Sliding Into The New Year

So today is the final day of the Jewish year 5779. Tomorrow is Rosh Hashonah -- the "head of the year." I haven't gone to services for the past several years, and plan to continue that. But -- I thoroughly enjoy celebrating, and plan to toss some bread crumbs into the water, symbolizing the casting off of my sins...

This year D2 and Jonathan are back. They're settled in to their Grove apartment. Jonathan was already asked to go on a trip with his company, to the Bahamas, and Wifey and I met D2 at her apartment, and then walked to dinner. It is delightful having them back -- and the early returns about the new job and remote version of D2's job are wonderful.

We're so blessed -- invites to both Ds' in laws for the holiday. As D1 says, Sunday is Colombia, and Monday is Venezuela. We'll gather, and eat, and say "L' shana tova" and "salud" and "L'chaim."  Joey's Mom gets challah infused with guava, which may be the most delicious bread I've ever eaten. It'll be tossed to each of us, in the Sephardic tradition.

Monday we'll be with Jonathan's family -- to also toast the beginning of the year, one which seems poised for terrific things for our families...

I also had another funny example of human nature: marriage department. Wifey's friends went away on vacation, to a hotel resort. I spoke to the husband, who used to be my doctor, and he said the place was the height of luxury -- top room, top food, top everything. This am the wife called, and I told her I was glad she had such a wonderful trip. Are you kidding, she said. The paint was peeling, the food was mediocre, and most of the fellow guests were decidedly downscale. The only thing good about the place was the price -- they got it for a deep discount, and, as the wife said, even at that price it was too much.

Wifey and I laughed -- it's so funny how two people can have the same experience and have completely different thoughts about it. We believe the wife, by the way -- she is the far more accurate historian.

The painter is done, and the house is no longer yellow inside -- mostly off white, which I always like. Now the job of the decluttering is underway -- Wifey is giving away tons of furniture, to make room for stuff that she doesn't find an eyesore...

I'm just happy I have a bed, tv, and place to play on my computer. Everything else is superfluous, but I do look forward to greatly decreased tchokes on the shelves...

Actually, the above isn't really accurate. Wifey asked about giving away, or painting, a small corner piece my late mother gave us. I remember it well from my childhood -- I kept some Hot Wheels cars in its drawers, and used to look at whatever things Mom kept on the shelves. I asked to keep that one piece -- and Wifey agreed. I think of Mom whenever I look at it -- several times per day.

So tomorrow I will ask the Big Man to inscribe those sacred to me in the Book of Life for another good year -- and then, before Yom Kippur, to KEEP them there with the Book is sealed.

These are the important things -- not whether Trump is playing Mafia in the Ukraine -- and I hope to never lose sight of that.

So welcome, 5780. The year will probably be a month old, and I'll still be writing 5779 on my checks. But that is human frailty. May there be, instead, mostly strength.