Happy 76th, Israel!

 I watched YouTube(tm) and drank too much wine(tm) although less than the night before(tm) and woke up due to my wonderful little alarm clock(tm) at 9, then fell back into bed to rest my eyes(tm) ... got up at 11-something. 

I got an email from the music store in the Midwest with a good reputation(tm) and they said just send the shofar on back, on my dime. So I boxed it back up in the original box, with a copy of the email and the original receipt, and they'll get it back and then $185 or so will re-appear in my bank account bye and bye.

I packed 5 things also to take a good load to FedEx. 

I looked over the map again, and I'll go on my bike on the Green light rail to Winchester, then head West to Winchester blvd. and ride South on that to Lark, left on Lark, and on in to Oka Road. 

It's a bit further than my routine rides to Willow Glen, but I've ridden from Sunnyvale to Hellyer Park and that was a bit of a ride, even on a skinny tire bike. My mistake was stopping in at a convenience store and buying some distilled water on sale. I could have damn near died. What I needed was a nice salty V8 and some regular water. 

I got an email from good ol' Dave in Honolulu, and told him in my reply about my converting to Judaism. That's plenty of grist for his conspiracy-theory mill, of course. 

I got a nice stack of books on my way home last night so I'll do another book-trade pretty soon. This is good because there's a DVD in the book store I think I want, something about Golda Meir's balcony or something, doesn't matter because ... Golda Meir. I swear if I find myself in Israel I will have two big pictures on my wall, one of Golda Meir and one of David Ben-Gurion. I'll hang a maile lei over each one, or something close to it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyxia_stellata I think bay leaf would be close enough. 

As nearly as I can determine, Tel Aviv weather is pretty much the same as Los Angeles, a place the Nazis call "Tel Aviv West".  Even a broken clock is right sometimes. 

I didn't get "moving" until 11:30 or noon, but I packed 5 large things and the shofar, and took them to FedEx. I had to mail the shofar on my own dime and it cost $24 to send it back. I should get the refund OK though and I'd never be able to get $150 or so for it on my own. The two shofars, that one and the Kosher one I have now, blow exactly the same note! 

I stopped at my favorite food truck on the way to FedEx and got three little fried taco things with just potatoes in them. I ate the potato-y parts and left lots of crispy parts in the gutter for the birds. After FedEx I stopped by my favorite place to find packing materials and got a good load of 'em. And rode back here. 

There was no way I was going to be on time. My plan was indeed to ride to Diridon Station, get on the Green train with my bike and ride down to Winchester. On my way, going by way of Hedding to hopefully get there a little bit quicker, I got a bright idea. I'd stop by the temple and if anyone's going from there, maybe I could carpool with them and pay $20 or so for gas. But it's Monday - no one was in except one guy who wasn't going. I'd have to follow my plan. 

I stopped in Whole Foods to use the loo, buy a chicken tender, and that great accompaniment to fried chicken, a package of 4 little bottles of Chardonnay. 

I rode over to the light rail station and I had a train coming in 9 minutes, so I was able to eat my chicken and chase it with wine. And when the train came there were very few people on it so my bike was no problem. 

I rode down to the Winchester transit station, got out and pedaled to Winchester Blvd., to Lark, to Oka Road, and there the place was. It was very easy. I checked in, got a little ticket for the meal (and I wonder, maybe for a prize drawing) and the "service" was just starting so I wasn't late after all. 

We watched things about Israeli soldiers' lives, and sang cowboy songs, and said the Kaddish (I need to memorize that one) and the room erupted in applause after a bit about Ben Gurion. Then more songs and prayers and then a speech including some mention of playing of trumpets and then some AWFUL shofar blowing. And the guy had one of the long Yemenite ones too, those are easier. Well, next year ... 

Then we all trooped out and I got right over and got a hamburger. I wanted to put onions and mayo on it, a "rifle range burger" but they just had red onions and the closest to mayo was mustard. They had salad also and I should have done what I saw one of the Israelis do, which was have the hamburger on a bed of salad. There were forks for the salad, and she just speared the burger on her fork and ate it that way. That's how to eat a burger. I, on the other hand, ate the burger w/o the buns which I took because of course a burger has to have buns. And later grabbed a bag of potato chips. 

Once I'd eaten, sitting on one of the blue and white picnic blankets that had been spread out on the huge grassy lawn, I went to the booths. First there was one about the communal type laundry service the kibbutzim had. I said something like, "Washing machines, how effete!" and described my home laundry method. And there was a game where you take 3 socks and try to toss them into the washing machine prop and if you get at least one in, you get a prize. I got one in, and got a little package of fruit chews. I went around to the other booths and it was great fun. 

I got one of those dog-tag type necklaces, "Bring Them Home" in English and Hebrew, and they wanted a donation of at least $15 and I gave them $20. I talked a bit with a Conservative rabbi - great guy. I got around to the booth held by my own temple, and it was a "kibbutz bar" with drinks, non-alcoholic of course. There was an Israeli "Malt" drink and I said I'd try it. My own rabbi was there and boy did he lay into that drink. "That's the drink of covid, only drinkable if you have no sense of taste!" He kept going on about how horrible it was, while they poured me out a cup of it, on ice. I tasted it and said it's pretty good. "Do you like liver??" Rabbi asked. "I do!" I said. Rabbi took off to schmooze with someone else, and I got a 2nd cup of this drink, which I finally pinned down - it's kvass.

Years ago I followed a YouTube channel called Life Of Boris. He was funny and did a lot of cooking stuff. At one point he actually made kvass, and by that time I'd gone to one of the European markets and bought some kvass and tried it. And this "Malt" drink is, actually, just good ol' kvass. I said to the people manning the booth that if you expect this drink to taste like beer, or like cola, you will think it does not taste good, but in fact it's its own flavor - kvass. Someone said they'd first had it on a hot day in Eilat and didn't like it. It's just about made for a hot day in Eilat. 

I tried to find Rabbi with my full-again cup of kvass in hand but I could not find him. Eh, he's a busy guy. The band had started up by then but they didn't inspire me. So I went inside (the place is huge) and looked around, used the loo, had a nice chat with the security guys out front, changed my shirt etc. again, and rode for home. (I'd started with a T-shirt and safety vest and my orange safety hat, then changed to woven shirt and kippah, then when I left changed to yellow jacket and orange hat. 

I rode for home, finding the ride very pleasant. Going down there was slightly uphill and downwind, and going back was downhill and upwind so, about the same effort both ways. Traffic was light. I overshot the turn for the Winchester Transit Center by a block, turned back, and a train was waiting right there. 

Coming back was no problem, I got off the light rail at Diridon, rode over to Whole Foods for a few things like cream to try in the Israeli "Elite" coffee I have, a box of Chardonnay, etc. The gal checking me out asked if I was going to play music today and I said I can generally only play on Sundays these days, and that what I really want to do is get up early enough to play at a farmer's market. She said that would be a great idea. 

I went to the Amazon place next, and got a big load of bubble mailers. They were bagging up their trash and I asked if I could go through the bags for bubble mailers and they liked that - it's less for them to throw away. So I went through the bags, re-tied them, and bagged up my haul and rode for home. 

I didn't find any books, but got two nice coat hangers from this place on the corner of the parking lot of the Mexican market where people drop things off. I got in here and got some capacitors from the HVAC place but they might actually be bad. 

One neat thing about that Jewish Community Center in Los Gatos - there are tons of people who speak modern Hebrew. I even asked an old lady there if she knew where the gift shop it (I thought they had one) and she told me she only speaks "Ivrit" - Hebrew. The people sitting around me in the service spoke Hebrew.