Wednesday October 25

It's a gorgeous morning. After several days of cloudy haze, the sky is clear and the sea is so calm there are barely any waves. Looking out my window it is really hard to believe there is a war going on north and south of me. But my live-updates map tells a different story:

The red colored missiles are still coming from Lebanon and Syria in the north and from Gaza in the south, although the latter have slowed down considerably. (The blue ones are Israeli.) But we still don't know what will happen in the north especially once the IDF invades Gaza with their ground forces. That, and the fact that my daughter's semester start date has just been pushed again, until Dec 3 (because 30% of the student body is currently serving in the army reserves), has got us thinking a lot about taking a little break from being here. I'm due in the US for meetings and conferences mid-November anyway. 

But it sure looks inviting out on the coast today. I watch cars jockeying for spots in the beach parking lot below, and a small but steady stream of young and old toting umbrellas and floats as they head toward the swimming beach. 

I don't feel like writing much today. I headed out for a walk. 

I come back to reports of rocket fire on Haifa (intercepted - no air raid sirens). We decide that it's time.

So we are booked to fly out of here on Friday on a flight to Athens (there aren't too many other flights leaving here at the moment). From there we'll figure it out. In the meantime, we're hoping that displaced Israelis from the northern or southern border might be able to make use of our apartment; there really isn't much we can do from here anyway other than wait. We are hopeful that the schoolyear will actually start up in December and we are aiming to be back here as soon as possible.

I may not write for a while, but please know that we're safe.