. when the family couldn't bring them to me.  I had to schlepp around in the heat wave with them to town to buy treats and toys and go to a movie.  up here, we had pizza twice and of course, more treats and toys. it was an intense few days.  work was a balagon, as usual.  I had last minute requests to make a million sandwiches and incorrect information about the count for meals.  I was told to cook for only 5 on Thursday.  the rest of the students were supposed to be going to Jerusalem.

I took my time coming to work because I knew I had enough food in the freezer for the 5 guys.  I quickly defrosted black bean patties and stuffed peppers.  I had leftover spaghetti and roasted eggplant and veggies, too.  I boiled up some eggs, to boot.   I concentrated on making the supper.  I fried up about 50 or more chickpea and bulgur patties, made a pot of rice and roasted a pan of potatoes.  I even made a cole slaw.  I had to get home by 3:00 p.m. because the new fridge was being delivered.  I had to do the washing up and floor and I was nearly finished.  just then the young manager came in to let me know that all 16 guys were there and needed lunch. 

I had left home without my cellphone that day.  I guess he had tried to call me at some point.  I went into zelda rescue mode.  I put out the chickpea patties for lunch and took out the filling of the stuffed peppers, which was buckwheat and couscous and bulgur in a tomato sauce.  I should have just cut the peppers in half.  they were gigantic.  no one ate that mixture.  meanwhile, I left the kitchen in a mess and taxied home to be there for the delivery men.  I returned back to the yeshiva at 5:00 p.m. and made a zucchini soufflé to go with the rice and roasted potatoes, I had already prepared for dinner.  I washed all of the pots and pans and counters and floor and left about 6:30 p.m.   I got home and I was in a manic state.  the kids were on their way to Jerusalem and I started cleaning up the house and grabbing toys.