Oh, my god, our stupid mortgage person just asked AGAIN for information we've provided at least twice. My mood is now grrrrr.

Um, I'm not entirely sure if the Natter thread even is the place for this (not that I have any idea where is - Delurking, maybe?), and I already apologize that it's once again in a skipping-lots-while-ignoring-ongoing-conversations-and-poking-my-head-for-a-short-time manner, but it's that time of year again, and, yeah, still in a risk of sounding a bit strange:

On Tuesday evening (as most of you clever people probably already know) starts the Jewish holiday of 'Yom Kippur', which means 'Day of Atonement'.

This is a day of soul searching, of trying to better define our faults to ourselves, and try to accept it upon ourselves to become, at least a little, better people. A day of repenting past wrongs we did, looking and finding it in our hearts to forgive wrongs done to us, and trying to remember to learn from this process in the rest of the days of the year. The holiest day of the year for practicing Jews.

On a rough division, there are two kinds of wrongs people can do: against G-d, and hurting their fellow human beings. In Jewish tradition, if the person committing a sin against G-d is truly sorry for what they did, repenting and taking it upon themselves to try and avoid repeating it, G-d forgives those sins.

The deeds which hurt other people, though, are not so 'easily' and personally forgiven. If somebody did anything to harm another person, they would not be able to cleanse themselves from that deed, no matter how much they'd pray and be sorry and repent and try to do good in the future, unless they make amends with the person who was hurt by that deed. As long as peace between people is not achieved, the 'sin', so to speak, is not 'erased from the books' above.

Regardless of the date in the year, I'd hate to think I'd offended somebody here (or everywhere else, for that matter). I don't think that the attempts of becoming a better person than one already is, is something that needs a date or a certain holiday for it, of course. It's just that, for me, having a certain day in the year to stop my daily runnings around, and think of nothing else but the really important things, is a good reminder of the order of priorities I'd like to have in my life.

So, since Wednesday will be, for me, this day of soul-searching, of trying to create a new start in my on-going effort of 'becoming a good human being, or at least a slightly better one', I would like to ask all of you here, if I offended anybody, or hurt any of you lovely people, to tell me about it, and give me the opportunity to apologize, fix it if possible, and also learn from my mistakes, and try to not repeat them (there are so many new ones to practice, why repeat old ones, you know?).

In case I offended anybody, and can't communicate directly with them about it (for whatever reason, especially with my ongoing absebce from the computer in the last few - I'm not even sure how to call it, years? ice-ages?), I can already say that I'm truly sorry. I can honestly say that I didn't mean to - you're all so considerate and thoughtful and generally all-around lovely, that there's absolutely no room for such a thing here. However, I might have had a slip of a keyboard, or mistaken somebody's intentions, or many other possible so forths. Y'all are so understanding, you probably tried to find excuses for me and didn't take offense anyway, but I want to make sure, all the same.

Please don't get me wrong - I'm definitely not trying to go around in a 'holier-than-thou' show off, or force my personal beliefs on others, or make statements which may be understood as criticizing anybody else's beliefs (or lack thereof) and way of living. If anything, being around here, among such a rich versatile group of kind and clever people, has exposed me to a lot more ways of choosing to lead one's life than I've ever had a chance to see before, and has shown me much more of the beauty and richness that is the world we live in.

[Edit: this is especially true this year, with my oh-so-short time-not-in-front-of-students-or-kids, computer time and internet access, which gave way for too many opportunities to unintentionally miss stuff or seem to ignore (undeliberately!) people or their posts.

Sometimes in absence you can hurt people just as much as when you're present. Or even more so, only differently. And at the same time, you guys are always so there-for-anybody-who-needs (including little me - even when I don't get to get to the computer, I still know that you're there, that no matter what, if I ask, you're there for me, even after all my absence and lack of giving back).

So this is a chance to also post: Thank you.]

Hi Nilly! It is always so nice to see your pixels.

Nilly, my wish for you - be well, be loved, be happy.

Hi, Nilly.

The woman who made me so mad on NPR last week continued to be an an idiot this morning.

"The only people really who are having an issue with [the video of Trump] are the Hillary people and the traitor Republicans such as Rob Portman, John McCain, Jeff Flake, all those people are the ones who are having the issues with this ... I've been to bachelorette parties that I've heard women talk about things. ... I mean, men talk about those things. It's just, that's the way it is."

I just flew through the remnants of Matthew on a 40-seat plane. It was a little bumpy, but not as bad as one would imagine. My only problem with turbulence is that I'm easy motion-sick. And the landing was incredibly smooth.

Today would have been fine if it weren't for my seat-mate who was reeking of cologne and booze. At first I thought he was just hungover, but once the beer burps started, I realized he was drunk. His behaviour was fine. He was polite and mostly sleeping, but the smell of him almost did me in. I had to have the blower going and leaned forward into it, so I couldn't smell him.

Yikes, Sue. Had a good Thanksgiving, at least?

Love you, Nilly! Let us know how you and the fam are in Delurking?

I mean, men talk about those things. It's just, that's the way it is."

I posted this elsewhere, but sure, k, fine, say that IS what men talk about in a locker room. The walking dumpster fire had a mic on. It was not the first time he had ever had a mic. Saying things like that with a mic, even if you don't know if it is on, is the height of stupidity. I'm actually shocked that he hasn't complained about THAT mic.

Yikes, Sue. Had a good Thanksgiving, at least?

Yeah it was nice. I ate just enough to be full, but not uncomfortably full. I call that a win!

Hi, Nilly! We miss you when you're not here, but our lives are better with you in it, so there's that.

Okay. I have requested coverage while I'm out of office, ordered foreign currency and got a small corporate discount, and I think I got a prescription renewal approved without having to go to the doctor's office. I think I'm making pretty good progress on my To Do list. It's probably foolish to say that. Did I just jinx myself?