February 27, 2016
I'm still deaf in one ear. And even though i was told there's no reason to rush, i suddenly got scared and went to the clinic. There was no ear-nose-throat man on duty so the internist suggested alternatives: drops or emergency room. I took drops -at least until the morning. I am not crazy about the emergency room right now. too many recent visits. so far - WHAT did you say?
the interesting thing is that i decided to go to the clinic at four and by five twenty i already had the antibiotic drops in my ear. and on shabbat yet.
Around 7 I started to get antsy about feeling like i have a pillow against my ear, and by the doctor's suggestion about the emergency room. I remembered that yesterday at dinner my daughters mentioned a doctor for me that i should see ASAP. I didn't hear very well and so looked up a health clinic doctor with a name like I heard. I found Lihi Sagi, with an email, so I wrote her and asked for an appointment on Sunday. To my amazement she wrote back immediately - Saturday Night - and asked me my health insurance and my symptoms. Even though my health insurance doesn't allow her to accept me privately she wrote and told me to make an appointment for Monday, but it would be safer to go to the hospital tonight. When she wrote the address of the clinic I realized she was not in my neighborhood at all and I probably got the wrong name. I thanked her and would have thanked her more if I weren't so worried about my ear. I think it's pretty amazing that she hooked into her professional email on Saturday night and spoke to a stranger. She HAS to be good.
Okay, then I thought about the hospital and the crowds in emergency and triage and all that and realized I probably wouldn't get my ear examined until the morning. So we called the health clinic 24 hour service. I'd forgotten about them. The operator made an appointment for me for tomorrow afternoon. Simple. Right, I don't know the doctor, but he's 2 minutes away, and by then we'll see if the drops I got helped.
All this is to say a few kind words about our health system. If I go deaf it's my fault.
Ferbuary 29, 2016
Okay, I'm a lot better now. The doctor cleaned out my ear and gave me different drops, but he was pessimistic about my hearing, and pretty indifferent about it at the same time.
The Cameri opened "West Side Story" last night in honor of the 60th anniversary of the musical. It was an amazing production, and at the last moment they tried to make it relevant to Israel by mentioning the need for coming together in peace. I hated the feeble attempt for political relevance, but loved everything else about the play. Even the translation. The dancers were really pros, the singers were great, and considering that the original was fake and farfetched, it was not far at all from the original.
We're doing a gallery talk at the Jerusalem Theater on March 9 before the exhibit on the Galapagos is taken down. You can sign up here or just show up. There will be a few poets reading from the Galapagos poems, and a little talk by me about the idea of dialogue, and Ezi will talk about the fauna in Galapagos, and I'm hoping people will pick their favorite poem or picture and say a few words.
Once the exhibit is taken down, we're selling off the pictures. That's it.
We had an amazing meal at the Osterio Fiorella tonight. Absolutely perfect. And our Roman friends thought it was great as well. I had the "concho" for starters - roasted zucchini in wine vinegar - and then shnitzel in lemon sauce (scallope). Dessert? i said "Surprise me" and he did. I don't know what it was but it was good.
March 1, 2016
One thing I know about BDS is that they really don't care about Palestinians. Maybe they care about 'Palestine' but not the people. Soda Stream is just one example. Because of the BDS boycott the factory pulled out of the West Bank and now another 500 Palestinians are out of work. “part of the price that should be paid in the process of ending the occupation” some BDS guy in Ramallah said. The Palestinian government has no way to take up the slack at this time. But that's why joint efforts are necessary. Israel left the Gazan people lots of ways to make money, but they destroyed the fields, the nurseries, and all the ready-made moneymakers in their hatred of Israel. This is what BDS is doing to the West Bank.
March 2, 2016