Hi everyone,
It's been a varied week. I turned 55 on 8 July, spent at work but was invited to dinner by a friend who keeps track of these things. It's a little sobering. Since it takes about ten years to get anything done in conservation, start to finish, it means anything I want done before retirement, I have to start now. In a few years, what I start, others must finish.
I am picking up the threads of one interesting conservation problem, management of the Dead Sea oasis of En Fescha. It is a beautiful place, just opposite Qumran and less than an hour from Jerusalem. I've dabbled there for years, just finished a manuscript on the monitoring there. The next day the oasis had a severe fire. I decided to go have a look, two weeks after the fire. Recovery was amazing. The Phragmites (a kind of cane reed) was growing like mad. Not necessarily good news since it is a management problem, but its resiliance is awesome.
This is just two weeks after fire. So clearly we have to get monitoring started fast. Also grazing, to keep this grass from takin over the whole oasis.
My boss, Eliezer, was also curious so we both went down on Wednesday morning and spent several hours there looking all over the reserve with the local game warden and the district biologist (who was on crutches after surgery). I think all us biologists were glad to get out in the field, although it was 38oC (oh, go figure it out yourself in Fahrenheit, I gave that up years ago. Somewhere around 100oC, I guess.) It was hot, but the Dead Sea air is so dry (remember the preservtion of those Qumran parchment scrolls) that we didn't suffer much. Just had to drink water like camels.
I need to have one field project to keep my head tethered to the ground; all my other work is either informatics or advising on data analysis. I'm going to make this my baby for the next few years. First, I like desert oases; they are interesting and have interesting management problems like invasive species and declining water resources. Here in the Middle East most of them also have a rich archeological history; En Fescha has Qumran next door and a Roman-era perfume and incense factory on the premises which I examined with the archeologist who studied it. Not too rich in species, but very special, and then there is the glory of the water in the desert. Finally it makes a great escape from Jerusalem especially in winter, when I'm freezing my butt up here. The Dead Sea area is delicious for half the year, and the other half it is very, very hot. Fun place to work.
So I was happy with that trip. I was saddened later in the day, however. Our congregation has a soup kitchen, and the soup kitchen has a cook who loves cats. One of her favorites has been ailing for a long time and she asked me to have him checked by the vet. I spent two hours there testing the poor little guy, who was skin and bones and not eating. The reason was bizarre. His pelvis had been broken in an old injury (six months ago, it turned out), and although it healed, the bones were jumbed and there was not enough room in the pelvis for the colon to pass feces. So his pipeline was backed up, and he couldn't poop. The bones had ossified again; there was nothing to be done, so we had to euthanize him. Quite a medical bill due to blood tests and xrays, although my vet alwars gives me a big discount. The cook was horrified. She is poor and could only contribute about a sixth of the bill and I am footing the rest. A lot of money for a dead cat. Oh well, it's a mitzvah, as we say here; the poor creature was suffering terribly and we gave him the best chance we could. I don't regret money squandered that way, but I will have to be careful now with other expenditures.
With the value of the dollar in free fall over here (lost about 40% of its value in comparison to last year), Israelis are feeling the effects now. My American pension is what I use to make ends meet and it isn't worth so much now. Prices are rising due to the increased value in shekels of imported goods (which covers a lot here). Fuel prices are rising almost every day, about nine dollars a gallon now. (I am glad my car gets about 24 miles to the gallon; I would be taking public transportation otherwise.) Since government workers haven't had a pay rise in perhaps six years, it functionally means we are all getting poorer. I'm not complaining; others are in far worse shape. My retired friends are having trouble paying for medicines now, despite our excellent health fund system, which subsidizes costs. Too many of them are choosing between food, utilities, and medicine. These are the ones worst hit.
I worry about my own pension funds. I have three, and two of them lost money in the last year; the other one, which did the best of the various pension funds, barely broke even. I can live with a fund that is stable or increases slowly, but seeing the value of my savings go down was a shock. I suppose this is happening everywhere, but Israel is fragile since our economy is so dependent on world trade. We are going to get poorer, inevitably. The boom of the last two decades is over.
