Safra-Knit

In the evening, I sometimes like to listen to NPR radio.  I mostly listen to the weekend programming, such as Car Talk, This American Life,  and some of the other talkshows. One thing I’ve heard lots about is Health Care and Obama’s plan.  I’ll admit, I have not read his plan, but I live in a country which has done a good job of providing socialized medicine.  It is far from perfect, but here are some examples of how we have interacted with our healthcare.

Firstly, there are four very similar "HMO" type organizations.  You can pick which one you want, and there is no difference in basic coverage.  The difference is basically which HMO has what kind of coverage in your city/neighborhood.

 Our pediatrician takes two of the four in his office, and he has two other people who share the office, so that most days there is coverage both in the morning and afternoon.  We can schedule our appointments online, and get complete information on blood tests, medications and list of all the doctors each of us has seen.  

Last Friday, my eldest was sick with probable strep throat.  I checked the computer and saw that none of the pediatricians were working that day, so we went to the Urgent Care Clinic (TEREM).  They are open evening and Fridays.  Within an hour he (hubby) was back with a prescription for anti-biotics, and a note to call them Sunday night (after Rosh Hashana ended) to get the test results.  Since the prescription didn’t come from our HMO, we could only go to one pharmacy to pay the HMO rates (if it was on HMO stationary, then we could go to any pharmacy that our HMO takes).  The pharmacy is also the nearest to the clinic.  

The holiday ended at 7:15 on Sunday night, and at 7:45 I received a phone call that the test results were positive.  I couldn’t believe they called so quickly!  The total cost for this non-HMO service was 50 shekels.  If the doctor’s office had been open, then it would have been free, and I could have received a message to my phone that the results were available on the computer.

On the whole, I’m very happy with our medical care….I’ll give other examples of how things go as I think of them. 

So, we’ve moved on to the next stop on our tour, and the hubby is here.  Just having him here has improved the situation. I don’t think that he is the only disciplinarian, but I do think that the girls like testing, so they do better with two people telling them the same message.

The  kashrut and shabbat issues here aren’t as bad because hubby’s mom isn’t as into cooking for us, so the grill is the only in house cooking. Also Shabbat won’t be too bad because there is an eruv.

I slept until after 6AM, so that helps as well….

Hopefully I’ll also have time to get some knitting done here.

Thanks for all the well wishes and suggestions!

I haven’t posted in nearly a month, and I’m in a deep funk, so I don’t know if posting is the right way to go….  I’m currently in Florida…nearly half way through my month long trip to the US.  My current thoughts aren’t very positive….

• My kids are treating each other more horribly than usual.  Not only that, but they don’t show any respect to me, my parents or any other authority figure.  I feel that this is a reflection on me, and not a positive one.
• Being religiously observant with family that isn’t sucks…no sucks doesn’t begin to describe it.  I have never felt so alone religiously in my life.  Firstly, I’m rather apathetic about my Judaism…despite being Orthodox, so it is even harder when I do "minimum" and I can’t get any support for that.  Shabbat with children under ten without an eruv, or with a semi-eruv….keeping kosher when your kosher dishes are being treyfd…early shabbat…how many things have I had to transgress for Kibud Av v’ Em….and even that is being kept up on a wire.
• Tomorrow will be gatherings with other family members, and other issues will come up.

I really need a vacation…from parenting, from my family…but within Judaism.  I don’t see it coming up in the near future. 

I’m not sure how my situation would compare to what one would have in the US.  You can be the judge..

 This morning, my little one put out her arms and said "up…peeeze", so I grabbed her by the arms, and lifted her up.  She immediately started crying, and I had a sense that I had screwed up.

 She kept fussing, but was calmer, so I brought her to childcare and told her caregiver, that there might be a problem.  Before I had even finished dropping off the middle one, the caregiver called.  So at 8:00 the story begins…

 I first went straight to the medical clinic nearest our house, where our pediatrician works.  First the secretary said nobody could help til the afternoon, and then the other secretary said that the pediatrician would be in in 5 minutes (8:30).  He apologized to me and said this is something he doesn’t do, and I would have to go to the main clinic to the orthopedist. 

So, I get her back in the car, and start driving to down town to the main clinic.  I get there about 9:00 and am seen by the orthopedist almost immediately.  The Arab orthopedist takes a look at her chats with me about the English word "pacifier".  He gives a little twist to her arm, tells me to wait a few minutes to see if she starts using her arm, gives me a note for work (a requirement in this country) and sends me on my way. 

By 9:30 the little one was back in childcare, and by 10:10 I was at work. (The note was from 8-10:30, so I was well covered.) This was all especially good, because today was Pope day and I couldn’t get on campus until after 9AM anyway.

 So how does this compare to medical care in the US?  What would you do?  (Oh an notice this was all completely covered by my HMO.)

