THE WEISS CHRONICLES

I got in to my car and began driving to a mashgiach assignment. I noticed the tire pressure image on the left side of the dashboard (second image, symbol number 6). On the right side, the alphanumeric said FL - 2, meaning 'front left tire pressure low' I stopped the car on the side of Postoak Rd and got out and checked the tire. It seemed fine so I started back on the road figuring I would check the tires at a service station on the way back. When I got on I-270 I tried to drive slower than normal. However at one point a blowout type noise followed by bumping happened. Fortunately I was near an exit. I pulled off the travel land at a wide spot in the shoulder. The first image shows what the tire looked like (once it was removed and put in my trunk - click on image to expand) ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ I called the propriator of the catering company. He said he would pick me up and drive me back to the car. I then called USAA (my auto insurer) who had a tow truck company to come for me. I finished the mashgiach job and met the tow truck guy at my car. He towed me to a place where we could safely change the tire to my spare (the undersized kind). We didn't go to a tire store because the tire stores were closed (it was after 5pm on a Sunday). He told me the spare tire was under inflated. I drove it a service station and put more air in it. Eventually the alphanumberic message resolved to a normal indication (total mileage). The next day I called Goodyear (well in hope for Shana Tovah). They had the size tires I needed (P205-55F16-91H, which means 205mm from sidewall to sidewall parallel to road in the direction of the road and 16 inches width perpendicular to road, I think). I got there about 1130am the next day (after a morning mashgiach assignment). They didn't have the exact brand I wanted in that size. They also said that my tires were sold and installed in 2017 (the car is a 2015 model I purchased in 2017.) The tires showed some major problems so they said I needed to replace all of them. I noted that they didn't have the brand I wanted and they said they would give me a $100 discount as I was a USAA member and they had some sort of partnership with USAA. So I got 4 new tires, a new headlight and disposal of the old blown out tire for about $700. They had a nice lounge in the store with chairs a TV and coffee machine (I had taken the Sunday paper to read) made it home about 1 pm.

The post below indicated that I might place chive flowers on the RH table. Well the image is above (click for enlargement). Note that I also placed some cone flowers in the vase since they were in bloom. .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. The chives didn't seem to have too strong a scent and we'll have lots of other things for dinner so it won't overpower us

The chives do keep the deer away I think but only when the flowers are out or almost out. Unfortunately, the deer are particularly active when my lilies are vunerable and are just putting out a bulb. I've noticed one of my other neighbors (Ms Wu from 8011 Postoak - we get her mail sometimes) suffers also from deer attacks on her flowers. I've spoken with her and she said she uses anti-deer spray and anti rabbit pebbles. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Perhaps I'll pick some chives for the Rosh Hashana table even though they have a spicy, not sweet smell.

On my schedule was a appointment to donate blood plasma. I received an email about 700 am today. It was from the Red Cross reminding me to fill out the Rapid Pass which is a long series of questions about: my health, whether I've had aspirin lately, been in juvenile detension, had tatoos, had sex with someone who had HIV and many many more. I started the rapid pass. While I was on the 2nd question, I got a call from the Red Cross. The caller said that their plasma separator was not working and that I had to reschedule an appointment for plasma donation. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... When you actually get to the Red Cross, one of the questions at the interview is whether your answers have changed since you filled out the Rapid Pass.

One of the sefardic women I know told me several days ago that she was having a crisis. Her family expects to have beef tongue and lamb chops for Rosh Hashana meals on the two nights. This year the tongue is about $33/lb (as shown in the image) and the lamb chops are about $24/pound. At these prices, it kind of breaks the budget. I pointed out that the meals at Rosh Hashana are not supposed to be as joyous as those at Sukkot, Passover and Shavuot but are supposed to have some sweet things to eat or drink (I had been to a shiur on this a few years ago). I recommended chicken cooked with sweet wine for one meal and corned beef for the other meal. She was happy with the information. But I later learned that she decided to buy the expensive cuts of meat because a tradition is a tradition. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... This remindes me that when I was growing up, the tradition on Passover was to have matzoah ball soup before the entre. I thought this a bad tradition because soup can take a long time to serve and it can easily spill (In fact, at least one time I recall spilling a fair amount on somebody). So when I became the menu decider for Passover, I abandoned matzoah ball soup. Later, after I told someone that I had dispensed with the soup tradition, I had someone ask me if I was chassidic and didn't serve matzoah ball soup because of the Gebroktz issue.

