| |
03:15 - not just an alert - a siren - fifteen minutes in the safe room, and Tzippi stayed to sleep
08:30 - another alert, this time no safe room - but shortly thereafter we see some of the damage to buildings in Rishon (no reported injuries)
A short while ago I started organizing my notes for a report. I'd written that what had started out as a busy alert day had turned into a quite calm one. Yes, we spent fifteen minutes in our safe room from 03:15 until 03:30 (and then Tzippi stayed there to sleep while I crawled back to bed. That barrage apparently was also in Hila's general neighborhood. And then at 08:30 I was awakened (Tzippi was already up) from a preliminary siren. We didn't have to get to our safe room, but on the television we saw the damage to buildings in Rishon LeTzion (with no reported injuries). Throughout the day there were numerous missiles on the north. That's sadly become SOP, but it's far away from us.
But that relative calm changed very quickly. In the early evening missiles hit Dimona with numerous people injured, and now things are definitely not quiet or calm. About half an hour ago reports started coming in about a direct hit on a building in Arad with apparently over fifty people injured, some apparently seriously. (Some reports are that about thirty were injured in one area, and forty in another.) The television is giving us continual coverage. There's been an ongoing debate about whether schools, or at least some of the schools, will open tomorrow. This morning's barrage in Rishon LeTzion hit a kindergarten, and now with a direct hit in Arad, it's a good guess that even if the schools do open many parents will prefer to leave their children home.
And amid all this for us it really was a relaxing day. The birthday party of my now 94 year old student was a nice get together of about twenty people. The cakes were tasty, the atmosphere was pleasant, and the birthday girl noted that she hasn't celebrated birthdays for many years, and that her decision to celebrate this one was the result of her being quite sure, after a hip operation of a couple of months ago, that she wasn't going to make it.
So it was a relaxing day. Yes, that's strange, but perhaps not as strange as it first seems. We're sitting comfortably in our living room watching all this on the television, and we don't even give it our undivided attention - I'm writing and until a few minutes ago Tzippi was reading a book. We were able to have a WhatsApp video chat (that was a special treat). I guess I shouldn't be surprised by how quickly we can switch from a technological wonder that not too long ago was hard to imagine to viewing the damage that a different technological wonder, not really far where I'm sitting, can wreak. Much too easily the two are able to coexist.
I'm out of the shower and there's nothing new being reported in my WhatsApp groups (the television is off). I sign off only just before going to bed because ... well, we've gotten used to unpleasant surprises, though I suppose that if it's night already there's no requirement that they get reported as they happen. Maybe it will be a quiet night.
|
|