Our Turtles Get Seen

Here I go again, posting pictures of our animals.

My inclination to show my pets here is underlied by the fact that this medium, although its mainly for consumption by family and freinds, is nonetheless a public issue. I want to share things that are personal and intimate about my life. But I can't be too revealing since you never know who might be reading.

So pets are perfect material for the blog.

Our Turtles
Well, they're not really ours. They belong to some freinds of ours, The Sztockman family (spelled right?) who went to Austraila for a while. Yes, Effie and Yonina, they have gotten bigger!

Still Confined

Being Held

The Silent Scream

Who Are You?

Here is the seeingprogress position and policy regarding Anonymous posting.

1. I would like to know the identity of everyone who posts on seeingprogress. The point of seeingprogress is to connect with people and help them connect with me. How can that happen if I don't know who you are?
   
2. The best way to do this is to sign up for a blogger account. This way your blogger identity gets appended to each post automatically.
   
3. If you don't want to sign up for a blogger identity you have to write something that will make it obvious to me who you are or add your real identity in the body of your post. It doesn't have to be your name. But it has to tell me who you are.
   
4. If you don't identify yourself, I will probably delete your post.
   

In Memory of Oscar Black

The End of an Era

See my previous post about our fish including Oscar Black

Most Likely Cause of Death: Old Age


Oscar's Freinds Say Goodby


Swimming in a Different World Now.


Did He Measure Up?

Chaim the Equestrian

Not exactly Prince Charles.

But he's got a similar kind of hat.

Ein Mabua - Round II

I Knew There Were Fish Here!


I mentioned in the previous post on this subject that a few years back I saw trout in this river. Now that I've fished a few of them out of the water and gotten a better
look I see that I was wrong. They're just plain old white fish. This one's pretty tiny.

Don't worry. We released him with no significant injury to its jaw and without allowing anything to come into contact with its slimy but infection prone skin.

This one's a little bigger.

You can tell by the body language who caught it!

So what kind of fish is it? Lets call 'em "fools trout," since I mistook them for trout when I first saw them.

What's the difference between trout and white fish and why am I making a big deal about this?

1. Trout have an adipose fin and whitefish don't
   
2. Trout are much harder to catch. They are ellusive. They are picky eaters and they "spook" real easy.
   
3. They taste different. Trout has what is considered a more delicate rich taste. The color of the meat varies from white to dark pink. Whitefish have a fatty tasting white meat. Its ideal for smoking. But this particular one fried-up quite nicely!
   
4. The mouth of a whitefish sometimes points down for bottom feeding. But don't
   let that fool you. Its no garbage fish. Trout never have downward pointing bottom feeding mouths. They are strictly surface feeders.
   
5. Trout have beautiful colors like red, silver, and blue. They sparkle and flash when they swim. They are the most beautiful fish in the world. White fish are just... not.
   
6. 
   

After all this, I don't see how I ever made the mistake!

Dangerous Crossings

We've seen user freindlier bridges. But we mangaged.

Swim In Me!


Pollywogs Get Seen

I wish I had taken a picture of the toad-egg strings we saw along the banks of this river last week. It was then that Chaim pointed out the eggs to us. This week, he took great pleasure seeing and helping the rest of us to see the progress of this dynamic form of river life from one week to the next.

At first I figured they were the offspring of frogs. But according to Amy, they are probably toads since the eggs are held together in a string instead of a round clump.

Friday Visit to the "Ma'ayan Mabua".

Ma'ayan Mabua? Neva hoid of it? Well, you have now.

Its a nice deep fast running brook just outside Jerusalem towards the Dead Sea.

A River Runs Through it!

There are definitely some big trout in this river. I was here once several years ago during the summer when their was great underwater visibility. I saw 'em.

Chaim Found A Stick

You want be Zulu man? You must carry spear!


Three Tribesmen


Wildlife. Get your ass outta here!

It Almost Snowed!

I suppose everybody goes through this stage when they first get their hands on a digital camera. I've been taking it with me and just trying to capture every interesting thing I come across. Well, I find frozen and semi-frozen puddles really interesting, especially when they represent our dashed hopes for an early February snow.

