Swirling Thoughts #76 – it’s all about the weather now

A missed photo-op
At the Gilo junction: a Chossid’s very extremely long grey beard blowing completely horizontal in the wind. I couldn’t get out my camera in time.

44 Plus
I’ve been caught in the rain without boots, umbrella or coat 3 times so far. I can’t seem to get in synch with the weather. Bob, on the other hand, has been anticipating the weather and talking about rain gear and winter coats since Shabbat. Today, while I was sonograming and eating gourmet ice cream in Jerusalem with my dear friend Michal, he was hard at work setting up a place to hang our winter, spring, fall, rain, wind and Shabbat coats.

In Brooklyn it seemed quite normal to have various coats for various seasons. Believe it or not, I gave away maybe 15 coats before we left. But somehow, arriving in Israel with 44 coats (plus ponchos) to a house that (in the Israeli style) lacks closets of any type and most definitely coat closets, seems totally ridiculous. And yet, it’s precisely what we’ve done.

Smooth sailing or the calm before the storm?
Today as I made my way to the obstetrician I got there without detouring to the Prima Kings. For the first time ever. Okay, so my friend was driving but it was me directing her. At about the same time, Bob was making his way to the mall in Talpiot – he went straight there, parked easily, shopped and left. A stark contrast to his first visit. I asked him – any stories? Blogworthy mishaps? The fact that he set out for two closets and came home with one hamper didn’t seem surprising. Even the way they told him he could order the closets and IF they were in stock they’d come in about 3 days. If not, Bob asked? Well then, we’ll have to wait for the manufacturer to make some more closets. Even this we took in stride. It’s a small country. The whole entire inventory of any one thing can’t be massive because where would they put it? It’s all starting to feel normal now.

Yikes!
When we bought the Grandis and Bob said something about the front or rear fog lights not working, I asked if we’d had fog lights on our Volvo in Brooklyn. He looked at me funny and explained all cars have fog lights. Never having had occasion to use them, I didn’t give it a further thought. Until tonight. In the summer time clouds will settle upon Neve Daniel, across the highway from us, rendering it virtually nonexistent. Today when we got in the car for taekwondo carpool, we could see nothing beyond our house. It was as if we were on a cliff. Four years of driving through blustery snow in Syracuse did not prepare me for driving through cloud cover in pouring rain in Efrat. I think I drove 2 miles per hour the whole way. I asked the kids in carpool if this is what winter in Efrat is like. They said yes. This feels anything but normal.

When we got home, soaking wet, Bob assured me it’s only a storm. As per the email from our local weatherman. It spoke about strong weather coming in from Cyprus with more rain and wind. And regarding the wind:

‘Winds will be very strong, especially in the center of the country. So, be careful of possible flying objects.”