Oh, the joy, the happiness the I witnessed about 2 weeks ago, they were all raving about the killing of the greatest evil, they were singing and dancing in glee. And I am not talking about bin laden (god smite his soul) but on the death of the wicked witch of the east in a production of Oz. this was not on (or off) Broadway but at the local JCC co starring my nieces Pauline and Ariel. I was not expecting much from a show by elementary and middle school students but I was happily surprised by the quality of song and dance; true there were mistakes as to be expected from 100 kids (in 8 rehearsals..!) but they pulled it off. Pauline appeared all the time in the best supporting role of the show (in a group of dancers that had many dance parts) while Ariel was following Glenda around in a more minor role (but got to wear makeup and dress like a princess so who cares about the role…). This was my 1st nephew/niece production, and I am sure not the last, 9 on the Oz scale.
On a more cultural event I went to play Frisbee golf, by reading what I just wrote you can get sewed, since Frisbee is a brand name, so you cannot officially play Frisbee golf but disc golf; in the disk golf game you take a Frisbee and..you get the picture.
So here is the deal, you have these disks which are various types of Frisbees, some narrower, some wider, build for different distances and accuracy level. And like real golf (which I have never played) you try to get close to the target and then hit the whole which is a basket type hole above ground. The game is simple. I played with Farm Boy who has a spare set and knows the game from before but it didn’t matter, I have to win (I didn’t) so I tried my best with powerful throws, the problem is that if you don’t use technique, the power doesn’t help much, I need to improve on that. But the game is fun, the weather was great, the trees are in full bloom and we hustled and ran from area to area which was fun to do. It took us an hour and a half or more to complete 16 holes, I couldn’t complete it with shoulder pains (yes, new pains, from this game, told you, I used to much force), but there is always next week and this time I am aiming to lose by less..,,,, I was creamed.
So after this fun new activity I drove home and the weather turned bad quick. It was a strange phenomena, there was a huge black cloud and in the middle of it a yellowish line kind of like a jet makes, but it too big for that and from that rube like yellow area, I saw lots of lightning bolts hitting the ground, it felt so close and I remembered that I get electrocuted from just about anything I touch in winter(from the static) so I decide that me being out is not good and hurried home. I wish I had my camera with me, the sky was incredible.
I went home to our amazing little garden. The lilac tree is blooming, the apple tree is all green, the maple trees are showing fresh green leaves, and the flowers we planted in all colors are amazing; the than is too my landscaper/wife for working hard on the garden, I just do the picking of the leaves, taking out the dead trees and soon the mowing of the lawn (not looking forward for that). I did help plant some of the flowers, put the extra ground in, rake and stuff but alla did the most.
New friends are in our garden, we identified a new type of wood pecker, some new sparrows , we have several regulars visitors and now also a family of chipmunks whom were hibernating till now and lately are seen running around our back yard, so cute.
A cute squirrel was hanging on our deck , eating left over nuts and seeds, and alla had a rare moment of evil and tried to sneak up on it, by opening the window and scaring it; one thing she forgot was the alarm, she opened the window and the alarm blew loud. The squirrel jumped to one side, Alla jumped faster to the other and I was on the floor laughing. Both squirrel and wife are back in good mental health.
The culture club continued with a theatre show called a Jew in Brooklyn – an impressive performance on the subject of holocaust survivors. The guys parents are survivors living in Brooklyn and he speaks about this youth , sings in English and some Idish, but is mostly full of charm and presence. Unlike the previous play , this time I did not spill the drink of the person next to me on them, this makes the count of un eventful shows at 1. After the show we went to the chocolate bar for some dinner which was better than the previous visit and the next day we said good bye to shai who returned home.
After the drive to new York and the nonstop walks my hip fared up a bit, its better now but I was concerned, now that its fine I need to restart training- since my warrior dash is just around the corner- 5 k obstacle course and I am not in shape….
