Monday, July 25, 2005
The hotness, and not in a good way
Arg i just wrote this post and then proceeded to lose it. Anyway, 93 degrees in Clayton, 99 is the heat index (what it feels like). Tomorrow it is supposed to be even hotter (101 in tha boro). Speaking of tomorrow, I am going down to Atlanta to see a Braves-Nats game and Avi and Robert, plus assorted other ATLians who might appear. I can only presume that there will be much fleisch eaten, probably on the Foreman. Sad part is I canot find anyone to go down with me so I think i am braving the ATL traffic on my own. Orly and Josh are back at camp which is fantastic, particulary because we (gesher boys) grilled hot dogs on the grill last night circa midnight. Maybe a short post will encourage some friggin comments.
-Daniel
-Daniel
Thursday, July 21, 2005
OMG.WTF.BBQ.
Kaboom. That was the sound of my mind blowing apart, as if someone put a plastique (plah-steek) on my corpus callosum. Wow. Holy poop on a stick. JHC in a chickenbasket. I cannot believe that happened. Rigoddamndonkulous. Yes that is right Level 4 Ridonkulousity. Breathe in, breathe out, if ya iced up . . . Anyway none of that should require explaination.
I also went on the Nachshonim climbing trip to Linville Gorge. I gotta say it was pretty cool. 4 hours there, and 4 back the next day. We camped out, grilled burgers and dogs, I made rocky mountain toast for breakfast and lunch was peanutbutter/cheese/jelly/hotdog buns/bread. The climing was really cool, it was like climing the wall except that it was just a huge rock instead. No deaths or injuries (Zach singed his arm hair in the fire, but it was completely his fault) that was good too. Most unfortunately, I got back to camp too late to run on down to ATL for shiva and a 24. My 12 was spent running around clayton and franklin with my dad and and some senior staff members/guests of the camp. We saw Willy Wonka, which was a little wierd, but amusing nonetheless. We went to Mama G's and got caught in a huge thunderstorm, so it was a regular day off.
My children returned on Thursday just before dinner and they appeared to be glad to see me, or at least a counselor that had not been with them 24 hours a day for the last 12 days. They were all exhausted and unpacked and went straight to bed except for the ones that I had to drag home from the nivo girls bunk.
Friday is here. Staff climbing, Poconos, Rabbi Lehmann, and Gretzky are all in camp for the weekend. I feel like there is a massive amount I am forgetting, perhaps those who are at camp will remind me. Operation Lillehammer has been killed in subcommittee (If anyone figures out what the hell that means I will shake your hand). It will be brought up again next year for review and reconsideration.
S^3 needs her comp.
Sabbatical Salutations,
-Daniel
I also went on the Nachshonim climbing trip to Linville Gorge. I gotta say it was pretty cool. 4 hours there, and 4 back the next day. We camped out, grilled burgers and dogs, I made rocky mountain toast for breakfast and lunch was peanutbutter/cheese/jelly/hotdog buns/bread. The climing was really cool, it was like climing the wall except that it was just a huge rock instead. No deaths or injuries (Zach singed his arm hair in the fire, but it was completely his fault) that was good too. Most unfortunately, I got back to camp too late to run on down to ATL for shiva and a 24. My 12 was spent running around clayton and franklin with my dad and and some senior staff members/guests of the camp. We saw Willy Wonka, which was a little wierd, but amusing nonetheless. We went to Mama G's and got caught in a huge thunderstorm, so it was a regular day off.
My children returned on Thursday just before dinner and they appeared to be glad to see me, or at least a counselor that had not been with them 24 hours a day for the last 12 days. They were all exhausted and unpacked and went straight to bed except for the ones that I had to drag home from the nivo girls bunk.
Friday is here. Staff climbing, Poconos, Rabbi Lehmann, and Gretzky are all in camp for the weekend. I feel like there is a massive amount I am forgetting, perhaps those who are at camp will remind me. Operation Lillehammer has been killed in subcommittee (If anyone figures out what the hell that means I will shake your hand). It will be brought up again next year for review and reconsideration.
S^3 needs her comp.
Sabbatical Salutations,
-Daniel
Friday, July 15, 2005
Five Whole Days
Alot has happened in the past five days. On Sunday the Taste of Ramah kids arrived, and it was like being in nitzanim all over again. They are loud, messy, homesick, everything you could think of. They go to sleep around 930 which is great, but then they wake up circa 530 and they play games that involve running and shrieking and other similarly unnecessary things at 530 AM. So they do that, I eat meals with them, but otherwise do my very best to stay out of their way. Among them is Akiva's little brother, vehhamayveen yaveen. My chug kids are for the most part ethusiastic about belaying, climbing and going on a monster out of camp to trip to do these things. I am also looking forward to it, even though I would much rather spend my nights in a bed than in a sleeping bag on the ground. Oh well. I will be compensated with hamburgers and hot dogs.
