The Panels Are In

The solar panels are up on the roof. I have an app to monitor power consumption as what you cannot measure is not real. I am very glad to finally to stick it to PG&E. Our power bill in the summer is outrageous and so we finally bit the bullet and had solar panels installed. They look pretty good on the roof. So far the installation has gone well, they were even able to schedule us two weeks before the original set date. We decided to buy the solution outright as I never felt comfortable with the various rental and leasing schemes. It will take a while to pay for itself as our annual power consumption was on the edge of being profitable for solar, but it just feels right.

Here is a bad picture of the roof early this morning.

Coffee

Tuesdays are special. On Tuesday mornings I stop at Peet's on my way into work and treat myself to an Americano. The swill they serve here at Squint Central is undrinkable. The baristas all know me by now, I am usually their first customer at 5:30am when they open. My only complaint is that recently they stopped providing those little black stirrers that blocked the hole and stop spills. It's all part of that no more plastic straws moment sweeping California.

A bit of nostalgia. Sabich Tchernikovski, just off Allenby in Tel Aviv. It takes the dude ages to prepare, but it sure is worth the wait. There are no words.

It's Puzzling

Bdo claims her visit to El Dorado Hills was really a "puzzle bootcamp". Bwo discovered this iPad game called Jigsaw Puzzle Collection HD. It quickly became quite addictive. Unfortunately  Bwo is so much better at this than me and I'm convinced she has hidden mutant pattern matching talents. As soon as bdo was through the door we got her quickly trained and had her competing on the "puzzle of the day".

I am impressed with the game. It is very well put together and just challenging enough that it's not trivial to do even a 240 piece puzzle. It crashes frequently on my iPad, which is old, and I refuse to pay the $15 to get it ad free until they fix the frequent crashes, but it is still fun. Try it.

Rule no. 1 of iPad puzzling, No looking at the picture after you start the puzzle. Rule No. 2, you have to do the daily puzzle, no matter how much you hate the picture. There is no Rule 3.

Power is Key

I was all set for posting yesterday after dropping Bdo off in Oakland where she was visiting friends before heading back to the Holy Land. Well, PG&E our infamous power company had other ideas. At 7:05pm just as Bwo settled down to watch some of the third "Queer Eye" season, the power went out. 

Now let me remind you, yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far (today is going to be hotter apparently). When the house went dark it was a toasty 104°F outside and according to the PG&E website the power would only come on again around 10:15pm. We have been warned that due to the threat of fires (and based on the bad experience of the Paradise fire last year) PG&E may cut off our power whenever they please, but it seems this was some sort of unplanned event. Bwo, Rox and I hid in the relative cool of the bedroom downstairs for a while and eventually fell asleep. The power came back at 11:45pm with all the usual beeping, whirring and bright lights. It had cooled off considerably by then although it never seems to have the time to get really chilly when we have a string of one hundred plus days.

It always strikes me as amazing how close we live to catastrophe. Civilization balances precariously on the edge of societal breakdown and all it would take would be a few days without power. We take so much for granted. I wonder how long it would take without power for us to not get water in our pipes or food in the stores. When the zombie apocalypse comes at least we will have a lot of toothpaste (saving that for another day) and wool to keep us warm.

So it's summer here and my woodshop gets very, very warm and so I have been confined to working a few hours in the early mornings on the weekends. I have been making very slow progress on the current guitar (GS2). I did the owl inlay and progressed some on shaping the neck this weekend, but it's already too hot for me and it's only 9am.

GS2 is California walnut back and sides and a curly maple fretboard with a walnut and maple laminated neck. Spruce top, of course.

Wool

When Bwo gets into something, she really gets into it. Lately it's been crocheting (knitting with one needle). She has conjured up some excellent pieces, more art than clothing. Like any Bwo pursuit it starts small and then grows and grows. So it is with crocheting. I am happy she found something that brings her joy. So what, if we have crochet hooks hidden in sofas and chairs, at least they are not sharp. So what, if I've spent many an hour unraveling (hmm, can be spelled with one or two L's) knotted bits of wool, it's meditative. And so what if on a flight to San Diego Bwo trailed a line of wool from her seat at the front of the plane all the way back to the bathroom, the other passengers enjoyed helping roll the ball up as it was passed back up the aisle. It brings her joy and that's what counts.

