Friday Morning

it is 9:00 a.m. in the holy city of safed.  I do not work on Fridays. yes!!  it is the one day that I can do errands, clean up the mess in the house and get ready for Shabbat.  I saw a leak upstairs on the roof of the apartment coming from the hot water tank.  it wasn't a flood but I, nevertheless, called my repair guy last week.  he replaced a narrow pipe and I think it did the trick.  he also started repairing some fallen tiles in the kitchen.  he then, never showed up again.  I was too busy to call him back.  I kept imagining the worst.  last night I even imagined him dying.

I was planning on calling him this morning but he beat me to the punch.  hopefully, he will come soon.  the weather finally turned cold and stormy.  we had two intense rain storms.  we desperately need the water here.  we are facing a serious water crisis.  I was pretty tired yesterday and cabbed it to work.  on the way home it was rather stormy and I was wet from doing the pots and pans.  a taxi passed by and I jumped in and got home in ten minutes.  normally it takes me almost an hour to get home.  it involves waiting for 2 busses.  usually, I sit out in the cold for half an hour. the actual ride is only about 20 minutes.  I have been getting home around 8:00 p.m. lately.

I have to work an hour to pay for a cab ride.  I get paid a bit less than $10 an hour.  a cab ride is about $8 during the daytime.  it goes up a bit after 8:00 p.m.  that's the economic reality here in safed.  it used to be $4 to buy a cup of coffee.  now they have cofix, a store where everything is only 5 shekels. I often frequent the store to get an iced coffee in the summer.  it's bad quality but the price is right.   I just went outside to pick up the leaves in front of the house.  I was too lazy to go upstairs and retrieve my dust pan. I scooped it all up with my hands.  it was rather nasty outside.  I was pleasantly surprised to feel that the house was comfortably warm inside.  I did manage to close all of the windows.

yesterday, I made falafel balls and many of the fixings for lunch.  the guys really loved it.  me, not so much.  it was a lot of work. I haven't fried up falafel balls in over 30 years.  I hardly ever eat them even though they are a national dish.  people eat them for breakfast here.  my falafel balls were awful.  they were over fired and crumbly and greasy.  the frozen French fries took over an hour and a half to bake.  some were still raw while many were burnt.  I made tahini sauce and I made my own chumus from scratch.  I cooked up the dried chickpeas first.  I diced, what seemed like, endless amounts of tomatoes and cucumbers.  I sliced a few onion rings.  I fried up about 5 large eggplants.  it took hours to prepare and I forgot to open up a can of pickles.  I don't think the guys noticed.

I was supposed to make tuna patties for dinner but I couldn't even look at a bottle of oil again.  I made a tuna loaf, buckwheat, aka 'kasha' and a zucchini soufflé, instead.  it took an hour to do the washing up and clean the stovetop.  there was oil everywhere.  I ended up working for six hours yesterday.  that's six hours standing on my feet with a sore back.  I normally finish in 4-5 hours.  there are now 18 young men there but they eat like a pack of 25.  there isn't a bit of food left over lately.  it is a lot more work to do.  one of the guys decided that he doesn't want to eat gluten.   I have been cooking lentils and chickpeas each day so that he can have some protein.  he doesn't eat meat during the week.  I also try not peeling the potatoes unless I make a mash.  the manager prefers that I make only 3 items for each meal and rather than add another item; he wants me to increase the amount of each item.

a bag of rice was always enough for 10-12 young men but that's not nearly enough for this crowd.   it's more like 6 pounds of potatoes to make a mash now.  I am tired.  my hands are all cut up and blistered.  I am already dreading Chanukah.  I am known for making latkes, and fried foods during the week up Chanukah. it is going to be very challenging, indeed!.  I do not know how to assemble the food processor so I have been grating small amounts by hand.  I will have to sort this out sooner or later.  I used to make the guys a cake for Shabbat but I just don't have the time anymore.  I was hoping to make peanut butter cookies for them but alas, came along one young man, who has a peanut allergy.

I am hoping to visit the grandkids next week in Jerusalem.  the guys have an out Shabbat.  that means I only need to leave lunch for them on Thursday.  and I only need to make them supper on Sunday.  I can jump on a bus at 2:00 p.m. and hopefully get to Jerusalem before the kids are sleeping.  now i only need for their parents to agree to my visiting.   we shall see.