Israel

In 1983, I went with a tour group to Israel.  I'm glad I did it when I was young.  There's a lot of climbing and walking on a tour like that and some of the older ladies had some trouble with the slopes, steps, and hikes we took. 

We started in the upper part of the country, where I stood at the Syrian border and the Lebanese border on the same day.  I got a close-up view of razor wire.  Nasty stuff!

We covered the nation from the north to the south in 10 days. I ate everything that wasn't nailed down and lost 4 pounds while I was there. Two reasons for that, I walked all day, every day I was there, and the only sugar I had was a piece of baklava and one can of Coke - which tasted different from what we get here. I think it's the water.

I remember one night reading my Bible under the covers with a flashlight (shades of my childhood) and realizing that even the prepositions are correct.  For instance, on a map the Galilee is "up" and Jerusalem is "down". So when the Bible says Jesus went up from Galilee to Jerusalem, there is a "viewpoint issue. However, if you are on the ground traveling from the Galilee (below sea level) to Jerusalem (2500 feet above sea level), you do indeed go up to Jerusalem. 

I was able to see the places where the famous people of the Bible walked, worked and played. It made a world of difference in my viewpoint and gave me additional grounding for my faith.

Go if you are able. You will never be the same.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi

Dog Shirts

When I was around 50, we had two golden retreivers and lived in New Hampshire.

New Hampshire has more than four seasons. They go like this:

Winter
Mud season
Spring - sort of
Biting Fly season
Motorcycle season
Tourists with Families season
Colors (or Autumn in New England, but not Fall)
After the Leaves and Before the Snow season (optional)
Winter - also known as Ski season

We used to walk the dogs about two and a half miles through our little town and around a small lake and back home.  As you can imagine, there were times during the year when they would flip slush all over their bellies and we would be a complete mess when we got home.

At first, I would have them jump in a snow bank to clean off some of the crud from their bellies and back legs. It helped but didn't finish the job.

Finally, I decided to take a couple of old t-shirts (large fits around a golden) and cover their bellies with something washable. You need a large t-shirt to go around their backs and down as far as their armpits without dragging on them. Then there will be too much material around their lower parts. Easily solved. I took an old belt or a length of yarn and tied the extra material up close to their bellies.

When we got home, I still had to wiped down their back legs, but that was a lot less territory to cover than their until under-side.

P.S. We used to stop many times on our walks because the tourists would say, "What pretty dogs! Oh, I'm so homesick for my dogs. We had to put our dogs in the kennel before we came. May we pet your dogs?" Chester and Chelsea sucked up the attention like it was their meat-and-drink and we made many a tourist happier.

Thanks for visiting with me,

Kathi