24 Nov - Thanksgiving Eve
We're just going over to Charley's tomorrow, no big deal. I stopped at Bread & Circus this morning and got a salad for lunch, but they didn't have any mince pie filling. They did have a mob of customers. I stopped at Star in Newtonville, the one that's built out over the Mass Pike, on my way home and got my mince pie filling. Then I realized I'd need more eggs than were in the house, between pumpkin pie and cranberry nut bread, and went to Omni after supper and minyan.
We went to minyan because Phyllis had yahrzeit for her parents this week. We had run into her at Brickbottom on Sunday and she asked Arlene to go with her. We've known Phyllis since her daughter and Anne carpooled to nursery school, so probably twenty years. The deal with yahrzeit is that on the anniversary (according to the Hebrew calendar) of someone's death you say a special prayer for them, kaddish, in a congregation of at least ten people. Temple Emanuel is big enough that it has a congregation that size for daily prayers every evening and morning of the year; mostly the minyan is made up of people coming every day for a year (all right, so, eleven months) after a death plus people coming for yahrzeits.
The building was teeming with teenagers -- I can't believe it just came out like that, but what the heck -- for the United Synagogue Youth Turkey Dance. At the far end of the big foyer was a sign saying "Please don't go beyond this point." Of course it was meant for the USY kids, but, welcoming, much? It's a good thing Phyllis had us along to ignore the sign with her.
I declined an invitation to lead the service. When I've gone to minyan a few times in quick succession I can handle it, but that wasn't the case tonight. Besides, leading the service is considered an honor best given to someone who's saying kaddish. The chapel is octagonal with the reader's podium in the middle under a skylit cupola. The acoustics are great if you're reading or singing at that podium; all the sound bounces right back to you. Truth to tell, there's not all that much to leading the service. There are a half dozen places where everyone has been reading silently and you get to sing one or two verses at the end of a prayer and two places where you get to sing the whole kaddish by yourself. My big problem with it is that I don't read Hebrew as fast as many people who come to minyan every night. I don't start up with the verses at the ends of the long prayers as soon as they'd like.
I said "skylit cupola" but this is the evening service, so the skylight is dark. It still has good acoustics. The guy who did lead the service had a wonderful voice and knew better tunes for chanting those verses than I do, so I was glad I passed up the invitation.
Charley had phoned around suppertime to ask us to bring a couple of bottles of Coke for Thanksgiving, and I was already planning to go out for eggs. When I got back he had called again to ask us to get celery, but Arlene told him he missed his chance. I put together a cranberry nut bread and will leave the pies for the morning.
Rewind to this morning. I parked in my new favorite space again and swam 32 lengths is 21:15, the first 24 in 15:45. That's the kind of improvement that happens only at the beginning of the season, and it's only an improvement over the past two days, and only because I only swam once the previous week. There's only one chance in 10 to the 5 that I'll go in before next Monday, so I wanted to get in three workouts this week.
The sauna was just full of hot dry air today. More often, the older Russian men who use it like to sprinkle the heater with water with menthol in it. As soon as it bursts into steam the place feels hotter and the menthol hits you. It's like being inside a huge steaming hot Hall's cough drop. No question but that it does clear your nose and lungs.
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