I was not surprised when various shipments of wool started arriving at the front door. A few balls here and there, no problem. At least wool is not heavy. Then one day a huge box arrived. A few days later, the empty box reappeared in the recycling pile and I noticed the scene below on the dining room table.

I congratulated Bwo on a clever solution to wool storage, happy in the knowledge that I would not have to break down those terrible cardboard fruit trays from Costco for recycling. They are well glued together. We don't use the dining room table, or the dining room for that matter, so no worries.

I never noticed exactly when, but at some point the 144 balls of wool disappeared from the dining room table. Less crocheting was happening as summer kicked into full gear and the garden became a priority. Then last night, I went to refill my glass of water before bed in Bwo's bathroom (Yes, we have a two bathroom solution, similar to the two-state solution proposed by congress to fix the whole Israeli Palestinian issue). I noticed that her shower curtain was closed and had been for a while. For no real reason, I peeked behind the curtain and to my surprise, this is what I found:

Notice how the three fruit trays (144 balls) are not alone, they now live in the shower along with many more of their closest friends. 

T'is Hot

It's been hot the last few days. And by hot I mean over 100°F. Last night at 8:15pm the thermometer on the NW side of the house read 103°F (39.4°C). Granted that side absorbs the late afternoon heat since Bwo decided the house needs to be painted dark brown. This morning at 5:15am the thermometer read 73°F (22.7°C). That's the 30°F difference which makes the whole house fan so effective. I turn it on as soon as I wake up and enjoy the breeze as it sucks in the cooler air from outside and blows it out the attic. In normal summer heat (when it's below 100°F) the house stays cool until the early afternoon.

When we came to check out Folsom in for a week in Aug of 2016, the afternoon temperature never dropped below 107°F (41.6°C). "It's dry heat" they would say. Tell you what, anything over 40°C should not be allowed. It's so hot that walking across the black tarmac parking lot outside squint central feels like the soles of your shoes are melting. Of course, the corner of the building where I work as freezing as only an American would think acceptable. The shock walking out at the end of the day is like stepping into a volcano. Still Bwo agreed to move here. She complains bitterly about the heat.

No matter how hard the air conditioners at home work they cannot keep the top floor at any reasonable temperature during the later afternoon. So we huddle in the dark downstairs till bedtime. It stays really hot here till after 10pm, then it cools down quickly. I am usually way asleep by then though.

I recently found these pictures of the Les Paul I built in 2008. one of the guys in Algranati's electric guitar course was a professional photographer and he sent me a dozen or so pictures he took when I was done building. It looks quite good in the photo, although the sunburst should have had more lighter yellow to better show off the awesome curly maple. Unfortunately, I don't think my skill has improved much over the years.

The Parking Lot

Every morning I wake up around 5am, shave and dress, take blackroxyo for a walk, give her breakfast and head off to squint central. I usually arrive before 6. The roads are quiet. In summer the morning is deliciously cool and softly lit, in winter coming over the Folsom ridge I see the twinkling lights of Sac in the distance. It's not horrible.

After fifteen to twenty minutes drive, while listening to whatever audiobook is currently in my queue, I arrive. It's that drive into the parking lot that makes me question my life choices each morning. No matter where, it's always the same each morning. Going back as far as working at TI and the huge parking lot in Stafford, TX, on to the open lot outside SGI bld. 7 in Mountain View, to the covered lot next to Bld. 40, then the sharp turns down the circular parking lot entry on HaMenofim in Herzliya to parking near the elevators in Yakum, then having to unlock the parking lot and front doors in Egham, to today and parking each morning in the shade of bld 5.

My heart longs for parking in a forest, or next to a beach or maybe driving down a twisty tree covered road, or up a steep path to a spot with a 360 degree view of the world. It's that damned pay cheque that comes twice a month that keeps me driving into the same old lot each morning. At least I get in early enough to always get the same spot.

Today's photo is of a sunset. They are nice this time of year. This is from outside the front door.

Perhaps I'm back

I started this blog on Wednesday Feb 27, 2008. The first post went into an explanation on the 80%ness of Israel as a country. That was more than 10 years back and things have changed. Israel has probably changed, and I have certainly changed. We moved to the UK and then to the US. In the UK I struggled to find things to write about as things seemed to run quite smoothly although i never could understand why so many orange cones line the highways (motorways). I assume that the Department for Transport ran out of storage and just keep them on the roads forever. Then in 2016 we moved to the US, El Dorado Hills, CA to be exact.

