My sukkah

[pyesetz]

Currently the Festival of Sukkot is in progress.  This is a traditional harvest holiday when--I kid you not--all Jews are supposed to live for a week in a thatched hut (= "sukkah").  Over the last dozen years I've used at least five different sukkah designs, each getting destroyed by a hurricaine.  This is the fourth year I'm using a design from The Sukkah Project, which is much sturdier than the seat-of-the-pants designs I created for myself previously.  We actually eat our dinners in it!

I had no difficulty putting the frame together this year, although there were some concerns.  This spring, like last spring, a mommy squirrel decided to make her nest in my shed.  This year she decided to chew up all cardboard and paper in the shed for her nest--including the assembly manual for the Sukkah!  Also the box holding all the supplies, the individual boxes for decorative lights, even a bit of chewing on one of the bags holding the screws.  Screwy squirrel, indeed!

When I look at pictures of my backyard, I often think "Wow!  That guy has a nice yard!  Oh wait--that's my yard."  But when I look at the yard with my own eyes instead of the camera's eye, I just see a motley collection of problems that need dealing with.  The camera disconnects "yard" from "mine" and allows me to see it as a beautiful abstraction.  Years ago, I would drive up to my house and think "Holy shit!  I own this huge thing???"  But familiarity breeds contempt, so they say.

This year we had heavy rains at the beginning of the holiday, so the hut was two days late getting finished.  Usually Wifey has the kids make paper chains to decorate it with, which each year get rained on multiple times during the week but somehow managed to still look good at the end.  But for now the decoration is minimal: just a small pumpkin and all available strands of decorative lighting.  And 1½ strands decided to stop working this year; perhaps I'll repair them when the week is over.

Comments

Groovy!

[akktri.livejournal.com]

I lived in a tent for ten days, but it was called Boy Scout Camp, and definitely not during this season.