As you probably realize, Passover lasts 8 days. The first 2 days (where there are seders) and the last 2 days are considered major holidays (i.e., no work) and the interim days are days when you keep the food restrictions, but are allowed to treat them otherwise as normal periods of time. At least this is true for the diaspora. In Israel, however, Passover lasts only 7 days, and only 2 of those days (the first and the last) are major holidays. There is only one seder in Israel.

Last night, we had Shabbat dinner at Hannah’s, where we had had the second seder the night before. All the food were seder leftovers, which of course was fine, but it got me thinking about the d ifference between the celebration of Passover in Israel, and in the diaspora. And so….I wrote a haiku.

“Pesach last eight days

Seven days would be enough

Next year? Jeruslem.”

Well, the plumber came and fixed our two broken toilets and told us they were as good as new, as he gave us his ridiculously high bill. The plumbing company gets 4.9 on Yelp, and has (as far as I can see) a very good reputation. But I don’t trust this guy. I am not sure that he didn’t do more than was necessary and I know he charged us a lot (I bet that was more than necessary as well). But what really makes me wonder is that he told me that two of our other toilets really needed the same kind of work done, that our 9 year old water heater should be replaced and that if we don’t replace it soon we will find that prices will go way up, and that the flue from our HVAC system has corroded and needs repair. We didn’t ask him to look at any of those things; he just did. And he sent me over 50 photos. Whew! Hard sell to the gullible old folks.

It is Saturday morning, and we really have no plans today. Tomorrow, we have a brunch, a matinee at the Shakespeare Theatre and a dinner party (small) for the 18th birthday of our older step-grandson. That’s a busy Sunday, so we better rest up today. The forecast is for 89 degrees today, and tomorrow it is supposed to rain. That means that the third game of the Nationals/Dodgers series probably won’t be played. The second game is at 4 today, and we will probably be home to watch it. Yesterday, the Nats had 11 hits and scored 6 runs. That should be enough to win any game, right? Well, not if the other teams hits 5 home runs and scores 13 runs. I guess that is why they won the World Series last year. Our starting pitcher, Miles Mikolas allowed 11 earned runs, which seems to be a team records. Congratulations to him. There is already a sense that he may not be around too much longer. He is a 37 year old veteran who pitched several years with the Cardinals, but his time might be running out. I don’t know much about him, and he was only signed for a year, but he has pitched and lost two games, and his ERA, which you want to be below 4.00, is above 14.00. The Nationals have a lot of promising pitchers in the minors, and if Mikolas goes, there will be someone to replace him.

I will tell you a secret: I don’t care if Mikolas stays or goes at this point. Once I told you about the plumber, I had to come up with something else to write about and this seemed one possibility. I could have talked, instead, about Donald Trump, whose first year is equivalent to Mikolas’ first two games, and it would be nice to see him go. But guess what? Those waiting in the minors to replace him don’t look too promising either.

I am watching the TV news while I write, but not listening. The focus all seems to be on Pam Bondi, but she is so 2025, so who cares? The talk seems to be of a bunch of folks who will be no better, so that it really doesn’t make a difference who the next AG will be. At least no one has suggested Rudy Giuliani.