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.