I am undecided as to what exact global scale the US works on. Some things are close to 100% (Taco Bell?) and some things are barley manage to register on any scale (just try going to the DMV for a "Real ID"). Still we now live here and there are some things to write about. Which brings be back to the origins of this blog.

Some time in 2008, while we at GraphTech were still bright-eyed and bushy tailed and thought ourselves quite smart, we brought in some chap who was a social-media guru to talk to us. All this internet self examination was still quite interesting at the time. This chap claimed that we needed to put ourselves out there and thus our creativity would grow. So I decided I would give this "new" medium a try and the 80% blog started. It taught me a great deal. Having to clear up and virtually write down my confused thoughts helped me become a better writer. This helped me get through writing papers for an archaeology degree and helps me with every email I send through the day, everyday.

Skip to last night. The little book "Steal Like an Artist" has been sitting on a table in our second bathroom where bwo must have left it months back. My iPad was left recharging in the bedroom nearly out of battery after an intense session of puzzle HD (more on this in the future) so I picked up the little black book and started reading while relaxing on the toilet. It got me thinking. The book is filled with sage advice on creativity, and gladly it did not take to long to go through. What really got me thinking was the "just keep at it" theme that runs chapter by snappy chapter through the book. That's exactly what I am going to try do. I don't care if no one ever reads these posts. They are really only for me anyway.

Bwo says I need to always add a photo. This is a photo of one of the best things in our lives.

Happy Easter

 Check out the Easter eggs spread out on the lawn.

Yes that's a real live Easter bunny. We even had a photo taken with her.

We were invited to our first Easter party this afternoon. Shelly and Steve our lovely neighbors have kind of adopted us. They invited us over for a BBQ a few weeks back and we met her brother Tim who hosts this huge Easter get together at his amazing 10 acres just a few miles up the road up in the hills. They insisted we come, and reminded us again over the last few days. Tim has cultivated a huge lawn in front of his house (it's actually his private driving range 220 yards, if that means anything to anyone). This they spreads with Easter eggs. They have a little ceremony (involving an Easter bunny cart pulled by a tractor blaring music) and let the kids free to collect eggs. We adults in meanwhile enjoyed the multiple salads (pot luck) and BBQ for the carnivores. There was good beer. Bwo's chocolate trifle was a hit. 

After all the eggs were collected and the crying kids placated (the real life bunny was seemingly terrifying to some of the young uns), in what seems surprisingly inevitable here in Northern California, it started to rain. And rain hard. So we covered up the food and desserts and carried the dishes off to the house in a sort of rain drenched relay. It was all nice and friendly and warm. Bwo and I decided we have a good story. People here in the US are much more interested in where we come from and why than anyone ever was in the UK. The British can't ask too many questions, you know, not proper and all that. So we made some friends and they all joked we were now "in", we passed the membership test. I asked if they would hold a thumbs up or down vote to see if we could join once we left.

All in all a busy weekend what with the unpacking, broken back and Easter. I am actually looking forward to the quiet chaos at squint central Folsom tomorrow. 

Clean Garage

The container come tomorrow. So I spent this last weekend frantically installing conduit and power on the other side of the garage to where the wall sits. Then I cleaned up and packed away everything making maximum space for the tools that will arrive. So here is a before picture. I will send an after picture once everything arrives.

It's going to be a busy day tomorrow.

OK. It's all in and I can hardly move. I think I put my back out trying to lift some of the heavy metal. I am clearly not as young as I was when I accumulated all these machines. It's the forth time I have had to put these together (first was originally in Houston, then they moved with us to Sunnyvale, then across the seas to Israel, and then from HaNevel to the container in PTK, now all the way back to Northen California) and it's not like there are less over the years. Here is what it looks like now. All that's left is setup and some guitar building.

A Container

Next Thursday our 40ft container will arrive in El Dorado Hills for our pleasure and enjoyment. Both bwo and I are terrified. Since we arrive here six months back bwo has done an awesome job of making a home for us here on Bonita Dr. We have pretty much everything that two people need (except for a lot of woodworking tools, of course). Now next week another whole house is arriving. While we do have a lot of space in the house, I don't think we have enough to comfortably absorb what is coming.

