We're in the midst of a terrible winter storm (they're even talking about snow) and I've been abandoned.
Sid left Sunday (January 24) morning for his 2-week stint in Sar-el, the program that places civilian volunteers at army bases to do the kind of grunt work that would normally be done by reservists. This program, unique in the world, saves 1.5 million man hours for reservists who would otherwise have to leave their families and jobs to do this work. It brings all kinds of people to Israel from all over the world. This is his 4th time. I've done it twice.
Dori also left in the morning to return to her base via her kibbutz. She has to move her possessions out of the kibbutz so they can welcome another group of Loan Soldiers. Her commander was sending a car and driver to pick her up. But on the bus to the kibbutz she got a text from her CO saying that in view of the weather he didn't want to send a driver out, so she's on her way back to Jerusalem and has an overnight reprieve. But if it snows as forecast, she will be stuck here. Jerusalem's elevation is 2500 feet and when it snows the road down to the coast is usually closed.
And my friend Bevie who was supposed to come over woke up not feeling well and had to cancel.
So it's a perfect day to do housework. I did a load of laundry, finally had a chance to look thru the closets to find clean sheets and towels, and in general made "seder", which means putting things in their proper place. I also took photos of the apartment ...
Shower. It's like showering outside. Fortunately there is plenty of hot water.
It seems they wanted to install as many as possible.
Note: no dryer.
As things were at their dreariest, I got a phone call from my Krav Maga friend Shefa suggesting we meet at her gym for a boxing class. I explained about Dori returning to Jerusalem and said I wanted to check with her before making any plans. Long story short, Dori joined us at the gym, which is conveniently located across from the central bus station, and the timing was perfect.
The gym is a very nice facility. Lots of workout rooms and lots of classes, from the usual (Pilates, yoga, kickboxing, strength training and toning) to the unusual (Feldenkreis and belly dancing). If I lived here full time I would be there every day. As it is, I'm already booked solid two and a half days a week, and if I committed to any more activities Sid would kill me.
Brian (the instructor) was a character. Reminded me of the trainer in the early Rocky films played by Burgess Meredith. He's from South Africa and has been in Israel for 50 years. He trained professional boxers in South Africa, and has a style that is totally different from anything I've done in Chicago. He looks to be about 70, but must be older if you do the math, and he never stopped moving the whole time we were there (an intense hour and a half). The warm up consisted of (among other things) 90 push-ups (3 sets of 30) and 120 sit-ups (4 sets of 30). I was able to get thru 50 before I had to switch to girls push-ups; the sit-ups were a piece of cake. Thank you Fernando. We finished with 14 rounds (3 minutes each) at the heavy bags. Dori did well for her first time, but I have to say I have more stamina.
Brian, the South African trainer, getting up from doing his 300th push-up.
The snow never materialized, but the weather was bad enough to keep me imprisoned in the apartment all day. Going stir crazy.
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