On a somber note, Josh and Orly's father passed away on Tuesday, may God comfort the entire family among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. I will be paying a shiva call to them on tuesday night, probably not long after I get home from my trip.
On a disappointing note (we will work our way back to happy), Yom Sport is Sunday, the day that HP6 should be distributed around camp. In order for Yom Sport to occur, the books will not be distributed until sunday night after all yom sport festivities have ceased. I am trying to figure out how to get around this but I have yet to find a solution.
On a ridonkulous note, I came back from my day off, step into my room, and notice that it looks different from how I left it in the morning. Since Matt is gone, there is really no reason that this should be. Upon closer inspection my floor is clean, my flip-flops and my chair have been moved and my clipboard is sitting unusually squarely on my bed. I get low to find my other flip-flop and notice a huge lump of something under my bed. I pull it out to discover an alarm clock set for 230 AM plugged unto the wall behind my bed. A dirty trick. I unplug it and move on, to recharge my cell phone. I go to plug in my cell phone and notice that there are several cords leading out from the outlet. I follow these to two more alarm clocks that are set for disastrously early morning wakeups. Now I am inscenced. I pan the rest of the plugs in the room and discover a fourth clock plugged in. I ask Sapoz about it he says he knows nothing. I go back to my room and conduct a thorough Mossad-style search. I uncover a (battery-powered) clock in my shoe rack, another duct taped to the side of my bed and a third inside my box of tissues. I turn to my window and see that my own alarmn clock is MIA. Crud. Where else could it . . . There is a small circular vent above my door, very close to the ceiling. I get on Matts bed and peer on top of it. Sure as shootin' there is my alarm clock primed to go off at 0500 hours. I did a secondary sweep to make sure I got them all and then pondered who could have done this. My initial thought was Jason (which was partially correct) but as he had just departed to somewhere, I could not reach him. Max occurred to me but I never truly suspected him until someone else fingered him as a culprit. The accomplice of course was Nadav. Having foiled their plan entirely, they were all slightly crestfallen, (except nadav, he probably forgot it entirely) but I still would like to request from the public emails with REASONABLE, FEASIBLE suggestions for counterpranks. I still have all the alarm clocks. Muahahahaha.
I went to the mall of Georgia, drove the green machine, saw War of the Worlds (3.5 stars), ate ate subway, wendy's and BK (no trefe at any) and went to target instead of walmart. I belayed Jackie up the tower today. Shabbat Shalom to All,
-Daniel
On a somber note, Josh and Orly's father passed away on Tuesday, may God comfort the entire family among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. I will be paying a shiva call to them on tuesday night, probably not long after I get home from my trip.
On a disappointing note (we will work our way back to happy), Yom Sport is Sunday, the day that HP6 should be distributed around camp. In order for Yom Sport to occur, the books will not be distributed until sunday night after all yom sport festivities have ceased. I am trying to figure out how to get around this but I have yet to find a solution.
On a ridonkulous note, I came back from my day off, step into my room, and notice that it looks different from how I left it in the morning. Since Matt is gone, there is really no reason that this should be. Upon closer inspection my floor is clean, my flip-flops and my chair have been moved and my clipboard is sitting unusually squarely on my bed. I get low to find my other flip-flop and notice a huge lump of something under my bed. I pull it out to discover an alarm clock set for 230 AM plugged unto the wall behind my bed. A dirty trick. I unplug it and move on, to recharge my cell phone. I go to plug in my cell phone and notice that there are several cords leading out from the outlet. I follow these to two more alarm clocks that are set for disastrously early morning wakeups. Now I am inscenced. I pan the rest of the plugs in the room and discover a fourth clock plugged in. I ask Sapoz about it he says he knows nothing. I go back to my room and conduct a thorough Mossad-style search. I uncover a (battery-powered) clock in my shoe rack, another duct taped to the side of my bed and a third inside my box of tissues. I turn to my window and see that my own alarmn clock is MIA. Crud. Where else could it . . . There is a small circular vent above my door, very close to the ceiling. I get on Matts bed and peer on top of it. Sure as shootin' there is my alarm clock primed to go off at 0500 hours. I did a secondary sweep to make sure I got them all and then pondered who could have done this. My initial thought was Jason (which was partially correct) but as he had just departed to somewhere, I could not reach him. Max occurred to me but I never truly suspected him until someone else fingered him as a culprit. The accomplice of course was Nadav. Having foiled their plan entirely, they were all slightly crestfallen, (except nadav, he probably forgot it entirely) but I still would like to request from the public emails with REASONABLE, FEASIBLE suggestions for counterpranks. I still have all the alarm clocks. Muahahahaha.
