IF I WAS A RICH MAN YIDDI BIDDI BIDDI

(originally featured on JPost.com Blogs)

If I had money, I would invest it in tissues. Have you ever noticed how you don't need them until all of a sudden you are buying them by the case?

That's me this week. There I was minding my own business, sitting in the waiting room of my Kupat Cholim (medical service) to do my annual battery of tests. You know the routine...scare yourself for a week and then relax for twelve months.

Someone must have coughed or sneezed or walked by me because within hours my nose turned into Niagara Falls! And just so my nose wouldn't feel like an orphan, my eyes joined in in sympathy.

Within twenty-four hours I knew it wasn't allergies. It was what my Daddy A'H called 'the grut'...named after how you are feeling, I think.

Because this kind of thing can turn into an asthma attack...a gift I was left with after a terrible case of Hong Kong Flu...remember that one?...I phoned my doctor to make an appointment.

Joan, his wonderful secretary, and my dear friend, told me that the doctors are booked solid for the next seven to ten days! Everyone is sick with this thing.

I know why. All this heat and no rain is the reason. Hot and Hotter seems to be the mantra over here.

I am a Canadian! Well, I am Israeli, but when I speak of the Old Country, I am talking of Windsor, Ontario. There we had weather! Thunder storms that would send you hiding to the bathroom where there aren't windows. Snow where you can pretend you are in a fantasy land and marvel at nature. Autumn where you can see God's paintbrush working all over the place.

Here in Jerusalem we have Hot and Hotter. It wasn't like that when I moved here forty years ago...yes forty years! Then you had nice weather. A little hot most of the time. Terrible hot a few days every once in awhile, and at night you could sleep comfortably because Jerusalem cooled off at night.

Not any more! Now we have air conditioners in Jerusalem. That used to be Tel Aviv's answer to the heat and humidity. Now we have them too.

I think this is year seven of the drought! Does that mean that next year begins the seven GOOD years? Don't get me wrong. I am not unhappy with my own past seven years. But, if we are making a list I would ask God for a little more rain.

A nice rain. Lots of rain. Good rain. NO FLOODS, GOD!

We are going to have to do something soon or else we are all going to have to dance naked in the parking lot. Trust me...not a pretty sight!

Okay, I have to go make a cup of tea with lemon, blow my nose again and check the weather report.

Have a great day...stay safe...and thanks for dropping in.