Stay safe all. Continuing to hope for peace and security.

After a month of freeloading off my daughter and son-in-law, yesterday I moved to a wonderful village about a 15 minute drive from there.

I am renting a nice, furnished house, with a large living room, two bedrooms, a small but adequate kitchen and two patios (one small, one large). Total cost, including wi-fi, is 3000 shekels per month. That may sound like a lot but it converts to only $792 per month. As I was required by the government to leave my house, it is paying me 200 shekels per day, which is double my rental.

There are quite a few people in my situation and the people here are fantastic. Yesterday, one woman cooked and delivered to me a dinner which was so large that I could only eat half and had the second half tonight (remember, it is almost 8 pm here). Three other women phoned yesterday offering to cook meals for different nights. (Nope, unfortunately none of them are 22-year-old single Swedish blondes.) The village has a number of different activities planned, and I was invited to all of them. One that I will definitely attend is a concert of Elvis' songs.

There is a doctor, a pharmacy, and a grocery store here, all about a 3 minute drive from the house I am staying in. The woman who owns the house I am in runs a public relations/advertising agency. It is a small operation (2 women) and neither speaks English well. They have been so nice to me that I told them I am a writer by profession and suggested that anything they write in English (which basically means "pidgen English") they send to me first and I will do a professional re-write at no cost to them. Even when the fighting is over, I told them, they can send it to me by email and I will continue to fix it up. They were thrilled by my offer.

I had to go to the doctor today to get some prescriptions. He is an Arab whose English is limited (as is my Hebrew) and our conversations were a bit stilted until I asked where he studied medicine and he said in Italy. From that moment on, my appointment went much more smoothly as we chatted away in italiano.

On one hand, the people I've met here are the kind I would like as life-long friends. On the other hand, as I turn 78 in about 3 weeks, the odds are that any life-long friendships will not last very long.

Dovster - so happy you are finding community and support. Sounds like a good situation in a bad time. I hope you can return to your home soon, but also that your new friends continue to light up your life

Dov,

Do you still remember what to do with a 22 year old single Swedish blonde?

Stay safe my friend

Not really, but I have made a lot of notes in my younger years that I can use to remind me.

Thanks for the update Dov. I’m curious how this new house size is compared to where you lived on the kibbutz. Are most people from your kibbutz renting homes around other parts of Israel?

Most are staying in hotels.

Is the question if he remembers what to do, or if he can still do it?

That is why the Good Lord created little blue pills.

A few days ago I was shopping in a local mall and the salesgirl wanted me to apply for a credit card that works with her store's chain (and that of a few others). She told me that I would get a 50 shekel discount on my purchase that day, 200 shekels taken off the price the first time I used the card, and future discounts that the card will offer. I agreed to take it. Today I received an SMS from the credit card company telling me that because of the war they are not sending out any cards but I will get mine when the war is over.

As a FTer, I was shocked by the inhumanity of not issuing credit cards!

No second thoughts stopping alone in an Arab restaurant?

None at all. Israeli Arabs, except in a few cities, tend to be patriotic Israelis.

I was thinking, ole Dov's gonna need that new CC to wine & dine that 22 yr old Swedish blonde! Jokes aside, I'm glad you and everyone here are safe and will remain so until what will hopefully be a swift conclusion to the war.

Maybe they can issue the card number and let you load it into Google Pay or Apple Pay.

No, but today they notified me that they have produced the card and gave it to a delivery service to bring it to me at my house. Good luck with that -- not only am I not at home but the IDF will not allow the messenger to get within 3 kilometers from the kibbutz.

In the meantime, I have been having a double Thanksgiving. My son, daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter invited me on Sunday to a very expensive restaurant for dinner -- my treat.

Today, I invited Marina, Polina, and Olga to a steakhouse, adjacent to a shopping mall. As Russians, they had never heard of Thanksgiving, so I gave them a brief review of the holiday, starting with the Pilgrims and ending with Santa's arrival in the Macy's Parade. Most of their winter clothing is in their apartment in Kiryat Shemona and the city is off-limits. (The mall is about halfway between where I am staying and where they are). I have bought them winter clothing over the past two weeks but this time I told Olga (age 7) that I want to take her to a toy store. After dinner, we went into the mall and before getting to the toy store, passed a clothing shop that had heavy flannel PJs, with Mickey Mouse decorating them. She obviously liked the PJs but kept refusing them until I explained that they are in addition to a toy, not instead of one.

Then she was in heaven! She kept hugging me and holding my hand from the moment I told her we are going to both stores until I got into my car to go home. My only regret is that Olga, who is beautiful, is not 20 years older.