I tracked the ship all the way out of Haifa. The Zim Quigdao sailed to Livorno Italy, then to Tarragona Spain, then from Valencia Spain it set out over the ocean to Halifax Canada. From there it stopped in Newark New Jersey and Charleston, South Carolina before heading back to Valencia Spain. This was very disturbing, I imagined our stuff traveling back across the Atlantic, never to get to Oakland where it was scheduled on March 30. So I contacted the shippers only to find out that our container had transferred to the Manilla Express at her first stop in Livorno. So the ship docked last week and we get our stuff next week.

I will update with pictures as the story develops.

 The above picture is our container #76 where much of our lives was stored in petach Tikva while we relaxed for 5 years in the UK.

It's Chrain Time

It's that time of the year again. With Passover comes Ostrin Chrain (Horseradish). We did not have the facilities in the UK to keep up the tradition but here in the US, the interweb works wonders. We ordered 20 pounds of top quality organic horseradish root from somewhere in Idaho, various sized jars from Amazon. It all arrived on the weekend and bwo and I peeled, processed and mixed. It does not seem as strong as I would have liked, but it has a kick.

Now comes the packaging and shipping across the US to our families. Sorry Holy Land peeps, maybe next year in Jerusalem.

The Great Wall of El Dorado Hills

I know the pictures are a little unimpressive, but they are bigly for me. This is the wall we build in my garage. Greg and Dave came up from the Bay Area and Gilroy to work and to teach. They showed me how to frame, how to wire in 2 gang boxes, how to hang drywall and how to mud and tape. I learned so much, mainly because I was so incompetent that I need to do things a number of times. The wall divides off one of the bays of the garage into my wood shop. My tools will be arriving soon (the boat with our 40ft container docked in Oakland yesterday) and the shop will be ready to receive them.

The biggest pain was the electrical sub panel as we initially installed it upside down and Kevin the electrician wired it into the main panel without noticing. He used 4 gauge wire and man, trying to bend the stuff in order to invert the box was pretty much hell. But I managed to get it in and wired up. I screwed the face plates on the sockets this evening and threw the switch to test it all and everything is working. 6 double 110V and 2 240V sockets all working to spec.

So now all I need are my tools and I will once again be in the guitar making business. I am really looking forward to this. I have to thank my mentors Greg and Dave without who I would have never been able accomplish anything.

Wide Open Land

These days I try get home from work before it gets dark. I go in around 5am so I guess I don't need to feel too guilty about leaving around 4:30pm. One of my favorite things is to rush home, put on my waterproof UK style walking boots, pop a very enthusiastic dog into the back seat and head off 10 mins down the road to Brown's Ravine. That way we can hit the open spaces without any need for the leash.

Two evenings back, there was finally a break in the rain and as we watched the sun go down over Folsom Dam in the distance, I chucked the ball as far as the thrower would allow. The picture above is a perfect representation of the bundle of joy that is Roxy wating for me to launch the ball to the heavens. There is nothing she loves more than chasing the ball, finding huge sticks to carry and chew and wide open space to sniff and run. We are slowly finding our places here in Northern California, and while much land is fenced off (trespassers will be shot), there is still a lot of places to roam and explore. The girl and I are making it our own. 

It's dark out there

We are recovering from the trauma of a 28 hour power outage. One disadvantage of living out in the boonies between the trees is occasionally in high wind and rain situations (we currently are undergoing an "atmospheric river" - they just love naming weather out here) these trees dive onto power lines causing all kinds of havoc. The lights went out around 8 pm the night before last. I was expecting a few minutes of darkness, but seeing as it was close to bed time anyway (we're getting old), we just played with our various phones and tablets and went to sleep as usual thinking that all would be well in the morning. I woke as usual around 5am and the house was still in the dark. My normally dark early walk with Roxy was even eerier than usual with the pitch black broken only by my flashlight reflecting off the eyes of the local deer. I fed the dog, packed my bag and went out to the car, only to realize that the garage door was not going to open without electricity. Sigh. So it meant climbing on a ladder while holding the flashlight in my teeth to remove the pin holding the opener motor to the door (mine does not have the useful pull string that disengages the motor). Off to work I went.

Now all the while bwo was nursing a terrible cold. She was miserable and cold with no heating, so she decided to light a fire. Only the flue was closed, so she decided to put it out, only it was one of those compressed sawdust logs that don't go out easily, so the house filled with noxious smoke and she was even more miserable.

