My Week At the Dascha: Executive Summary

1. Lunches prepared for 2 or more people: 5
2. Dinners (including reheated leftovers) prepared for 2 or more people: 4
3. Midmorning snacks prepared for two different tastes: 7
4. Food bowls filled for 3 indoor cats: 9
5. Food bowl filled for an unknown number of outdoor cats: 8
6. Laundry loads done: 3
7. Sinks full of dishes washed (by hand...no dishwasher!): 12
8. Trips to grocery stores: 5
9. Trips to deliver to/pickup from school: 8
10. Trips to deliver to/pickup from afterschool activities: 6
11. Breakfast alone in full sunshine on the Promenade (see photo): 1
12. Daytime Naps: 6
13: Books read: 3
14. Knitting projects completed: 1

Compensation: 42 days and nights of dogsitting. Do I need to join a childcare worker's union?

Mesdames Defarge*

We three dascha residents resident humans have been knitting up a storm. Literally...it's now thundering and lightninging to beat the band. I finished a pair of socks for my niece and started a pair for Renaissance Woman (she covets a pair just like elswhere's only slightly longer). 15-year-old has finished her first knitting project under my tutelage: a bear hat. That is, a white hat with ears, eyes and a nose. It's just as well that he doesn't have a mouth, don't you think? 9-year-old has completed her patch, which we plan to turn into a small purse this afternoon. Or possibly a cellphone cover. The kitties have been ecstatically battling with the yarn. If I had brought my camera you would have photos to look at, but I didn't, so you don't. Sorry.

The reason I didn't bring the camera is it continues to be too big and heavy. My technical advisor recommended I buy an Olympus 4000z several years ago, simply because he had researched the one he wanted, bought it, and could therefore solve any problems I might encounter. The trouble is, the camera is too good. It has features I don't need, don't understand, and don't use. It is feature-heavy. I just wanted a point-and-shoot, but at the time I bought it, the point-and-shoots weren't as good as they are now. The irony is, in the meantime my advisor suffered a massive burglary during which his camera was stolen. And the one problem he couldn't solve for me, burglary or no, is how to put my camera on a weight-loss program. It occurred to me that if he bought a point-and-shoot, we could trade, but then I would have to go through another learning curve and I am just too lazy for that. I would rather have fine photos when I take them, and complain when I don't.

Note: JenT graciously offered her photography expertise, as she recently acquired the same camera. On purpose! And she even hand-delivered a hard-copy version of the user's manual fron the CD. The user's guide is supposed to be a significant improvement on the reference book distributed with the camera, and if I were a grownup, I would study it and stop kvetching.

I was especially frugal in packing for this excursion to the dascha because I came by train. Not just any train, as it turns out, but the very train that she rides home from work! This discovery was made only when we disembarked, but there was still time to meet Mr. She, and Little Boy She, who came to the station to collect mommy.

Anyhow, having limited myself to a modest-sized backpack and a dog, I trusted I would find suitable reading material in the Professor's home library. And I was right! I am now in the middle of the eminently readable and suitably scholarly The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap by Stephanie Coontz. My children have been my primary coaches in the ongoing redefinition of "family," but Coontz puts it all into a cultural and historical context.

*In case you've forgotten, Madame Defarge is the villain of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. She is constantly knitting, and uses patterns in the knitting to register names and descriptions of the enemies of the French Revolution. The names she knits are those of the people who must die for the Revolution. Thank you Wikipedia!

From the Salt Mines to the Dascha

I thought coming out of retirement would be interesting, but today gave me two unhappy surprises:

1. I discovered that the database of last year does not match the data of this year, because someone in the Home Office back in the Old Country changed stuff without consulting anyone. So my time estimates are toast.

2. I discovered that getting up early to go to work makes me so sleepy I have to leave at lunch time for a nap. So my time estimates are more toast.

On the other hand, taking Shuki to work with me and having my boss outfit her with a dog bed next to the desk was a great comfort. At least someone gets to sleep at work!

Apparently my stint as a house-, child-, and cat-sitter was successful enough for a callback, so on Wednesday I go back to the dascha for a week while Papa the Professor goes on his international paper-delivery route. It should be much easier this time, because I know where the schools, one-way streets, and water-heater switches are. On the other hand, instead of one house cat there are now three. Shuki might not appreciate these new family members, although she very quickly achieved a workable truce with cat One last time. Tune in next week a for revised version of Conflict in the Middle East.

