| |
If I remember correctly (and I readily admit that the frequency of our alerts seem to merge into one general blur) not long after shutting down last night we had one preliminary alert that didn't develop into anything by us and I woke up this morning somewhat refreshed. As planned Hila came with me to the college and about an hour later I took her to a bus stop a minute's drive away. It was perhaps an hour later that we had a preliminary siren at the college which also didn't develop into anything in our area. A shelter is about a half minute walk from my office, but so far I haven't had to use it.
I'm presently writing this from my office which will make finishing this later tonight easier, or perhaps simply more accurate. After all, I've already noted here how things tend to merge into a blur). I've accomplished quite a bit today, though that's generally been helping lecturers set up their Zoom meetings in their courses. That's far from interesting work, but since the semester started today, and only via Zoom, it's something that has to be done. I've redirected my office phone to my cell so that when I'm home tomorrow (there's not really much point in being here tomorrow though working from here is quite comfortable and perhaps I'll want to be here for part of the day) I'll be able to deal with issues that arise when lecturers phone the office.
In the meantime, though I've kept myself busy, I'm far from overworked, and I've been able to do some reading as well. I'm not at all surprised that the New York Times reported How Trump and His Advisers Miscalculated Iran’s Response to War. Was this predictable? Well, I could have predicted it, but nobody asked me.
According to the original plan Phil and Debbie were supposed to have left for Rome yesterday. They've been corresponding almost daily with our travel agent who's been trying to find them flights out of Israel that can also make a connection to Toronto. A short while ago Tzippi informed me that it seems that they've now closed on a flight to Prague leaving Friday, the day after tomorrow. That's pretty workable, and I guess they'll have two or three days in Prague instead of in Rome. Since Prague is both a beautiful and interesting city I guess this is a satisfying solution. Of course until they're on a plane that's in the air nothing is final.
It's now 22:20. I got home around 16:30 and visited by my 93 year old computer student, helping her find the pin number for her new credit card. As I've noted, basic tasks like this demand the ability to check your phone for a code sent to your phone, and then entering that code into a screen that you have to get back to again. It's not difficult if you know what to do. My student definitely needed my aid in order to accomplish this task. When I got home I discovered that we'd decided to go to the Gan Yavne mall for sushi. Over the past couple of weeks I've had more than enough restaurant food but I guess that this is part of the Israel experience we're giving our "guests". But of course we have to add in the special Israeli sauce - just as we were about to order our phones announced a preliminary alert and a couple of minutes after that we heard the get-to-your-safe-space siren, and along with perhaps forty other people we went to the nearby shelter - which turned out to be the parking structure we'd parked in.
While it's relatively quiet by us, our northern border has been under non-stop shelling throughout the evening. One reporter from the north is explaining that drastic measures have to be taken - meaning a serious attack on Lebanon. To be fair, it's not only Israelis who think this way, but it's still pretty accurate to say that we're particularly good at it. Then again, it seems that we've succeeded in forgetting that back in late June, in our previous war on Iran, Netanyahu told us (via Google Translate):
|
|
| |
|
Dear citizens of Israel,
In the 12 days of Operation 'Am Kalavi' we achieved a historic victory, and this victory will stand for generations.
We have removed from us two immediate existential threats: the threat of annihilation by nuclear bombs, and the threat of annihilation by 20,000 ballistic missiles. If we had not acted now, the State of Israel would soon be facing the threat of annihilation.
|
|
| |
That brilliant success seems to have been seriously short-lived.
About half an hour ago Tzippi was almost on her way to the shower when we had a preliminary alert. At the same time I was in a Zoom call with a friend/lecturer from the college who was having a technical problem and thought that perhaps if I was awake I could help him solve it. We tried various things and didn't succeed, and might have tried something else, but his wife came into his study and told him that he had to go with her to their safe room (he's in Tel Aviv) so we shut down. Here we didn't yet have even our preliminary alert, but it came very soon after, and then a siren, and we spent about ten minutes in our safe room. Maybe I'm jinxing something. After all, when I wait to send these letters right up to the time that I'm on my way to bed something often happens. But I'm still pretty sure that these alerts aren't really connected to me or my behavior, unless we want to take things back (at least) a couple of generations. Yes, there are people who definitely think that I can do something to solve the problem - by leaving the middle east, for instance - but that's significantly different than actually causing a particular barrage of missiles.
So now I'll be sending this even later than usual. Throughout my day at the college I dealt with a number of tasks that kept me from reading some items that I'd earmarked for myself, and it was only now, very late, that I could comfortably sit down and read a very good piece dealing with the desirability of difficulty in learning. I finished the article while drying off after showering (no alert why soaping up this time) and I guess it's finally time to really go to sleep.
|
|