Category Archives: Getting ready

No time to blog

Very busy with finishing the packing and prepping the house for our renters. In the midst of all of this, it has suddenly become real to me that we’re walking away from a perfectly good life — nice house, great neighbors, great community, great job, etc., etc. Kind of reminds me of a line Clint Eastwood said in Heartbreak Ridge just before a parachute drop: “Jumping out of a perfectly good aircraft is not a natural act.”

But, just as the brave, brave soldiers of Heartbreak Ridge leaped to save the people of Grenada, so we have our own heroic mission. As Gunney finished, “So let’s do it right, enjoy the view. Come on.”

Progress

Haven’t posted in a while, because the progress we’re making in preparations has been steady, but uneventful.

  • We have lined up friends to take our cars, and figured out how to handle the insurance.
  • Magazine & WSJ subscriptions are canceled (WSJ converted to web access).
  • We signed up for a remote mail service (www.usamail1.com) to deal with mail that comes while we’re away.
  • I got my iPhone unlocked, so I can get Israeli cell phone service, and confirmed that we are eligible for Orange’s package deal (~$35/mo. for unlimited minutes/texts in Israel, unlimited incoming calls from abroad, unlimited minutes to U.S. landlines, 1G data) even without being citizens. We will need to get Debbie an unlocked phone, though.
  • We have our new laptop to take with us, and I’m in the process of transferring our files from the desktop.
  • I stocked up on non-iron white dress shirts, and other clothing needs.
  • I’m getting final tasks at the office finished up.
  • Our visa applications are all in — including Mordechai’s, as we got his passport in time.
  • I renewed my driver’s license, which would otherwise expire while we’re there.

and, critically:

  • We have a foster home for Shpilkes, and a trial run for Nemo this Sunday.

What’s left? Lots of packing, which is underway (at this point, that means packing up stuff that’s staying; soon we’ll start packing stuff that’s going), and a few other odds-and-ends, like getting broadband internet without a landline or cable. And figuring out how we’re going to get from the airport to the Old City and how we’re going to get the key when we probably won’t make it to the Old City until about 1:00 a.m.

Cats! And another Internet law.

My friend Greg pointed out that I’m doing a lousy job marketing the cats – I should be posting cute pics of them. Fair enough!

This leads me to an observation about the Internet: All blogs eventually become catblogs.

I don’t know if it is 100% true, but it’s the kind of blanket statement that the Internet loves. I’m deeming it Shmikler’s Surmise.

Now, on to the fuzzy:

 

Logistics!

With most of the big things settled, we’re down to the nitty-gritty, which is not such great blog material. We got got Mordechai’s passport application in – by the way, how silly is it that he has his picture in there? Can people really tell babies apart? And a week later, he already looks different. By the time we leave, the pic will already be totally useless, not to mention the remainder of the 5-year life of the passport. I can already anticipate the scene in the airport where I have to convince a skeptical TSA agent that babies grow.

I had a very nice visit to the Israeli consulate to apply for our visas (which we’ll need since we’re staying more than 6 months). We were a diverse bunch waiting to get in – a late-teens/early-20s woman getting a student visa; an extremely chiloni-looking Israeli with his hair slicked back and his shirt unbuttoned to his belly button, wearing a sweet and sheepish look; and me, the religious fanatic – but there remained this unspoken camaraderie among us because, well, you know. Security was beyond tight, as you’d expect. The screening guy was another sweet young Israeli guy. I’ve come to really enjoy Israeli security screenings. They ask you so many questions, but it turns out you can ask your own if you’d like. I still haven’t succeeded in getting any of them to accept a Shabbos invite, but I’m going to keep trying.

We still have to decide whether it makes sense to ship anything. The apartment reportedly has linens & towels, so there’s not all that much we’d want to ship. For the relatively small quantity in question, it doesn’t seem to be any cheaper than just paying for a couple of extra suitcases.

Still need to line up cell phone service in Israel (assuming we’ll set up internet once we get there), figure out what we’re doing about our mail, and pack up the house for our renters.

Oh, yeah, and find a home for the cats.

Welcome Mordechai Leib Shmikler

Okay, now we’re ready for the passport application. Mordechai Leib entered the bris of Avraham Avinu this morning, and received his name. No one is happier than Yitzi, who took great offense at our joke that we were going to name his baby brother “Honey Peanut.”

Mordechai is named for Debbie’s paternal grandfather. He was famous for his ahavas Yisrael (love for his fellow Jew), which we hope his namesake will also enjoy.

We are still deciding on a nickname. “Mordy” is the obvious, but I can’t seem to say it without putting on my Old Jewish Man voice: “Mordy, pass the herring!”

In other news, we found an apartment

Lost in the hubbub over the newest, tiniest Shmikler, there’s other good news. It looks like we have an apartment in the Old City lined up. In fact, I was emailing with the landlord from the hospital last night (“Push!” “I am pushing, but he won’t budge off of his rent demand…”).

It is a 3BR, near Batei Mahse Square. By American standards, not so big (we really don’t appreciate just how much space we’ve got in this country) but it is well-suited for our needs.

There’s so much else to think about right now that it hasn’t sunk in what it means that we’ll be living in the Old City of Jerusalem. Right after we were married, Debbie & I went on a trip to Israel and stayed with friends of friends for Shabbos in the Old City. It struck us then how crazy it was that people could live there. Debbie described it as like living in the fairy castle in the middle of Disneyland.

Those “friends of friends” are now our friends as well, and soon will be our neighbors. The apartment is right near their place. Crazy.

Cat setback

Well, we’re back to looking for a temporary home for both cats. Nemo went on a trial run to the vet’s assistant over Shabbos, and it didn’t go well. There was an incident, which was not his fault.

Again, for the benefit of those considering hosting him, it was not his fault.

Anyway, she has a cat and two dogs of her own. So, she kept Nemo in a separate room for starters (this is a key part of gradually introducing a new cat to existing pets). She went to go check on Nemo in the middle of the night (he was lonely, and crying), and her own cat zipped into the room before she could stop him. Her cat then attacked Nemo.

Apparently, a full-on, roadhouse-style brouhaha ensued, complete with Nemo trying to climb the blinds to escape his attacker. One of her dogs interceded on Nemo’s behalf (!), resulting in a fight between her cat and the dog. The room is reportedly much worse for the wear, although Nemo’s wounds are, B”H, purely emotional.

She apologetically explained to us tonight that Nemo is very sweet and – I can’t emphasize this enough – totally not at fault for what happened, but this doesn’t look like a good match.

If anyone has any ideas, we’d love some leads.

Shavua Tov!

Our house is rented.

We’ve had a number of inquiries about whether our house is available for rent while we’re gone. Given the slow pace of our other preparations, it would be reasonable to assume no progress there as well, but B”H, this part has worked out.

Our place is going to be rented by a friend of a friend, who is a professor of Jewish History at the College of Charleston. He’s taking a yearlong sabbatical himself to ease his daughter into high school here in Chicago, and needed a place for the same timetable we’re going to be gone, so it was truly hashgacha pratis.