Not Yet

It aint over til it's over

Cyber HELL

I know the particular hell I have been going through for the last couple of weeks is a hell that is probably unique to the first world, but I live in the first world and these problems that I will now describe have been excruciatingly exasperating and real to me.
I wonder how much of my entire life span is spent trying to solve technological problems. A substantial portion, I am afraid.
My most recent round of unproductive time began when I downloaded Apple's latest operating system - 7.0.2 or whatever it is. I tried to make an appointment on my iPhone's calendar and it didn't work as it had worked on the previous version. I scribbled my appointment on a piece of paper, stuffed it into my purse,  and continued on my way to work out at the local YMCA. The receptionist and I commiserated about our technological ineptitudes, then she asked to look at my phone to see whether she could figure it out. The two of us stood gazing blankly at the little screen waiting for something miraculous to occur when we pressed buttons - some miracle like an appointment appearing on the appropriate day at the appropriate time. It didn't happen, and we both shrugged despondently. At that moment a young personal trainer appeared - she said that she too, was not familiar with the new system, but could she take a look at my phone - she looked at the screen with an unfurrowed brow, touched something and there it was - perfect. She showed me what she did and all seemed fine. Until I returned home - both my iPad and my iPhone's batteries were completely depleted. Dark blank screens. This had never before happened, and never in the space of two hours. I charged both my devices. When I removed the charger, I could visibly see the battery being depleted as I stared at the screen - 100% and going down, very fast, even though I had not even used the damned devices.
I turned of bluetooth, face time, I disabled location services - I basically turned off everything there was to turn off, and still, the batteries went down down down in an alarmingly short time.
I called apl-care and a young man (I presume he was a young man) explained how to get rid of open apps, by sliding them upward on the screen (different than before.) He assured me this would help - it did not. Basically I could use both devices while they were being charged, which made no practical sense. I do not walk around with electric chargers on my being.
I called apl-care again. This time a young woman informed me that they had many people reporting problems with this new system, luckily for me the new upgrade 7.0.3, had just come out and it addressed all these problems. I should download the brand new upgrade, and wait for 24 hours to see if things were better. If not, I should call back again, and she gave me a case number.
Maybe it it pointless, but I will add at this juncture, that these phone calls take a long time. Nothing is shorter than an hour.
I waited 24 hours, down went the batteries, maybe even faster than before - I called and after trouble shooting, turning off apps, adding apps, enabling and disabling everything that could be enabled and disabled, the young man gave me another case number but this time said I should take my devices into the Apple store.
I made an appointment at the genius bar, and the young pleasant genius did everything I had done many times, by now. He then performed a diagnostics tests and looked at the results on his device, and informed me I had a software problem, not hardware. They would have to totally clean out my devices and then restore them as new. So, he did this with my iPad - again, this appointment took a couple of hours. He told me to take my iPad back home and manually restore everything, and I did this. Again, this does not happen in an instant, and I had dinner to prepare. He also told me to perform the same cleaning out procedure  on my phone but first I was to upload photos that were just on my phone to my laptop, and then clean out the phone. Well, the next day when I connected the phone to iTunes it did not recognize my phone at all. On to my landline again, I called apl-care and the man who answered told me it was really lucky I had got him on the phone because he can help me solve this problem. Again, painstakingly, we went through every single procedure I had done before. We then checked my USB ports (I knew they were fine) and my cable, and as far as I know, everything single application and everything I had ever stored on my computer for the past 20 years. He was devastated - nothing was wrong with the phone except for this battery problem and still iTunes was not recognizing my device. He then put me through to his supervisor (I sat through several Beatles' songs). She - a she, and I went through all these procedures yet again. She then made another appointment for me at the Apple store. She apologized profusely and thanked me for my patience and understanding, and gave me a case number and a direct line to call her should I need.
Two days later I went back to the Apple store and a very pleasant blue-haired young lady and myself went through everything again, including the diagnostics test. Apparently some people had incipient software problems that came to light with this new operating system. Whatever, my phone was again cleaned out and restored - photos are back on, apps are running, and for the last two hours the phone has held its charge.
I am just NOT going to hook it up to my laptop to see whether iTunes recognizes it or not.
I am now trying to catch up with the rest of my life that was put on hold -
In other words, I hope I am emerging from my cyber hell somewhat intact and retaining at least some shreds of sanity so that I can continue functioning in the first world.

Desert Sands

The flurries of the snow globe have been replaced by desert sands. In Israel it is difficult to even imagine snow, but the flurries continue, with possibility a gradual settling down, but as yet, no clear visibility!
Despite fears of an attack on Syria and global repercussions, it proved to be a truly wonderful time in Israel. We had a glorious family reunion with cousins/sisters from South Africa, and together we travelled over Israel. it is such fun to experience it as a tourist, albeit, for me, a tourist with deep and entrenched roots.
It is 40 years since the Yom Kipur War - that terrible war that changed our lives forever. I went to the kibbutz, and spent time with my abiding friends. After 40 years I see how the pen of time has etched its markings on myself and those around me. It is as if that invisible, but constant presence of the  pen has etched deeper lines into peoples' faces, it has carved out hollows and lessened the angularities and planes of our faces and bodies. It has sketched a different color into our hair and removed the hair of some, and yet the essential being of everyone I know and love remains constant, just with some superimpositions! In fact, it is how things should be, ever changing, and yet built on a firm foundation.
And now I have returned to face whatever is here. Yesterday when I visited the program at work one of the little boys sank his sharp razor like little teeth into my right forearm, puncturing my flesh and drawing blood. I can only hope that this is not a foreshadowing of what the future holds!