Recently I learned that the folks here do not know what lag baomer was; I was shocked since they go to Hebrew school and things like that so I decided to do something about it. I didn’t know how at first since I can’t do trivia on subjects the people know nothing about. I decided on games. Not knowing what type of games at first I tried to find a location for a bon fire. We found this local farm that offered us bon fire; we visited this amazing farm which was a house with some (not a lot) of crops in front, a Barn with some chickens, a horse, a goat and a lamb, with some fields in the back and a forest way in the back. When I think of a farm, it’s a huge area, this seemed small but they had bon fire. We met the owner and tried to imagine where would we hold the games. The back fields were nice but you must traverse mud to get there. The barn was small and ok, and there is a lovely 2nd floor (must climb a ladder, no insurance) and try to avoid the strong smell of urine. The owner daughter brought a dead chick to her mother which was worried on the sudden chick demise. The mom took the chick and in a gruesome display threw it out to the open field but I guess she is not a good pitcher, cause the chick hit the bottom of the roof of the barn, lucky it was already dead. We almost agreed but luck was on my side; my luck called a few places and found another place, much much closer in our favorite park. That place allow bon fire and they even give free fire wood! In Israel the process is as follows. You start looking for wood/ lumber a month before, you steal (with the intention of returning) from other kids basements, you use a shoping cart borrowed from some market and in the end you have a big fire that lasts till the early hours. Here we got free wood + Igor and gennady brought wood (thanx guys) + I sent people to the woods to gather more, so we had plenty without having to be criminals.
So the games; I dressed up like Adrianos, the roman emperor at the time (I researched quite a bit), wore a toga and prepared laurels. I started with some general trivia on the roman world at the time and gave swords to those that answered correctly (thus recruiting them to my legions), then moved to charades to display some crucial info on the rebellion, things like ‘pull a Ceder tree while riding on a horse’- did you know bar kokva actually forced his fighters to do it, I didn’t. another funny one was no circumcision, do that in charades. After that I sent the group on a scavenger hunt to forage items for the rebellion, make bows and arrows, bring fire wood and solve some riddles. After that I explained on the importance of each item and by now people were fed (but kept eating till late). Igor took over the grill (thanks again) and everyone brought a ton of food. After a week of rain, the rain stopped for 2 days for my games and resumed pouring a few hours after.. pictures of my toga are on face book.
This month is thunder storm month, so much lightning and thunder. A few days ago we had a tornado warning; the tornado didn’t hit (not here anywhere) but hearing the sirens is scary and we missed going to a movie!! Because of that, so they did damage..
Once in a while there is a nice day and we did some garden work. We purchased a lawn mower and I can add that to my new activities list. Not a fun activity I might say. If you hurry to much, especially on the high grass , since this is the 1st cut, the machine chokes and you have to pull it to level ground to restart, and I was missing things , not going in line so I had to redo it. The next day I did the back yard and I am more of an expert now but not excited to waste the one good day a week on lawn mowing.
Pauline who has time to dance and play, appeared on an amazing solo performance with her violin. It was a school performance that has nothing but strings. The kids played in groups of 20-30 to an act and some select few got to play a solo (lucky not all of them, or we would still be there). So Pauline chose a sad tune which I am unfamiliar with (easy since I know nothing on the classical) but I think she did it very well, her 1st solo in front of a big crowed , on a long 9 minutes solo without the notes in front, a family full of coltura.
I play more and more DnD and enjoy every minute of it, I think I will try to write about the game itself very soon.
On a lighter note, I am going on a trip to Tanzania and Kenya, so 2 new countries and 1 new continent!!! Yehhhhhhh its going to be a fun august.
Yehoram Gaon came to perform here in Cleveland and we went to the show. I sang all the time, annoying my neighbor who gave me the look, but not a nasty look, jus a look, so I say its ok, and sang on; I think yehoram has lost much of his voice but still has energy and I had a blast. After the show I tried to shake his hands but his body language was all about “get me out of here” some people managed to, I got a picture next to him but did not push. Too bad, I could put him next to yaser Arafat.
I think that is it for now, I assume I lost much by not writing for so long but I have been busy with the lawn and garden, trip planning, D&D and other activities.
Hope to write more, perhaps will see you in Israel in august
Cheers and remember
The best way to put out a fire is to pee on it.
