Belated Blog Anniversary and Catch Up Time

Okay, my current working theory is that Blogger is sentient and has a really twisted sense of humor (a la "Mike" in Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress)!

I finally went to the Blogger help forums and posted about the problem I've been having getting into Blogger for the past couple of weeks and read about a couple of similar problems others have had. Before posting my help question I spent at least 10 minutes trying to access the text box and had no luck. I came back here after posting my query in order to try a couple of things that were suggested to other people and, hey presto, I can type! Whatever. I'm not about to look a gift horse in the mouth. If it acts up again I'll try the suggestions at that point, although my gut feeling is that they may be pure chance. After all, I've done various things in the past that I initially thought "fixed" the problem. It's just that no one thing works all the time.

Anyway, this whole mess meant that I missed my very own first blog anniversary!

I've also been a little less pushy about resolving the problem than I would have been otherwise because Real Life has been very intense during this period. I've had my annual big event (a fundraising dinner for about 350 people) and 2 people I'm connected to have died from cancer within about a week of each other. Both were women who died in midlife, one in her 40s, the other in her late 50s. One was the adult daughter of a friend of mine who left teenage kids. The other was a longtime single parent and grandparent who was a close friend of mine since the time when we were both single mothers raising our teens.

I'm really hoping Blogger will co-operate and I'll be able to continue posting in the future. I definitely appreciate Kelly's offer to help me get going on Wordpress but I'm going to try to stick this out for a while longer before I make the decision to have to go through the learning curve entailed in switching over. I have a lot of feelings rolling around inside right now and I just want to be able to come on here and write a post without adding to the drama in my life.

On a financial note, I've been working hard to get current once again on all my bills (post Passover) and, while I'm not there yet, I've made a fair bit of progress. I also spent some time the other evening setting up bill payments on my new bank account and shut down the automatic weekly transfer from my old chequing account to ING. I'll start it up again from my new account after my next payday. We're still waiting for my Hubby's income tax refund and I still need to find my RRSP information slips in order to be able to send my taxes in. If I don't find them soon, I'll have to ask for copies.

Oh, yes. Last but definitely not least, I haven't heard from the doctor about my various test results. Now that the dinner is over I want to call for an appointment.

Here's hoping I can post again soon!

Baruch Dayan HaEmet*

(Posted Motzai Shabbos)
* The title of this post means "Blessed is (G-d) the true Judge" and is the phrase Orthodox Jews say upon hearing of a death.

This post is a notable departure from my usual posts but the events in Mumbai, India have affected me greatly.

Rabbi Gavriel and Rivki Holzberg, Chabad emissaries to Mumbai, have been brutally murdered along with other American and Israeli Jews in their Chabad House (a building which housed their home, a synagogue, community centre and drug prevention programs).

Miraculously, their 2 year old son escaped from the building during the seige with his Hindu nanny and has been reunited with both sets of grandparents who flew to India from their homes in Brooklyn and Afula.

Terror acts like this always seem cruel and senseless, particularly when you consider that this young couple has spent the past 5 years serving 3 free meals per day for up to 50 people at a time, preparing all their food from scratch because there was no kosher food available to buy.

I didn't post the other day during the crisis because I was checking for news updates online and saying Tehillim [reading Psalms]. My heart just goes out to that little boy whose birthday will forever be tied to the tragic deaths of his parents (he turned 2 in the middle of the crisis).

Global financial meltdowns, terror activities increasing, retail workers being crushed by Black Friday shoppers. Has our world gone (totally) insane?