The Snow Globe continues

I am still floating around, waiting to make sense of whatever these big changes are. At the same time I am seeing new kids, and getting ready to say goodbye to two 'old' ones who will soon be turning three! That is alway hard, when I have been with them for almost three years. I have been privy to most of their lives, and have watched them grow and change. I also get to know the families really well and have shared many special moments with them, and then, goodbye!  (A repetitive pattern in my life as well)

Just after the new year, I leave for Israel. I leave on a Friday so I will travel, hopefully, with 'normal' folks who will not be up to pray at different times during the flight. (Read my blog entry: Strange Flights.)

Of course the situation in the Middle East leaves much to be desired! I can only pray for a good family reunion.

So ... more later, maybe from Israel, maybe not

Snow Globe

I feel as if I am in a snow globe and some unseen hand has shaken it up, and I float around, without gravity, without a center - upside down, on my side, head up, head down. The flakes surround me and I cannot see any horizon. I cannot see any settling of these flakes, and each moment, each day, brings a renewed shaking.
This is, for me, a time of many changes, on the personal and professional level. the only thing I am able to do, at this time, is to honor the process, as difficult as it is.
It is for this reason, that I have not written new posts. All my psychic energy is taken up with momentum caused by the shaking of the globe - from time to time I experience gratitude, in spending time with friends, in the enjoyment of books, in walks in nature, in the rebuilding of my physical strength and the healing of my hand.
And so I drift and float, and hope for glimpses of clarity until the flakes eventually settle.

Cast Free

My cast was removed without undue ceremony a few days ago. The doctor declared the fracture to have healed very well. Of course I am delighted. I am now in a brace and have to do range of motion exercises followed by a strengthening program, but that comes later. Of course my range of motion is not back yet, that will, I know, take rather a long while. However, I am definitely on the road to recovery.
I can drive, and even filled up the car with gas, something that was impossible to do just one week ago.
What a strange blur this time has been - it will have been two months by the time I return to work!
The disability 'issue' resolved after 5 weeks. I do NOT want to go through that again.
I managed to listen to the tapes of a 8 hour seminar I was unable to attend and sent off the test answers last week.
I have read quite a few books, although what on earth possessed me to take a large hardcover book out of the library I don't know. I had seen the film and wanted to read the book, a Swedish thriller "Easy Money" and i saw it in the library and took it out. I have endless books waiting to be read on my really convenient kindle, but no, I decide to shlep a large and heavy book around with me. I must say, these recent Swedish books do not paint a pretty picture of Sweden. I wonder if the gloomy weather has affected their psyches.
I have also seen many movies, and I thinkI am  the only human left who does not have Netflix. I very much enjoy my forays to the neighborhood video store which is still there, and which does have an excellent choice of movies, from classics to  BBC series.
I continue to walk and the gardens continue to bloom, although the roses have already lost some of their initial glory. I now look forward to tending to my little patch of earth in the back of my house.
I do miss my little ones, but am afraid they will have forgotten me by now. For them it is really a case of out of sight, out of mind. Maybe a couple of them will recognise my big black bag of toys even if they do not recognize me!

My Neighbourhood

Now that I am done with the ridiculous bureaucratic nonsense, I am enjoying this most unusual weather, and am going on walks. Although this year has been the driest on record, the gardens and patches of wildflowers on the median strips and along the BART paths are glorious.
I walk past a garden where some of the rosebushes are at a perfect height for me to stop and inhale their intoxicating aromas. The pale pink rose, so pale as to be almost white, has an almost heady fragrance. The orange and red roses although glorious, have no smell. The scent of the sterling roses is powerful.  Hedges of yellow climbing roses and jasmine and tea roses abound. The rhododendron bushes bowl me over in their gorgeous flowers of purples and reds, pinks, and creams. Japanese maples in deep wines and emerald greens spread their branches. I love the drought resistant gardens with their flowering succulents amidst rocks. Asian gardens laid out in stones resembling rivers with sculpted bushes and trees alongside. The wide pavements lurch upward pushed by roots, and cracked by quakes and time. Grasses and herbs peek through the cracks. The gutters are lined deep in soft pink petals.
On these very hot and dry days I seek the shade of the trees. Some still bear their blossoms, white, pink balls of fluff, others are turning green. The bottlebrush tree reminds me of Israel and the gardens with the birds of paradise and aloes remind me of South Africa.
I pop into a neighbourhood cafe to ask the owner if he does have to move. He has been there for 24 years, but because of Albany health laws can no longer serve the succulent fried chicken his wife cooks up on weekends. We chat a while  and he gives me a bowl of today's soup to taste - vegetables and sage sausages. Yummy. I go to the YMCA to hand in my card till I am able to return. I see all the regulars and we chat and joke. I pop into the local whole health pharmacy and am delighted that the owner can give me a bottle of ayurvedic nosedrops. Not everyone has these, I exchange pleasantries with the owner and continue down to have an iced latte and read in the corner cafe. The pleasant Thai server knows that I always have a low fat latte, but today my order is different - I want it iced. I sit inside - the cafe is full of people escaping the heat.
All is right with the world.