She handled the issue like a pro, eventually smothering the log with wet cloths, and all is well with only a slight smell of burning throughout the house. The lights finally came on at 10:30 last night after we were asleep for a few hours. It turns out a tree fell on the power lines a few houses down the block. It took PG&E many hours to deal with the many calls from all over the area.

So we were happy this morning when all was back to normal, and then due to the continuing rain and wind a tree in our yard fell over.

Luckily it missed the septic tank. On the positive side, I now get to buy a chainsaw.

A California Weekend

We picked up Roxy on Friday at San Francisco airport. She had been in her cage for 18 hours by the time we got her and all she wanted was to be out. We took her for a walk along the Bay and then took her on a three hour drive home to El Dorado Hills. It is wonderful to have her with us. She quickly adapted to her new life and has found a whole lot of new smells to enjoy.

A few weeks back we bought a pass to the local California State Parks which gives us access to some of the parks in the area. About five minutes drive from the house is Brown's Ravine, which is a sort of marina and recreational area, on the edge of Folsom Lake. There are many trails along the lake and into the hills around and Roxy and I went walking early yesterday (Christmas Day) and again this morning. She was overjoyed to be off the lead and ran around sniffing out appropriate sticks to carry. Yesterday, we went for a long walk along the lake edge. It was freezing out and there are a lot of frost and ice on the ground, undeterred Roxy jumped into the lake for a quick swim. It was very quiet and in all the time we were out walking we never saw another soul. The car stood alone in the huge parking lot. When we eventually got back to the car, I felt in my pockets for my car keys, but to my horror they were gone. I frantically emptied my pockets and dumped everything on the ground but nothing. So I tried to call bwo. Of course, her phone was not with her (or something to that effect), and after a dozen or so attempts I figured it was pointless and Roxy and I would just wait in the cold until we turned to ice. I decided that no matter how meaningless I would try retrace my steps and see if I could find my keys, reasoning that they must have fallen out when I took my gloves out my pockets. And there they were, glinting in the sun, not too far from where we started our walk. Our own little Hanukkah miracle.

We had 20 or so people over for a late lunch yesterday. A lot of the folks that relocated from the UK along with us did not really have anywhere to go so we volunteered our house for a Christmas pot luck. It was very nice. Huge amounts of food and everyone seemed to have a good time. Bwo outdid herself as usual and the place looks really nice considering we moved in two weeks back. The consignment store in Folsom can probably close down now that she bought out all their stock. I hate to think what will happen when our stuff eventually arrives from Israel. 

This afternoon bwo, Roxy and I went for a walk in the neighborhood. I have done some exploring and met some of the friendly people around. Initially I was quite disappointed as the only access to the lake from where we live seemed not only quite far but leads straight into a swamp. One big difference from the UK is that almost all land around is private property with no public access. I met a local, Roy, while walking Roxy and he pointed out that you can get to the lake through one of the houses. These lovely people have a sign encouraging people to use their path alongside their house to the lake. So bwo and I took Roxy down to the lake. All I can say is wow! It is really spectacular. The water and and hills, very pretty. While strolling around the water's edge we met another Border Collie owner who filled us in on all the lake accesses in the area. The land around the lake is all state owned with public access and it appears not too many people use it - especially not in winter. So we explored a bit more and found where the trails meet the road not too far from the house. Unfortunately there are steep hills in each direction, so if nothing else, I will get stronger just walking the dog.

It's been a really good weekend and we had a good day today cleaning up the house after the pot luck and exploring the area. Back to work tomorrow but it's a short week and it should be quiet with many a squint out on holiday.

Flip and flop

So we moved into our new house over the weekend. It's nice and all that, but more important news is the shocker that Tarek and Christina are calling it quits on their marriage.

Since we arrived in the US I have been having a hard time filling the evenings and weekends. See, we were staying in temporary housing and then the hotel. Being on the west coast means days start early, but they also finish early with no evening calls at all. So I would get home around 5pm (after starting around 5) have dinner with bwo and then look for something to do. I finished five books so was tired of reading, and found walking without Roxy very difficult. As soon as we put in the first offer on a house, I suddenly needed to do research and so HGTV became my occasional library along with google, YouTube and Home Depot. One particularly slow weekend I happened on "Flip or Flop" on HGTV and slowly started to become a fan. I liked how expensive the shitty houses they bought to flip were compared to what I thought was expensive here in Northern California. Christina's voice bothered me in the beginning but I really liked her taste and style. So I have spent many hours watching them turn really horrible houses into places I would be happy to live in.

