That pretty much sums up today and tomorrow — Yom Kippur is over (thanks to the Rileys for the splendid break-the-fast), and the painters are supposed to arrive tomorrow morning.  We are not ready, despite Diane’s best efforts (my efforts so far don’t qualify as “best”, I’m afraid), and so this must be a very short posting so I can help.

The Merc ‘fesses up

Apparently yesterday’s “severe production problems” were actually due to a protest from the carriers about the price of gasoline and an increased workload.  The protest continued today, at least for my carrier.  I wonder if we’ll get a paper tomorrow.

Why didn’t I try that 16 years ago?

Ever since we moved into this house, we’ve been annoyed by the nails the previous owners had left in the living room wall.  Since they painted the house just before selling it, I assumed that the nails were well and truly imbedded in something and would be hard to take out, and so we put art on the wall in spots picked to cover the nails as best as we could.

But with the painters coming tomorrow, I decided it was worth trying to get the nails out so that, perhaps, we could have a nice-looking wall at the end of the process.  So I dug out my pliers and discovered that the nails were firmly imbedded in not much of anything — they came out with almost no effort.  If I’d only realized how easy it was, I’d’ve done it years ago!

It’s almost time to start thinking about dinner so that we can finish before Yom Kippur begins and we head off to Kol Nidre services — by this time tomorrow, after fasting for a day, it will be all too easy to think about dinner!  In theory, fasting is supposed to help you concentrate on the meaning of the day, but I find that, at least late in the day, it distracts me; my body is very interested in letting me know that it hasn’t been fed or watered and wants my attention.

I just looked at the online edition of the Jerusalem Post and read that the chaplain of the Israel Defense Forces has given permission to break the fast to all soldiers involved in fighting on Yom Kippur.  May no one have to use this permission.

The search for color

We spent part of the afternoon looking at houses our painter had done, in hopes of finding one with a color we’d like.  We found two that are reasonable shades of blue, but neither of them was The One.  I guess it’s back to the sample books.

Severe Production Difficulties

I got up this morning, went outside, and there was no paper on the driveway.  I looked at the neighbors’ houses, and, as far as I could tell without my glasses, they didn’t have papers either.  And when I got through to the Merc’s customer service number, the recording told me that they’d had “severe production difficulties” last night and that they were not going to be able to deliver papers to those who had been missed — I guess that they decided it was more profitable to fill the news vending machines.

Fortunately, the most important section of the Sunday paper is delivered on Saturday, so we already had the comics.  And Dave Barry’s column is available online, and Dan Gillmor’s is usually covered by his weblog, so I’m set there, too.  But it is interesting to see that the Merc’s website doesn’t mention today’s problems at all.

Deciding … Better

I can empathize with Hal’s decision to put blivet on hiatus until he can get his thesis done.  I know I find weblogs, newsgroups, and web pages to be exceptionally attractive as distractions — as if I needed any more distractions in my life!

As the gates begin to close…

Back tomorrow night, most likely, after break-the-fast.  May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year.