THE WEISS CHRONICLES

 

I got a T shirt today (anniversary).

It has a version of the Liar's Paradox on it (see images).

The Liar's Paradox is one of my favorites because of it's antiquity.  A version of it is in the Epistle to Titus in the first century (part of the Christian Bible) but that refers to an episode much earlier, probably 4 or 5 centuries, when a Cretan is to have said that 'all Cretans are liars'.

I have been studying the Book (or Books) of Psalms lately.  In Psalm 116, verse 11"...'in my haste I said 'all men are liars'" is perhaps an even earlier version of the paradox.

 

In the mail today was a notice from the IRS.

It was a notice dated November 9 2020.  I had received this notice back about then so this was a duplicate.

 

The substance of the notice was to inform me that my tax refund was larger than I had claimed in my filing.   I thought for a while that this was a second increase in my refund and was pretty happy for a while. Then I looked more closely and saw the notice date. Then I looked at my credit union account and saw that the refund I had received almost two months ago corresponded with the numbers in this notice.

A lot of excitement for nothing.

 For over 230 years there has been a Ferry service (see image) taking passengers from Loudoun County to

Montgomery County in the vicinity of Rocklands Farm.  At some point in the 20th century it began to also take cars.

It was called White's Ferry. In the map (it is a 1911 map so don't expect to find the Beltway), it is at the western bulge in the Potomac just to the West Northwest of the 'P' in Poolesville.

During the 230+ years there were many other ferry services across the Potomac between Loudoun and Montgomery County. All those have ceased operation.

 

Now the White's Ferry will also be ceasing operation.  The reason is that apparently, after a 1950s multi year agreement expired, the ferry operated without permission to unload at Rocklands Farm.  The Farm sued and won. 

 

The story is available from the Washington Post here. 

Story also available from WTOP here. 

White's Ferry facebook page is here. There is a map at this site.

 

Yesterday I thought I had lost my wallet.

I made calls to cancel credit cards and get new ones.

Also I went on line to get a new driver's license (that's $20)

Also I called to get a new health care insurance card and so on.

Today, I found the wallet in the kitchen while I was preparing for the Shabbat meal.  I had placed the wallet behind one of the large cups that hold extra pens, markers and pencils.  I saw it when I needed a marker.

 

Ann and I just returned from an errand at Walter Reed (Ann had to renew some security documents - and will have to go back to finish this) when it started snowing seriously. We got home by about 11am. 

At 120pm on December 16 I took the image at the left. The heavy snow lasted another 30 minutes or so. I estimate we got about 2.5" by 150pm  which isn't much but it is about as much as the entire season last winter. 

After 150pm we had freezing or near freezing rain and drizzle for many hours. Then after 10pm we had some more snow.

The cars are encased in ice.

Some locations north of us received over 40" of snow so to that extent we dodged a bullet.

I've never been to the White House for the Hannukah celebration there.  However, I have supervised kashrut during product preparation for a number of these events (probably about 6 to 10 during the Obama and Trump years).

This has involved some amusing incidents, e.g., being interviewed by the secret service, some annoying incidents, having to gather meat package certification stamps, wash them, dry them and send them to the White House with the food and, some tasty incidents, e.g., taste testing newly created kosher recipes for lava cakes.

Today, I got a souvenir for this, namely a White House yamaka. 

As you can see from the images (I took them near the light table), the White House yamaka design markings are dignified, non political and understated just like... well... the Calvin Coolidge Administration comes to mind here. 

 

This year we changed from wax candles to oil lamps.

 

 

It has been getting more and more difficult for me to light the candles without knocking them over or getting hot wax on my hand. 

 

This is especially so on day 4 and up.

 

Also cleaning out the wax isn't fun.

 

Each menorah is about $25 and the oil lamps are about $15 for the set of 44.

 

The oil lamps let me carry out the 'lighting' part.

 

The decorative electric menorah lets me carry out the 'publicize the holiday' better than the little lamps.

 

 

Ann and I both had a physical on 30 November. We gave a blood sample after the physical and the results were available by 2 December.

Ann's results were all good. Her problem is sciatica which does not show in a blood test.

My results showed good kidney function, only a bit elevated uric acid, good in most other functions except low HDL cholesterol and high VLDL cholesterol.  My prostate results were high but not very high.