Category: Personal

I’m heading off to Seattle to spend time with the family. For those of you who celebrate Christmas, have a happy and peaceful Christmas. For everyone else in countries that take Christmas as a holiday, have a very merry vacation.

Six months after moving into the house, I finally put mezuzahs on most of the doors (I put a mezuzah by the front door when I moved in). Mezuzahs are small cases holding a scroll of parchment with Torah verses. The custom is to place them on the right side of doorways heading into a room.
Mezuzot on the doors are supposed to remind you of the presence of God and the commandments. Which sounds like it might be grim, but it isn’t, it’s joyful. For example, in each room, I tried to think about the different good things I would get to do in the rooms — hospitality in the front room, cooking tasty food for guests and healthy food for me in the kitchen, study and reading in the library, enjoying the garden on the deck.
The house has a LOT of doors. The entry way has an outside door and door to the enclosed porch. The kitchen opens onto the dining room and sitting room. The library opens onto the front room and the hall. The bedroom opens onto the hall and the deck. I have never needed this number of mezuzahs before.
My parents very generously gave me a set of large, beautiful, expensive scrolls, along with a set of trasparent lucite holders with the world’s worst industrial design. The bottom of the holders has a plastic plug that screws in, to keep the scroll clean and dry.
The plug has holes drilled through it that are supposed to align with holes in the case when you rotate it to the right orientation. But the plug is not perforated all the way through. You need to bang a nail through 1/4″ of hard plastic, while trying to keep the plug from sliding along the screw treads and misaligning the holes. Or try to drill through the plastic (same problems). Or simply unscrew the plug, put the nail through the holes in the case, and think about spiders nesting in your mezuzah cases.
The mezuzah case I had put at the front door when I moved in was one that my friend Joan had given me. It was wood that she had carved herself. She had said that it was not protected, and shouldn’t be used outdoors, but it was the only one that I thought I had (I actually found another one today), so I put it up temporarily when I moved in. Now it is discolored, and sitting in a closet shelf. Sorry Joan.

this post made me teary.

is distinguishing between black and navy blue in early mornings and dark closets.

There are a bunch of hands-on household tasks that I’d rather be doing; planting cool-weather flowers; blowing leaves off the garden plots, picking a few yellow leaves off the rosebush installing the new filter in the hot tub (which I still haven’t sold); some necessary vermin-prevention (you don’t want to know); fixing the plastic cover I broke on one of the closet fluorescent light fixtures (want to cut the sheet of plastic in the daylight, on the deck).
But I promised some documents for review this weekend. So I’m looking at the sun outside the window, watching leaves blow on the laurel, and getting to work. Really.

Woke up in time to go to synagogue on Saturday morning, though I didn’t get there quite on time. Today was one of those Saturdays when I really only feel awake after an afternoon nap.
The minyan was held at the building of the non-denominational synagogue, with some members of that congregation. The rabbi, who was trained reform, is reaching out to the traditional-egalitarian minyanim, and they are holding joint services with us once a month.
The highlight of the service happened during Torah-reading, when the 2.5 year old daughter of some friends started to lug a chair toward the center of the room (people watched, and didn’t stop her yet). She moved the chair over to the bima, where her father had received an aliya. Then she climbed up on the chair, and watched curiously as the adults gathered around the scroll and the reader read.
Her father was anxious and moved to take her down, but the minyan organizer and the rabbi, who were reading and gabbai-ing, respectively, motioned to let her stay.
Hanna is very clever and energetic and mischievous. She drives her parents bananas.
Glossary:
aliya — being called to recite blessings for the Torah reading
bima — altar. A table in the center of the room, where the torah scroll is placed when it is being read. Taller than the line of sight of a 2.5 year old.
gabbai — the person who calls the stage-directions for the Torah-reading.
minyan — prayer-community, with a quorum of at least 10 adult Jews
shul — synagogue

