Sorting

My possessions have gotten the best of me.  Took a chunk of the day to make my stuff more manageable with the intent to be able to find that elusive what I need when I need it.  First, some zones.  My downstairs desk, a simple secretary style fold-up forced to fold-down.  All papers off.  Then file labels and folders.  Still some categories to go but I can use the desk.

Then the shelf behind my bed, my half of the bed.  Got a Sam Adams empty beer box, put everything in it to overflowing.  Toted it to my desk.  Separated pens, coins, medicines, things that already had a defined home someplace else.  Once done, I got a second empty k-cup box.  My stuff not yet assigned a home into Sam Adams, wife's stuff into K-cup.  Far more is mine.

Winter clothing now in vacuum bag.  Found mini-vacuum.  Unfortunately, unable to seal that bag, so it may need replacement before vacuuming.  

Harvested shoes that I will not be wearing again for a while.  Put trees in two pair.  Put the others in a laundry basket, then transfer to closet in a clear bag.

Not yet where I can really find what I need when I need it.  But a whole lot better than it was.

Taking Control

Good day yesterday, Good enough to stand out.  My hip has almost returned to baseline about ten days after injury but I'll keep my appointment with the new ortho group that interacted with me well when I needed them to.  Met with travel agent.  Wife and I differ on how much we want to spend for our anniversary trip.  I bought time, if only to change the credit card to one with more rewards.  Returned to my treadmill at very low intensity, but I could do it.

And decided for sure what I want the book that I can never discipline myself for sustained writing to be about.  It will be why institutional Judaism declined as it did with the Federation Types in charge of it.  Novelized form.  Began the background writing.

Took charge of some overdue filing.  Took charge of my downstairs work spaces, the desk and the kitchen.

I feel accomplished.  It is not often that I feel accomplished.

Seasonal Clothing Exchange

Frost is unlikely until next fall.  Herb pots now fully planted.  Flowers on deck planted.  Vegetables in progress.  Chill as I went outside to retrieve the morning newspaper.

My clothing needs to reflect that.  When I plant the gardens, I bring out the warm weather clothing, storing the long sleeve shirts, flannel PJs, thermals, and sweaters.  I have a lot of short sleeve t-shirts with every imaginable logo.  My collection of short pants fills a cubby at the bottom of a plastic rolling cart in the corner of the bedroom.  The stuff it replaces fills my largest duffle and a large plastic vacuum bag.  Completing this also requires some laundry, mostly done.  Still have limited walking space in the bedroom as I make this transition.

Still a month premature for Memorial Day's start of summer season, in fact really closer to the spring equinox than the summer solstice.  But time to think warm.

Taking Shabbos Off

I'm once again shuled out.  Perhaps only my shul, but probably all shuls.  I have no desire whatever to attend any of the community events this week for Remembrance Day or Israel Independence Day.  Maybe I'm Jewed out, though still find Reddit's r/judaism worthy of my input and I will offer my two monthly Jewish donations, now a few days Past Due.  None of this stuff is on my weekly activity list except completing the donations.  And maybe getting a summer JCC Membership, partly for health reasons, partly to improve my social engagement as OLLI goes dormant next month.  But at least for this week I'm off.  Omer count continues, though.

What might I do instead?  Not veg.  Not as I really start feeling pretty decent physically for the first time in a couple of weeks.  A drive somewhere unless it's pouring, maybe a drive to someplace indoors if it's pouring.  Something worthy of my spiritual and physical recoveries.  But Me Time for at least the daylight hours.

Sharpening the Saw

Covey's 7 Habits has been my default for decades in my challenging times.  The last few weeks were my challenging times with illness, despondence, injury, and some anger.  Fishing session helped.  But I still defaulted to the final chapter of 7 Habits on Renewal.  He called it Sharpening the Saw, dividing elements to Physical, Mental, Emotional/Social, and Spiritual.  I separated Social/Emotional.  Never have been much to Spiritual, which is really a subset of emotional.

So here's what I came up with:

Mental

1. Write Publicly
2. OLLI Classes
3. Write My Book

Physical

1. Take Medicines
2. Relate to doctors candidly at medical visits
3. Exercise
4. Fixed Sleep Times

Emotional

1. Catch a Fish
2. Visit a New Place
3. Help my gardens flourish
4. Enhance my Dr. Plotzker's Mind YouTube series
5. Look Good

Social

1. Be a friendly American
2. Mingle at Kiddush
3. Mingle at OLLI
4. Invite Guests
5. Attend UPenn's 50th activities
6. Register JCC Summer session

None are beyond my capacity, though some straightforward while others very challenging.  But I definitely could use some renewal

This Year's Gardens

Gardening has been removed from my semi-annual initiatives in favor of other things.  While it never became a focus as intended, it has found a niche in my seasonal activity, much like monthly donations or monthly financial review has moved from targeted activity to ordinary continuation.

