With the last heatwaves, even we can’t bear being home all the time despite the ideal conditions. All the crowds, we heard on the radio, were at the shopping malls where no testing or green passes were required. So we picked up the grandchildren in Tel Aviv in the morning and drove to the Natural History museum where they give quick-results corona tests, required to get into museums and pools. Unfortunately, after 20 minutes waiting in a very slow-moving line, the single technician announced that the system was down. So we went home for an early lunch, and came back over an hour later, where the same technician was dealing with a much shorter line. The system was back up. But what we didn’t know was that we had to scan a code, fill out forms for each child, and get a code. And that’s when I discovered that my phone stopped getting messages for some strange reason. I went back to the line, and when my turn came, told the technician my problem. He stopped testing, looked up the data for me, and sent me the test code to my email. Unfortunately, my email also suddenly went haywire. I went back, and this time and cut through the line to the technician, who once again, stopped everything, and took Ezi’s number. Eventually we got our negative results, and cut across the street to the Anu museum.

I want to point out that the single technician who worked with remarkable patience, professionalism, and devotion was a very young Arab man. I didn’t think to ask his name, but he deserves special recognition for taking such good care of so many children, interrupting his long hours of testing only with repeated warnings to the people to observe social distance.

We were not in a peak mood for this museum. This deserves another entry.

HOW I LOST YET ANOTHER FRIEND

“I won’t have anything to do with that vaccine,”

she complains, “Not just because I trust in freedom,

but you know I won’t put any substance in my body

that hasn’t been tested and approved.”

We are both old ladies. I don’t respond

with the same rapidity as days gone by,

and think first about how I used to admire

her wild way of being alive,

the liberty and ease of her ways.

And then I recall that at my age

I’m allowed to be rude,

And look down at my lap and say,

“What about all those guys you screwed?”

Today was the day I was planning to devote my time to organize my research and finally finish the paper I promised to submit about English Writing in Israel, make up for the glorious days with grandchildren But everything is down, even my email. Out of commission. I’m grateful that the university provides such protection – it is really needed these days. And maybe I can go back to my Arabic lessons.

I will return to this page when I see that my mail is back – just to let you know

Of course, I can’t figure out how in blazes President Biden determined the strategy of leaving Afghanistan, and how the evacuation chaos couldn’t have been foreseen. What worries me more is what is going to happen to the entire Middle East now that the extremists have a country of their own. And how we’re beginning to botch things up in the same way Biden did, letting out-of-sync people control our lives and future.

And Blinken is making a fool of himself trying to cover for his boss.