shabbat shalom 31.12.09

Hi everyone, New Year's Eve in dowdy Jerusalem. The only people who seem to get excited about it are the Russian immigrants, for whom this is the big winter party. Jewish, Christian, or none of the above, the Russians celebrate the New Year with the same kind of festivities that north Europeans and Anglos reserve for Christmas: the decorated tree, the lights, the feasting. All our Russian staff are going to disappear about noon and get ready for the party at home or with friends. (Lots of drinking, of course; hey, they're Russians!) I compared notes with some of my Russian colleagues and it sounds like a nice celebration; maybe I'll poke my nose in my Russian neighbors' house tonight.... I did my party on Tuesday. It went very well, had about 30 people crowded into the meeting room in the office. Decorated tree, lots of scented candles. I had several cakes from Italy and German (mandel stollen, profiterole cake, etc.) and Greek louukoumi, Greek cookies, fruit, nuts, even some kosher cakes for the staff who keep kosher. They loved it and are still talking about how interesting and beautiful it was. Some people brought me small gifts too. This party is becoming traditional at work now, and people look forward to it. Next year I will be in Holland before Christmas and will stock up on Dutch delicacies for the holiday. (And they have several lovely, spicy cakes and cookies for Christmas, like speculaas in all its forms, and cakes heavy with cinnamon and nutmeg - an inheritance from the old Dutch East Indies.) Almost didn't make it. I was downed by a virus over the weekend, straggled into work on Sunday but too sick to go to work on Monday. I just went to bed and stayed there. It was enough; by Tuesday I was a little wobbly but not really ill. I'm seldom knocked down by a virus these days, but this one had been haunting me for a week and finally nailed me. Kitty was at the vet also. I wrote last week that my blind and deaf white kitten was terribly sick and I spent Christmas morning at an emergency vet's office. On Monday night I brought him in for care at my regular vet. He was scheduled for eye surgery to close a perforated cornea, but we were too late - the lens had already gone out through the perforation and he lost that eye completely as well. So my vet kept him overnight to clean out his eye sockets and sew his eyelids shut, which is the proper care for a blind cat to prevent infections in this rather vulnerable area. It was major surgery; on Tuesday afternoon when I got him, he was still unconscious and took another twelve hours to come around. I was quite worried, in fact; had to keep him in a cage because he thrashed around and might hurt himself. But by Wednesday morning he was more or less normal. Had a little trouble to eat at first (I used Hill's AD, a special food for sick cats) but after an hour he got his jaws working properly again. He rested all day in a nest of a flannel blanket and heating pad. By Wednesday night, he was normal. He seems happy today, which surprised me a little. I guess the infected eyes were so painful that being without them is actually a relief. His head looks odd without eyes, but not ugly. I'm getting used to it, and he seems quite natural about it. We were playing this morning and he's been purring a lot. He'll be okay, although always an indoor cat, obviously. He's a lovely cat; I'm glad we got him sorted out. Work is a little slow for the moment, but we are running trials of the new user interface for my database system, which means mostly the developer talks to the network manager while I kibitz. With the slack at work, I'll be able to take in a couple conferences (one in Tel Aviv on regional cross border parks with Jordan; we now have several), and go visit my old friend Prof. Zev Naveh in Haifa. He celebrated his 90th birthday last month, and is still writing books! I doubt I'll get to his age or be able to do that if I do. They were tough people in his generation. We finally got a good rain last night, the first of the winter. It poured all night and the roads were treacherous, covered with mud and gravel in the morning. We were fogbound also; my home is on a mountaintop so the clouds which hang on the Judean Mountains become our fog. When I drop down just 50 meters, I'm below it, but the last couple kilometers can be rather scary, with twisting mountain roads, no railing, and visibility two meters. I try not to drive at night in this weather, and so do guys braver than me. Not much more to mention. Beginning to feel an itch to see the sun and warm weather, which means a trip to the Dead Sea in January. At this time of year, it is like paradise: balmy breezes, soothing hot springs, outdoor picnics, and that marvelous salt and bromide-laden air which is cleansing and calming at the same time. When I'm old and retired, I think I will spend several days in winter down there; it's good for arthritis and all sorts of ailments, and so very peaceful. Maybe then, Jericho will be open to Israelis again and I can spend a holiday there.....winter dreams......I miss Jericho, actually. shabbat shalom, Linda