We only have two days to get Jon to a place where he can get up and walk, pull a suitcase, sit on a plane, so he had to put up with some more nudging and cajoling from the person he is stuck with. Five days in bed can turn a person into a wet noodle. The expression on his face when I tell him he has to do this or that is so reminiscent of his father that it makes me laugh -- when Leon was in his later years and he didn't want to do something he would make that face (eyebrows down on the outside, up in the middle, twisted mouth, kind of humorous and pitiful and leave-me-alone all at the same time). Too bad for Jon, I can tell that his cough is getting less painful and he is sleeping better. Time to get up.
So we slowly made our way to Benjamin's and watched Mika playing with her nanny (it was a very rainy day, so no trip to the park). Eventually I suggested we go food shopping since there wasn't much food in either house. We got instructions from Benjamin -- a little vague but we had some understanding of where we would have to make a U-turn and look for the garage entrance -- and we took Yael's car for our first adventure. Jon navigated, I drove. It was about a half mile drive, but there are roundabouts and lots of traffic and it was raining and we didn't have precise directions. We found the garage under the mall, parked, took the elevator to a random floor (even though we pushed a button for the Zero floor, it opened up at -1) and found ourself at a supermarket. Nothing in English but we know how to shop. Found everything on Benjamin's list, checked out, even figured out how to get our parking ticket validated, and went home triumphant.
Jon rested on the nice couch for a bit and then he and Benjamin went out to the hardware store for adventure #2. Meanwhile back on the East Coast, the CSA was opening up at 7:30 in the morning and I was following the story with Becky, texting. Things started slowly, making both of us nervous that Mailchimp was not working, but gradually the registrations started to come in.
The rest of our day was largely focused on dealing with CSA issues -- when we planned this trip, we knew we wanted to be sitting with our computers on February 1 and not on an airplane, so that is part of the reason we stayed this long. It is best to be available when the CSA opens because questions come pouring in, and this system was unfamiliar to all of us. Becky and Jon and I worked into the night.Things went remarkably well, and we learned a lot along the way, as expected.
We took a break to go to dinner at Gadi and Hedy's house -- Yael engineered this plan when it seemed like Jon might be able to make an appearance. It would have been really too bad for Jon to see them for only ten minutes out of ten days. Yael ordered food from a Pan Asian sort of restaurant (sushi, soup, noodles, all delicious) and we went to visit the grandparents while we waited for delivery. It was a late night for Mika and she heroically tried to stay in good form but there were a few inevitable meltdowns. She gave gracious kisses and hugs on the way out. It was very nice to have another chance to get to know Yael's parents. It is too bad Israel is so far away from Virginia.
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