The plants have four general placements.  In the living room, an aeroponic unit that always underperforms, yielding nothing meaningful to my culinary herb needs.  The chia pots, three of them, have been productive of basil, less of other things, but for the first time I'm giving dill a go.  Outside my front door I plant container herbs.  Bought mint since it was on sale, and bought rosemary since mine never take from seed and I need robust rosemary for cooking.  All else is from seed.  Mostly planted, a few sprouting.

Near the back door on the deck I plant flowers in the tree wooden plantar boxes.  They do well most years with very little care.  And then the big project, vegetables, most not yet chosen.  I started tomatoes, eggplant, and pepper from seed indoors.  All sprouted and were transplanted outside, still alive a few days and one watering later.  Radishes go well.  Some yellow squash planted in a different location than usual.  And I want to have some cucumber in a place where the vines can have room beyond the 4x4 wooden confines of my Square Foot format.  Then choose the rest of the vegetables.  Since weed block limits the depth that root vegetables can pursue, I found another location for carrots and beets this year.  A row format for these.

Maintenance probably twice a week for each bed or container, daily for the indoor plants with near total reconstruction of the aerogarden needed as a single focus.  I don't do well with fertilizing or other feeding, and pests have limited past harvests.  But whatever I can get with the limited focus I am willing to give this will be an increment of personal pleasure later on, something in current short supply.

Addressing Problem Lab Work

 My serum took a down tick.  And the RBC from the purple top tube makes platelet donations uncertain.  For the first time my creatinine measures where I would notice it, not dangerously high but not where it had been.  Glucose borderline though not diabetic.  Traces of prior iron deficiency persist.  And lipid measurements not alarming but less well controlled on alternate day statin.

I don't feel as well, not explained by the lab.  But still, I need to change course.  Don't think I can do much with the renal function, other than not missing any antihypertensives.  To the extent that the CBC reflects this, my platelet donation days may be reaching an end, but too soon to tell.

I can restore the iron with a supplement.  No active bleeding on endoscopy, already on proton-pump inhibitor for Barrett's.  Just resume the multi-vitamin.  And the lipids were a lot better with daily rosuvastatin.  May just have to accept some minor achiness in return.

Discuss briefly with doctor soon.  Revise daily pill case now.

Rating the Clergy

While I have no official title of any kind at my synagogue, indeed even held uncomfortably at arms length by the influential of the baalebatim, I've been included in the people asked to comment for upcoming performance reviews that the key VPs or President are contractually obligated to present to and discuss with each of our clergy.  It's tempting to read into the officers' request, which have taken similar formats by two officers.  First did the clergyman fulfill his part of the contract: leading services, sermons, classes, and pastoral work for the Rabbi, Torah reading and musical presence for the Cantor?  Those contractual boxes always get their checkmarks.  Even if as a spectator I get Hebrew School flashbacks, the sermons were given and the Torah was read.  No breaches.  And our congregation's financial iffiness pretty much assures no bonuses for exemplary achievement.

The second part is less focused but more revealing.  Basically, what is it like to be in the sanctuary, in a Zoom session, ask a question of the clergy, or reflect on an individual encounter?  Those do not have contractual boxes to fulfill but offer a lot more feedback to how well the Search Committee, often years past, really did.  It is the individual experiences aggregated by as many members, both nominal and active, that we have, which frames the monthly discussions our Board of Governors needs to have on the difficult realities, from the social and financial impacts of attrition, the breadth or restriction of member engagement, committees that really aren't committees, and addressing minyanim that do not always materialize.

All of those depend on what the hired clergy do that enhances or detracts from how effectively we engage with internal development of our membership and how well we interface with a larger Jewish community, the only realistic source of expanding membership.  

My comments were candid.  Though a congregational nobody, assigned as consumer rather than creator, I have familiarity with what clergy are supposed to do and assess how well they do it.  I do not know the breadth of those polled on this.  I would hope the sampling includes people with less engagement with the Rabbi and Cantor, maybe people who really have titles and influence directions.

Sudden Hip Pain

This one gets medical care.  I haven't a clue what happened or why.  Just arising from my desk chair, as I experienced an abrupt  tearing pain with a pop came across my upper right hip, just above the greater trochanter.  Self assessment of the pain 8 or 9 on that destructive Fifth Vital Sign scale.  Enough to be memorable, probably just under my tibial fracture when my daughter pushed the ankle into the leg of the kitchen table.  I could stand, but helped myself back to the chair, then got up again.

