Thursday, Jan. 14

I wanted to blog a little about a shopping trip we took to Kiryat Shmona yesterday. It's the closest big town around and we needed some supplies. Though K-Shmona has malls and a few big department stores, it also has "Industrial Districts". Here there are many small stores, workshops and factories that can supply one with anything, almost literally. So off we went with Johnny, who was acting more as a guide to the best places than a translator. (Every shop has someone who speaks a little English.) Below right is the lawn shop we went to for weed-wacker supplies:

Although well-stocked it seems most customers were getting blades sharpened or items machined. Then off to a hardware store and an electrical shop, all run by people who know what they're doing. Here's another typical street in the area.

On the other side of the ridge in the background is Lebanon. Every now and then, more so in the past, rockets get lobbed over onto the town.

A note here about the regular digging season and finding coins. It's always exciting but soon becomes anticlimactic. The coin is dirty, unreadable and quickly packaged to be sent later to a cleaner and coin-reader. But here's a coin gussied up from a few years ago:

This is a coin of Gallienus, a Roman emperor, and was minted in 267 C.E.