THE LONG HOT JOURNEY

Savta had an appointment with a top ENT doctor in one the big hospitals in the Tel Aviv area on June 2. I had planned on taking him Mrs. Savta before my poor car had it's rear bumper almost pulled off by some jerk who didn't even have the courtesy to leave a note. I've been putting off getting it fixed/replaced because I am still flat broke and my deductable is high, not to mention that my comprehensive insurance rates will go way up for the next three years if I do it under my policy. Golan did a brilliant job of securing the mess with plastic bands, and I know that there are lots of other little things in there holding the whole thing up. I just didn't feel like taking such a chance with both Mr and Mrs. Savta in the car on such a hot miserable day on such a long trip. Savta quite understood how I felt and decided to try to rent a car. Unfortunately we starting looking for a car for him to rent too late and I broke down and off we went. Three cripples in a cripple car that was itself somewhat crippled, on a hot muggy day with an a/c that wasn't working all that well. We discovered early on that my right side wing mirror was adjusted just right for me and also allowed Savta to keep and eye on the state of the bumper. There are several ways to get to Tel Aviv from up here. All of them go by several not over friendly Arab villages, and those villages were feeling even less friendly on that day. I did chose to take the way with the least number of villages. We were about half an hour out of town when I missed a turn. I breezed right by it and never even noticed. Savta was paying attention and I realized it myself a few seconds later and started looking for a place to turn back. I finally found one and got us back on track. They are working on roads all over the place and as I don't go to Tel Aviv all that often I don't really know all the changes. Luckily Savta does and he warned me when we were coming up to a change. Of course I messed up again but not really, I had wanted to turn left and get on road 4 but found myself on road 2 which was actually just fine. Thing is; that hospital is just off road 4 so we had to get off 2 and onto 4 which is not a problem at all. We finally got to the hospital and the great Parking Adventure started. After a lot of helpful directions on how to get to the gimp parking area we found the closest spot to the entrance was free so I grabbed it! That freaking hospital is a mini city in it's own right, and as some of the so called peace activists were there, so was the press. We somehow managed to get inside and find the right place which I swear was in the next city to the west after all the miles of corridors we had to traverse. The Doc saw Savta right away, and was intrigued by what he was has and wants to handle the case himself. This is one of the top ENT guys in the country and he wants to take care of Savta himself! That's great news. The bad news is that he has to go back in 3 weeks. I'm not sure I want a rerun of that trip again so soon. But I digress. On the way back to the car we made a loo stop and had coffee and water. After the Trek back to the car, poor Mrs. Savta had to wrestle the wheelies back in to their respective places. I spotted a guy walking by and asked him to help. Wouldn't you know it? He was the younger brother of one of Savta's childhood friends(after open heart surgery) and were their neighbors before the Savta's moved up here. Old home week in the car park! His car was parked in front of mine so, I waited for him to leave and moved out enough for Mrs. Savta to get the wheelies in more easily, and off we went homwards during the hottest time of day with a crap a/c. She wanted to stop on the way to visit a bit with their daughter and grandkids who live pretty much on the way but at that stage all I wanted was to get home, so home we went with a short stop at a roadside mall for a quick bone stretch. The farther north we went the cooler it got, then, at long last; Home Sweet Home. I dropped them off and finally got parked and in the house where I realized that every single muscle was screaming at me and that I was on the verge of dehydration. I got a 750ml bottle of water and climbed into bed with it and drank it down nice and slow. After a rest I even gave in and had a shower, got another bottle of water, took my meds and settled in for my Star Trek fix and went to sleep. Yesterday I spent the day recovering, after going to my mail box and finding my new credit which had to be activated at the bank, got my meds, fags, and home for a long rest. I'm just about rested now, and more hydrated. I will be going out soon for water. I don't drink tap water because the pipes are so old you can see the junk in the water. I, for sure will not be doing anything much for the next week or so. It takes this gimp a long time to recover from a day like that. The car came through just fine. And I am very busy thanking G-d for that.