Weekend Off

While it was my intent to seek my highest level of amusement for shabbat, I had also intended to see patients in the hospital on Sunday.  It was my good fortune, though to have nobody new to see other than a gentleman that I called in about on Friday night and who seemed to have something that can wait the weekend to sort out so I spared myself the round trip on Sunday.  Three more came my way on Sunday afternoon so I will be playing catch-up but the extra day to myself felt at least welcome if not deserved.

For shabbos I convinced Irene to attend services with me at Beth Tfiloh in Baltimore.  I try to go twice a year, usually only make it there once.  It never disappoints.  Bar Mitvah boy read the entire Parsha Bereshit, all 146 p'sukim largely error-free and with a nice early teenage voice.  Rabbi Wohlberg crafted a sermon that drew on multiple sources to expand his theme.  Even the Hazzan, who had been largely perfunctory on my previous visits, demonstrated why he holds a position in a large Orthodox congregation when most mechitza congregations no longer support them.  A fair amount of what they do there can be incorporated into the ordinary function of AKSE but the sense of pursuing excellence does not seem to be there nor does the Rabbi  seem to have a vision for what that might be.

I always wanted to visit the Boordy Winery on my way home.  Once I stopped by but they were having a Festival of some type that I did not want to spend the money to attend.  This time it was an ordinary tour day.  For $5 they gave you a glass and enough samples to want to have the Maryland Police perform breathalyzers on the visitors as they returned to the public roads.  For the first time, I declined to proceed with the full tasting after about six pours but Irene enjoyed the full spectrum.

Home in time to watch Mizzou lose.  A rebuilding year.  Shabbos concluded so after three days sans computer due to Yom Tovim and shabbos, I caught up with Facebook and e-mail, then off to sleep while the Cardinals were having a slugfest in Game 3 of the World Series.

Sunday had its own agenda.  Irene wants to make the downstairs presentable.  I want to make my bedroom a sanctuary, in not exactly a man-cave.  My finances need some major attention.  The sukkah has not yet become a temporary structure.  I need to learn the haftarah and shacharit for next shabbos at AKSE.  Some loose ends need to be tied up prior to vacation in only two weeks.

I ended up doing all the fleishig dishes, most of the essential laundry, made by living room desk nook functional, removed clothing intended for donation from the living room, deposited funds to my office account to pay the remaining bills, bought and installed a lamp for the bedroom, set aside some of the clothing I plan to take on the trip aside so I can put the rest of the summer clothing in a storage bag, and worked on the upcoming haftarah.  While enough other stuff still need completion, this remains one of my more accomplished Sundays.