A voice from the past ... and the future

I can't believe over six months have passed since my last post. I guess facebook has replaced blogger as my habitual journal tool, but sometimes it's nice to stretch out and write some more rambling thoughts. Littlest granddaughter ("The Doodle") is now 13 months old and has stolen my heart. My time in Florida this year (well, actually last year, but let's not quibble) has been spent doing lots and lots of babysitting and some grown-up socializing for me, especially when The Doodle started mornings at daycare after her first birthday. This week's high point will be taking all three of my granddaughters to the kids day orchestra rehearsal conducted by Itzhak Perlman at his Perlman Music Program in Sarasota! Yes, the Vancouver branch is making the trek southward for some Florida sunshine, and I will have my brood all together for a week. My heart is full..

Grandma Sophie Gold

Movie clip was recorded by my father in 1938, of his mother pushing me in my carriage, on Palm Street in Lindenhurst, Long Island. Dad's camera was 16mm. I transcribed the film to VHS cassette several years ago and then to DVD last year. Finally, yesterday, I got it into iMovie. Subtitles and music to come...stay tuned.

Landlady Savta

Owning two homes is not an indicator of wealth: it's an indicator of having beloved family in North America and having a life in Tel Aviv. To finance this dilemma, I plan to rent out whichever home I'm not in. So far, the plan is to be based in Israel for seven months, Florida for the remaining five. The Florida home is in a resort town, and the "high season" starts in January, so that's when that home is available for rent.

Tel Aviv is a year-round place, but I realized that my absence coincides with the academic calendar's Fall semester, so I've listed my Tel Aviv apartment on a web site called Sabbatical Homes. To make it tenant-friendly, my dear friend and professional Interior Designer Danny Isaacs helped me re-configure the living spaces and the result is so lovely I'm planning to keep it this way year-round!

If you know a couple or a single person looking to make a four- or five-month sojourn in Israel between the months of August and January, not necessarily an academic, but necessarily responsible and honest, please tell them about my wonderfully-located home.

More Jaffa

I love going to evening art class so I can see this scene each week at twilight. My art teacher's studio is just beyond the archway, and is so rich with Old City atmosphere that I immediately go into a different place in my head when I enter. All stress, strife, conflict, tension, and worries evaporate. Aaaaah.

Mission Accomplished

Back home in Tel Aviv, having established my Florida base and played an appropriate grandmotherly role in the birth of my third granddaughter. The stay was neatly divided into two parts:

Part 1 - furnishing the condo (thank you Beverly S., Anne L., Lois & Harold R., Goodwill, Craig's List, Target, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and Sur La Table).

Part 2 - babysitting and cooking.

There were also a Part 3 and a Part 4 , which overlapped with Part 2: hosting houseguests, and finding a tenant for Feb-May (thanks again to Craig's List).

During the course of Part 4 I learned that my condo's target market is not exactly the typical snowbird who wants a swimming pool, water views, fitness room, and tennis court, all in a tropically-landscaped suburban setting. The people who want to live in my condo are people who may be thinking of buying in the area but in any case want to try Sarasota out during the best weather months, and also want to have the benefit of a more urban experience: walking to Whole Foods, the beautiful public library complete with aquarium, the opera, the Community Arts Center, Main Street cafes, shops, and festivals, the Players Community Theater, etc. They also don't want to pay for all the luxurious amenities, which add about $3,000 a month to the high season rents. [Note: as Brian reminds me, I have not considered foreign tourists, whose vacation needs don't necessarily match the snowbirds'.]

All of this by way of saying that if you know of such a person or couple, probably but not necessarily over 50, who are tired of Northern winters and are considering a 4-month (or longer) interlude in a reasonably-priced, comfortable, fully-furnished, 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom Florida condo starting Feb. 1, 2012, send them my way please.

New Granddaughter!!!

Born Saturday, November 6, 2010 at 11:40AM Mother, daughter, father, big sister, and grandparents all doing well.

It doesn't get better than this!

Copenhagen!

The long-awaited family reunion is now over. It was everything I wanted: centrally-located temporary home, mild weather, plenty of sights to see, both granddaughters and their parents in the same place at the same time. My heart is full :-)