We moved on from South Carolina, arriving in Delray Beach, FL, at the beginning of November.  All set up and settled in.  My folks arrived a few weeks later.  All has been quiet.  We had Thanksgiving at my cousin Amy’s house, about two hours north of here, and Chanukah/Christmas Week/New Years, at home, with minor festivities.

This week, I built a small handicraft, that I find quite pretty.  After a knocked over table cost us our two glass Shabbat Candlesticks, I took a nice Bamboo breadboard from the supermarket, and drilled a few holes, creating this:

New Shabbat Candle Holder

The little glass cups, and associated small candles, are called Neronim, and they are a novel way to light Shabbat Lights.  The glasses keep the candles from blowing in the breeze, the was melts to liquid quickly, and then they burn for about six hours. We like ‘em. Gonna try this rig out tonight.  Good Shabbos.

Texas State Capitol

There is a large electric menorah that stands in front of the State Capitol building 24×7, and, at sundown, a traditional candle Chanukiah* is lit.

The Electric Menorah

The event’s special guest, lighting the menorah was State Representative Elliott Naishtat, of the 49th district, which covers central Austin. Rep. Naishtat both threw the switch on the electric menorah and also said the blessings and lit the candle Chanukiah.

Rabbi Levertov, with Rep Elliott Naishtat who is saying the blessings

Rabbi Levertov, with Rep Elliott Naishtat, having accomplished his mission

I always enjoy these things.  Roseann and I had our first date at the 1982 Chanukah Lighting in Union Square in San Francisco. The holiday is all about spreading light and knowledge, so getting out and lighting in public is a good and valuable thing.

(Note that the man in the beard is Rabbi Yosef Levertov, of Chabad in Austin.)

The idea is that you pull it apart into sections for each person at the table. Of course, there are only going to be two of us at the table, so the whole thing is a bit outlandish, but I wanted to make one and see how it would come out. You can’t use it for sandwiches, or to make french toast, so I guess we’ll just have to eat it.

The other challah is a normal loaf.

We’ve been here in Conroe, Texas, at the Conroe Condo, since last Friday, and after much preparation and work, had two Passover Seders. I did almost all the cooking, preparing, serving, and about half the cleanup, for our four person family, and I will tell you, I don’t know how my mom (and so many others that I know) did it.  I was beat. It should be remembered that many families go through a much more intricate and intense Passover preparation including a stem-to-stern cleaning, changing all dishes, covering countertops and shelves, and, in general, making almost everything in the house new again. We aren’t that religious, and didn’t do that, but even so, I was exhausted.

I made Matzoh Balls, Gefilte Fish, a turkey, a pot-roast, Charoses, Maror, Passover cake mixes, and all the trimmings and trappings of the holiday. I did all the shopping and planning as well. I also conducted one of the two Seders.  It was a labor of love and I’m very pleased with the result, but as I said, I was totally wiped out.

Yesterday, after all the hoopla was over, Roseann and I took all our carefully obtained and collected documents, and drove over to Livingston, Texas, county seat of Polk County. There we visited the office of Marion A “Bid” Smith, the assessor and tax collector for the county, where we registered the two vehicles, receiving license plates and stickers. We then went down to the driver’s license office at the state Department of Public Safety, and got our new Texas licenses and IDs. We have a booklet, How To Become A Real Texan to thank for being prepared, and being able to do this process in one try.

Once all this was accomplished, we drove down to Rainbow’s End, to get our mail. As I wrote above, this is the headquarters park for Escapees, and houses the mail service. Our address is here, one of many on Rainbow Drive. This is kind of symbolic. The name, Rainbow’s End, implies a destination, and we’ve been on the road heading here for the past month.  (To be fair, it was only nine days of driving. The rest of the days were stay-over days.) Nonetheless, it’s only a stop along the line, as we are not going to stay here for more than a few weeks to a month.

We’ll be here in Conroe till Monday, then over to Livingston to stay at Rainbow’s End for a week or so. Roseann has a medical visit scheduled. I have work to do, so we’ll dwell here for a bit and then move on.

Future plans are made, but as I always say, Man plans and G-d laughs, so we’ll hold these plans until we’re ready to execute on them.

(There are few photos, and I’ve been separated from my CF card reader, so we’ll catch up on those in a few days.)

We shunpiked again today, leaving Columbus, TX to the north, rather than to the east. First stop was Columbus Tire, where we got our trailer inspected.  This completes the pre-work, and we are now good to go for our visit to the Polk County Clerk for vehicle registration.

The ride then took us north on FM 109 to Brenham, TX, then on Texas 105 through Navasota, and on to Conroe.

Brenham is a nice old town, the biggest we’ve seen since San Antonio. It’s also the home of Congregation B’nai Avraham, the oldest orthodox synagogue in Texas. We learned about this on a website of small synagogues. I went to photograph the building. I had no expectation of finding anybody to let me in, and so my lack of expectation was properly met. I was really saddened by this. The building stands empty, with occasional visitors. There may be High Holiday services, and there may not – it depends on which website you read. I was thinking that if I could get in, I would take my Tallis and Tefillin, and say the morning prayers. Perhaps G-d would appreciate hearing a “still small voice” coming from this old synagogue.

Moving on, we arrived at Conroe by about 12:30, went over to Thousand Trails and dropped off the trailer. By 4:00, we were ensconced in the “Conroe Condo” at Silverleaf Piney Shores.

We’ll be spending the next week making the Passover seders here, and during the week, we’ll try to get the vehicles registered.

• Hear the reading of the Megillah — The Book of Esther.
• Give Charity
• Give gifts of food
• Eat, Drink and be Merry (I like this one :)

This is the second year that we’ve attended a Megillah reading at a Chabad while traveling. The first was two years ago, in Las Vegas.

We are in Mesa, Arizona, and we attended at the Chabad of Mesa, located in the home of Rabbi and Mrs. Blotner. The Rabbi and his wife were quite busy, so I didn’t get to talk to him much. I think they got about 50 people that evening.  Rabbi Blotner was in costume, a Chinese Food takeout container. A photo of him without the Megilla is in the album shown below. The large photo here is of the Rabbi holding the Megilla open to be seen. It’s a parchment scroll, made similarly to the Torah Scroll. There are five megillot. Esther is one, Ruth is another. Also, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs. Each is read on a particular Jewish holy day.

We got started at about 8. The event was called for 7:30, so it started on-time, as measured by Chabad time :) Seriously though, the Rabbi chose to wait for several folks to show up who had been instrumental in putting the event on. Not only was there a Megillah Reading, but also a Chinese dinner and music.  The problem is that Chabad can’t go down to the Golden Wok down the road and get their Chinese food. This dinner was strictly kosher, and was prepared by volunteers. The food was fabulous. There was also a band, on guitar, mandolin, hammered dulcimer, recorder and drums. Jewish melodies were played, food was served, the kids played basketball. There was also a juggler.

The whole event was marvelous. I was made most welcome, had a fine time, and would love to get to know Rabbi and Mrs. Blotner better.

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We went to Birchat HaChama on the beach in Boca Raton, FL.   The event was co-organized by all the synagogues in the area. The morning opens, as all good mornings should, with the morning prayers. There were three minyanim, or services, going on. One each for Ashkenaz, Sephard and Chabad custom.

After the morning prayers were finished, we were told, “even though we had three minyanim, we will all move down to the beach where we will recite the blessing on the sun together, as one people.”  We did.

The experience was uplifting. The size of the community and the fellowship with folks that I did not “know”, yet was connected to, was very moving.

Lots of photos were taken by lots of people, including the three that I took on my phone, below.

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Boruch Dayan Emes…. indeed.