Shabbat (with 13 people plus a dog in the mamad)

As Penina and Menashe were heading up to bed in the guest room/mamad she said something like, "I hope not to, but I'm fairly sure I'll see you all later. Good night!".  

The timing of Friday night's ballistic missile was much more "civilized" (likely the only time I will use that word in relation to the #$^&^! Houthis) and the air raid siren went off at 10:30 pm. In we all trooped, and, boy, we were quite a crowd. Cousin Coby's yeshiva was having their school-wide Shabbaton in our city, so he and three friends were staying on the third floor just for sleeping, with their meals elsewhere (and YAY for Coby for running a blazing fast 10K in the Ashkelon Road Race Friday morning: 44.43!!!). Ilana was staying with three friends from seminary in her room (squeezed in like sardines!) and Philly's own Eitan GS was in the den (and YAY for Eitan who ran 15K in Ashkelon that morning and had an amazing race!!! [So impressed with both of them because it was very cold and pouring rain Friday morning. Eek!]). So we did, indeed, fit 13 people plus a dog in our mamad (Ilana, her friends and I sat with Penina on her bed and everyone else was on/around/standing near Menashe's). Extra points to Coby's friend who, when the siren went off, thought to grab the candy platter off the dining room table where they had been hanging out and playing games. Since everyone had only briefly met upon arrival, this was our "ice breaker" time. Sheesh.....Quite convivial, though! And the rest of Shabbat was "quiet" (that's the code word everyone uses for "missile-free") and wonderful in every way, b''H. 

Sunday morning, I went for a gentle, relaxing, lovely 4K run before work. I pulled a leg muscle in December and I'm still working on my rehab. And it was, indeed, gentle, relaxing and lovely until km 3.5. I was near enough to home that I could see my block and also at the uphill part at the end where I was thinking of just walking the last 1/2 km since it was uphill and I'm trying not to push my body too much. And then I had the very weird experience on CLEARLY hearing the azaka siren, but in the distance. Pulled out my phone: nothing on the app (kind of funny that I pulled out my phone; believe me, you do not need to look at your phone to hear it when the Homefont Command app goes off). Maybe I was wrong and I was hearing an ambulance or something? No, ambulances don't have that kind of sustained WHOOOOOOOOOOO. So maybe it was too far away for me to need to do anything about. Meanwhile I was slogging up the hill. Then I heard the BOOM BOOM of the missile being intercepted and decided that I would *really* rather not be outside during this. The thought of possibly needing to lie down on the sidewalk with my hands over my head for ten minutes while I can SEE my house was just so unpleasant that I ran almost the whole way home (one walking break when my lungs were in total rebellion) and shaved an entire minute off my per kilometer time for that last bit 😂

Turns out that much of the country had an azaka and our city was juuuuust outside the zone that got the alert. For those of you know the area, the moshav where Shalom Shachne goes horseback riding had a siren. The part of our city that is literally across the street from the moshav did not. But people in that part of the city were every more confused than I was because they heard the siren quite loudly. 

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Today, I'm taking "before work" off to write this. My body is still recovering from that last 1/2 km!