Coffee Cup on the Surface


Heavy Icing Encroaching From the Shoreline


From Another Angle


Frozen Flower Pot

Movie Review - The Aviator

Mulit-Cultural Signing in Jerusalem

Question: What do Israel's third president, the Biblical prophet Jeremiah, a mentally ill 20th century American tycoon, and a contemporary Hollywood heartthrob have in common?

Answer: My choice of which direction to go one sunny weekday morning in Jerusalem.

This film got mixed reviews. I think the most glaring flaw was the superficiality of the portrayal of Hughes' mental illness.

What I liked was the way the friendship between Hughes and the Actress Eva Gardner was portrayed. Her moral support gave him the strength to face the Senate witch-hunt hearing of Senator Ralph Owen Brewster. In the movie, her affection, which was not at all romantically motivated, was decisive.

It's nice to see a movie where kindness makes all the difference, even though the informed viewer knows that he didn't live happily ever after.

Our Fish Get Seen!

My Favorite Species. The Danio

This is my favorite species of aquarium fish. Athough known as the "Giant Danio," I have only once seen one over 3 inches long.

This picture was taken in the pet store in the Malcha shopping mall in Southern Jerusalem.

Our Danio

This guy is hard to photograph. You see his tail there just behind Oscar White? Oh by the way, meet Oscar White. He's the newest addition to our aquatic display.


Here's the Danio hiding behind Mr. White again.

Oscar Black

Here's the old man of the tank. He's been around for years. The recent arrival of another Oscar fish has necesitated the appendage of the sir name "Black" for distinction from Oscar White. Amazing fish, this old Oscar. We feed him on dry dog food. You can hear the stuff crunching in his powerful jaws from across the room.


Oscar Black Again...

All those years in the kitchen and not once did this Oscar offer to do the dishes!

And that, my dear readers, is the difference between him and me!

An Inside Joke

One morning this week I was standing by the side of the road waiting for a bus to the city. A minibus taxi filled with local villagers pulls up about three meters in front of me to let someone out the front passenger seat. As it pulled up I took a step back thinking, "Is he pulling up to let someone out to kill me?" Then, as I was backing up, I looked a little more inquisitively at the people inside and thought I saw clearly that these people just want to get to work.

The driver looked at me looking at (and seeing?) him and his passengers. He must have "seen" the positive direction of my thoughts. He smiled at me and as he let his passenger out, put up one finger (not THAT finger) to indicate that he has "one" seat free.

I smiled back at him because I got the joke.

It was an inside joke between us. It was funny because the inconceivability of my entering that vehicle was so obvious. It was funny because it was so unexpected that two people who could not possibly know each other would understand each other well enough to exchange smiles and share an unspoken inside joke.

the question remains, what was so funny and what was so true to him?

What did he think I was doing when I stepped back? What did he think I was thinking when I eyed his passengers? What was he really thinking when he smiled at me and put up one finger? And what was he thinking when he saw me smile back?

Now if anyone suggest that I just stop him tomorrow to ask, that would really be a joke, funny in its own way too.

Hobbit Soccer

One evening a few weeks ago, I decided to do something nice for myself. On the way home from work, I got myself a bottle of Guiness in one of those bottle stores by the shuk and headed off into one of the most charming little old-new neighborhoods of Jerusalem. I thought it was called Nachla'ot. But according to this sign, the name's Mazkeret Moshe.



This neighborhood's got these teeny little hovel-like homes some of which have very short doors giving the impression that hobbits live in them, thus the heading of this post.

So right in the middle of this neighborhood there is the tiniest little asphalt soccer court with a really tall fence to keep the ball in.


A small group of 17-21 year-old-guys with long hair and street clothes was playing, having the time of their lives. One guy tried to make a move, tripped over himself and fell to the groud. His whole body throbbed and jiggled for quite a while from.... laughter. He finally pulled himself out of it and stood up with the biggest smile on his face. What was so funy? Well, lets say you hadda be there. Actually, it wasn't enough to be there, you hadda to be him, or at least able to see inside him which I'm not so good at yet! Anyway, he was laughing and enjoying himself. And I was happy for him.