I have to admit that I was never too sure of their coupledom. Tarek seemed a little too conservative and Christina well, she sure is cute, and all that money they were earning, definitely going to cause issues. But, I was still very surprised and saddened to read they are splitting up. Turns put they are not the only HGTV scandal, I just found out Jo and Chip Gaines belong to a church that is a against same sex marriage. Is nothing sacred in this country?

I have got to get a life! 

Hopefully it's happening.

It's hard to believe it's been nearly 45 days since I last posted. Looks like we will finally get the house we put in an offer for in El Dorado Hills. Our loan was finally approved on Friday and we are due to close on Wednesday. It has been a very nerve wracking time and I have been very stressed waiting for word from the bank. They really gave me a hard time, which I am led to believe is fairly typical for home loans these days. We are both excited to be finally on our way out of the Residence Inn and into our own place. This will only be the second time in our lives that we own property. I was always happy renting, but here in California it makes sense to buy what with interest rates where they are. 

We have visited our potential property each weekend and have explored the area a little. There seems to be a nice walk down to the lake, although the area is much hillier than Richmond. I think Roxy will be happy. We will send for her as soon as we are settled. Both Roxy and Jenny will be very sad to part as they are very good friends, but we need our girly. I certainly have been putting on weight like crazy without the walks. 

The house has a septic tank. This will be the first time that anyone in our families have not been connected to the sewers probably since my grandparents lived in Lithuania. So it's all rather exciting. More on the house in the coming days. 

Offers

We put in an offer on a house. The sellers agreed with our price and then the joy began. What a process. I have spent hours filling out forms and reading various contracts, and we still are far from done. Next is an appraisal and then inspections and so on. The best one can hope, if all goes well (which is doubtful), is to close in 45 days. I suppose it makes sense, as this is the most money I have ever spent in one place (although probably less than the accumulated cost of bwo's potions and lotions over the years).

It's a nice place and hopefully all goes well as I discovered that there is nothing I hate more than looking at houses. I could live pretty much anywhere there is enough room for a workshop and place to walk the Rox. But it is so much more complex than that. I suppose it's not bad that we found a place within two weeks of arriving in the area.

At least all the document preparation is keeping me from being bored on those long California nights with no work phone calls. 

A Sukkah in Folsom

It's been a few weeks since the last post and as expected much has changed. We are now based in Folsom, CA. In a temporary place for the meanwhile, but we have phones, cars and medical coverage. We don't have a house yet, and that's the next big thing. Work has been busy what with the new job in a new office, but the squints here are nice and have made me feel at home. Roxy is still in the UK with Jenny and Karol, she will come over once we have a permanent place.

It has been quite an upheaval this move. I am still questioning myself, but I know from experience that this is just what happens when you relocate your life. I miss the UK, I miss the sounds and smell of Richmond after the rain, the walks through the copse, down the Avenues to the river. I miss Radio 4 and the serious yet tongue-in-cheek, subtle discourse you can find in UK media. It's election time and it is just so loud and barbaric. And yet it's impossible to look away, a train-wreck.

Work in a 7000 person plant also takes some getting used to. So many people with busy bathrooms and busy cafeterias. Here in Folsom the roads are wide and the skyline very broad. There are very cool places around with lakes, rivers and forests. I know we will grow to love it here, it will just take time.

The thing is that it still feels so foreign and far away from all that we know. The kids and family in Israel, Roxy and the friends in England, are on the other side of the world. It's like we are in a strange, strange land, which makes no sense as we are Americans, with California drivers licenses and credit and social security numbers and bank accounts. We have no routine and it's familiar but slightly uncomfortable and different. 

Yesterday I was walking along the second floor passageway between Bld.4, where I sit, and the Bld.5 cafeteria around noon. I was gazing out the windows down at the parking lot, checking out my nice new black Rav4 parked nearby, when I had stop in amazement as a UHual adorned with a portable Sukkah pulled up outside the building entrance.

Out jumped what I assume were some Habadnikim and started to lay some branches over the top. Two maintenance guys came over to see what so I was so absorbing and I ended up explaining about the 40 years in the desert and the mitzvah of eating in a Sukkah under the sky. It was all so incongruous. So out of place in the noon day sun of clean, sterile Folsom. It made me smile. It will all be OK.