I went to the mall of Georgia, drove the green machine, saw War of the Worlds (3.5 stars), ate ate subway, wendy's and BK (no trefe at any) and went to target instead of walmart. I belayed Jackie up the tower today. Shabbat Shalom to All,
-Daniel
Sunday, July 10, 2005
"Tiyul HaGadol" or "Why I will not have nearly as much time as I should to read HP6"
My Gesher campers departed for their 12-day trip at 5AM amid a flurry of new and improved issues. (not) My garinim campers will arrive tomorrow and undoubtedly be an unwelcome change from my former campers who can almost live on their own and are old enough to drive and can clean up after themselves and dont wet the bed or cry for their mommies every 5 minutes. Sigh. Most fortunately I will not have to deal with much of that as I still work at the tower and the kids go to sleep directly after peulat erev (9PM). At the same time, the holy grail of all books, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, comes out in 6 days and I have Yom Sport to deal with on Sunday, a monday night tuesday day out of camp climbing trip to do, and then my kids leave and the others come back Thursday. And then I have to work again. Thats why I have little time to read my literature. Argh. My Nachshonim chug has 4 (four) days of chug (now 3) to learn to belay and tie knots and whatnot before we go on out trip to Linville Gorge. Double Arg. The garinim counselors are Aaron Berger and Sapoz and Alyssa Solom and Emily Rosenbergstielstenthalblumberg. So where is the triple Argh you might be wondering. Tower staff has a 76 person eidah to run a puelah for tonight. Arg Arg Arg. Nothing further at the moment,
-Daniel
-Daniel
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
2 posts in 2 days
Second session has begun. A whole new set of kids, each with their own set of uh, unique abilities. Except in Gesher where there are only 4 new kids (and one new counselor) all from Israel. So that makes my job infinitely easier. I went to bed early last night in anticipation of getting up early (530) for the airport today. I did go to bed early. But then my kids came in from the Mall of Georgia at roughly 1:17 AM, and despite matt's best efforts made a huge ruckus and woke me up repeatedly. Once on the bus at 6:30 the next day our driver repeatedly stomped on the brakes making it awfully hard for anyone to stay asleep, due to the inertial movement of my body into the seat in front of me. At the airport everything ran A-OK. I was Deltaman (dun dun Da DAAAA) and with the help of my skycaps (porters that work at the airport) Cody and Willie I was able to transfer the 12 tons of luggage that the ERM... WTF MY KEYBOARD JUST WENT INSANE, MASSIVE KEYBOARD SHIFT IT CANT MAKE UP ITS MIND WHAT LANGUAGE TO BE IN. UMMM I AM GOING TO CONTINUE/EDIT THIS POST ON ANOTHER COMPUTER.
WTF MATE,
דניאל
OK. Different computer. This one appears to work. For now. Right, so the were 12 tonnes of luggage. AirTran had about 67 tonnes, including one flight that had 44 kids on it. Ridonkulous. Anyway we got all the bags but one, I think it's it Guatemala. Not my problem. I almost lost my cell phone today which would have made the entire day completely unbearable. I did have a really cool 16-channel walkie though. And Harry Potter 6 is coming out in 10 days. Get hype people,
-Daniel
WTF MATE,
דניאל
OK. Different computer. This one appears to work. For now. Right, so the were 12 tonnes of luggage. AirTran had about 67 tonnes, including one flight that had 44 kids on it. Ridonkulous. Anyway we got all the bags but one, I think it's it Guatemala. Not my problem. I almost lost my cell phone today which would have made the entire day completely unbearable. I did have a really cool 16-channel walkie though. And Harry Potter 6 is coming out in 10 days. Get hype people,
-Daniel
Monday, July 04, 2005
End of Session Aleph
Allthe kids are madly scrambling to say goodbye and then get themselves onto their busses. I have a staff meeting at 9:15 where sam (ashira is at a wedding) will say, "guys lets finish the tower inspection and wash all the ropes." And then we will do that and we will not have any work over intersession. Speaking of which, no one on gesher staff has any idea which campers are staying over intersession and which are getting grabbed by their parents. So that will be interesting. Word on the street is that there will be some form of a gesher trip during intersession, but again, no idea what that might be. It is a large balagan. The fam is coming up to camp on tuesday, sans my mother who is still working. Second session promises to be a little bit different for me because there will be no Gesher apprentices to do all the tower's dirty work, but on the other hand they will be gone for almost two weeks and I have no idea what I am going to do with all my free time. Any suggestions?
-Daniel
-Daniel
