Wednesday 5 December 2007

It is a Marathon Not a Sprint!

I often say of my job during it's most pressure packed time of the year, that Rosh Hashana is like a series of short sprints. Each service leaves me somewhat winded, but it goes in fits and starts allowing down time for the body and soul to recover. Yom Kippur is more like a marathon. An all day race during which I have to pace myself. If I start out too quickly on Kol Nidre, I will not have enough body or voice left for N'illah. I am often asked how it is that I still have anything left at the end of the day. Some of it is definitely luck and blessing. Luck in that I have managed to avoid major physical pitfalls, (that hollow sound you hear is me knocking my wooden head-no need to aggravate the big guy!) and blessing in that I cannot explain what is truly a gift. For this, I am truly grateful. There is a part to the explanation, however that is most definitely training. Rehearsal, exercise, healthy eating and proper asthma medication (living happily through chemicals!!) all play a part in my getting to the finish line intact. I may not be a world class athlete or even a weekend warrior, but I have learned what my limits are and how to survive the physical beating that devotion to my craft puts upon me each year. Don't get me wrong. As I age, it gets more and more taxing and it takes longer to recover, but I'm still here! This kitchen renovation has been more like a marathon than a sprint. I knew from the beginning that there would be issues, (OH BOY WERE THERE ISSUES!!) delays, (an outside job that was supposed to take 4 days took 6 weeks!) and stuff that nobody anticipated. (finding the cold air returns on both sides of the kitchen wall meant that we couldn't remove as much of the wall as we would have liked or else we wouldn't have had any heat in the master bedroom.) Weather, which nobody would have expected, caused unforeseen issues like the three of us freezing for a couple of nights. (I honestly do not remember temperatures this cold or having this much snow in November and early December in years!) We had to have a stove hood made to order as nothing on the market fit our specs. We have had appliances in the garage for almost a week, because they were ready to be delivered but Reliable wasn't ready for them! We have endured dust, and muck and noise and fast food, all because we knew that it was a marathon and not a sprint and that we had to pace ourselves. And so today, I can finally say that I see the finish line. We are not there yet. We still have the last few miles to go, but the end is definitely in sight. All the parts have arrived. Most of the cabinets are up and some of the island is in place. We have part of a countertop installed and the fridge and freezer found there way into the house last evening. (of course they are not yet hooked up, but they are in their places!) Lovely working people showed up this morning at 9:30am. Overall told us yesterday that he sees no issues with finishing before our self-imposed deadline of Sunday! Of course, I am heading south Monday morning. I will have a bright shiny new toy to play with, and I won't be able to because I won't be here. I told teenage son that he and his brother better not mess up my cooking areas before I have had a chance to use them. I ran this marathon and I deserve to cross the finish line!!!

Check out the new pictures in the album. It really does look great. More to come tonight.

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