![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Monday misc.
May. 9th, 2005 11:07 pmThe swans are back in the Garden. Not only the pedalboats, but the feathered kind, too, a pair with a straw nest that looks ranger-made, behind the chain-link fence set up for their privacy. (Noted: swans do not wiggle their backsides like ducks do when their heads are below water.)
This weekend there were art trees in the Yard, wrapped with broken-mirror enhanced ribbon, and questions, which are hard to read due to length and the annual cordoning off of all grass that will be at or near a Harvard graduation.
Two more cavities dealt with. Also, great excitement: my doctor confirmed I've lost 17 pounds* in the last year. Yay! (She seemed surprised that I attribute it mostly to the change in commute.) The good news almost made up for the enormous amounts of time I spent waiting to see her today.
(*Yes, I know it's not only about weight, but it is part of the equation, and something I've been trying to change.)
I'm starting to think I should find a regular hevrutah. Not for Gemarah (my skills stink, and it's just not as satisfying for me), but Mishnah, or Tanach, or some midrash, or...
(Btw, I finished Parah, but in English, which doesn't feel right; I don't absorb things written in English the same way as I do something written in Hebrew. But there wasn't time to do it another way. So. The rest of Parah goes into enormous detail about what vessels one can use for the purification waters, and the ways to fill them, and how they render the giver tamai. Oh, and the sprinkling of the water is done with sprigs of hyssop. What I found most interesting was how there couldn't be an interrupting labor in the process of gathering the water (and so on), which was referred to as 'melachah', or work, which I usually think of in terms of what one doesn't do on Shabbat. Here, there were actions that were permissible on Shabbat, but interruptive melachah for purposes of parah. It made me think more about the idea of melachah being situational, rather than an absolute.)
It's far colder than I expect from May. Nevertheless, the cherry and crab apple trees are blooming, as are the lilacs. There are so many lovely shades of green this time of year, as the trees have new growth. I hope it warms up before I get tomato plants, though.
This weekend there were art trees in the Yard, wrapped with broken-mirror enhanced ribbon, and questions, which are hard to read due to length and the annual cordoning off of all grass that will be at or near a Harvard graduation.
Two more cavities dealt with. Also, great excitement: my doctor confirmed I've lost 17 pounds* in the last year. Yay! (She seemed surprised that I attribute it mostly to the change in commute.) The good news almost made up for the enormous amounts of time I spent waiting to see her today.
(*Yes, I know it's not only about weight, but it is part of the equation, and something I've been trying to change.)
I'm starting to think I should find a regular hevrutah. Not for Gemarah (my skills stink, and it's just not as satisfying for me), but Mishnah, or Tanach, or some midrash, or...
(Btw, I finished Parah, but in English, which doesn't feel right; I don't absorb things written in English the same way as I do something written in Hebrew. But there wasn't time to do it another way. So. The rest of Parah goes into enormous detail about what vessels one can use for the purification waters, and the ways to fill them, and how they render the giver tamai. Oh, and the sprinkling of the water is done with sprigs of hyssop. What I found most interesting was how there couldn't be an interrupting labor in the process of gathering the water (and so on), which was referred to as 'melachah', or work, which I usually think of in terms of what one doesn't do on Shabbat. Here, there were actions that were permissible on Shabbat, but interruptive melachah for purposes of parah. It made me think more about the idea of melachah being situational, rather than an absolute.)
It's far colder than I expect from May. Nevertheless, the cherry and crab apple trees are blooming, as are the lilacs. There are so many lovely shades of green this time of year, as the trees have new growth. I hope it warms up before I get tomato plants, though.