Last night I got 12 things ready to list but then it was 11:30 and because of my "no work after midnight" rule, I put them in a box and got out the wine and made some Kosher noodles with beef ball soup, ate and drank and watched YouTube, went a bit further in my Hebrew reading book, and went to bed.
I probably woke up around 10, sort of went back to sleep and then got up at 11. I'm making progress. I photo'd the things so I had that done (there's a portion of the afternoon where the sun shines in and ruins things for photography) then I had some tea and nuts and called up the ol' lawyer-in-law.
I asked his assistant if the address shown on Google Maps is still good because it shows up as "Permanently Closed". She told me it's because it's from when he was in business with another lawyer, the address is still good, he's just a different business now because he's on his own. I was relieved to hear the address is good, and had been wondering, if he'd closed his office and set up from home, how's he got at least 2 assistants in there too?
Also, Tom couldn't talk, he was busy with "lots of cases coming up" but she went and talked to him and she passed the massage to me that he's passed my massage to my older sister. His assistant then had another call coming in, and I said Thanks, and hung up.
"I'm gonna write a letter!" I muttered to myself and got out an envelope and address label and stamp. I put what I wanted to say in the letter and managed to keep it a 1-pager. The thing is, I have a lot more papers and material about the paternal side of my family than I thought, and I don't want to keep the stuff forever. So the plan is to mail the stuff to the law office, to be given to my older sister or mailed to my older brother if my older sister doesn't want them.
I'm glad I found those papers and photos and things, because it gave me a solid reason for this 2nd phone call. I'm sending the letter now, and among other things to say that the package of papers will be mailed in about a week.
Then I got to work listing the things I'd photo'd, and as I finished up, heard on the radio that "Zionist agents, dressed like ninjas, broke up the camps while the LAPD stood by". There was recently an excellent book/article about how, in the 1930s, the US government couldn't do much about the Nazi groups in the US but ... there was a convenient thing, the Jewish mob.
So it was conveyed to said Jewish mob that they could beat up the Nazis, no guns, no knives, no killing but they could beat the hell out of them. And they did. The cops stood by, and it became dangerous to be a Nazi.
Long ago someone said on Reddit, about San Jose, "It's just too dang comfortable!". In the last few years I've learned that I could not go and live in almost all of the geographic area of the US. Rednecks, Nazis, or I'm the wrong color. Too swarthy for most of the US, too pale for Hawaii. Here, I fit right in and the main problem is everyone's so atomized.
If I went back to Hawaii I'd be the outsider. They like tourists; they come for a week, spend money, and go home. But I'm a "local haole" and as such I'm really not all that welcome. And unlike my sisters I'd not be able to insulate myself from the realities of the place. I can't get into an expensive car and never walk more than I absolutely have to. I can't isolate myself in an expensive, secure, house but would be living in a rooming house or very modest, subsidized, apartment cheek-by-jowl with people who were raised to hate, or at least resent, the "haole".
I could get by with solid shuck-and-jive skills, which I certainly have. But what a way to live!
But in Israel, I could walk down the street and be as good as anyone. The papers I looked through yesterday seemed to make a pretty good case for my not having any Jewish ancestry, not that anyone knew an inkling of, but where in hell did my color come from? And my mother's color. Maybe we're part Gypsy, that's a good reason to keep it all hush-hush. I certainly have "the look" that means I'm 100% accepted at the synagogue. I'm not even questioned, no odd looks. And even if I am part Gyppo or something, I don't care, I stand with the salt of the Earth and the light unto the nations.
I had time to pack 11 things, take them to the post office, and find packing stuff on the way back. I stopped to hang out with Tom and have a beer while we talked about things. (I'd started coughing and had a terrible itch in my throat from all the tree junk flying around in the wind, and carbonation was just the trick.)
Then I got back here, put things away, cleaned the office and the restroom, and was putting things away that I'd listed when Ken came by - it was about 9.
We talked about the usual things from rockets to religion, I got my check, and all was hunky dory. He left at about 10. I'd said I'm trying to shift to an earlier schedule - it's hard! And he said he's trying to do the same.
I cooked myself some dinner (instant miso seasoning from a ramen packet with veggies and I dumped in small dollops of gefilte fish - it came out OK.) I even took the time to find 10 things to list tomorrow. Time to wind down and go to bed.
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