I considered urgent care, called the primary on call, and pondered my options.  By the time she returned my inquiry, which was suitably prompt, the acute severe element had abated.  I could hobble.  I could bear weight.  One day later I've not taken any analgesics or applied compresses.  No discoloration.  Tenderness had started to localize to an area between the greater trochanter and iliac crest.  I opted to sit out Sunday, then on Monday arrange for an orthopedic assessment.

Over the day, I tried to reacquaint myself with the anatomy and function of the hip.  I assume I had a tendon dislocation, less likely a muscle tear in the absence of bleeding.  I can stand and walk unassisted.  Internal rotation of the femur causes pain. I can flex the femur but when I straighten it with stair climbing in either direction, I feel the pain in the localized area.

I slept adequately.  I can stand for a significant time without having to rest my right leg and hip.  Not long after the sudden onset, I drove to a local nursery, bought a rosemary plant, and placed it in a container outside my front door.  Some pain, but no disability if all I was doing was light walking and driving.

There is a small psychological element, I suppose.  My treadmill sessions had been on hiatus due tor respiratory symptoms, resumed successfully about an hour before the injury, now dormant again.  I have a long awaited synagogue presentation in a few days, now subject to what the orthopedist specialist wants me to do, or even what he might want to do surgically.  And while the forty-year parts warranty ran out decades ago, another reminder that I'm probably going to experience a series of bodily malfunctions as my later years move along.

Submitted a reaquest to the ortho guys for their assessment.  For now continue to ride it out as best I can without analgesics and with prudent limitation of activity.

Post-Pesach

A few demarcation points passed.  Pesach, birthday, hopefully self-limited respiratory illness, taxes filed.  Dishes away, kitchen not fully restored to function.

I feel a little tired, maybe even notably despondent a few days, though not in a disabling way.  Pesach begins Omer.  For some reason I remain committed to the daily count, maybe to convince myself that I can do it, though maybe to focus myself of spring which generates its own post-Pesach initiatives.  My garden is no longer part of my semi-annual projects, nor is monthly financial review or date generated donations, though they continue.  It's the week that determines the vegetables and herbs I would like to have later.  Each of the last few springs I review scholarship applications for the Delaware Community Foundation.  It helps them and it engages me.  I have a Torah Talk to present, maybe the only meaningful invitation I will get from my own congregation this year.

Warmer weather shifts my wardrobe to lighter clothing with more exposed limbs.  An exchange needs to be done.  I've not been fishing at the better but more distant state ponds, since losing one of my rods on their pier.  That needs revival this spring, though not likely this week.

This semi-annual cycle has about ten weeks remaining.  Have done mostly better than other cycles with some focus needed for the languishing ones.  And for the first time in a while, I think my focus has been better. 

Tour of Ecosystem

Some special events really are special.  My Water Management class at OLLI has been outstanding.  But to make it more outstanding, one morning class was replaced by an afternoon on-site presentation by a professional landscape architect who showed us the environmental considerations he addressed in designing a local private school, one near my home.  The 50 acre property, with the school grounds occupying about a third of that, sits at a geological interface, an eastern area of Blue Rock gneiss to the east where I live and a section of a larger Wissahickon Formation to the west.  The western drainage of water has greater capacity, so the property design needed to move rainwater preferentially in that direction.  There are also two creeks, Rocky Run now behind some shopping centers, and a western creek.  By modifying the land with drainage channels directed toward the creeks, for the most part the water could be directed to where it needed to be with little underground pipe construction.

And there were a lot of rocks, some quite large.  Since the property was being designed for young children with remediable learning disabilities, the needs of the children who would be attending and the parents paying tuition rates not much different than an Ivy League university took priority.  Fencing provided safety, but those Blue Rocks, often boulders, could be repurposed as walking bridges across the channels, lookouts strategically placed to give a few teachers a comprehensive view of long swaths of play area.  Placement of classrooms allowed children to see selected parts of the grounds as their teachers taught the basics of geology or plants.

One of the more intriguing afternoons, though a rather long one on a day I felt a little less than my best.

 

Composed a DVar Torah

This effort took much of the day.  Its first draft is done to my satisfaction.  It is probably too long for an optimal oral presentation.

