The scorpion hunters

Last night, as we were preparing to go to bed, we got an unwelcome surprise. David was grabbing a light blanket to put over himself when he felt something crawl on him. By the time he saw what it was, it was going down the edge of the bed, and before he could get something to squish it, the black scorpion had crept under the bed!

The black scorpions here are not aggressive, and we've found several before in the house, but never up on the 2nd floor, in the bedroom. Luckily, we've never been stung, but I've been told that their sting is very painful!

We tried moving the bed back and forth to ferret out the scorpion, but it managed to remain steadfastly under there somewhere where we could get it or even see it. We knew that we had better be careful if we got up during the night not to step on it! I figured that mostly it would want to hide, but, in the dark (although we DO have a night light!), it might come out and go exploring.

Sure enough, in the wee hours, when I happened to be awake, I heard one of the cats scratching around near the far corner of the room. After a while, I sat up to take a look and saw that it was Pascal, our BIG one-year-old male who is mostly black with a white chin and chest and some white on his paws. I was pretty sure that he was after the scorpion. Somewhat later, I decided to put on my glasses and go over there and check more carefully. By then, his sister, Peachy, our petite adorable calico, had joined him, and, sure enough, there was the scorpion, probably already dead. I didn't take any chance though -- I took several paper towels, made sure it was thoroughly squished, and put it in the trash. The cats didn't really get what I had done and continued to look for it for some time after. Of course, I petted them and praised them (quietly, though, so as not to wake David!).

Since I had found the cats with scorpions a time or two before, I wasn't too surprised. By the way, our American cat, Katom, simply stayed up on the bed, sleeping!

A surprise on Friday night

Last night, the room where we hold our prayers every Friday night (at Emet v'Shalom, in Nahariya) was full of chairs. This is because we knew that a group of about 88 young people from the States would be attending. They arrived a little late, but we didn't start until they got there.

Early in the prayers, before L'cha Dodi, the rabbi's wife came over to me and told me that I was requested to join the rabbi (who always leads the prayers) up front. He has had me join him a few times before, mostly when his voice felt a little shaky and he wanted some extra support, so I wasn't too surprised.

Throughout L'cha Dodi, I noticed that he didn't sing as much as usual, leaving much of it to me. At the end of L'cha Dodi, he suddenly took off his tallit, handed the microphone to me, said תמשיך! tamshikh! ("Continue!"), and quickly walked to the back and out the door. I knew he must really not be feeling well to do something like that, and I also knew that I had better pull it together and concentrate in leading the prayers to the very best of my ability. I did notice that several people followed him out the door to help him.

The singing part is not too difficult for me, although I hadn't really prepared mentally for it, of course. The parts where the leader simply reads the Hebrew are more difficult except for a few parts of the Amidah that I know well. After I stumbled through the middle part of the first Psalm ("Mizmor Shir L'Yom HaShabbat") after L'cha Dodi, Odelia and Ayelet, two of the teenagers in the congregation came up and asked if I wanted their help! Boy, did I! These two girls are both native Hebrew (and English!) speakers, so the reading is pretty easy for them. When I try to read these things, I sound like a 2nd grader -- with a horrible accent, to boot!

Various other people helped out with other aspects of the evening, and, all in all, I think it was a success. This morning, I found out that the rabbi was having a high-blood-pressure attack but that he's OK now.

Leaving the hospital (and some pics from my stay there)

On Thursday, they finally released me from the hospital. The main reason they were keeping me, I believe, was so that I could continue to receive the intravenous (i.e. directly into the vein) antibiotics 3 times a day (about 6 a.m., about 1-2 p.m., and about 9:30 p.m.). Another reason was so that my bandage could be changed every day. I actually never felt very sick the whole time I was there.

Tomorrow (Sunday), I'll go into Maccabi (our HMO) to get the bandage changed again. Then, on Tuesday I have an appointment at the hospital outpatient clinic for them to check me again (and no doubt to change the bandage again, too).

Last Monday, while I was still hospitalized, I took a little hike out behind the hospital and down to the helicopter pad. Here are a couple of pictures I shot from there. This first one shows the bridge on the Tzfat bypass, which runs around below Tzfat on the south side and then connects to highway 90, the Jordan Valley highway. This bridge is said to be the highest bridge in the Middle East!

Finally, here's the view of the south side of the hospital, looking back up from the helipad. The building on the left, which is connected to the main building on the right, is where the emergency room is located.
Note that I did not leave the fenced hospital grounds for this entire hike. In fact, that first picture was actually taken by holding my phone through the chain link fence (topped with barb-wire!).