Chik-Chat from Jerusalem

I had no idea when I started sending out these letters that I would get such phenomenal response. I'm getting e-mails from all over the world asking me to keep on writing.
And you are all wonderful. I didn't realize I sounded so plaintive when I said that this is the one time when I didn't like living on my own. I have gotten many many phone calls
and letters from abroad telling me to feel free to call in the middle of the night - my middle of the night is only evening abroad so I don't have to worry about waking anybody up. But I've also gotten phone calls from here asking me to call - when my middle of the night is also theirs. No one seems to be sleeping here. It's so wonderful to discover that you are loved when you are still alive to hear it.
So on to yesterday in the war zone. Jerusalem has been quiet - no "piguim" (terrorist bombs) thank G-d although Netanya and Haifa have been very badly hit. I spoke with my cousin - who lives on a moshav at Beit Yitzhak - just opposite Netanya - and she has a full house. Her oldest daughter and boyfriend are studying at the Technion in Haifa and feel very unsafe there so they are camping out at my cousin's. And there are also friends there. (In fact, when I called she was frying schnitzel. What do Jews do in time of trouble? We eat. Schnitzel and puree seem to be the Israeli comfort food. Schnitzel is simply breaded and fried chicken or turkey cutlets and puree is mashed potatoes. And it covers all segments of the population - Ashkenazi and Sepharadi.) Her youngest daughter has just been recently inducted into the Army and is serving in Gush Etzion ( the Territories) and her son, who is in the Navy, is stationed in Eilat. He's the only one she doesn't have to actively worry about - for the moment.
We all try to carry on as usual. I did my marketing yesterday and don't remember seeing people buying such enormous quantities of food on a Tuesday. Before Shabbat? Yes. Before a Hag (holiday)? Yes. But on an ordinary Tuesday? Anyway, when I got home in the late afternoon I began to cook and as I was in my kitchen I, of course, had the TV on. What a strange feeling - to stand in your own kitchen cooking and watching the North of your country being bombarded with Katyushas. It was surreal.
But when I went out to dinner last night with some friends the restaurant was busy and bustling and the people seemed to have no cares in the world. I guess life will go on here as usual until the Katyushas hit Jerusalem. And that's a real possibility - as we are told on the news. It is said that the Hezbollah now have rockets that can reach Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
I think this whole mishegas is summed up in a letter I received from an Israeli friend who lives in London. He wrote "I sit here in London trying to make sense of the whole thing.
Sense? Middle East? What am I thinking?"
Stay safe. Rena