Our congregation, whose titled people have not endeared themselves to me, essentially leaving me out more than they should, jolting my pain centers as they do this, undertook a major project.  In the absence of a Rabbi, congregants in turn prepared the shabbos sermon, which became known as Torah Talks.  First a signup sheet, which would get three people doing this as volunteers, and two of them not worth being in shul Saturday morning.  Like many things, when I expressed to the VP who initiated the project, that invitations would expand participation and the quality of the talks, I got my now expected dismissive wave of the palm in response.  But anyone who thought this through would figure out quickly that it's a better way to do this.  And so the project was assigned to somebody who took it seriously.  She assembled a wide array of speakers with very few Second Acts.  Over about six months, a pattern has emerged with lawyers talking about something law, scientists finding some science in their presentation, genealogy enthusiasts going that route, and people really focused on Torah staying within the bounds of the parsha.  I expected to be bypassed, as I can be eccentric in my comments, but Tazria-Metzora is Torah's foray into medical care, so the invitation came to me.

I read commentaries, almost none having to do with medical care, as tzaraat is really a mythical disease, the external expression of misconduct, with intervention lacking the privacy protections that American law currently mandates.  Yet the Kohanim did function in some ways like doctors.  Sometimes more like loyal soldiers carrying out a mission, but sometimes given latitude to deal with uncertainty.  They did what they were told, used interventions that were more of a sure cure than most of what we do today, and never challenged what they were told to do.  So I was able to follow our emerging tradition to match, or sometimes contrast what Torah illustrates as the proper path, though isn't always really the best thing to salute and do without challenge.

It took effort, more than I've given anything, but it came out well, at least in writing.  And most important to me, I got on the invitation list.

The composition in its written form.  

https://richardplotzker.medium.com/torah-talk-tazria-metzor-d2f3b71e5643   And with two reads in my computerized stats.

Chol HaMoed

Awkward Pesach Schedule this year.  Th-F-Sa yontif-shabbos, then Su-M-T window for some work, then W-Th yontiff.  Within that window I have to write a presentation that sort of depends on maybe a form of activation energy to get started but once in place it moves ahead.  The initial catalyst has been slow in appearing, but that's the focus of this three day stretch.  And once done, it's done.  Gardening is not appropriate to the Intermediate Days, but keeping what is already planted alive probably is.  So is packing things only used the first two days of yontif, like Seder designated items or my oversized soup pot.  In the middle I have my BD, a yontif event with a Torah reading to do and a sort of festive meal to arrange.

Taxes need signing and delivery of authorization to file returned to our CPA.  And an OLLI schedule selected to be minimally impacted by Pesach, but with superimposed endoscopy, I missed more sessions than anticipated.  But only one scheduled during Chol HaMoed itself, which I should be able to attend.

I've depended on Pesach more than I should to serve as a mood demarcation point.  I have some very tangible things to do like cleaning, changing dishes, challenging meal preparation, some AKSE activities, this year my birthday, sometimes tax filing.  I've not gotten that elevation this year, that inner accomplishment, despite feeling as well physically as I have in a while.  Perhaps I just need a relatively big achievement, starting with my presentation, then expanding to bigger.  

Two Boxes at a Time

Day before Seder requires some pacing.  My big projects are two.  Clean the refrigerator and move the things we need for our Festival upstairs from the basement.  I also take a few things better removed from the kitchen downstairs, intending temporary storage there for a week that often extends much longer.

I got a big head start on the refrigerator this year.  Cleaning all three bins, fruit, a usually goopy vegetable bin, and a mostly tame cheese bin.  Beneath the produce bins, crud accumulates.  Much of the day before Seder cleansing involves removing that dried on coating, then some detergent.  This year I started well in advance, cleaning it with a combination scouring sponge and a floor sponge mop that now needs to be replaced.  That leaves me now with the shelves, four half-width variable shelves and a more elaborate and fragile full width lower unit, which I once shattered.  Then a detergent or Formula 409 sponging of the interior walls.  Returning items, separating what we can use on Pesach falls to my wife.

As I approach another birthday this Pesach, past the mandatory Social Security draw but not quite to the mandatory IRA withdrawal, I'm grateful for the ability to move all the boxes upstairs, though I have to pace myself two excursions at a time.  I like to do the heavy ones first, though not always practical as lighter items occupy space above the heavier ones.  The really heavy stuff has been retrieved but a fair amount of moderately heavy remains.  Two trips at a time, then let my smartwatch announce my pulse, then rest, then two more.  I try to do fleishig first as they have a more defined resting place in my dining room, but the effort of toting upstairs really has more importance than what the box contains.

