THE WEISS CHRONICLES

 

I got this picture from a post by technology corporate strategy  consultant, Steve Tobek. He didn't attribute it. But he probably used it in his book on that subject. It is a nice photo.

 Today, my knee pain was almost gone and I felt able to do some yard work, namely trimming rose bushes. It was only about 15-20 minutes of work. My knees held up fine but after the second bush my lower back hurt some.

 

Oh well. 

 

For many years I have been waking up 2-3 or more times at night and needed to urinate. 

On 12 May 2021 I had a Urolift which was to relieve pressure from the prostate.  Since then I've had some improvement but still problems at night with waking up needing to urinate.

In talking to the urologist today, he asked,

"Do you snore?"

I answered that I'm pretty sure I do and in fact I get very dehydrated at night.

He said that recent research indicates that whatever causes apnea also causes excessive bladder activity and thus leads to the problem I described.  

Next step will be seeing the sleep medicine people.

  מראית העין (Maris Ha Eyin) meaning literally 'vision of the eye' in effect means that observant Jews should not do things that, if seen by common folk, would lead them into sin.  

Back 40 years ago that would mean that if an orthodox Jew used Bacobits on the salad and had company, they should leave the bottle out so people could see that it was Kosher.  

Or today, you would not have coffee at Red Lobster.

We have several Sono face masks (both images) that, per the company's website, are very effective against the covid virus.  

However George doesn't want to wear them in public because it looks like an ordinary cloth mask (ordinary cloth masks are not very effective against the covid virus).  

This is a new example of Maris Ha Eyin.

 The image is from a minyan in the summer that was obviously not on the Sabbath (note tefillin). The image was taken by the Washington Jewish Week.

Today the same parking lot was open. Temperature was in the high 50s and low 60s.  Chairs and tables were available and we had two minyanim (one Ashkenazim and one Sephardim) in the parking lot this morning.

Probably about 45 people in our minyan and maybe a bit less in the Sephardi one.

This was the first sabbath minyan I've been to in a while as today I was testing out my 'less painful' knees.  It turns out other parts hurt a bit (shin and hips) and I didn't notice because of the knee pain. There is treatment available for the hip pain I think.

I had the IOvera treatment today.  It took about 30 minutes.

The first part was identifying the nerves to be treated. There are two nerves in each knee area that primarily carry pain signals (image 1).

There are other nerves that carry signals for the muscles and tendons. These are to be avoided.  An ultra sound device helps identify the nerves.

After a few minutes, the nerve freezing device (image 2) is used. It penetrates the skin but doesn't produce much more than a blood spot.  Each knee got three penetrations of the device.

After they put on bandages, you just get up and walk out.

Interestingly, my knees still expect pain during walking so I walk slowly and don't lift the foot up much. Apparently, learning to walk without pain or without expecting pain will take a few days.

I'm eligible for another treatment in 6 months as the nerves that carry the pain signal will recover.

The development of the treatment took several hundred years according to the history graph (image 3).

 

 Last Shabbat for lunch we had matzo ball soup made with matzo balls from a jar.

 

Previous weeks we had the same thing made from the package.

Actually, the matzo balls taste pretty similar.

 

The big difference is that with the package you get the soup mix. 

 

With the jar you have to make or mix your own soup. 

 

There is also a difference in price as the matzo balls in the jar cost about twice as much as mixing them yourself. If you use the jar method you have the additional cost of soup, if using the mix you have the cost of two or three eggs.

Of course it also matters what else you have in the soup, typically I put in some vegetables like carrots and celery which cook up well.  Sometime also there are some large chicken or turkey bones to put in the soup.

 Sometime ago, Ann ordered socks for me from Kohls in mid November.  

It didn't come when the company said the order arrived. We didn't know what happened to the socks.

It turned out that USPS didn't put an address on the package and left it to the route mailman to solve the problem. The route mailman guessed 8000 Postoak.  Fortunately for us, the people at 8000 (who after opening the package realized they hadn't ordered it) knew us and emailed us that our socks had arrived at their house.  I picked it up today.

 

A lot of Jews serve matzoh ball soup for the sedarim on Passover. My parents always did.  I don't because matzoh ball soup is so filling it detracts from the main course. Also for the sedar it adds to the complexity of what is already pretty complex..

For a the first reason I don't like matzoh ball soup on Friday night.

 However, I recently started making matzoh ball soup for Saturday lunch.  I use a large crock pot with preset timing.  The first time I did this I was worried that the matzoh balls would fall apart but they didn't.

Anyway, speaking of matzoh balls, the image shows the directions by Streits and Manischewitz. I like the Manischewitz directions better because they tell you how many cups of water to use  (Streits tells you how many quarts and I forget the conversion). Also Streits wants the matzoh ball mixture to cure at room temperature which Manischewitz wants it in the refrigerator.  Having done both I think Manischewitz is correct on this point.

While researching the refrigeration cure question, I came across a recipe for shiitake mushroom matzoh ball soup (second image) from  Live Well Louisiana.  They recommend the refrigerator cure. I might try the mushroom matzoh ball mix someday (but with regular mushrooms).