Monday, October 03, 2005

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes...

I've been watching "Shrek 2" lately, pardon the reference...

I bought a bike today. I figured if I can't buy American, the next best thing is to buy for value and quality. I got a Schwinn "Hollywood" on end of the '05 model year closeout (it's like bikes are cars all of a sudden), so got a deal and quality in one. It has aluminum wheels and stainless steal spokes, which are guaranteed not to rust, and a bunch of other "we're better than the rest" kind of manufacturing pluses. So woo-hoo! Now, I can bike up to Publix!

Other changes this week are that I got the fig tree (it's only about 18" tall) and the grapes planted. This past weekend my dad, Joe, and I built a 10' x 20' grape arbor to the Eastern side of our back yard field. Mom says she's wanted one for years, so even though my dad complains about doing stuff like this, he did it anyway. It doesn't look like much yet, but give the vines time to grow, and me time to finish spray painting later this week. And of course, I still have to run the lead-wires across the top.

After we were done building it, I realized that we're finally going to have our own sukkah for Sukkot (aka "the Festival of Booths" or Tabernacles, for those that don't know; it's in the Book of Ruth). Sure, it doesn't have a palm frond roof like they have today, but what on earth could the people in Europe do for Sukkot in centuries past, 'cause I know they didn't have that many palms widely available in the wilds of Eastern Europe or London. There must have been something else... A grape arbor seems good enough to me. There was probably citron and palm available in the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Ages, but in Prague? I seriously doubt it...

(After doing a bit of research, I've found that anything can be used to cover the roof and walls of a sukkah as long as it was grown from the earth and cut off at some point... So this wouldn't techanically be a sukkah, since the grapes would be continuously growing... But, seriously, toss a few tree branches on top, lean enough against the sides to sufficiently cover three of them and the mitzvah is technically fulfilled as long as they won't be blown off by the wind... Although, I still can't find out how the Jews of Medieval Europe were able to fulfill the commandments concerning the citron and palm for the benedictions.)

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