Timelies all!

Health~ma to your dad, amyparker.

It's the Jewish holiday of Lag Ba'omer starting tonight, and at a celebration in Israel (at the tomb of the rabbi that this holiday honors), we're seeing news that there was a crowd stampede, with numerous casualties.

I'm kind of numb, and trying to figure out who I need to check in with, and I fucking hate all of this.

Seriously unfortunate cross-post. Hil - that's awful. I wish you peacefulness of heart.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Catching up after a busy as heck day (in person) at the office. Too much to meara, but love & ~ma to all, as needed.

I'm certainly not comfortable being "successful" by not treating people as well as I can.

But I had to comment on that. Thank you, Drew, for saying it. I sometimes feel like too many people are lacking in empathy, compassion, fellow-feeling, just general being a decent person-ness. Thank you for being a good guy in deed as well as word.

I'm sorry, Hil. I echo Epic's wish for you of peacefulness of heart.

Parker, I'm so sorry that you and your family are going through this. I wish peace, comfort, strength, courage, and healing wherever it's most appropriate. You, you get virtual hugs until we can share real ones.

For those contending with mold in damp places, I recommend Damp-Rid. It's been a godsend here in the daaammp PNW. It's not a fix but it is a solution that works, even though you have to monitor and change out the containers when they get full of water.

And it brought back a memory. My XDiL was a clean person--not fanatic, but I'm saying she should have come to my house and cleaned, would have made me a happy woman. She and StE rented a cute little house that had a bad dampness problem in the bathroom; it nearly had her in tears. Despite regular and rigorous cleaning, the sheet vinyl flooring in one corner persisted in peeling back and revealing the undersurface covered in teeeny tiny perfect little white mushrooms. It was kind of cute and fascinating, but then, not. They moved not long after, but the sight of the Miyazaki kodama mushrooms has stayed with me and appeared from time to time in dreams. If I'd known then about Damp-Rid...but who knows?

And also, much agreed with the good-eggness of DCP.

re: The Damp and Mold - we have benefitted mightily from having a Dehumidifier in our bedroom. Huge difference.

ION, Dana! You know who she is! Admit it! [link]

I just sent off an email to some of my Israeli cousins, and to Nilly, making sure they're all OK.

I don't know what else to do. I'm reciting psalms, because that's what I'm supposed to do in times like these.

Half my Twitter feed now is Jews in mourning, and the other half doesn't even know what happened.

And now the performative anti-Zionists have found out about it. (Most of the Jews killed were probably anti-Zionist, but understanding nuance doesn't get you likes on Twitter.)

Wishes for a very happy birthday to Gris! May the year to come be filled with love and joy.

Also find on the birthday calendar that a certain rapidly growing child in Australia has rounded the calendar once again. Happy birthday to Ryan!

And I am with all my siblings in Bonita Springs celebrating my sister Judi's 71st birthday. We went to the movies last night to give her new wheelchair a test run. I had to do quite the run to go up the incline into the theater, then had the fun of pretending run-away wheelchair going out. I think there were 2 other people in the theater. One employee doing tickets and snacks and everything.

ION, Dana! You know who she is! Admit it!

I was going to say that if she's writing these days, it's very likely C-drama, but not if she was on LJ back in the day. Hmmmm.

Such awful news about the deaths in Israel. Has anyone heard from Shir?