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THE WEISS CHRONICLES
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.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Home from Israel seeing Some Airport Changes
We left for the airport in Israel at about 345am on October 30 (Israel had already switched to standard time the previous weekend so it was only 6 hours time difference between Israel and Eastern US time). I thought it was too early because my recollection was that the airline ticketing counters didn't open until 5am and our flight didn't leave until 655am. However, Ben Gurion has apparently gone to a 24 hour operation.
This may be just for some months since per a tourism website, October and April have a peak in tourism arrivals and the year to year trend is definitely increasing. Anyway, everything was open when we got there and everything went smoothly getting to our gate.
We changed planes in London at Heathrow. They also have altered procedure since our latest trip through there. Annoyingly, we had to go through security again (both coming and going) and it was a more comprehensive check (shoes off, liquids out of carry on) than at either Dulles or Ben Gurion.
Also, since we had a long wait at Heathrow coming home we used their pay-to-use premium lounges (second image). It was more expensive than the ones we had in Istanbul and the chairs weren't as nice but the view was better.
We arrived at Dulles about 915 pm. Since the previous time we used Dulles after an international flight, they had merged the passport and customs control (third image) so we only had to wait in line once and we boarded our shuttle at about 1030 pm (and arrived at our house about 1100pm). On the negative side, we still had to take a long ride in an overcrowded moveable lounge to get from our arrival gate to the international arrival terminal area.
I'll have a trip blog in a few days I hope.
Friday, October 26, 2018
Bizarre Dream
We went out last night and I had some iced coffee followed up by tea. I thought I slept reasonably well anyway but I had an interesting dream.
In my dream I had accepted an invitation to attend an award planning session followed by the actual awards. The event was somewhere in the south, e.g., Mississippi or Georgia (inferred from their speech).
The person getting the award was a woman that I had supervised in FHWA but what she was getting the award for was driving an anti terror vehicle (some big thing like in the first image).
I didn't have much to do during the award planning except hang around. At one time I was a session where they were reading the words that were going to be on the award. The person reading said, "... and for bravery in driving the X54T (or something like that) and terrorism...".
I interrupted him and said, "...that should be '...responding promptly to terrorism because she isn't an actual terrorist...".
So I guess its a good thing I was invited.
Friday, October 12, 2018
Table Flowers
I haven't been posting the table flowers very often.
However since I showed the Montauk Daisies in another post, I thought I would show them being used as table flowers.
I supplemented the daisies with some chrysanthemums even though the mums were fully blossomed.
I could have used the roses but I didn't feel like tangling with the thorns.
Thursday, October 11, 2018
Almost an exciting coincidence
This week we have been reading parshah Noah when we take out the Torah.
Today, during shaharit, as the 3rd aliyah was walking up to the reading platform, a torrent of rain came down and it was easily heard by the people in the minyan (a tropical storm is brushing our area today).
"How appropriate." said the fellow who had the aliyah.
"Actually, the rain comes during the 2nd aliyah for shaharit on sabbath, not the 3rd aliyah for shaharit on Monday or Thursday", said the gabbai.
So that wasn't a really good coincidence after all. Also, the rain tapered off during the aliyah.
The image is by Gustave Dore done in 1865.
daisies and other late bloomers
It is still summer like today with temperature near 80F and high humidity. Tomorrow and the next week will be about 20F cooler.
I took some photos of our flower situation today.
The first image shows the white Montauk daisies on the center bottom, some red roses above them, some pink roses in the center left and some pink crape myrtles in the right center above the red roses.
The second image is a close up of a patch of my Montauk daisies.
At the link is some pro- Montauk Daisy propaganda.
No Brisket in Tishrai. Brisket for first sabbath in Cheshvon
This year, I tried to do things a bit differently.
We got flowers for Sabbath Shuvah and we abstained from beef brisket entirely for rosh hashanah and the rest of Tishrai (although we had other beef).
So this sabbath we will have brisket.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
That's on my Bucket List
The day after the health department inspection, we had an inspection by the star K kashrut supervisor.
After briefing him, etc. the bottom line was that he wanted me to use a bigger vessel for checking the vegetables for insects. I had been using one that held about a gallon, and his point was that the vegetable leaves needed to be both immersed and moved around freely to get whatever insects were on the leaf to fall off and go in the water.
I responded, "That's on my bucket list." I also told him he was free to use the joke. He said he would give me credit for it.
After he left, the owner of the store said to me, "How about that; two inspections in two days?"
I responded, "Well that's living life in the fast lane."
The
Tuesday, October 09, 2018
Are you checking those vegetables for bacteria
On October 9, I was on mashgiach duty at Siena when the county health inspector came. Apparently someone had made a complaint.
The inspector saw me checking vegetables and asked me to tell her how I did it. I explained the process to her.
She asked, "Are you checking those vegetables for bacteria?" (perhaps someone had gotten sick after eating there).
I answered deadpan, "Well, if they are big ones".
As noted in the first image (click to enlarge), the normal bacteria are about 1/10,000th the size of the grid holes in our thrip cloth.
However, when I got home I looked up the subject. It seems there is one species of bacteria, Thiomargarita namibiensis, that can grow to almost 1 millimeter in width (second image).
This creature, apparently, lives off the west coast of Africa in the southern hemisphere.
Anyway, the inspector finally left after asking a few more questions of roughly equal incisiveness.
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