Friday, August 7, 2020

I start to shiver as I work at my computer in the late afternoon. I reach for my hoodie. When it’s halfway on, I remember that this is August, and I’m in Israel. I shouldn’t be having chills. Is this the virus? I swivel around in my chair. The air conditioner is running. I clearly don’t need it. I walk over to it and see the problem. I usually set the temperature to 25 degrees, about 77 Fahrenheit. That’s the setting that my frugal bosses use at the office. It’s a reasonable choice. The machine itself, however, wanted more of a workout. It has set itself to 16 degrees, about 60 Fahrenheit. That explains it. The ghost in the machine likes it cold. I set it back to 25, then shut it off entirely. Now that I’m away from my desk, I start to put together a Shabbat dinner. I moved some chicken from the freezer to the refrigerator last night. Most of it has thawed. I put it in the toaster oven along with a sweet potato. I set it to cook for an hour at whatever temperature the oven uses by default. I’ve never changed it. I microwave frozen brussels sprouts. I have another bottle of wine that I got before I got stuck in isolation. I reach into the freezer for a challah that I had kept frozen. It isn’t there. I must have used it some time ago. I look at last week’s challah. It’s only a little stale and isn’t moldy. Good enough. My landlady called me again this morning and asked if I wanted anything. Had I known, I would have asked her to pick one up. Oh, well. With frozen grapes for dessert, this will all work out. I get back to my computer and continue uploading one of my early albums. I’ve been planning to do this for a long time. I’m finally getting around to it. I can smell dinner cooking as I finish posting the album. The scent of the sweet potato drifts over that of the chicken. It’s good. I’ll finish getting things done soon. I may even shower before I eat.