Meanwhile we carry on professionally. It doesn't cost more to think more clearly, and that is where I put my energy now. We are getting our monitoring program knocked into shape, I think. I continue with my international project. In fact we had our first videoconference yesterday, a weird experience for me. Our project module heads meet every six months, and I am one of them. Getting us together physically would be horribly expensive since we are scattered all over Europe and me in Israel. So we opted from the beginning to do this meeting by videoconference (and it is likely more meetings will be done the same way).
My connection was not so good since the optical fiber cable carrying internet from Jerusalem was severed and under repair, with internet being rerouted God knows how. So there was a lag of about a minutes from when I spoke to when the Europeans heard it. I ended up typing my stuff in the "chat" section of the page, although I could hear them quite clearly and they were communicating with each other in real time. Annoying but it worked, and I hope this bug doesn't come up again.
Meeting online with eight people was truly an experience for me. The video part does help. Strange, but seeing the person helps in communication. I guess we are just too hardwired for that; the image doesn't convey any practical information but I feel more connected when I can see the person. Stone Age instincts, twenty first century technology. Everything can be upgraded except the human mind.
However, I'm glad our September meetings will be in the flesh, in Bratislava. I've never been there, although I know nearby Prague quite well. We will have three days of meetings, and then I'm taking another five days in Piestany to relax at that renowned spa town.
Meanwhile summer is on us with a vengence, so we go into Midde Eastern mode, up early to do outdoor work, retreat to the shade in midday (how I wish we could still do the traditional early afternoon nap too), and then emerge as the sun starts going down. Actually Jersalem in summer is more comfortable than much of Europe, since the air is dry. I've suffered a lot more in Greece or Italy this time of year. So I won't complain about our summer.
shabbat shalom,
Linda
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http://shabbat-shalom-jerusalem.blogspot.com/
It's been a varied week. I turned 55 on 8 July, spent at work but was invited to dinner by a friend who keeps track of these things. It's a little sobering. Since it takes about ten years to get anything done in conservation, start to finish, it means anything I want done before retirement, I have to start now. In a few years, what I start, others must finish.
I am picking up the threads of one interesting conservation problem, management of the Dead Sea oasis of En Fescha. It is a beautiful place, just opposite Qumran and less than an hour from Jerusalem. I've dabbled there for years, just finished a manuscript on the monitoring there. The next day the oasis had a severe fire. I decided to go have a look, two weeks after the fire. Recovery was amazing. The Phragmites (a kind of cane reed) was growing like mad. Not necessarily good news since it is a management problem, but its resiliance is awesome.
This is just two weeks after fire. So clearly we have to get monitoring started fast. Also grazing, to keep this grass from takin over the whole oasis.
My boss, Eliezer, was also curious so we both went down on Wednesday morning and spent several hours there looking all over the reserve with the local game warden and the district biologist (who was on crutches after surgery). I think all us biologists were glad to get out in the field, although it was 38oC (oh, go figure it out yourself in Fahrenheit, I gave that up years ago. Somewhere around 100oC, I guess.) It was hot, but the Dead Sea air is so dry (remember the preservtion of those Qumran parchment scrolls) that we didn't suffer much. Just had to drink water like camels.
I need to have one field project to keep my head tethered to the ground; all my other work is either informatics or advising on data analysis. I'm going to make this my baby for the next few years. First, I like desert oases; they are interesting and have interesting management problems like invasive species and declining water resources. Here in the Middle East most of them also have a rich archeological history; En Fescha has Qumran next door and a Roman-era perfume and incense factory on the premises which I examined with the archeologist who studied it. Not too rich in species, but very special, and then there is the glory of the water in the desert. Finally it makes a great escape from Jerusalem especially in winter, when I'm freezing my butt up here. The Dead Sea area is delicious for half the year, and the other half it is very, very hot. Fun place to work.