We had some regular inspections by our pest control company. They found mice in the basement. Then the next week, they scheduled a look in the attic and found mice in the attic. It was a bigger infestation than the basement and more destructive as the mice had spoiled much of the effectiveness of the attic insulation. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... It will cost some money to fix this as it requires removal and replacement of the attic insulation. Since the insulation was installed many years ago, insulation has been improved in many ways. One of the improvements is that boric acid is infused into the insulation which kills, not just mice but pretty much any insect (actually I think that insects in the attic were the food the mice ate when they were up there). This makes the 4th major cost item this fall (new driveway, new humidity device on heater, bamboo removal were the others - the humidity device and bamboo removal weren't that bad, both under $1k).

Our driveway had not been repaved during the 30 or so years we've lived here. I don't know if it was redone before that time but I doubt it. Anyway, the first image shows what it looked like about 1 September ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... The pavement chunks moved when the car went over them. Not good. On 3 September the work began. The first step was to remove the top layer of concrete. Actually we didn't know there were two layers. ..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... However given how long the previous driveway had last (and it didn't have rebar or expansion joints), I figured we would just place a layer on top of the base (and save aboug $5k and a lose another day and get a lot more dust). The third image shows the driveway just after completion of placing the concrete. This was on 3 September ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ We were lucky with the weather as it was nice and dry during this operation. The fourth image 8 Sept shows the driveway after the initial curing has taken place and also the walkway from the driveway to the house which we had done with the job. The walkway took more time than I thought it would and created quite a bit of dust, more than the concrete. ..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................// The walkway also needed work as we had several complaints about how bumpy it felt to some people who walked on it.

At the official weather recording station at National Airport, August 2025 ended with only 0.20 inches of rain. This was the dryest August in DC history. The previous August record for that location was in 1962 when the month had 0.55 inches. It wasn't quite as dry in other parts of the region. For example, at IAD (Dulles International) there was 0.85 inches and at BWI (Marshall International) it was 2.05 inches. Fall is frequently a dry period locally. In Octorber 1963 there was only a trace (less than 0.01") at National Airport. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. August 2025 was also cooler than normal by almost about 3.7F. It was one of the coolest Augusts since 1946 (National Airport was the official weather recording station by then, having opened in 1941). August 1992 was about as cool as August 2025.

I doesn't look like fall yet (certainly not like the image) but the past several mornings have been in the low 60sF and the forecast is for that continuing for another week or two. The Capital Weather Gang (a website I visit sometimes) follows the local weather much closer than I do and they have for a number of years. The CWG calls 'End of Summer' each year. They did so today, the earliest they have ever called it. August is currently averaging 3F below normal and the weather pattern indicates this will continue. The CWG definition of 'End of Summer' is no period of 3 days with each day 90F or above. Of course we have had warm days in September and even October so they may be wrong. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... back in 2004, the final 90F day was August 4 and in the 1890s there was a year in which the final 90F day was October 3 but that was when the weather recording station was downtown. This year August 17 was 90F.

Yesterday was moving day, from Ramet Gan to Netanya. Image is of the central city with Mediterranean on the left. Today we spoke via messenger video. So far, and its only two days, the people in her building are very nice, the landlord is nice, the merchants are nice. The beach is about 4 miles away but a short bus ride. .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. some difficulty getting Oz enrolled in the school system but it now looks like he will be enrolled in a school only 4 walking minutes away.

Back in mid January, Ann was discharged from Suburban Hospital (it was her third time there since Sept 2024). The presumptive damage done to her cardiac system by the diseases that occassioned the hospital admittance was sufficient for her to be admitted into the JSSA Hospice program. This requires a diagnosis that remaining life expectancy is 6 months. It has been 8 months since mid January. JSSA informed us that beginning on or about 10 September, Ann will be in Hospice Transition instead of JSSA Hospice. There are some differences. In the former: only one RN visit per month instead of one per week; no free Social Work or Clerical counciling visits; no free bath & hairdoo visits; no free medicine and sanitary supplies and no free hospital bed. We will manage. We are now down to an average of 6 or fewer hours per day of private care service. Also, Blue Cross will, I think, cover much of the cost of the medicine. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Notwithstanding all the above, Ann is pretty upset about this.

