Drops of Fire

Weekend is here. When you don’t have an office job you don’t know to appreciate is as much, as you can take almost any day off. Patti came home and cooked us some dinner with lots of power in it. I think she called it mussels or muscles or something like that. It lives in the sea and stink like a fish. That was unforgettable dinner.

Beyond Insanity

Friday, Saturday 14th, 2011 – Let me start and tell you this – I LOVE hot food. I make my own hot paste from habaneros garlic and cilantro and eat it sparingly on many different types of foods, to enhance the flavor and spice it up. My friends know I love hot food, and many times will buy a new hot sauce for me. Insanely hot, stupidly fire and whatever creative names. Many of them were just hot sauce on sour basis, more like Tabasco, but nothing special. I used most of them and some of them I just didn’t like but none was too hot for me.
You probably guessing what I am going to tell you, aren’t you?
Remember when Patti went with Serena to this Winery? They stopped at some specialty store and Patti bought this special hot sauce for me. It said DA’BOMB Beyond Insanity on the label. Another one of those… I thought, and it sat in  the refrigerator, waiting to the right opportunity.
And the opportunity came. Patti came tired from work and was hungry. The Thermomix is champion in making quick full healthy meals, so Patti looked for a recipe for tonight and came up with mussels and rice. When the food was ready I tasted it and wasn’t so thrilled with the fishy taste of the mussels on the rice. I said: “Hey Patti – do we have one of those interesting hot sauces so I can spice it up”? – “Sure”, she said. and gave me this bottle. I didn’t even read the label. They all look the same. I just opened it and poured some generous portion on my rice.
And…
…And…
    …And…
Oh man. I was crying! My mouth was on fire, my ears got red, my nose dripped water, I could not breath, neither in nor out. Didn’t  know what to put in my mouth to put off the fire. I swallowed all the tomatoes in the refrigerator, drank a bottle of tomato juice, ate cucumber with the pill, drank a full glass of wine. Nothing. I swalloed the napkin and scratched my tongue with my nails. My mouth was on bigger fire. I though to put Orajel to numb my tongue, but I could not find it. My eyes were full of tears and I could not see anything.
Oh my god, I was in pain and tears. and Patti? Oh she was laughing so bad, she couldn’t stop. She was literally rolling on the floor laughing, as if to say – Finally we beat the beast! The unbeatable spicy food eater was cracked down! We found the mother of all heat! She thought it was hilarious! Wish I had pictures to show you, but I could not even think and Patti was busy laughing.
It took well over an hour for the pain to calm down. Not disappear, but that was not the end of it. I could feel this concentrated acid solution crawling through my stomach and intestines. I could point exactly were it was in every second! and boy it hurt… and I was thinking – if it hurt coming in… oh boy. I was scared to go pee. For one – I was dreading the pain, but also I was afraid that the toilet is going to dissolve. What am I gonna tell the insurance guy? I peed acid? I don’t think they cover that.
I spent half the night in our tiny little bathroom. I know the number of stripes on each wallpaper. I counted them all. The discomfort is still there to this moment – almost 24 hours after. Wait, listen to this - I had a feel of burn on my finger this afternoon, so I put my tongue on the burning area – wow – it was hot!! Do you know how many times I washed my hand with soap before that?
So remember the label.

Love story

I was exchanging emails yesterday regarding Patti and what’s good for her and best for us, and how much one should care about his spouse, and while I was writing this email I remembered I read a nice story on the Facebook wall of one of my friends. This was in Hebrew and probably translated, so translating it back would probably change it from the original even more, so if you heard it before – forgive the deviation. Here it is:
A well known professor stood in front of a group of young people that was against the concept of marriage in relationship. In their eyes, a relationship should come to an end when romance is no longer present, instead of getting into the boredom of Parity.
The professor told them that he respects their opinion and told them the following story:
My parents were married for 55 years. One morning my mom went down the stairs to fix breakfast for my dad, when she got an heart attack and fell down. My dad lifted her up as much as his strength would allow, carried her to the car and drove her to the hospital hysteric, ignoring any traffic rule or sign.
When they approached the hospital my mom was already dead. During the funeral my dad didn’t say a word. His eyes were glazed and he seem totally lost. He almost did not cry. That night, we went home and in the atmosphere of pain and nostalgia we remembered al those beautiful moments we shared.
My dad asked my brother, who is  a theologist, to explain to him where is my mom right now, and my brother started talking about life after death and made some assumptions where my mom could possibly be.  My dad listened to his explanation, and finally asked: “Plese take me to the cemetery”. “Dad”, we said… “It is 11:00pm, you can’t go to a cemetery in the middle of the night”. He raised his voice, his eyes were glazed and said “Please, do not argue with me!! Do not argue with a man that just lost the one who used to be his wife for 55 years!!” It became silent. We didn’t argue. We took him to the cemetery.
The guard at the gate let us in, and with a flashlight we found the grave. My dad touched the grave, that was still warm, with his hand and start crying Piteously…. He looked at the grave and told us: “You know, I had the best 55 years. No one can talk about real love if he does not have a clue what is it to share his life with a wife”. He stopped crying and a spark showed on his eyes, and he continued “Her and I had the same crisis when we had to switch jobs, we were a special crew when we got relocated. We shared the happiness when you kids were born, when we watched you graduate, when you got married, when you had babies… We cried together when we lost good friends. We prayed together in waiting rooms of hospitals, we supported each other in pain and sorrow, we hugged and kissed every holiday and forgave each other when we had mistakes. – but now that she has left, I am happy. You know why?? because she left first!! She doesn’t need to live the pain and horrible sorrow of burying me. She doesn’t need to stay by herself after I die. I know my day will come, and I am graceful to God for that… You know.. all my life I loved you mom, and now I love her more than anything!!!  I would have felt horrible had she have to go through the suffer of dealing with my death..”
When dad finished talking and crying, our faces were wet from tears. We hugged him, and he, in his special way, comforted us and said “All is good now my dear friends. We can go home now. It was a good day. Mom is finally resting…”
I didn’t sleep that night. It was that night when I realized what real love is all about. It is very different than romance. Nothing to do with erotica. Real love is the bond between two individuals, the work and care that a married couple who live together are sharing, in partnership and companionship.
When the professor finished his story, the students stared down, and stood in silence. This kind of love they simple never heard of before.
That is the story, and any additional word is out of place.

We are full timers

So I don’t need to change the title of the blog… We are still Full Time RVers!!! Yay! Aren’t you happy for me? Patti decided she is not going back to work for this company. The benefits of this job simply don’t make it worthy. It is not the place we wanted to settle down, we did not want to stop RVing and traveling, This job is not going to utilize Patti’s skills and potential and cause her a lot of tense, and finally – it doesn’t seem to be this type of place that will allow telecommuting at all. So I know the right opportunity would come, but this is not the one.
So we are still Full Timers by soul and by heart! We need to figure out what to do now, that we have paid here for a month and need to fly to Israel from here in a week and a half.
I am Happy. Patti is happy too!!
Way too long of a blog already.. Thanks for stopping by