Did today's scheduled treadmill at desired intensity, the project I am most likely to make excuses to defer, especially after lugging things up from the basement offers the illusion of exercise.  Get dressed, maybe get a bagel or something for a late morning snack, a couple more boxes before I go.  Night before Seder has been an eat out tradition as well, focus more of filling than elaborate.  Then formal search for Chametz with planted bread chunks after dark.

Not a recreation day, but one where chores all get done when properly paced.

Ice Cream Sundaes

Going out for ice cream, most commonly a hot fudge sundae, used to be a much more frequent treat than it has in recent years.  It was a destination in its own right.  Huff's of childhood, or Howard Johnson's.  Steve's of Sommerville.  A place where we vacationed.  The Charcoal Pit or Friendly's near home.  Largely undone by Adam Smith's correlation with price and demand.  Carton ice cream often went on sale.  I could whip my own whipped cream.  Ben & Jerry's brought premium ice cream home.  And the ice cream shop prices exceeded my willingness to indulge.  No hot fudge sundaes.  Milkshakes, which I could also make at home though with bothersome cleanup, went from those scooped and whirred to some fast food premix recipes at a lower price.  And even those largely disappeared, again price the main driver, though with some health concerns considered as well.

While gathering for a sundae offered a culinary treat, we rarely did it alone, except maybe a car stop at Dairy Queen.  It was an outing, a special treat with my fiancee-->new wife that had a ritual of a significant walk together then a long line then seeing what Steve made that day.  With kids, watching them choose at the Charcoal Pit.  The inflated price of the food balanced with the investment in togetherness.

With Pesach approaching, I have used up as much prohibited food as possible, shopped for what I can eat and serve to guests, and focused on cleaning the eating areas of my house.  Spring arrives at about the same time, though premature to exchange winter clothing in the closet for summer clothing in temporary storage.  Thought I'd go out for a sundae with my wife.  Not done this in ages.  Charcoal Pit is the local classic destination, so that's where we went.  A bit more expensive that expected from their online menu.  It' a favorite of Pres Joe, who recommended the place to his boss Obama during a Presidential visit to our area.  Photo of Obama on the wall at a table with his daughter and bending down to talk to a toddler at another table.  Must be a schmendrik.  Nobody goes to the Charcoal Pit wearing a tie, not even Joe whose picture hung adjacent to Obama's, with his arm wrapped around a guy, I presume an employee, who looked like somebody Joe's Presidential predecessor would have tried to deport.

Hardly anyone there at 8PM on a Sunday evening though Sweet Nel's ice cream shop across the street, where I've not been, had its parking area surrounded by cars.  It was a small but decent sundae, hot fudge as has been our custom.  They still have multiperson options named after local high schools on their dessert menu.  They used to tout Breyer's ice cream.  Ours seemed more dense than that.  Good whipped cream, likely commercial, generous hot fudge but not all that hot.  The purpose was respite and companionship, as most ice cream sundae outings.  That part accomplished.

Pesach This Week

Pesach has been my favorite Festival, at least for my adulthood.  It's a form of boundary.  It's a form of reset.  The preparation always ends with an inner sense of having accomplished something important.

Some preparation begins weeks in advance.  Who's coming for Seder or Shabbos?  What to cook has been a more recent phenomenon, done for me in my school years, Seders done by my in-laws until my mother-in-law's health made her unable to do this.  Now I plan menus in advance, adapted to the number of people present.  

We have cleaning in the few days preceding yontif.  Refrigerator is the big one.  Carpets cleaned professionally, sometimes living room furniture too.  I try to wash the floor, succeeding most years.  Dishes need to be brought upstairs from basement storage.  The heavy boxes become more of an effort each year, but I manage.  Fleishig washed first, as needed for Sederim.  Shopping generates my largest grocery receipts of each year, as certified foods go into the cart, I am willing to spend a little extra on meat to offer to guests what may be unrealistic for them to obtain on their own for one or two-person households.  I don't particularly like plush, but Seder becomes sort of plush.

And then yontif arrives.  Logistics.  Getting to siyyum so I do not have to fast as a firstborn.  Transporting my sister-in-law.  Preparing a multicourse repast with ritual elements.  Cleaning up as I go and fast enough to exchange the sink to tackle needed milchig dishes the following day.  Defrost in ample time what needs to come out of the freezer.  Knowing what dishes need the oven and which need the stove top.

And synagogue, not always my favorite destination, and at least one day not my home congregation.  I have some utility there, Torah and Haftarah reader this year, Bachur in a congregation that has no Levites, so a default to assist our Kohanim with their congregational blessing.  Perhaps dress a little nicer, bring out some of my spring clothing, though never compete with Easter finery.

Festival on its way, the week's dominant event.