Another Holiday.

it is 9:30 p.m. in the holy city of safed.  i stopped blogging after pesach.  i was wiped out and didn't think anyone was interested in my blog anymore.  i have been on face book every day.  i spend a good hour every morning reading all the posts of friends and commenting on their posts.  i try to be charitable and say nice things.  i have gotten into heated posts with many dog owners because i commented that i don't think dogs should lie next to brand new infants in bed nor do i think we should leave dogs alone with our babies, either.  maybe; i always had small nervous, skittish dogs but my pincher bit my grandchildren more than once.

people post pix of their pets and babies on a public forum and if you comment anything besides, 'adorable', or 'great', they turn on you.  some of them are more vicious than their pit bulls and other oversized pets.  i guess i see the potential danger in many pix.  i hate when people pose with giant snakes or lions or tigers.  i am always thinking, that in one more moment they are done for.  i guess i am negative, as these bloggers always accuse me of being.  it's kind of ironic because i am always rescuing dogs and am mad for them.

tomorrow night is our holiday of shavuot.  best known for the holiday of dairy.  like, serious cheesecake, is going on in the land.  in the past, i have been known to make a pretty good lasagna and tiramisu but i prefer to leave it in the past.  with prices sky high, i could not afford to buy the makings for these two dishes.  pesach, left me in debt.  i am making one cheesecake for a dear friend, who lives in the neighborhood and i am going to make a pan of cheesecake brownies for the sephardi family, living downstairs.  my son's in-laws are still coexisting with me.  we get along just great.  the sephardi grandmother, 10 years my junior; makes all the shabbat and holiday meals.  i join them when i am up to it and i sit and eat.

i usually spend shabbat alone.  i like the quiet and i prefer eating my own food.   i don't eat late anymore and it is very hard finishing meals at 10:00 p.m.  i still fast every night.  when i am alone i eat less food and finish by 8:30 or 9:00 p.m.  i usually go to sleep right after i finish eating and taking the dogs out.  i stay up all week long till the wee hours of the morning; watching t.v.  on friday night i make up for all the lost sleep during the week.  i like to go to synagogue now.  there has been so much tragedy in israel in the last few weeks.  i find it is difficult to be alone with my thoughts so i go to hear the men chant and pray on saturday mornings.

i have recently committed to walking at least 45 minutes every day.  since we have had severe heat waves; i have taken to get out at 6:00 a.m. to do my walk.  when I haven't made it out early; i go out at night.  for several days, i didn't venture out in daylight except to take dogs out close by.  i was a bit of a vampire for awhile.  this afternoon it cooled enough for me to take a walk at 5:00 p.m.  there were tons of people out, too.  i had a touch of sciatica this morning and the walk helped a lot.  it is acting up now and so are the dogs.

i hope that my son and family make it here in safety.  there are missiles falling all over the country.  the terrorists don't like to waste their missiles in daylight when they can be detected easily.  they prefer to strike in the middle of the night while children and their parents are asleep.  you get about 15 seconds to make it to a bomb shelter in most cities so many people are just sleeping in the shelters every night. i sincerely hope that we will have a quiet and peaceful holiday.  so far, we have not been afflicted in the north but no one knows how long this will last.  a young soldier from safed is in critical condition after his jeep took a direct hit.  his 21 year old sergeant major wasn't so lucky nor was a beautiful 5 year old  boy who took a direct shrapnel hit which killed him.  his mother, who is in critical condition wasn't able to be at his burial.

so we continue our lives and get ready for our holiday.  what choice do we have???  we had a year of peace during corona.  i try to keep my dark thoughts to myself and still be positive.  it is a full time job.  i am looking forward to the holiday even though i won't be eating any cheesecake.  i pray for the jews all over the world who are being targeted by arab violence.  may we all merit to be in our own homes with our families on shavuot night.