Chronological Account of the Weiss family with contextual remarks, some weather, sports and other news.
You can write to me at: mhw20854@yahoo.com
The people in the Weiss family are: Martin, Ann, Beth and George. I also sometimes write about other people or our pet.
Saturday, December 21, 2024
A Dream from the 1980s
I dreamt that I was at a political convention. Food was being served (I might have been there as a mashgiach but that's a might, not for sure). Everyone was having a great time. There was lots of beer being served and being consumed. There was sign that said, "Beer Party" (I think as opposed to Democratic or Republican Party). In the middle of it all was a dog with a party hat (party hat not shown on the image).
........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... It was Spuds MacKenzie who was featured in Budweiser advertising in the 1980s. Good years for Bud Light which overtook Miller Light in the 1990s in total sales.
During a mashgiach shift, the outgoing mashgiach was bringing recently checked vegetables to the meat and parve refrigerator. He notice that on one of the large carts (they are about 6 feet high and hold up to 15 trays on which food is placed) there was both meat products and dairy products. After some discussion we came to the conclusion that the cart only held items lefts over from two events (the left over food was brought back to the cooking area). One of the food trays had left over baklava from a dairy event. The outgoing mashgiach said he was shocked that the clean up crew could make that mistake. The baking specialist said she thought the clean up crew was probably badly behind time and had to rush. They asked me what I thought.... ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I said I was shocked that there could be such a thing as 'left over baklava'.
Did deleting voicemail fix a facebook messenger issue?
..For about a week or so I haven't been able to make or receive facebook messenger video calls. Today I got an email saying someone tried to call me and couldn't leave a message because my voicemail was full. I deleted many voicemails. Some time after the email deletion, I got a facebook messenger video call and it worked well. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
I looked on the internet to see if deleting voice mail is supposed to fix anything. I couldn't find any information to that issue.
Do I really think going on the roof would help in an earthquake?
I had a dream that there was an earthquake that affected where I was living. It didn't seem to be my current neighborhood because the style of housing was differnt (roof was more pointy). For some reason I decided the best thing to do during the earthquake was get on the roof. Why? Perhaps to hold it together - just a dream. .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I was pretty happy to wake up and realize there wasn't an earthquake. It did show pretty poor judgement on my part however.
Back on 12 September, Ann was weak and disoriented. I called 911 and after some discussion they recommended hospitalization. I agreed and she went to Suburban Hospital (part of the Johns Hopkins Network of Health Care). It was quickly diagnosed as a Urinary Tract Infection. She was discharged on 16 September but was too weak to make it into the house. She was readmitted at Suburban, then discharged to rehab at Montcare of Potomac (a place right near the Washington Country Club Golf Course) on 17 September. She was discharged on 10 October to our house. On 18 November, she had the weakness and disorientation symptoms with tremors as an additional symptom. I called 911 again and they took her to Suburban again and she was diagnosed with UTI again (diagnosis took a while and it wasn't until later in the afternoon on 18 November that she was diagnosed). On both occasions they did an MRI to see if there was a stroke and decided that it wasn't. We planned another rehab. Ann was admitted to the rehab section of the Hebrew Home on Friday Nov 22. It came as a surprise to me as I was told that same morning to plan for her to be at Suburban a few more days. The transfer went OK and we got some supplementary assistance for the nights of the 22nd, 23rd and 24th. She had her first rehab session on Monday 25 November. Irwin visited her on the 25th and I met him there at the Hebrew Home .............. ......................... ............................................................................
The disorientation can be somewhat scary. I would have been very frightened if I hadn't looked up 'causes of delirium' on Mayoclinic.org and saw that infections cause this and followed that up with additional searches. Interestingly, at one time during the first UTI she thought she was in Canada and one time during the second, she thought she was in France.
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
I'll add to this post and changed the date as it develops.
We keep some houseplants in our sunroom. It isn't heated so when the forecast is for minimum temperature in the low 20s the temperature in the sunroom gets below freezing. At the coldest, it get about 10F above the outside. I brought in the houseplants today.
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
Last year, if I recall correctly, I didn't bring them in until January. PS. As it turned out we had below 32F minimum temperatures each day from Nov 30 to Dec 6.
Since my hip surgery on 9 September I've been waiting to get a final bill from Medstar, the hospital in which the surgery took place. Today, instead of a bill I got a check for %500+. .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
I had prepaid several thousand dollors before the surgery date so I guess I shouldn't be completely surprised.
Tamar and Oz live in a built up area of Ramat Gan. There isn't much empty space. But that hasn't stopped Oz from being able to 'camp out' because Tamar got him a tent he can sleep in and set it up in the living room. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... A heard a joke on the radio that Jews hate camping because there so much to complain about and no one to complain to.
I've been impressed by the way caterers can make art out of food. I saw this today while on duty. This is two types of lentils with Rosemary sticking out of it. Probably about $4 of ingredients...
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... And the lentils will basically last for many years without getting moldy unless they get wet.
A delivery was made today while I was on Mashgiach duty. One of the items had an odd symbol where the usual kosher symbol usually is. I took a picture and sent it to the Star K HQ. I asked what that symbol was. They responded "That is a Vegan hecksher". I approved it as part of the delivery. Then later that day I realized I should have asked a different question. I sent in "Is it kosher?". The answer was "no".
