I'm still here, and sneek preview

It's been a while since I posted. I was away several days for the Jewish Motorcyclist Alliance's Ride to Remember, then when I got home, I was slammed with work (they actually wanted things done!), and busy at home as well. We moved Ahava into Tikva's room. My wife wanted to try having the girls share a room since when they were separated, there were various things that would set them off crying. Also, when they were with my parents during the Ride to Remember, they shared a room, and my parents thought they got along fine. Pretty soon I'll post some pictures and write ups from the ride itself, but I'll just quickly say here that it was great. We had over 100 Jews on Motorcycles crossing over the GW Bridge into Manhattan, they actually shut down the top deck, so we made the crossing by ourselves. It was a really cool feeling! Here's one photo of the crossing:


More of a write up and photos to come.

From the mouth of Babes... (plus a successful April Fool's Joke)

I played an April Fools Joke on my brother-in-law today. I sent him the following e-mail. (My brother-in-law is supposed to drive down from Brooklyn with my parents-in-law tomorrow for Passover)

Bro, we just got back from shopping. The van broke down, we had to take a cab back, I took the car to get back to the van to get the food, but by the time I found the van (was towed to a garage, of course closed on Sunday), everything spoiled. I went back to the store to try to get more food, but everything left is being held for people who already made orders. So we don't have a lot of food here. I'm making reservations at Chabad for the seder there, it's the only thing left at this time. Should I make reservations for you and your parents as well? Since we screwed up by waiting until the last minute, I'll pay for the meals and all. Hopefully we'll have enough for lunches during the Yom Tov, then right afterwards, will go back to the supermarket and kosher shops to see what I can get for the rest of Chol Hamoed, and the Yom Tov afterwards.

I'm tearing out what's left of my hair... what a mess!!!!!!

Sorry about all this.

JDMDad



P.S. Happy April 1st... ;-)

The problem is, the P.S. was apparently on the next screen on his e-mail display, he never saw it. About an hour after I sent the message, I received a call from B-i-L. He had called some of the stores that were local to him to see who still had food left, and who would be open late enough so he could get them after he got off work. When I realized he didn't know it was a joke, I felt so bad, and so good at the same time! *evil grin*

After I finished explaining that it was a joke, and hearing his threats of strangling me when he gets down tomorrow, he asked if there was anything he could bring down since there was still a lot available in Brooklyn. I told him there wasn't anything I needed. Laya said the same thing. Tikvah was nearby and heard the whole conversation. She interrupted the conversation with a loud "You can bring down candy!!"

Oy!

Utilizing child labor

My parents-in-law will be spending all of Passover with us this year. At their last visit, dad-in-law said that the futon that he uses is no longer comfortable. It's pretty low to the floor, and the mattress is getting too soft and thin for sleeping comfort. So I finally got a new futon yesterday. It's a big wooden one that's sold at BJs.

I got everything inside our house, and since it was getting late, I told the girls that I would install it after they went to bed, and they'd see what it looks like when they come down for breakfast the next day. Tikvah would have none of it. "I want to see how it goes together!!" Ahava is at the echo stage, "Yeah, see how it go together daddy!" *sigh* All right.

So I start to put it together, and of course the girls want to help. "Here Daddy, I'll hold this!!" Ummm, no, you need to hold it lower, lower. You know what, it's easier if it's on the floor." "Thank you, but I don't really need this screw driver now." Etc. Then of course Ahava grabs a book (she loves to look at the pictures) and sits right in the middle of the futon frame where I'm trying to attach all the bolts. "Ummm, sweetie, can you sit down over there? Thank you so much."

But don't get the idea that they were of no help. Tikvah sometimes got me the right parts when I needed them, and together with mom, we all lifted the second part of the frame onto the first. (that's what the directions said to do anyway. And they were so eager to grab onto the mattress and help us to get it onto the frame.

At that point, it was almost an hour past their bed time. They went up with with very little protest.

Altogether I'd say having them help me out only set me back about 15-20 minutes. But they were well worth it.

Hello World!

I don't know if that's the standard opening line for a Blog, but as a former computer programmer, that's the standard opening line for me.

Anyway, I'm still trying to get this whole blogging thing figured out (e.g. how to get it all set up the way I want), so please excuse any construction mess you may see.

So, who am I and why the long name?

The name is Jewish Deaf Motorcycling Dad (JDMDad for short). I tried to think of the things that make up who I am and what I am. A lot of people define themselves by their jobs, or specific field. "Hi, I'm Joe, and I'm a mechanic." That's nice, but WHO are you, really? So I tried to think of who I really am, what makes up my core elements, at least as of March 21th, 2007.

The answers, in no specific order (well, the order that sounded best when I verbalized the 4 terms):

Jewish: Born and raised Jewish. Now becoming more and more observant of my religion. I don't know if I'd label myself as "Orthodox" or Baal Teshuva yet, but I'm heading in that direction. Keeping kosher, observing Shabbos, etc.

Deaf: Well, there are varying degrees of deafness. With hearing aids on, I can actually hear pretty well. Not that I would ever pass for a hearing person. But it definitely has made its mark on me. Especially when my company (and work will NOT be a focus of this blog) has problems with scheduling an interpreter.

Motorcycling: After I graduated from college, I finally went out and
learned how to ride, then got myself a bike. (note the order!) I'm
very active (sometimes too active) in several motorcycle groups, including a Deaf motorcycle group, and a Jewish motorcycle group. At first I was going to use the term "Biker" but that has too many negative connotations. Plus you'd probably imagine someone in leather, riding a chopper, no helmet, etc. Definitely an incorrect image.

Dad: The biggest and best change of my life came when my first daughter poked her head out and said "WWWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" I now have two daughters, and now fully understand why you never get between a mama bear and her cubs.


Why a blog? I've been reading some other blogs, mostly Jewish related, and posting some comments. But I started to have a little bit of blog envy and wanted to give it a whirl myself.

Why an anonymous blog? Really, I'm more than willing to be open about who I am. But my wife is concerned about the crazies out there. So I agreed to try to do this anonymously. With two little girls, I understand her feelings on this, and since I don't want to endanger my kids or my marriage, this is it. Thus the kids will be getting alternate names for the blog (and my wife picked one for herself as well). I'm sure within a month I'll be totally confused and calling them by the wrong name to the dinner table, earning strange looks from the kids and my wife. I'm also pretty confident that if anyone who knows me in "real life" looks at this blog, they'll peg me in a minute. That's fine. Just don't pop out and give the info to everyone else, m'kay?

The names of my girls (in chronological order) start with a T, then an A. So after my second one was given her name, for a few days, I used to refer to them as "T & A." Then I thought about that hard for a minute, and no longer use that term.

My oldest daughter (Currently 3 something) is Tikvah.
My youngest (currently 2) is Ahava.
My lovely wife (age is irrelevant if I want to survive) is Laya.

And I'm your host, JDMDad, Jewish Deaf Motorcycling Dad.

The things that I have in mind to write (some have already been written, and are just floating around my computer with no place to go yet) cover my 4 identity points, some separately, and some in combination with others. And of course some things will just be totally off the top of my head. How often will I post? Will this be one of those many deserted blogs? I don't know. I'm figuring this out as I go along. (Literally! I have a copy of Brad Hill's "Blogging for Dummies" next to me, and several "Blogger.com" help pages open as I type this).