I was at Harris Teeter yesterday. They had the superlarge size of Utz prepopped popcorn (the apple gives a size perspective). It is UD so not to be eaten with meat but don't combine hot dogs and popcorn. I hadn't seen this in many years but I recall we used to buy this brand in this size when we lived in Virginia in the 1990s. One lady who was next in line at the grocery check out was looking at the bag seeming to be curious. I remembered a line I used when Beth asked me in the 1990s, "why did you get such a big bag".. .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. I remembered what I said then and repeated it for the grocery clerk and the lady in line, "Well, it is better to have popcorn and not need it than to need popcorn and not have it." The clerk chuckled and laughed, the lady in line nodded and then chuckled and laughed.

On 20 August, Gerry Berg and I went to near Dover Delaware to visit Arthur Sackman in his new home. He moved in 2024 into a new house. It is a suburban neighborhood of about 100 homes plucked down into a very rural part of Delaware and there are ducks, chickens, horses and lambs within a mile or so. The neighborhood was built by Ryan Homes in 2023-2024 so he is an original owner. The house has 5 bedrooms (and a study that converts into a bedroom). There are 6 people living there, all 'sort of' related to Arthur by marriage (it is too complicated for Arthur to want to explain). ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ We played some sheepsfoot while we visited. On the way back, we stopped to visit a friend of Berg's. She runs a store in a mall near Columbia, Maryland.

This is what it looked like yesterday and also approximately for the 30 years previous. My neighbor worked with the contractor to get an estimate and schedule the work. The work was supposed to be done Wednesday or Thursday but the contractor showed up today (Tuesday) at 830am
The first part of the work was done with relatively small hand tools. It was the cutting down of the bamboo and vines and hauling them away. The next part was using some powerful and noisy tools to grind up the bamboo roots. They they put grass seed and straw down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ For a few years we will have to be vigilant looking for bamboo shoots and pulling them. This would have been the case if we had had the roots dug up and hauled off but maybe not as many shoots.

Oz is at summer camp in Israel for a few weeks before regular school starts. Tamar was picking him up yesterday and found the poster shown above. I'm pretty sure they aren't teaching 6 year olds about Pythagoras's theorem but even for somewhat older kids this would be quite a stretch normally. I think the idea of using wood blocks (I think that's what they are) to illustrate this is pretty cool. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ my understanding is that multiplication is typically introduced in 3rd grade and the 3 x 3 = 9 would be understood then. However, the concept of the triangle's sides and the relationship to the hypotenuse is more complicated.

I noticed the 'check engine' warning light was on. This worried me. I found the manual. It listed a lot of problems. One of the problems that would cause this warning was if the gas cap wasn't on right. It was time to get gasoline anyway so I went to a station, filled up and made sure the gas cap was on tight. I started the car and the warning light was still on. I picked up the manual again and read some more. At the end of a long paragraph was the statement that it might take driving a bit before the warning light went off it the warning was caused by any emission related problem (one of which was the gas cap). I had another stop to make (buying beer). I did that and started the car up again. ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... The warning light went off. Yay!

I saw a big deer near the house this morning (first image). Over a period of years, the deer (and to a much lesser extent the rabbits) have destroyed a lot of my vegetation, particularly the lillies. But also various other plants. ....................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Coincidentally I received a shipment on anti deer devices yesterday (second image of one of the devices). The devices work by sensing motion and displaying a short burst of visible light and a longer burst of ultrasound (more than 20 k Hertz as compared to human speech which is between 300 and 3000 Hertz. FWIW, orchestra members have, for over 80 years or so, based their own tuning on a 440 Hertz sound (an A). The devices sense about a 50 degree vertical and 100 degree horizontal area within about 40 feet. The devices have gotten good yelp reviews and also a good review by an independent evaluation company. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... I have two other devices but haven't decided yet where to place them.

The Crape Myrtles in the front yard are in full bloom. The florets are so abundant they weigh down the branches. This happens most years. Also, in most years, our plants are some of the latest crape myrtles to bloom. The three trees we have really stand out visually when you approach from the west (although I am standing to the east of the trees for this picture). ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. Meira, Tamar and Oz. Oz is wearing his tiger green belt (a mark on the way to a black belt) and holding a tae kwon duo trophy (I think everyone gets one of those).

George came over from Silver Spring. Cheryl and Irwin came from Lutherville. .......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... In back row, from left: George, Martin, Irwin In front row, from left: Tamar, Meira, Oz, Ann, Cheryl

As noted earlier (on July 2), one of our health workers has a Mercedes Benz. The health worker on 25 July had a Cadillac. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................It is a 2014 that she bought in 2018..