• On the needles: Elisa Nest Tote

Today was the only day we all took off during Hanukkah, so we decided to go somewhere. I had seen information about the Marzipan Museum in Kfar Tavor, and I’m the driver, so that is where we went.

According to the mapping program I used, it should have taken us about 2 1/2 hours to get there, but we ended up on the slow road, stopped for an early lunch in Ranana, and got there around 2. The museum has a short movie (available in English and Hebrew), and you can see many sculptures made out of marzipan. Several of the sculptures are of Israeli personalities, and truthfully, there were a few I didn’t recognize. They also have a window which looks into the “factory” which is all of one large room.

Afterward they have workshops where you can either sculpt your own marzipan, or do both marzipan and chocolate molding. We chose both, and my girls were covered with chocolate! We had a great time making, ladybugs, snowmen, oranges and other fruit out of marzipan. The baby, and hubby didn’t have as great a time, because it really doesn’t work for under three.

Kfar Tavor is a very cute town, directly under Mt. Tavor (which looks incredibly huge from below). They also have a winery, and we were told also a beehive center where you can learn about the making of honey.

We left there and went home via Beit Shean, and Falafel Zahava, recommended by Treppenwitz. (Yummy!) We didn’t get Zahava working there, but we did let them know that they were highly recommended.

The ride back was nicely uneventful. It has been a long time since I’ve driven on a two lane road with no streetlights, but luckily I always had a vehicle in front of me to “draft” off of.

I’ve never considered myself to be a knitter of the fashionable things, but guess I am. On the site Whip-up, they have a guide to the best free knitting patterns on the web.

So, I looked through the pictures, and I haven’t done, just one or two of them, I’ve done four of them!!! Well, completed three, the Sartje booties just never got finished. The other projects I’ve done were the pinwheel blanket; given as a gift, the Booga Bag; for myself, and the Ballband dishcloth, to be used as a washcloth–dad kinda took it when the hotel didn’t have any washcloths!

I’m still waiting for the time to make myself a hat. Maybe one of these patterns would work for me.

On Thursday evening I received a fund-raising phone call. You know the kind…”Hi I’m calling from *blbkjskjd;akdj* (they mumble so you miss the name) and we are having a fundraising drive for Materna for poor women. She said something about 30 cans I think, but at that point I stopped listening.

I told the woman that I wasn’t willing to make a donation towards formula, that other things I would donate, but not for formula. She said why, and I said that I felt breastfeeding was very important, and that should be supported especially for people with financial difficulties, and not formula.

She went on to tell me that I was wrong, and that poor women needed formula, and not to breastfeed. She actually argued with me for a few minutes.

While I do acknowledge that there is a percentage of women who can’t breastfeed, I truly cannot support such an organization that focuses on formula. Especially when the woman doing the fundraising would rather argue with me about the necessity to give formula, rather than see if there is another need for their organization that I would be willing to fund.

No great loss, there are plenty of organizations to which I am willing to give my money.

I saw a link regarding this challenge to save $1000 in a month. I figured that since I just spent 1000 shekels on a new battery, it would be interesting to see if anything was applicable to people outside the US.

Here are the first five days, and my feeling about them based on being in Israel.

Tip #1: Pack lunches for the rest of the week

Good idea….I do that most days, so it isn’t going to save me any money, but it is a good valid international tip.

Tip #2: Turn your thermostat down 3 degrees

Personally not so relevant. We only use any form of climate control (heating or cooling) abour 20 days a year. We haven’t turned on the heat yet, and probably won’t until January-February. If I include turning on the hot water heater as opposed to using the solar hot water, we still rarely use that. We try to schedule things so that we are using solar hot water as much as possible.

Tip #3: Sell something on eBay today

Interesting…I’ll have to see what I could sell..I probably won’t use Ebay because of commissions. I can use Janglo instead.

Tip #4: Involve your friends in your savings challenge

I talked to hubby, he is cheap, so he doesn’t have a problem with that.

Tip #5: Optimize your cellphone bill

Honestly, what can you do when your monthly bill for two users is only 60 shekels a month? Anyway, the word on the street is that prices will be dropping in January, so we can’t do anything until then.

Well, we are on the sixth and he hasn’t posted a new tip for today. I’ll try to check in with the next five in a few days.

We’ve had the car for about two months, and it allowed us to have a great Succot vacation. Hopefully I’ll write more about that later, but first the car story…

The main reason we purchased the car is so that I don’t lose my mind picking up three girls in a period of one hour in the afternoon. Normally I leave work at 2:30 PM, get to big girl’s school by 3:00, pick her and a classmate up, get to the baby’s childcare and drop off the classmate by 3:30 and then get to sandwich girl’s** childcare by 3:50 (the younger two can both stay until 4:00).