Meanwhile, a group of tourists came by. Not your typical tourists. These were IDF soldiers appearantly on an educational activity. One soldier made sure they were in the right place and pulled out a fact sheet about the area. "This used to be a Roman theater, the British used to torture prisoners in that building, Monteffiores' horse coughed over on that street...ect, ect..."

The contrast between the two groups was amazing. These guys were falling all over themselves and throbbing with joy. While these guys (and girls) stood in the same place but were following a controlled and controlling script for recreation. Go to the specified location. Read the specified text for a certain length of time and on an on and on until someone in charge decides that the task has been completed enough to say, "lets eat," which eventually someone did.

And there I was with my Guiness, wondering why they put that stupid plastic ball inside the bottle and considering how I might share this sight with others.

At the time, I thought, "too bad I don't have my camera with me." So I came back another day to take these pictures. That day was a very different kind of day - cold, rainy, no soldiers, no hobbit soccer, no Guiness...

Saturday Night Pizza!

Judging from the lack of response to my last post "weighing in" on current events is not as interesting as what happens at our dinner table. So I'm going back to family pictures. Enjoy!

Here's how SP joins us at the dinner table.

Clockwise from dog: SP, Moshey, Roochie, Evey, Adiella, Avi Katz (neighbor)

Here's another angle. Still no chance of even a morsel of table scraps for SP.


Evey and Adiella

Coffee Anyone?

The Tear-Jerker of the day.

The two links to "other voices from my neck of the woods" are the only two local blogs I read regularly. I would probably read more if I had time. These two blogs give expression to a lot of the same feelings I have about many topics including how wonderful this country is.

I really recommend Treppenwitz's post today. It's about the holocaust. Its about survival. Its about Israel. And it's about Zichron Yaakov, where we went when my mother came to visit us last summer.


He calls it not my story.

Read it and weep, and smile, and believe!

Here's the tooth!

This is SP's tooth. Remember Sweetie Pie and the debate on neutering?

Minnie's 85th keneina hara!

Minnie Feldman celebrates her 85th birthday.

This is Minnie. That's Roochie's sister's mother-in-law and our resident family dignitary here in Efrat. I can't say I remember much of her speech, except that I almost cried when she thanked G-d for the gift of life and health.

Thank you Minnie for delaying your speech until we got there!



Roochie with Chedvah!

I know Nettie... That's Ched-VAH not CHED-vah!

Some More Family Pictures

Gas stove, blender, microwave, teenager. What could happen?


Chaim and his friend Akiva hangin' in the bus station mall.



Here's our table with new age Shabbat candles!

Some Family Pictures

Here's Chaim relaxing at home.


Here's Adiella with her Daat Mikrah



Here's Evey with Nicole, Homer and a few other celebreties.



Here's Chaim and Koby showing us what a sun roof's for.

What Does Seeing Progress Mean?

Seeing progress has a double meaning. It means seeing that progress is occurring which is an appropriate name for a blog considering that a blog tracks what's happening and comments on the patterns that emerge. But the primary meaning for me is the less obvious one; becoming progressively better at seeing.

Being good at seeing is really important - not so much for the one seeing as for the one being seen. Everybody wants to be seen. When we aren't seen by others we begin to feel isolated and to doubt our own existence or at least the significance of our own existence, which is almost the same thing.

How does one get out of this mess? By being seen by another person. Once you are seen by another person who's eyes can look into your soul you are redeemed. With this redemption comes the obligation to redeem others by seeing them.

That's it. I'm going to be trying to see others and report what I see. I'll probably be revealing a thing or two about myself while I'm at it.

Every Dog Has its Day!

Meet "Sweetie Pie"


She's in heat and we are doing our best to keep her in the house so that we don't have lots of little puppies to deal with.
I've got a few questions for all you dog owners out there. The first is a medical question and the second concerns medical-ethics.

• Anyone have a dog that lost a tooth? That happened to SP. Is this normal? Will it grow back? Do we need to take her in for treatment?
  
• What about neutering? Is it ethical to take that away from an animal? Is it ethical not to? Its a practical ethics quesion for us these days.
  

Use the comments link to give me your imput!