So I was happy with that trip. I was saddened later in the day, however. Our congregation has a soup kitchen, and the soup kitchen has a cook who loves cats. One of her favorites has been ailing for a long time and she asked me to have him checked by the vet. I spent two hours there testing the poor little guy, who was skin and bones and not eating. The reason was bizarre. His pelvis had been broken in an old injury (six months ago, it turned out), and although it healed, the bones were jumbed and there was not enough room in the pelvis for the colon to pass feces. So his pipeline was backed up, and he couldn't poop. The bones had ossified again; there was nothing to be done, so we had to euthanize him. Quite a medical bill due to blood tests and xrays, although my vet alwars gives me a big discount. The cook was horrified. She is poor and could only contribute about a sixth of the bill and I am footing the rest. A lot of money for a dead cat. Oh well, it's a mitzvah, as we say here; the poor creature was suffering terribly and we gave him the best chance we could. I don't regret money squandered that way, but I will have to be careful now with other expenditures.
With the value of the dollar in free fall over here (lost about 40% of its value in comparison to last year), Israelis are feeling the effects now. My American pension is what I use to make ends meet and it isn't worth so much now. Prices are rising due to the increased value in shekels of imported goods (which covers a lot here). Fuel prices are rising almost every day, about nine dollars a gallon now. (I am glad my car gets about 24 miles to the gallon; I would be taking public transportation otherwise.) Since government workers haven't had a pay rise in perhaps six years, it functionally means we are all getting poorer. I'm not complaining; others are in far worse shape. My retired friends are having trouble paying for medicines now, despite our excellent health fund system, which subsidizes costs. Too many of them are choosing between food, utilities, and medicine. These are the ones worst hit.
I worry about my own pension funds. I have three, and two of them lost money in the last year; the other one, which did the best of the various pension funds, barely broke even. I can live with a fund that is stable or increases slowly, but seeing the value of my savings go down was a shock. I suppose this is happening everywhere, but Israel is fragile since our economy is so dependent on world trade. We are going to get poorer, inevitably. The boom of the last two decades is over.
Meanwhile we carry on professionally. It doesn't cost more to think more clearly, and that is where I put my energy now. We are getting our monitoring program knocked into shape, I think. I continue with my international project. In fact we had our first videoconference yesterday, a weird experience for me. Our project module heads meet every six months, and I am one of them. Getting us together physically would be horribly expensive since we are scattered all over Europe and me in Israel. So we opted from the beginning to do this meeting by videoconference (and it is likely more meetings will be done the same way).
My connection was not so good since the optical fiber cable carrying internet from Jerusalem was severed and under repair, with internet being rerouted God knows how. So there was a lag of about a minutes from when I spoke to when the Europeans heard it. I ended up typing my stuff in the "chat" section of the page, although I could hear them quite clearly and they were communicating with each other in real time. Annoying but it worked, and I hope this bug doesn't come up again.
Meeting online with eight people was truly an experience for me. The video part does help. Strange, but seeing the person helps in communication. I guess we are just too hardwired for that; the image doesn't convey any practical information but I feel more connected when I can see the person. Stone Age instincts, twenty first century technology. Everything can be upgraded except the human mind.
However, I'm glad our September meetings will be in the flesh, in Bratislava. I've never been there, although I know nearby Prague quite well. We will have three days of meetings, and then I'm taking another five days in Piestany to relax at that renowned spa town.
Meanwhile summer is on us with a vengence, so we go into Midde Eastern mode, up early to do outdoor work, retreat to the shade in midday (how I wish we could still do the traditional early afternoon nap too), and then emerge as the sun starts going down. Actually Jersalem in summer is more comfortable than much of Europe, since the air is dry. I've suffered a lot more in Greece or Italy this time of year. So I won't complain about our summer.
shabbat shalom,
Linda
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
http://shabbat-shalom-jerusalem.blogspot.com/
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