............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. The company that delivered it took it back during the next delivery.
Sunday Nov 10, my car wouldn't start. I got a jump from a subcontractor to my USAA membership. The car worked all day and I got it to Autozone to get a new battery. However, by that time it was raining and Autozone doesn't install new batteries in the rain. So I went home. The car still was able to start 11 November Monday a.m. and I went to Siena for mashgiach work. I was hoping it would still start and I could go to Autozone next but it wouldn't start so I had to call for another jump. This ended the bad part of the week. When I got to Autozone it only took about 15 minutes to buy and have them install the battery. I had some more time in the p.m. and decided to go to Jiffylube for an oil change. It took only about 30 minutes there.
..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... also got a $20 discount at Autozone and $45 discount at Jiffylube for Veteran's Day. Also Jiffylube gave me a blank one of their stickers so I could record the date I will need another car battery.
Image is from the internet (I would never use Okra intentionally in anything). I had thought to make crockpot chicken and rice with some mushrooms, carrots and lentils. Unfortunately, I am not good at anticipating how long things will really cook and I set the timer before the sabbath. I allowed plenty of 'crock pot ON' time. Too much. The rice became gumbo and the carrots were very soft also. Suprisingly, the mushrooms stayed identifiable in the gumbo but everything else was very gumbo - basically pretty pasty. .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... It tasted pretty good though as I had some extra sauce from another dish as well as some chicken flavoring. I put the left overs in the refridge and I think I'll use it with a beef dish I made. The beef dish had a too-high meat.vegetable ratio so this may work.
I couldn't find a good image to illustrate the title of this post. Thus I used the Sistine chapel Michelangelo painting of Noah offering a sacrifice post flood. Near the beginning of the Noah story (6:9) is a phrase usually translated "... Noah walked with God." I used a somewhat more literal translation in the title of the post. Anyway the Noah reference is because today I walked to synagogue on Sabbath for the first time in several months (a bit under half a mile each way). I'm not claiming divine approval or authority however. BTW, there is another later famous 'walking' verse in Genesis, 17:1 (where God tells Abraham to walk before him) and I could have waited for that one. Also last week there was a walking with God verse 5:9 but after Enoch does this he is gone (dead or up to heaven). It wasn't a real comfortable walk because on the way my sock seemed to get caught in one of my toenails and it wore me out a bit. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ I got there before even the blessings of the dawn ברכות השחר, had started but left after the silent Mussaf amidah. Left the house about 840, home about 1150. It was a relatively long service since it was also Rosh Hodesh so we had Hallel and a few other odds and ends.
We had fewer than two dozen trick or treaters. However, one of the first groups (girls only) was dressed in super hero(ine) costumes. As in the image (which I got from the internet), some were Marvel, some were DC Comics.
.................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... All well behaved.
I'm pretty sure I've taken a picture of this scene in other years. The camera doesn't capture the vibrancy of the red and gold colors.. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
but it is still nice and visible from our driveway or our sunroom or the dining room.
Just a few blocks away there are a lot of Holloween decorations out. Big pumpkins, big ghosts, etc. Most of these we've seen before. But this year at least 3 or 4 houses have, in their front yards big skeletons. They all seem to be from the same vendor so it may have been a group project. .........................The second image has a display of ghosts that I remember from last year.
................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. One of the skeletons seems to be at least 10 feet high and he is walking a large skeleton dog. Click on image to enlarge.
In a dream, I had parked my car in a garage. I think it was at a museum downtown because Ann had been talking about going to one of these. As I approached my car I saw a number of pieces of paper on the windshield held there by my windshield wiper. I thought I was going to find a bunch of parking tickets. But when I got to the car and looked at the pieces of paper they were all invitations to some, presumably museum related event. I was pretty happy.
...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Then I woke up and wasn't in a sweat of breathing heavily or anything.
I was contacted a few days ago about some family needing bamboo for the sechach (roof) of their sukkah. I think this is the 3rd or fourth time. Anyway, they came today with a big truck and cut away quite a bit. The image is taken from my neighbor to the east looking at the bamboo barrier between our yards. ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... You can actually see the sunlight through a relative gap. You can also see that a lot of miscellaneous vines are growing into the bamboo. I'm hoping the vines choke the bamboo but don't think they will.
I went to Medstar for a post operation consult. The first image is the X ray. It shows the twin hip prosthetics. Doctor was pleased but I will need to have a consult after one year and then once every three years.
...............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................
... I joked that I hope they don't readmit me to the hospital since I had a cut on a finger.
A lot of things to report. On Thursday 10 October, Ann was discharged from Montcare. She got home fine and had a reasonably good day. Friday 11 October was a bit different. I 'supervised' a team from the MJBerman Hebrew Academy who constructed our sukkah from material we store under our sunroom and easily portable table and chairs from other parts of the house. George did some additional work after YK bringing some broken items to the curb for pickup and using some cotton fiber string to tie down the roof of the sukkah. Ann was not feeling so well Friday and had some trouble moving around and basically stayed in the bedroom all day beginning Friday late afternoon. I brought her some food there. Today we had our usual household help from Capital City Nursing and the person helped Ann take a shower but she was worn out from that. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Image is the sukkah.