The American Election Campaign: choose your family or choose your century?

Having spent my life looking for patterns, I'm ashamed of how long it took me to see these two. The first one hit me only yesterday. Americans (including me) will be voting for the member of a nuclear "family" they want to lead them: Dad (McCain, the protector), Mom (Hillary, the ambitious hard-worker), or Son (Obama, the futurist)?

Alternatively, today it occurred to me that we're also choosing our favorite century: 19th (McCain), 20th (Hillary), or 21st (Obama).

Looking at it either way, you can see why I haven't decided yet. If I'm in a pessimistic or fearful mood, I like McCain, pragmatic - Hillary, optimistic - Obama.

Please discuss.

Seder table, afterwards

Seder table, afterwards
Originally uploaded by savtadotty

We're all stuffed and full of wine.

My Brother's War

It's a work in progress, but at least all the letters in the shoebox have been transcribed, and a small selection of the many photos scanned and uploaded. It's what I've been doing instead of posting at Cousin Lucy's. How on earth did I ever manage to get to work every day and still have a life? My hat's off to you working people!

OH, and Happy Passover!

Hooked on The Wire

My addictions were pretty bland even by contemporary standards: smoked cigarettes for a few years, quit twice, once cold-turkey, and once with the help of the SmokeEnders program. Drank coffee starting at age 20 consistently one-two cups a day. Loved chocolate, but not enough to really binge. Drank alcohol in moderation until the old-lady phenomenon of falling asleep in the middle of the first drink caught up with me. Took up Diet Coke as part of my acculturation to Israel - they use a better formula here, I can taste the difference every time I try one in the USA. even like to eat, but haven't been even slightly overweight since my 30's.

Finally, maybe as my last Hurrah, I have succumbed to "The Wire" and my own daughter turned me on to it. The irony is, I remember worrying through her entire adolescence about possible drug use, because even though we lived in a middle-class safe neighborhood, some of her nice Jewish friends did get into trouble, but she never did. And now I'm using and she's pushing. God, I always knew You had a sense of humor!

Happy Passover everyone. On to episode 10, Season One.

Helpful Household Hint

Note from one jet-lagged savta: when you put your memory stick in the washing machine, be sure to use the "Delicate" cycle and all the files will come out with the same data you had before. Maybe a little bit cleaner, but there wasn't any porn in there to begin with.

Awake in the dark

Here I am, home in Tel Aviv, reunited with my dear doggie, wide awake from jet lag in the middle of the night, playing Scrabble on Scrabulous in real time with my son and daughter-in-law in Florida. When I was staying in their house, we played on our laptops in separate rooms, but not in real time. I don't know what to make of it, but it sure has something to do with Time and Space.

Florida Home Base

Florida Home Base
Originally uploaded by savtadotty

I can't believe I've done this, but I've rented a storage locker. In Florida. To store the stuff I couldn't bear to throw away, and didn't want to store in Israel. I shipped it in dribs and drabs from Los Angeles last week, and then I shipped myself here on Sunday. I arrived Monday morning, and the last box arrived today.

It's not as crazy as it seems: plans are afoot for a family slide-viewing-and-culling party next winter, and my family for some reason finds it easier to get to Florida than to Israel. And I've just discovered the Library of Congress Veteran's History Project, where they're collecting WWII memorabilia, such as those I've stored in a box or two, so I would be sending them to Washington, DC eventually anyhow. Easier and cheaper to do so from Florida than from Tel Aviv.

This storage locker is within walking distance of my son's house, so i can putter and sort independently on future visits. Isn't that thrilling?

At last, a vacation day!

At last, a vacation day!
Originally uploaded by savtadotty

Everyone was at school or work, and I had no car to run around in, so I simply had to content myself with puttering around the house. The house in this case was a very tiny one-room affair nestled in a wooded glen in the back yard, and puttering didn't take very long, but was so very very tiring, y'know.

Day Three of Emptying the Storage Locker

Day Three of Emptying the Storage Locker
Originally uploaded by savtadotty

I'm hoping to have it completely empty by tomorrow afternoon. It's slow going because the boxes stacked on the right are filled with documents, letters and buried within them are gems like a letter written by my bro in 1935 at age nine, and many, many photos.

Otherwise I'd toss it all, unopened so I could be on vacation again.