We spent the day weeding Mom's yard. It has never been done. Ever. And there are blackberry bushes, and other prickly things. But, being poor, we can't rent the ballroom at the St. Francis, so we need to have the shindig at Mom's house. We needed to cleanup because it was all overgrown--nowhere to sit or set up folding tables.
As the son watched me sweat, I ripped out about 60 gallons worth of foliage, dead and thorny, with only minor injuries. He watched his mom prune the overgrown tree and ivy that was covering the stairs down to the house. I am being unfair. He didn't just watch. He helped, then went inside to play guitar, then came out again, and then went in again. He had a great day!
I will finish the yard tomorrow and next weekend. I think I need to spread some wood-chips or something to cover what is now just dirt. It can be temporary. I have seen some wood-chips for free on Craigslist.
We have to buy ten pounds of cream cheese?! And because lox is so expensive, we will put it in the cream cheese. Maybe we need only 8 eight pounds of cream cheese--5 w/lox and 3 plain. We talked about cream cheese for a long time. It's the little things.
As long as we don't bring anything mammalian into the temple kitchen, we are good. It's a reform synagogue, so they can interpret the laws of Kashrut however they see fit.
My father used to tell me a story of his grandfather who was a rabbi (who really knows if the story is true, and I don't care) in a shtetl. Due to the fact that the community was poor, it often occurred that some form of food was available, but not necessarily kosher. Great-grandpa was willing to bless just about anything so his community wouldn't starve. My dad, a bacon eater like the son and me, said rabbi gramps would bless a pig if that's all there was to eat. Life is worth more than religion, or something.
I come by my atheism via bloodline, apparently.
So, for the next couple of weeks, I will be blogging a bit less.