israeli politics

After a long wait on the phone, I was shocked to discover a live person talking to me and had to catch my breath before I could answer him.  Yes, I want to vaccinate but I have an allergy to penicillin. “Do you carry atropine?” “No” “December 30, 12:15.”   

Now I have to find out what it entails, if Ezi should vaccinate, if my life has significance, and other questions of universal importance.

We’re still full of half-answers, mistaken notions, and open possibilities.  For example, a friend said he was coming by on Thursday because he will be safe since he’ll be vaccinated on Wednesday.    

Then I remembered.  There was a time when I did carry atropine – during the Gulf War.

Mistakes have been h

 

 

December 20, 2020 – vaccinations et al Read Post »

israeli politics

Because our internet is out – for some reason – I’m writing this offline and will post it without looking when it comes back.  You know I don’t even go back and correct anything even if Grammarly tells me to. 

First off, I woke up with a sense of doom and by the evening hope I will have forgotten this feeling.  It was partly because everything went wrong with yesterday.  Except for the IAWE arc reading itself last night, it was quite mad. We spent a great deal of the morning updating my computer, and then tried to install the usb microphone so I could record poems for Robert Priest.  That seemed to wreck my audio in zoom and I couldn’t give my little speech at the amazing arc 28 launch about the Israel Association of Writers in English and how we work together to finance the journal and produce these evenings and how we’re going to have a newsletter soon…. 

There was also the matter of the discovery that I will have to take the vaccine in hospital surroundings because I’m allergic to penicillin, and we have no idea how the vaccine will behave on anti-body-less Ezi.  In the meantime my son-in-law is in isolation having been exposed to a corona family member. 

And every muscle in my body aches – for no reason. 

But the worst part is that I’ve been so long away from a hairdresser – partly because of corona and partly because of my sinuses – that I dyed my hair and it turned out black and I look like a witch.

Just writing that down made me feel better, made me realize that all my troubles are minor and my own situation is the best it could possibly be.  Yes, I will gradually lighten and ultimately go grey as it grows in.  and I’ve seen it on my cousins – it’s totally white and gorgeous.  Watch me,  by 2022 I’ll be a distinguished mature lady.

Maybe I’ll even grow up.

And I made friends with a hedgehog today who gave me proportions –

i mean if she can survive in a totally unexpectable world, so can I

december 18, 2020 – Read Post »

israeli politics

Even though it is a holiday, we have – suddenly –  begun to believe that covid may well come to an end, we are getting more careless and more pressed to complete all the things that we’ve neglected for the past year.  I say ‘we’ when it is just me, but i do feel it around me.  so my entries are a little shorter than usual… 

december 17, 2020 – falling behind Read Post »

israeli politics

two separate issues.  

since Ezi is even more in love with planes than ever, he traces them on his app so we knew exactly when the first vaccinations would arrive, and turned on the tv to watch it.  And there was our Prime Minister, taking all the credit, perhaps even justifiably.  Who knows?  He doesn’t share anything that might be important to anyone who could be considered important.  In any case it is a great day – and we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

One thing we will not do is travel to the emirates in the near future.  I’m sure they are very nice people and we could become very good friends and partners, but I have a little worry about infections and terrorists.  What happens to some Israeli who catches corona while he’s there and needs hospitalization?  what happens if Iran gets wind of him?  I think I’ll stay here for a while longer – at least in this country.

 

december 9, 2020 – vaccinations and emirates Read Post »

israeli politics

yesterday it was announced that a night curfew was going to begin on Wednesday – from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m.  Today it was canceled.  The contradicting instructions that the population here have been getting – instructions that affect every aspect of their lives – have been driving people mad.  Paranoia, fear of loved ones, inability to make any plans, together with the imminent fear of loss of livelihood – show in the day-to-day activities of many people i love.  not only in Israel, but around the world.  I too am quite mad – but i’ve always been mad so it’s not too unpredictable for me.  and almost indecipherable from my normal behavior.

One form of the contemporary madness that may be unique to those i love is the determination to ensure the fact that our time has not been wasted.  we run from zoom to zoom, from site to site, from plan to plan.  

gotta go – a new zoom awaits.

 

 

 

  

December 8, 2020 – going mad Read Post »

israeli politics

We weren’t the only ones taking a break at the Tel Aviv port today.  There were lots of people walking enjoying themselves in the hazy warm weather.  

 

i don’t think the stores are doing as well… Even though I did my duty and bought as much as Ezi could bear, and a very few places were booming, there were reminders

 

december 7, 2020 – tel aviv port Read Post »

israeli politics

As the poor become poorer and the rich become richer, the number of break-ins grows.  and the people targeted are those with more and more money.  and the robberies become bolder and bolder.  Since we have nothing to steal, we’re in pretty good shape, but i would not like to wake up, as i did once, to find a burglar in my room.  When it happened, over 40 years ago, I was too startled to make more than choking sounds.  this woke Ezi up and he raced after the robber who was escaping with Ezi’s briefcase containing his lunch coupons.  Until he reached the door and realized that since he was nude he couldn’t chase the felon through the street.  His briefcase was found soon after.  

But I digress.  i wanted to talk more about the discrepancy beteern the haves and the hungry.  Yet nothing I can say is new.  it’s just worse.  

 

december 6, 2020 – crime in the neighborhood Read Post »

israeli politics

After two separate meetings with grandchildren, my friend announced that her grandson has covid.  of course i considered panicking, but then i weighed the visits against the psychosomatic symptoms I’ve been having lately, and decided it was worth the risk.  so there.  

We compared our menus to the menus published of the Prime Minister.  We eat much better because we eat local.  The formal meals of the   Netanyahu family have been – apparently – imitative of European formal meals.  here’s the link to the article.  Of course it’s second hand – I couldn’t find the specific article on the site meida l’am so this is second hand….

December 5, 2020 – saturday lunches Read Post »