Joseph Zitt's [as if in dreams] 2026-03-18
Today has been a blur. Both too much and nothing is going on. What had been disruption is settling into a punctuated stasis. I don't wonder whether there will be alerts and alarms. There will be. We just have to continually be ready for them.
I don't worry about getting continuing sleep. I get a few hours late at night, and fill in the rest during the day. My phone and shoes are always at hand.
Yes, there was a cluster bomb attack not far away yesterday. One missile, or a fragment of one, crashed through the roof of a major train station and hit a platform. No one was there. The side of a train parked at the platform was damaged.
Once they got the all-clear, the relevant people got to work. Trains were rerouted. Shuttle buses took over for trips between blocked stations. The train directly from my home station to Jerusalem isn't running, but riders can take a train from here to the airport then transfer to another line that goes the rest of the way.
And yes, a couple of people, a bit older than me, were killed in the attack. They lived in an apartment near the train station. They didn't get to their shelter in time. The missile came through their roof and exploded in the living room. They were found just a few meters from the shelter, with the man's walker beside them.
The alert and alarm that I wrote about yesterday also interrupted a program in the Cultural Hall at the other end of the building. No problem. According to a Facebook post from House management, everyone got up and went to the building's other shelter, next to the hall. They kept singing through the alarm and until they could return to where they had been for the rest of the program.
After one of today's alerts (I forget which one -- there have been four or five so far), a worker from the Continual Care division trots up to me. For Passover for the past several years, I have led a very brief Seder for them. She wants to know if I'll be doing it this year.
I have no idea. Two weeks out, with the war continuing, we don't know what will be happening then. Things are also a little different organizationally. As of a few weeks (or was it months?) ago, that division has been spun off and is under different management. I don't know if that will complicate things.
I tell her that I don't know. Others will have to decide. Whatever happens, I'll be ready.
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