It you had but one wish, wouldn’t it be more prudent to make yourself younger?

You could teach Olga a new word: lagniappe. ;)

Thanks Dovster
we had our holiday in Chicagoland with friends where the husband is Israeli. His brother is 64 (not 70) and is a conscripted logistics driver for idf et Al for stuff because he has a commercial license. The daughter used to work for a birth right program and told us about many texts videos received etc on 10/7. How can we not discuss stuff happening when they know people who are deeply involved daily both living in Israel and knowing people affected. They knew the Evanston hostage family. They knew orthodox people who had to drive on shabbat 10/7 (Saturday) and talk on the phone - Jewish people will understand this meaning more than others might. Basically orthodox people don’t use tech on Shabbat. Also they knew people at the festival.
I had to self-ban myself from the PR thread. I discussed a little with a Jewish FlyerTalk friend when we had a mini DO.

hang in there.

I had a rather depressing day today. I needed to go to the hospital in Safed, for a routine treatment (every two or three months) but that is not what made the day depressing. Safed has not been evacuated, but most communities north of it have been. On the way back, I wanted to eat at one of several restaurants I like but found that most of them are closed, as are many stores, some temporarily and others with signs saying they have gone out of business,

Hang in there, Dov. We all hope that the hostages, the soldiers, and the border communities will all safely be home soon!

Is the kibbutz an absolute no go area, or are people permitted to visit and take care of things?

What happened to livestock in evacuated kibbutzes that had livestock?

Kibbutz members are allowed in for one hour on most days to get things (eg: winter clothing) out of their houses. However, they must get permission in advance which will be granted if Hezbollah is not being unusually active in our region,

The law of unintended consequences reigns on. Dov, as bad as the obvious since Oct 7th, I never ever thought of this. Very depressing indeed

We had previously planned a Thanksgiving trip to Rome to visit friends. Since there was a temporary stop in the fighting, my daughter and I continued onward to USA.We are now en route back to IL.

hope you made it back okay :-)

A good friend of mine has cousins who live in Gaza, and it sounds like conditions are quite dire. One has a rather bad viral infection, but it isn't bad enough to be seen by a doctor. Routine appointments are a thing of the past. Only extreme cases can be seen in a hospital. Her cousin has pretty much been stuck in bed, along with others.
There are no restaurants open, and they have minimal amounts of food.

Things have certainly changed -- at least as far as malls are concerned -- since I made that post. With roughly 120,000 people being evacuated from their homes near the borders (North and South), there has been a population explosion in the center. Many of these people (like me) have nothing to do and spend their days in the malls, some shopping, some dining, and others just taking up tables in the food courts and sitting with their friends, not buying anything, just passing time. Despite the malls having giant parking areas, if you arrive after 10 am, you can spend 30 minutes until you spot a car leaving and take the resulting space.

The shops, too, are often jammed. I stood in a long line today to pay for a "baby's training potty" for my granddaughter.

Tomorrow, my son, my daughter, and my son-in-law are taking me to dinner to celebrate my 78th birthday and they had to reserve the table last week!

Happy birthday, Dovster.

Perhaps one day I will be able to visit you in Israel...

Been humming this a lot lately - I was supposed to return in March, 2020 ... then May, 2020 ... and now, not sure when.

h a p p y b i r t h d a y ! !