RIDING THE GREAT SILVER BUS AGAIN

I’m writing this from my perch on the Great Silver Bus, shuttling at 35,000 feet on my way to New York. Once I get to my hotel room, I’ll hook myself up and slap this mess onto the blog, but in the meantime I get to juggle my computer (truly a laptop at the moment) and my traditional Aircraft Beverage - a hot coffee with a Bailey’s Irish Cream dumped in it.

The day began pleasantly enough. Morning minyan ran a little longer than usual, as it is Chol ha-Moed Sukkot. This means that it’s the middle of the week-long Feast of Tabernacles: not a holiday proper, with all of the holiday restrictions on work and what-not, but more involved than a regular old weekday. In addition to a Torah reading (normal for a Monday), the service includes Hallel (a series of psalms) and Musaf - the additional prayers that are tacked on during (most) holidays and new moons.

And, since it’s Sukkot, we have other rituals that are a wee bit strange to the casual observer. Waving around a palm frond and a piece of fruit, for example. Or marching around the chapel waving the aforementioned frond ’n’ fruit, saying “Hosha-na!” (Hosanna) Oh, those wacky, wacky Jews...

Hey, look it up. It’s in the Bible.

Anyhow, once our service was complete, the other daily ritual commenced. Breakfast at Ye Olde Bagel Emporium. And since today was my birthday, it was my treat.

We have a local custom in which anyone who is celebrating a birthday or who is observing a Yahrzeit (the anniversary of a loved one’s death) buys breakfast for whoever attends Minyan that day. It makes sense, especially for someone observing a Yahrzeit. It’s a way to thank the people who showed up at services that day, thus allowing that individual to recite Kaddish for his or her loved one. Kaddish is only recited if a quorum of ten adults is present.

But what about birthdays? Well, to me, it’s a way of expressing thanks for one’s continuing presence on Planet Earth. There are no guarantees, brother, and the accumulation of birthdays is a tenuous enterprise, especially when you have a lot of them under your belt.

Anyway, that’s our custom, and it was a pleasant breakfast indeed. Some eggs (over hard, thank you very much), some nice smoked fish, and some of that creosotish swill that passes for “coffee” at the ol’ Bagel Emporium. And then, head buzzing and bladder full, off to the Great Corporate Salt Mine.

And that’s where I found out that all of the out-of-town appointments that I’d been pressing for had fallen into place. Starting early tomorrow morning.

Oh, well. I salvaged what I could of the day. She Who Must Be Obeyed was released from her jury duty early, so we were able to sneak in a hurried luncheon in my building’s newly-reopened Cafe Ptomaine. And I was able to spend a few more minutes with her when I ran home to pack... after first printing off several presentations from the Computer From Hell with the Mickey-Mouse Malfunctioning Mouse™.

I was pleasantly surprised to find a letter in my box that informed me that I had won some sort of Mysterious Corporate Award - specifically for what, I have no idea - but the award includes a nice dinner for me and SWMBO, so I decided to consider it my Corporate Birthday Present. Sweet.

But dinner with my true love will have to wait. Tonight it’s cheez ’n’ crackers in the Sterile Yet Pleasant Hotel Room.

And thus do I mark the completion of my fifty-second trip around the sun.