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I woke up this morning at 09:45. Since I got to bed at 01:15 and fell asleep almost immediately and we didn't have any missiles through the night, maybe that's some sort of record. I'm definitely not complaining. I should note, however, that though it was quiet by us, there were missiles throughout the night in the north, including a missile that did extensive damage in a community in the north, though apparently without serious injuries.
After getting up we quickly got organized to drive to Ashdod for one more adventure before Phil and Debbie leave for the airport tomorrow morning. We knew the chances of the museum we wanted to get to being open weren't good, but it was worth a try. And when it wasn't open we drove to the highest spot in Ashdod that gave us a beautiful view of the sea, and also of the port. The port is impressive, but not particularly beautiful.
Happily we decided to forgo a restaurant and instead ate at a felafel stand which was totally passable. And just as we were about to walk back to our cars (Eitan had met us with his) a preliminary siren went off. The felafel stand was the front facing part of an apartment building and along with others we congregated near the entrance until a "real" siren went off. Then we had the experience of visiting the shelter for a bit more than ten minutes along with perhaps forty other people. I'd consider starting a blog of the public shelters I've visited, but I'm sure that there are many others who've had much more extensive experience. I trust someone else will do this.
After getting home we all had short naps, and then at 17:00, when I was preparing to take my pre-Shabbat shower, we had another preliminary alert so I delayed entering. A minute after that Nadav phoned and we had a nice conversation with him. It was excellent timing.
Since the start of this war the chadar ochel has been open for about an hour and a half each day, and only for bringing food home. Among other things this means that I've been washing a substantially large number of dishes, in addition to running the dishwasher pretty much every day. We were away today when the chadar ochel was open so we did even more cooking than usual. Just before dinner we had another preliminary alert, this time with our get-to-the-safe-room siren. We shut off the burners and sat in our safe room for a few minutes, and then sat down to eat a pleasant last supper. And now, 22:00, the table is cleared, everything is washed or in the dishwasher, I've taken out the garbage and I'm sitting down to read the Shabbat paper after catching up here with a bit of writing.
I guess I typed until about 22:40, meaning that I read for about half an hour before another alert. This time we loudly heard the second, move quickly, siren before the preliminary alert that came only a minute later. That's a bit confusing, but the result is the same - getting to the safe room. While there I opened the news, and this time Hatzor even showed up on the list of places having to get to the shelters. We didn't hear booms, and were in the safe room for only the regular ten or fifteen minutes. It's now 23:45. The television reports three missiles, two intercepted and one that apparently hit something, though the report is that no one was injured.
I've finished only part of the paper. There's quite a bit I hope to get around to before other issues and activities will occupy my time and the paper gets put on the ever-growing pile of things I'd like to get to but probably won't. And since sitting back down with the paper (and this now rather boring journal) things have been quiet. We'll go to sleep, and hope it stays that way.
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