european clothes washers and tears

Hello Everyone and Shabbat Shalom!We have spent our second weekend here in our new housein Zichron Yaakov. This place is a total gem and sobeautiful. Our house has an amazing view of thevineyards of the Carmel Winery. Along with everythingmagnificent here in Israel there always seems to be atwist of learning, intensity and challenges. Before wecame here we heard always: "life is hard there but itis also good". I could not for the life of meunderstand what is hard life like? Life isn't hard.Life is easy and fun here in Boulder. Get up, patientsarrive, work out at the cute gym down the street:Bike, hike, swim and run. Dinner then hang out(basically). I asked deeper and probed into this verystrange concept for me. Hard life? All my visits toIsrael were full of fun and joy and laughter. Yes, Idid know that by coming here we would encountersuicide bombers, continued problems in Gaza and thegeneral cool distance maintained from the localadjacent Arab city, Faredeis. And, well, I reallydidn't think that war was on its way. So, now afteronly 7 weeks here I have a much better idea. Hard Lifecan come in a variety of packages and of course, HardLife can be different for different people. Here is an example of Hard Life from a shelteredsomewhat worldly Boulder transplant competent woman,mom and physical therapist/healer.1. The washer is EUROPEAN. I have already shed severaltears and mild tantrums (josh?) over the fact that Icould not fit the 75 cm Maytag washer into the 60centimeter door opening of the laundry room. Not tomention that there is not hot water faucet in the roomat all. So what is so bad about a European washers?Not that it cost me around $1000. It is stae of theart, digital, and white. That is not the hard part. Itis a pure control issue. To wash a load of whites ittakes 1.36 minutes. Can you believe it? One load ofwhites at 7 kilos (mind you) takes a friggin hour anda half. Seeing patients all day and washing sheets atnight and well, no dryer, imagine it.2. The dryer won't arrive for 2 months because of thewar and the ship came to deliver them from Italy thenturned around and went back. Delightful.3. Yesterday the "Cable Guy" came. Drilled holes inevery wall, installed things I don't think I ordered,couldn't install the main thing we wanted for thekids..TV because the TV people did not deliver the TVthey said they would for 2 days. (It will now comenext week). While he was here the bomb sirens went offand we all jumped in our very own bomb shelter. Theywent off two times yesterday. Kind of unnerving. Weheard the bombs (actually missiles but I call thembombs, they are not). Scared the cable guy more thanus. We have been hearing them fairly regularly so nobig deal. 4. Hard Life also rears it head in the strangest ofplaces. I became fast friends with a woman, Billy whosold us our appliances. There seems to be this kind ofspecial time here for people to talk and to share andthat's what we did. We spoke about my life and herlife a bit. We got to know each other over the phone.She asked me if my husband was called up to war beforeshe understood I was a new immigrant. I said no andasked about her. She said her husband and brother andmany of her employees were called up. Yesterday her 23year old brother, Yoni was killed. I will go to herhouse this week to sit Shiva with her. I called her onthe phone. We cried and I told her how sorry I was andfelt like telling her I loved her. Maybe I did. Tearsflow right now. He was married, young, no kids andfull of life and future. 5. Delivery of refrigerator. The "Delivery Guy"carried the large refrigerator on his back up 3flights of stairs. At the top, entered the house andstarted yelling at me as to where was my mezuzah onthe door while the refridgerator was still perched onhis back. As we hadn't really spent more than 1-2nights here we did not even have them out of theboxes. I could write volumes of the challenges here. Theyrange from death and war to frustrations that creepinto places that you never knew existed. Tears offrustration over the length of a wash cycle. It isabout control. We have so little control in life. Whatwe do have control over with are the words we speak,the smiles we send and how freely we can give ourlove. (Jet fighter planes flying overhead right now onshabbas is weird). The concept that life is tenuous isever present here. I love that. We all feel so alivehere. That is the fun part. The kids are really happyhere and yet it is also incredibly challenging. Thereare many times a day when I think I want toleave...this feeling. I want to leave...what? LeaveIsrael? To where? For me (and us)there is no otherplace. Sometimes I think that it would be so mucheasier to pick up and leave. Right now Boulder doesnot feel like home to us. It was our temporaryshelter. Does Israel feel like home? Well, in a kindof love/hate relationship way. Like a family. We are here, we are going to give it our all despitemy threats and frustrating tears. I am not going togive into my my fantasy of smashing the car in frontof me that has just cut me off within a hair of mylife, or when we are in a total traffic jam and theguy behind me honks. Like for what? No one can move.What is he thinking? Some say that angels and prophetstootle around in disguises and give us the opportunityto do mitzvahs in the strangest of ways. Give ourtime, our love, dollars, smiles but I don't think thatsmashing the car in front of me is one of them. Iwill continue to try to control myself. Boy, am Ichanging....So, today we are off to a moment of paradise andheaven...the beach. We are schlepping our surfboard(that has been stored in Boulder for the last 8years), our blow up kayak and every toy imaginablethat will fit in my sisters rocket propelled cardboardbox. love to you all. Shabbat Shalom. Prayers for healthand peace. May this war end today, right now. stop.love,Adele