About 9:30 pm. It was damp, about 50. I love running in cool weather. I’ve been doing the Rodney Yee yoga tape several times a week and then running/swimming occasionally. Happy that I can still do the Stacy Park run (1.5-2 mi) without stopping. Basic fitness is good.
I ran the way back on the street. There are trees every 20 feet or so. When you’re getting tired, you just run to each next tree. Should avoid the Stacy Pool parking lot after dark; can’t imagine any good reason why folks would park there at 9:30 pm.
Christmas lights: between Little Stacy Park and Riverside, the houses are up on a hill looking down on the creek. One house has a small pine tree all lit up, about storey high overlooking the street. Further up the street, some folks just wrapped a couple of live oak branches in lights. Either lazy or abstract. At the corner of East Monroe and Live Oak, there are foot high letters made of mini-lights, spelling out “peace on earth”. Which is meaningful every year but especially this year when folks are preparing war in our name.
I used to feel crowded by Christmas lights. This is pretty common for Jews; in a country that’s majority culturally Christian, the assumption is that everyone celebrates Christmas; the ubiquitous decorations, music, and holiday wishes feel intrusive. After having dated a Catholic guy for years, I appreciate them. I can translate them now.
Christmas music in retail stores still makes me want to shoot out the speakers.

cloudy, chilly, damp.
the leaves on the ground are red and yellow.
the new grass is blue-green.
sky is mottled gray.
stacy creek chortles, the kids on recess run and shriek

from Ed Vielmetti’s Vacuum email list
In thinking about how to find places to carry on my daily work, I started composing a rating guide for the mobile office location for the
telecommuter. This involves the key technologies of
– wireless Internet on your laptop
0 stars: no signal
1/4 star: pay-per-use rental computers
1/2 star: pay-per-use wireless; free computers
1 star: free wireless with strong signal
– a mobile phone, and a place to talk on it
0 stars: no signal
1/4 star: signal, but no place to talk – too noisy or too quiet
1/2 star: signal, a place to talk, but no door to keep private
1 star: signal and a door to shut, or a wireline phone and same
– Kinko’s services (print, photocopy, office supply)
0 stars: nothing, and nothing nearby
1/4 star: you know where to go to, but it’s inconvinent
1/2 star: within walking distance, or local but incomplete
1 star: more copy, fax, print tools than you know how to use
– coffee, tea, or other convivial snacks
0 stars: you go hungry
1/4 star: institutional burnt black coffee
1/2 star: your own kitchen, or a place to snack sans atmosphere
1 star: a place to hang out with comfy couches and people around
– power outlets
0 stars: none to be found
1/4 star: only for the floor polishing machines
1/2 star: at some places to sit, but not many, or not enough
1 star: one seat, one power outlet
– books
0 stars: only the ones you carry on your back
1/4 star: a smattering of resume how-tos and business best sellers
1/2 star: a store or library or good personal collection
1 star: a major research library or exceptional special collection
No one organization that I know of offers all of these in one place. E.g.
The library. Our library is working on mobile wireless, and has lots of public use computers (1/2 *), but there are very few places you can engage in phone calls without bothering someone (0 *). There are copiers but no office supplies (1/2 *), no food and beverages allowed (0 *), but plenty of power (1 *) and more reference and popular books than you’d ever be able to read (1 *). Total rating: 3 of 6.
Kinko’s. These vary more widely than I’d like, and no particular store is guaranteed to have them all. Generally there’s at least a for-pay computer but sometimes you can get full internet via the printer stations (1/4 – 1 *). Your co-workers will notice if you’re on the phone (1/2 *), but there are office supplies and copiers galore (1 *). The beverage selection is almost always utilitarian and office-spartan (1/4 *). Power is readily available (1 *) but the only books you will find are
motivational and self-help (1/4 *). Total: 3-4 of 6.
Your favorite coffee shop. My favorite is Cafe Ambrosia, which has no Internet at the moment (0 *) but makes up for it by having power outletsat every table (1 *). Phone calls are expected (1 *), there’s good coffee and even comfy couches to sit on (1 *). It’s within a short walk of a Kinko’s (1/2 *) and Borders #1 (1/2 *) so the lack of books and copiers on site are easily made up for in a pinch. Total: 4 of 6.
My home office. Good internet (1 *), decent power though I need another power strip (1/2 *). Exceptionally good place to make or take phone calls (1 *). The kitchen is downstairs, but it’s self-service, and convivial is not really the way to describe the office — there’s no way you could have a four person meeting here (1/2 *). Getting copies made is a pain (1/4 * – could be improved with investment). As for books, there are lots of books here, but not always the specialized reference or brand new books that I can get downtown; give 1/2 * for the library, and another 1/4 * for the #5 bus that takes 10 minutes to get downtown where the books live. Total: 4 of 6, with notes for improvement that would add 1 more star almost all the way to 6 except for “convivial”.

says euan semple