Well, yesterday I completed the first two pickups, and got in the car (3:40) to go to sandwich girl’s kindergarten and the car wouldn’t start. Nothing, not even a little rev, just silence as I turned the key. I had no idea what to do. I don’t even know what I’d do in the US! First I called my not so empathetic spouse who said something about how he never wanted a car in the first place. This gave me the perfect opportunity to vent out my stress.

I attempted to find a Taxi, but Murphy’s law was in full force. Luckily I have the taxi company’s phone number memorized, so I called it and they said they would be there in two minutes. Unfortunately, I looked at the clock and it was already 4:00. I luckily had Sanwich girl’s Kindergarten phone number in my phone, so I called and said I was on my way. The taxi arrived, and we got to the childcare at about 4:08. They had let her go to the park across the street with another mom. Unfortunately, it was busy and I didn’t see her for a few minutes. (Big girl was waiting in the taxi, and the baby was attached to me by the sling.) She said no when I told her we had to go, so of course, I screamed. (I later called and apologized and thanked the mom who took her out.)

The taxi took us home, and I started my search trying to determine what to do. First step, call my boss. She previously owned a really bad car, so I know she had lots of experience with this. She said to call a towing company or the garage. I first called the garage, they hung up on me, so I called back and the guy said to call my insurance company to find out if I have towing coverage. Fair enough. That number was also located in my cell phone. My insurance company gave me the name of the towing company to call. I called them, it turns out that it is the Israeli equivalent to AAA. (Added their number immediately to my phone as well.)

The person there first told me I wasn’t registered with them, but after I told them my insurance company told me to call, she asked me how long it would take for me to get to the car. I would need to be there when they arrived. I said 15 minutes, and they said they would have someone call and let me know when they were on their way. It would be within three hours. I went upstairs to the neighbors and asked if someone could watch the girls if I needed to go before hubby arrived home. They agreed, and I went downstairs to start dinner.

Before the pasta water even boiled, I got a call from the tow company (about 5PM) saying that he would be there in five minutes! I turned off the water, tossed the kids upstairs and ran to the car. (It is about a 10 minute walk.)

It wasn’t a tow truck waiting for me, but “first aid.”++ This guy has a van packed with tools and equipment, and he asks me to start the car. I try, nothing happens. He says “זה המצבר” (zeh haMatzber) [the battery] which sounded to me like “זה מעצבן” (zeh me’atzben) [thats annoying/frustrating]. He might have laughed, but I think he was kinder than that, and I suddenly realized he was telling me what was wrong with the car. Of course, he has batteries with him, and can install it on the spot for a thousand shekels. I realized that not having a car for even half a day to find a cheaper price wasn’t worth it, so I agreed. Of course, he only took checks or cash, and I had neither with me, so he followed me back to the apartment, and I wrote him a check.

I was back home by 6PM! The whole story from start to finish was about 2 hours and 20 minutes!

Total phone calls: 8
Total cost: 1030 shekels (30 for taxi + 1000 for battery)

Thoughts 24 hours later: Hmmm…could there just have been corrosion on the battery contacts? Did I overpay for the battery? I really feel like a completely clueless immigrant for not knowing the word for battery….I have so much to learn.

And now on with the show….

**I don’t like calling her the middle one, and she is still the little one to me, so I’m settling on sandwich girl for now.

++First aid is a subcontractor of Memsi (the AAA type company). If he can’t solve the problem, then he calls the tow truck. I think it is a really good way of doing things, and probably helps solve lots of problems.

Happy new week (shavua tov) everyone. This evening I spent some time at Terem, the local urgent care clinic with my little/middle girl. It was nothing major, just a possibly infected bloody nose, and I didn’t want to wait for tomorrow.

Apparently, nobody wanted to wait for tomorrow. I thought they opened at 7:45, but when I got there at 8 PM, the line was out the door, and all seats were filled. We had registered by 8:10 (and paid 20 shekels) and found a spot to stand. By 8:30 we had been seen by a nurse (temp, pulse and blood oxygenation) and sent back to the waiting room. Given a room inside at 9:10, seen by 9:40 and home by 10 PM.

The diagnosis was that everything is fine, but it would be a good idea to put some antibiotic ointment (which is prescription only) on it for a few days. It wasn’t a wasted trip, but it wasn’t easy for a 4 year old to stay awake, so she spent most of her time running in circles.

So, you might ask, what is the point of this post? Last summer I went to the ER near my parents for a sprained ankle. I got there around 5 and stayed until at least 11, and I wasn’t even talked to by a nurse for over 2 hours. I think that Terem does a good job, and I think that some hospitals would do well to emulate them.

By the way, when I was waiting for my release note, they said that they had seen 74 people by the time I was leaving. I’m not sure if that included the people still waiting, or those who had already finished. (I think the latter.)