Special notification to all Soup Salon attendees: Soup will happen at the dascha this Friday afternoon. Email me if you need directions. (Or leftovers on Shabbat.)

Dascha Chapter Ended

When the computer died, it was definitely time for me to leave. Luckily the head of the household returned on schedule, with a suitcase full of loot for the girls.

Please excuse the poor quality of the people-photo: I think the girls took it with a web camera (I wasn't looking). The cat, Jiji, is a very, very mellow boy cat, about 8 months old. My dog (12 years) almost plays with him, which is a first for her...she doesn't know how to play with animals.

Doesn't the dascha look good? If you look closely, you will see shoes carefully placed in the entrance hall for maximum tripping potential. (So happy to be home again!)

Trouble in Paradise

I decided to do laundry last night. Big mistake. The electrical system of the house seems to have a big grudge against the washing machine, and the circuit-breaker kept breaking. Then it required a ten-minute rest before I could reset it. The next-door neighbor works for the Electric Company (and, according to unreliable nine-year-old gossip, gets unlimited free electricity as an employment benefit), but hasn't yet found time to stop by. Meanwhile, lurching through three loads of laundry has taken about 24 hours.

AND, something about the sink drain is very sick. The dishwasher is not hooked up, so I wash the dishes by hand (how primitive!) But the water goes down the drain and seems to flood under the sink.

Arrrggggh!

Shabbat at the Dascha

Things have progressed, regressed, and digressed here at the dascha.

Progress:
1. I located the correct hot water switch and now there is hot water everywhere! Apparently this house has three switches that look like Israeli water-heater switches and I had tried only two of them...the two that apparently do nothing. Although you never know...maybe they do something I haven't yet discovered. Scarey.

2. The 14-year-old knows how to make sushi! And she made it for dinner!

3. I've taught both girls how to knit. The 14-year-old is already off and running on a hat of her own design (!) The 9-year old was about four inches into her practice project when she asked me, "What am I making here?" It was such a startlingly sensible question that I quickly made up an answer: "You are making a patch. When it's finished you can decide whether you want it to be the patch for a scarf or the patch for a blanket. And then you can make more patches and put them together." She scampered away quite satisfied.

Regression:
I attempted to barbecue some hamburgers but they threatened to disintegrate and had to be finished up on the frying pan.

Digression (actually, it was a Diversion, but that doesn't scan...poetic license):
Noorster came to visit! Idan and Tif came to visit!

Depression:
Noorster, Idan, and Tif went home.

My Dascha

When I first read Russian novels (in translation, be assured) I was charmed to learn about the summer vacation home concept, the dascha. It seemed much more informal and less pretentious than "country home" or even "vacation cottage." Anyhow, I never really owned a dascha, but I am currently the custodian (for nine days) of a house, two girls age 9 and 14, one house cat, five yard kittens, and a car, in the beautiful town of Zichron Ya'akov. The father, who has custody of the girls (their mother lives abroad), was invited to be the keynote speaker at a professional conference in New York. It's the first chance he's had to leave Israel since his marriage began to disintegrate a few years ago, and I'm his closest (geographically) relative, so here I am, in soccer mom-land.

Lucky me:

1. The girls are old enough to know how to use cellphones, so I don't have to worry too much about where they are and where I am. It takes a lot of pressure off.
2. The refrigerator repair man came today while I was home (!) and fixed the broken refrigerator.
3. The gas man came today while I was home (!) and replaced the empty gas tank.
4. The air conditioner works (tfu tfu tfu)
5. My dog and the cat have come to terms with each other (for now)
6. School is in session today, tomorrow and starts up again next Tuesday!
7. The 14-year-old has agreed to make dinner!
8. There is a new barbecue grill (charcoal)

Not so lucky me:
1. The custodial father has housekeeping standards that fall way below anyone else's minimum.
2. I don't know where the switch to the downstairs hot water heater is
3. The dishwasher doesn't work
4. The back yard is the domain of kittens and weeds
5. The front yard is the domain of weeds
6. I don't know how to use Skype on this MacIntosh computer
7. The mouse and the keyboard are very sticky (see #1 above).

Things could be worse at my dascha.