Two months ago, I mentioned that I’d spent a couple of hours on hold with Grohe to get them to replace the pull-out spray head on our kitchen faucet, which I was supposed to receive at the end of October.

October came and went; I contacted Grohe again (this time by e-mail!) and got a reply a few days later, telling me that the part would be shipped in late November. They missed that deadline, too, but not by much – they shipped it on December 1 and I got it yesterday.

This morning, when I was ready to install it, I discovered two little doohickeys in the box with no explanation or instructions.

The white one looked like what was in the old spray head, but I couldn’t figure out how to install it, so I Googled and discovered that they were flow restrictors. I didn’t find instructions on how to install them, so I installed the spray head without one.

Boy, what a difference, especially when it comes to dislodging stuck-on food from a pan! And it’s easy to turn down the water for normal use, so I don’t even feel guilty about having a higher maximum flow available than I am probably legally entitled to have.

I still can’t figure out how to put in the restrictor so that it would stay in, but I don’t feel compelled to find the answer.

Like nearly every Saturday, we spent the day “at” Shir Hadash. But today was unlike every other Saturday, because this evening was the tribute to our Rabbi, Melanie Aron. She’s retiring at the end of the year, though we are fortunate that she’s staying in the area and will become our Rabbi Emerita.

If there hadn’t been a pandemic, the event would have been in person at the synagogue and there might have been issues with the Fire Marshal (and there are plans to have an in-person event when conditions allow), but as it was, we all gathered around our screens and celebrated that way. And because we were online, distance was not a barrier – members who had moved away were able to attend. And the acoustics were great (especially for the pre-recorded musical numbers – our former custodian knocked it out of the park with “L’chi Lach”)!

There were interviews, non-stop tributes in the chat, music, and even a surprise sign event – Diane made our sign and we held it up on cue.

Next week, there will be “Drive By Goodbyes” to Rabbi Aron – it’ll be good to see her in person, but tonight was special.

Lunch today was another experiment, Delicata, Radicchio, and Black Rice Salad from last Sunday’s Mercury News. We couldn’t find Delicata squash, though, so we substituted Kabocha, which meant we had to do more work because it doesn’t have edible skin. And the black rice we chose took nearly an hour to cook (something I didn’t realize until we were actually making the food!). But the final product was tasty, and we were able to eat it outside on a beautiful late fall day.

This evening was the beginning of the official goodbye for Shir Hadash’s Senior Rabbi, Melanie Aron. She’s been with the congregation for 30 years, and she’s made an enormous impact on the community, the congregation, and us. Fortunately, she will be staying here and will become our Rabbi Emerita on January 1st, so we won’t be losing her completely!

Shabbat Shalom!

I had big plans for today. I was going to attend two Toastmasters meetings, get caught up on Quicken, read the Economist, and continue my streak of closing all three rings on my Apple Watch. And maybe finally get around to restringing the blinds in the bathroom, too!

How’d I do on reaching my goals? I got to one Toastmasters meeting and just closed the final ring on my watch a minute ago (at nearly 10pm). I spent a lot of time reading a thread on Twitter where a lawyer dissected the filings in 45’s latest suit in Wisconsin (for some reason, Screen Time isn’t nagging me properly on my phone, so I can get lost in Twitter and Facebook more than I want to allow). I checked the temperature in our ovens against the new thermometer – the ovens run a good bit cooler than they claim, as I suspected.

And that was about it for productivity today. Good thing I’m retired!

We bought our Ring Doorbell about four years ago. It’s never had the promised “six month” battery life, which didn’t surprise me at all, but over the years, it’s gotten shorter and shorter. I had to charge it today, less than a month after the last time. That’s annoying, but it won’t be a real problem until we start to travel again (I don’t want the battery to die while we’re traveling) – so I need to replace it before that happens.

The obvious replacement is another Ring Doorbell; the 2020 model is only $100, but it, too, has a non-replaceable battery. The Ring Doorbell 3 has a removable battery, but it costs $200, which is quite a premium for convenience and possibly longer life.

I could also try to move my existing Ring to the side of the door where my old doorbell is and power it that way – it feels like the video would be of people’s sides rather than their face, but maybe that would be OK. And maybe it would connect faster – as it is, I rarely can connect to the doorbell before the person ringing it gives up!

Are any of you using other video doorbells that you like?