Back in J-Town, for a Fortnight

I seem to be having trouble focusing this afternoon.  It might have something to do with the strange weather: it's raining in Jerusalem! After two months (to the day) of living here and experiencing zero precipitation in any natural form (I had an incident with a sprinkler in late-October), I got off the bus this morning and under a spitting gray sky had to ask, "what is this meteorological nonsense?"  I also complained to myself about the chill brought on by the rain, which sunk the day's temperature by a full ten degrees... to 60.

It's rough out here in winter, I muttered, as I hugged myself and watched Hebrew University's feral cats scamper en masse toward the open doors of academic buildings.

But maybe the lack of focus shouldn't be blamed on the mercury dropping (...to  60. Don't you just hate me?) Mostly, I'm still über jet-lagged from my 10-day trip to the States for a conference and Thanksgiving, and also from a particular never-to-be-repeated, only marginally more fiscally conservative detour through Moscow's Vnukovo International Airport onboard Transaero, Mother Russia's flagship airline (cough) -- but that shall have to wait.  For it's already stopped raining, and that means return to normalcy, and return to work.  Besides, in just two (or so) weeks, I'll be headed home again for Christmas! (Ah, these lovely proximate holidays. It's like September if you're Jewish -- too much goodness and light in short space!) 

So: more on the above, anon.

In the meantime, I note with thanksgiving in my heart that my family and friends live in safe cities.  I further note, with great sadness in my heart, that as jihadist groups continue to gain momentum in Syria, life for the families and children there is a daily terror.  I try to understand for a moment what it might be like to look out my office window here in Jerusalem and, instead of raindrops tripping off the remaining leaves of a nearby myrtle, seeing this:

    

This video shows the bombing of a neighborhood in the Syrian town of Deir ez-Zur, filmed by a man from his office window.  It happened yesterday.