Rusty's Armory

Preparation day We clean, cook, and rest our souls Then the Sabbath comes

Posted on August 4, 2023

Friday is my favorite day of the week. It is like getting my house ready for visitors that I really am anxious to see. Before my wife (Snookums) became disabled, it was really her day. She baked challah for the Shabbat table that is set every Friday evening, and cleaned the kitchen and dining room as part of the ritual for this day. Then she set the Shabbat table early and turned on the lights in the dining room to remind us what day this is.

Now that age and disability have come, my niece, great-nephew, and brother do most of the Shabbat preparations, and Snookums lights the candles and recites the ancient blessing. Some days she is still up for setting the table.

It is odd how some Shabbats Snook rips through the blessings without error, usually when she doesn’t think about it too hard. But once she starts struggling with it, the blessing gets a bit incoherent. We know what she is trying to say and patiently wait for her to finish.

My niece now reads the woman’s prayer that is on a typewritten sheet, then it is my show to do the benediction, recitation of Proverbs 10’s blessings for the wife, the introduction to the Shabbat, the blessings for food and wine, and the washing of the hands.

This morning was an entertaining one. Snooks’ second order of the day is that after starting the coffee, she feeds the feral cats. We don’t feed them as much as we would a domestic cat because we want them to be good mousers. And they are.

Occasionally, though, one of the kittens forgets that we have dogs in the house that don’t think cats should live. And this morning it happened when Snooks opened the door. One kitten darted in, and my brother Bruce saw that and grabbed Jenna.

Jenna is an efficient killer and rats don’t stand a chance when she is around. She doesn’t get excited, but works the prey like a master carpenter, not wasting moves or spending time in excitement. Once the rat is dispatched, she loses interest in it.

Unfortunately, she is just as efficient with cats and so the kitten probably doesn’t know how close it came this morning. Amber put Jenna into my studio and closed the door, and they all went cat hunting.

Snookums was the one that got the kitten by the scruff of the neck, and the kitten sensed that was a mommy kind of grab and just went limp as Linda carried it outside to safety.

I just sat and watched the scurrying around of excited women and the other dogs from my royal perch at the kitchen table. The kitchen table has become my dispensary. All my medical stuff is there in reach, and I have a morning ritual, a before dinner ritual, and a get up around midnight ritual. It is a royal PITA, but that is my lot in life these days, so I quit complaining (usually) and just do what is necessary.

So that is it. Another exciting day with the family. I hope this finds you as peaceful and happy as I am.

Good morning!