The Story of Abe

Originally posted on Facebook, December 31, 202 at 10:27 PM

20 years ago, to the hour, I arrived in Israel to start my new life as an Israeli.

It’s been an amazing adventure learning about my chosen home, myself, and all the amazing people who have played a part in it.

My first job was working on a website, and after many other adventures, some of which took me very far away from computers, I am working as a programmer working mostly on web integrations. That wasn’t even a thing back then.

I’ve seen so much, from peace deals to rocket explosions. From pickup ultimate in a park in Jerusalem to running National tournaments and coaching national teams internationally. From a small group of Anglo immigrants building a commune in Jerusalem to a full on Kibbutz in the Galil.

There are too many people to list who have been an important part of these twenty years. A special shout out to Robin who arrived with me, and to Emma, James, and Anton who made sure we had a comfortable place to arrive at, and have been with Robin and I the whole way.

I don’t think I could have conceived twenty years ago of where I am today. That I would be living in a Kibbutz in a town in the north of the country filled with amazing like-minded people in Kibbutz Mishol. That I would be able to build a job description that fit what I wanted to do and with how I wanted to do it in Mishol-IT. That I would be able to play with and coach some of the most awesome people in Hucking Crazy. (The Haifa Ultimate Club) and the wider ultimate community. That I would have the honor of meeting and working with absolute rock stars with Ultimate Peace.

I can’t wait to see what the next 20 bring.

I got a sweet birthday gift a couple months ago when my orthopedic surgeon called to move up my surgery date.   Of course that meant I only had a week to sort out all the pre-op stuff I needed to do.  Blood tests, meetings with anesthesiologists, notifying friends and family, downloading movies and TV shows to watch during recovery.  There’s a lot to do.

I ended up going with a private doctor because the public system was just too slow and conservative.  One too many doctors told me that everything was fine, even after repeated relapses.  There is only so many times you can go back out onto the field knowing you have a bum knee. » Read the rest of this entry «

I came up to the roof to hang up some wet laundry to dry, and stayed to watch the lunar eclipse.

I watched the bright shiny white moon shrink into a crescent, like a waning moon on fast-forward, until it was a glowing red ball.  The movement them became less noticeable as the moon passed through the penumbra shadow, where the change was a slow darkening of the glowing red orb. » Read the rest of this entry «

Amongst the numerous blogs and RSS feeds that I read, or at least glance at, is Slate.com. I enjoy their technology columnist Farhad Manjoo. (Oohh… Just found out he has a blog for things that don’t go into published articles… sign me up for that…) So it was to my great surprise last week when an article popped up about punctuation: “Space Invaders, Why you should never, ever use two spaces after a period“. » Read the rest of this entry «

I spent this past weekend visiting a friend in Toronto.  It was my first visit to the city, so I was quite reliant on my friend for getting around and seeing the sites.  Most of what we ended up doing lay, if I was paying attention properly, along one street, which I understand wasn’t even that major of a street.  That’s the way these things work when you get used to your neighborhood.  I didn’t climb the CN Tower, or take a dip in Lake Ontario, or go to the Hockey Hall of Fame.  We did, however, visit the One of a Kind Show.  » Read the rest of this entry «