September 23, 2006
Saturday
Morning: At Rosh Hashanah services this morning I am reminded of all the things I have to be grateful for: family (including the best wife in the world, a son that makes me proud, two beautiful daughters, a mother-in-law who’s like my own mom, and a dad who keeps me on the straight and narrow); a great job; a comfy home; exceptional friends (you know who you are); enough money; and my faithful T-100 with new mud tires. These services also ask us to remember our sins and blunders from the past year and as the Rabbi and congregation are listing them aloud, Liz and I are nudging each other when the listed wrongs are familiar, mostly meaning I have done them. Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, “is a time to begin introspection, looking back at the mistakes of the past year and planning the changes to make in the new year.”* This practice continues for the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
At the end of services, we rush over to Cari and Stuart’s for their annual luncheon, seeing folks we usually see at the folk festival. Liz and I sit at the kids’ table today with kids that have grown up too fast. Stuart’s brother-in-law (the doctor) and I discuss my kidney situation and Stuart tells me about some consulting he has done with the local bus company, related to the timing of their free service of running special busses by all the dialysis centers to transport patients. We have an excellent meal of barbecued salmon, kugel, salad, and apple cake and then rush off so I can make my dialysis time and Liz and Shayna can prepare for Shayna’s 10th Birthday Party at the roller skating rink.
El Milagro: After rushing to the center to be on time, I had to wait about 20 minutes to get in my chair! Matt stuck me today and I immediately turned my TV channel to the UT game, watching the team do a fairly good job of beating Iowa State before the game was stopped because of lightning in the area (first Memorial Stadium game stopped since 1996). Although ABC kept promising to come back to the game, they never did and we ended up watching Michigan State beat Notre Dame (37 to 21)... for three quarters! Yeah Spartans! And then, in the last two minutes the Irish came back and beat MSU 40 to 37. Sorry, Dad... But, you know, it really looked like the Spartans were gonna beat them for most of the game.
While we were watching the storm roll through I asked Herman what they do when the electricity goes off. Herman explained that for the first 20 minutes or so, they just wait for the electricity to come back on. The center doesn’t have any emergency generators, so the machines stop. Then, after 20 minutes, if the power hasn’t returned, the staff hand crank the blood in each machine back into the body of each person. Then the staff de-cannulate each person and send them home. Herman said that hasn’t happened much, although the power goes off frequently for a few minutes.
I heard later that Shayna’s skating party up in north Austin was flooded out. When the girls got to the skating rink it was all dark and the skaters were hanging out in the parking lot (including Y. Cheryl's daughter). Luckily Liz was able to find another skate arena that had an opening for a party so they just carted the seven girls over to the other skating rink and carried on. Most of the girls came to our house for a slumber party afterwards, clearing the living room of furniture and watching movies until Liz pulled the party plug at 1 a.m. What a busy day... and, so it goes.
Notes: In at 73.8 Kg. and out at 71.9 Kg.
* Rich, T. R. (2005) Rosh Hashanah. Retrieved September 21 from the Judaism 101 website; online at http://www.jewfaq.org/holiday2.htm
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