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I get to start off today's report with real time play-by-play.
My alarm was set for 07:15, though I'd woken up at about 06:50. I thought I'd sleep until the phone alarm, but a preliminary alert got us out of bed. Tzippi went straight to the safe room to try and sleep some more there. I got up and dressed and prepared a sandwich to take with me to the college. When the all clear, which anyway wasn't for us, was given I drove to work. I'd hardly opened my computer when we had a get-to-your-safe-rooms siren. It was only then that I noticed that I'd had a preliminary alarm on my phone. I probably didn't hear it because the phone had been in my pocket. There were three of us in the building and we went to the shelter in the building which I hadn't seen since a drill a few months ago. It's very impressive, though obviously I have no real interest in spending time there. Tzippi WhatsApped me to ask if I'd gotten to the college before the siren (it makes sense that we had one at Hatzor as well), and then reported that Hila WhatsApped her that she had been on her way to work (on Sunday's she usually has meetings at the regional high school near us) and they stopped at a shelter at a gas station until their all clear.
An old friend, formerly on Hatzor, asked an interesting question on one of the WhatsApp groups we're both on: "Who gave the order to call someone killed from a missile 'murdered'? The term seems to be from the last few days and I suspect that it's politically motivated." She then clarified that a moment ago she heard a reporter say "killed" and immediately changed it to "murdered". She's probably right. The seemingly small differences in terminology are clearly intended to influence the way we view what's happening.
BTW, We won't be at the opera (The Magic Flute) this evening. Of course neither will any of the other people with tickets. It was only a couple of days ago that we got the definitive announcement, though it was pretty obvious well before then that it wasn't going to happen.
I've been at work since the morning, and I've had a few tasks that I've dealt with, happily I actually solved a couple of problems. Of course via my ever-open WhatsApp I've been receiving updates of what's happening around the country. But only a couple of minutes ago (12:30) I told myself that I should open the television news on my computer and get an up-to-date picture of what's happening. And it's only now that I see that it's been far from a quiet morning. Though it hasn't been quiet, I just caught a short report about Tel Aviv and how people are trying to maintain a degree of normalcy, including sitting in coffee shops. One of the interviewees noted that her apartment was damaged by a missile and she's now staying with friends, but that doesn't mean that she can't sit at a sidewalk cafe and drink coffee.
Having the news open in an additional browser tab creates an interesting problem: I'm at the college because it's easier to focus on work when the television isn't open and other things are happening that distract me from working. And if that's the case, keeping that tab open is counter-productive. On the other hand I shouldn't give the impression that I'm so busy that I can't watch the news. Soon I expect that I'll even be able to devote some time to some blog-related writing that I've started mapping out to myself. So here's an update: after an hour of keeping a tab with the news open I've closed it and I'm letting myself enjoy the quiet.
One hour later, and I hardly had any quiet. My office phone rang with a couple of requests for help - one that was easily dealt with, and another that demanded that I open a Zoom meeting with a lecturer who needed a hands-on explanation of how she can share a PowerPoint presentation with her students when she meets them in Zoom in two days. Explaining how to share was relatively easy. The problem was getting to the point at which that part of the explanation was possible. For better or for worse I'm known as being very patient in getting people to understand how to use digital tools, but sometimes the starting point is something like "please check that your computer is plugged in" so that by the time I get to the part that I'm supposed to explain I'm totally exhausted. At some point during all this we had a preliminary alert, but it seems that it wasn't for our area. That alert reminded me that I haven't known what's happening beyond me. Because of that I've opened the television news for an update (it's 15:30), and it seems that it hasn't been quiet, with shrapnel falling in Tel Aviv very close to driving cars caught on video.
At present the evening news is broadcasting a piece on civilian trauma as a result of the war. One mother of three children interviewed explained that she doesn't leave her home, and she certainly won't go out with her children because she can't be responsible for them if there's an alert. I can understand that she's suffering from trauma, but it's hard not to listen to her and say that she seems perfectly rational and normal.
It's midnight. It's been quiet throughout the afternoon and the evening. The television has been on, but we weren't really watching. Both of us were reading. It was only a few minutes ago that we tuned into the semi-news. I was about to wrap up this report ... when a preliminary alert sounded. Actually, we got the preliminary alert after we heard a siren, perhaps from the base. We haven't received a focused warning for us, so we're still sitting in the living room, reading to make the move though perhaps we won't need to. And just now I heard two not particularly distant booms.
We needed to. Or apparently needed to. Though we didn't get a specific siren for us, Tzippi got a message on her phone (I never installed the app she uses) and we went to our safe room. I opened the news on Tzippi's laptop and we heard the report, or sort-of report. It seems that this particular barrage, probably a single missile, was over before it really got started. We didn't really get the regular all clear, and it was only after a relatively long wait that we realized that we apparently hadn't been paying attention, and the event was long behind us. We're not complaining.
Since then we've had our showers and it's been quiet (which, again, augers absolutely nothing about the rest of the night) and I'll shut down and go to sleep.
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