Rain, Politics, and Business

Well, we got our rain here, and plenty of it so far.  2 weeks the streets in my town, sloped as they are, were like rivers.  [Tel Aviv, being mostly flat, was not quite so affected, though the Yarkon and Ayalon Rivers have swelled up.].

This is good news.  The water supply, in the aquifer and elsewhere (including and especially Lake Kineret (known to some as the Sea of Galilee, which is now below the level we all want it to be), could use the boost.

Meanwhile, the Trump election is the word on the street.  There is much enthusiasm in my town; in Tel Aviv, which has a higher leftist population, not so much.  My attitude is one of wait and see; no politician has EVER kept ALL of his/her promises, and while I have much cause for optimism over Donald Trump, I am not going full tilt over his new administration unless and until he delivers.

Meanwhile, I am working with various people on various back-story projects to news items you likely will (or have already) read in the news media.  On one hand, it is getting interesting; on the other hand the work is very routine and uneventful.  Not as much domestic traveling as I did 2 months ago, but the possibility of a jaunt to a European city looms for the future.  I will, of course, keep this Blog updated in that regard.

A Pleasurable Evening while away on Business

I'm away on some business.  Got here yesterday, and am looking to return home tomorrow if I can get done and out of here early enough.  My wife's cousin Patty lives near here, so we did dinner together, along with her son Corey and his girlfriend Naomi.  It was nice.  The only drawback was that Patty's car has an Obama bumper sticker on it, reflecting the political views of its driver.

I decided to not discuss politics unless they brought it up.  I didn't have to wait long.  Patty (who is now between jobs) asked me if I believed that the Obamacare would really help improve the health insurance crisis now upon us.  I told her that not only would it make the situation worse, but it has already begun to do just that.  Patty's COBRA coverage runs out in less than a year, so she is concerned.  And she really didn't have any good reason to gainsay my assessment of the situation.

Patty's son Corey was asking me what I thought about Snowden.  I told him that I was with Snowden, until he not only came out and identified himself, but started playing games with the USA and Russia and Venezuela and Hong Kong, et cetera.  Just because his purported cause is just does not mean that he is necessarily a good guy.  This was good for about 15 minutes.  All in all, Corey is not doing too poorly, considering that he has lived virtually his entire life (except for a yearlong stint as an exchange student 2 years ago) under the same roof as his mom.  Not that his dad, whom he visits 3 or 4 times a month and who lives about 2 miles away, is much better as far as grasp of reality goes.

Naomi was the one with the most sense.  She actually understands that there was cyclical climate change way before there were humans around to pollute the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses.  And while she is by no means a potential Republican voter, at least her brain isn't totally warped with the libtard garbage.

I must give Naomi credit for making the evening a pleasurable one.  It was she who steered the conversation away from politics and in to areas such as the arts and family history.  Not that she is going to change Corey into a clear thinker, but she can have a positive influence upon him -- if she stays with him.  I don't know if anything is going to come of that relationship, but it does have some interesting possibilities.  Even Patty is hoping for something to happen.

In any event, we did have a good evening out.  The only one missing was my wife.  I'm going to sign off from this blog and call her now.  I miss her!