Swirling Thoughts #59 – early or late? Depends – are we talking about the baby or the water guy?

Acharay haHagim?
The Mai Eden delivery guy came today to pick up our water cooler. Huh? He said since we no longer wanted our cooler he was here to pick it up. Okay that phone call with Bob yelling and screaming and them admitting they charged us for all our free gifts was more than a month ago. Vladimir from the water never called me again and as far as I know there was no real resolution. We were never credited for our “free” gifts but we did get a water delivery shortly thereafter (for which we were promptly billed). Bob told the delivery guy today that no, we do not wish to return the cooler at this time but rather that we’d like our credit (ha!) and in the meantime we’ll take five bottles of water. Truth be told, we need the water more than we care about the fight. Ultimately, Mai Eden must know this.

Ulpan – i should probably be doing homework right now...
My ulpan class has suddenly filled up. When I missed class Monday it seems the consensus was that I was giving birth. Glad I only gained 40 lbs. with this pregnancy and not my usual 50-60. Today we worked on ma (what) and me (who) questions, verbs with their infinitives and nouns with their genders (including about a bajillion exceptions to the gender rules). It’s funny the first words you learn in Hebrew – someone somewhere must have decided these are the really important things to be able to say and understand if you are going to live here:

Cigarettes. Dogs. Kibbutz. Bank clerk. Interesting. Government office. Autobus. Chocolate.
Patience.

Traffic patterns and career choices
There are always a few goats being herded when I take my kids to OT Wednesday afternoons –cute but nothing really noteworthy once you’ve seen it a few times. More like, “Hey, kids, there’s the goats again.” Until today.

It was more than a few goats – more like a regional goat convention with representation from every local herd. As we exited from the southern gate of Efrat there was a line of goats about 4 wide and about 30 long making its way up the road. The hitchhiker in my car didn’t seem impressed but I was going bananas. The kids liked it too.

Since the goat herders tend to be young boys just a little older than Asher (usually riding a donkey), the question of Asher becoming a goat herder with his own donkey has come up on more than one occasion. It takes a back seat to his other career ambition – as he reiterated for me this morning, he’d like to learn to play the piano, drums or guitar so that he can sit on Ben Yehuda Street and play for money.