Tzom Tammuz

Sundown tonight begins Tzom Tammuz, a translation of  "17 Tammuz", the 17th day of the lunar month Tammuz, the first day of "The Three Weeks". It was on this day when the Romans breached the walls of Jerusalem which led to the destruction of the 2nd Temple. The Babylonians took a wee bit longer, they invaded Jerusalem back on 9 Tammuz and Jews had observed a fast on that day thus making it "The FOUR Weeks!!", but after the Roman incident, the sages decided to adopt 17 Tammuz as the fast day commemorating both events. The Roman invasion and subsequent destruction of the Temple was more serious. After the Babylonian destruction in the 6th century BC the Temple was rebuilt about a century later. However after the Romans the Temple was never rebuilt and Judaism changed forever. Back in the days of the Temple the Jews celebrated Passover with the lamb in accordance with Moses' instructions in the Torah. However since the destruction of the Temple the Jews had to adopt a new method of keeping Passover, and to this day they no longer use the lamb, indeed only a single shank bone from the lamb is kept on the Seder plate as some kind of remembrance of past glorious days, indeed they don't even eat lamb during the meal, they eat either chicken or beef. This ties in with the Astrological ages stemming from the procession of the earth's axis over 26000 years - an established fact in Astronomy that can be found in most Astronomy text books, a concept as basic as the Moon's phases and the four seasons. The north end of the axis points to any one of the 12 zodiac sectors, moving backwards through each sector during its procession, thus spending approx 2000 years in each. Back in the time of the Jews as described in the Tanach (or Christian Old Testament) from the birth of Abraham to the final book in the Tanach, this covered the period when the axis was pointing to Aries, hence the Age of Aries the Ram - male sheep. See the connection between Aries and the Passover lamb, Passover being the most important holiday on the Jewish calendar, a turning point in their history, setting off events culminating in finally possessing the Promised Land - present day Israel. This is why Aries is often mentioned first in most horoscope columns in newspapers, it coincides with the 1st month of the Hebrew calendar whose astral sign is Aries, and is when Passover is kept. When the 1st Temple was destroyed we were still in the Age of Aries, hence the 2nd Temple was built. But by the time the 2nd Temple was destroyed in AD70 we were out of the Age of Aries and in the changeover to the Age of Pisces - the age of Christianity. Oh yes there is a reason for those fish symbols you see on the back of cars identifying Christians. That is why the 2nd Temple was never rebuilt, and instead we have the Vatican. For better or for worse, mostly worse, we were into the age of Christianity. Now we are near the end of the Age of Pisces and at the dawn of the Age of Aquarius, and I must say the Vatican is headed for the same fate as the 2nd Jewish Temple.

Anyway..... now in Tzom Tammuz commemorating the invasion of Jerusalem and the start of the dreaded The Three Weeks.

As indicated by the diabolical football results this past weekend when we snatched defeat from the very jaws of victory!!!.... we are in for a very torrid Three Weeks period. Mercury's retrograde happening at the same time will not help matters. Both chaotic energies are destined to cause untold catastrophes for the next three weeks and beyond. During the past two years, The Three Weeks marked the worsening condition of Sally's health issues, the 2012 incidents eventually leading to her death. It was on Tzom Tammuz 2011 when Sally woke up and discovered a hole in her leg with clear liquid dribbling out like a dribbling tap, this has never happened before, and she wondered what's the hairy heck was going on. The leak continued day and night, and she had to use towels in the bed, etc, to keep dry. When she finally gotten a doc appt which happened to coincide with Tisha B'Av, the end point of the Three Weeks and the anniversary of the two Temples' destruction, she was diagnosed with Lymphodema. This was the beginning of the end, the start of the two years of hell, culminating in her death arising from complications of this condition.

So what is going to happen this time!!!? Last Round's football results which basically sealed my fate in regards to the office tipping comp shows that we are in for a torrid time, Mercury adding to the chaos by its retrograde. This will be the first time of being on my lonesome during The Three Weeks. I always have had Sally with me, and before that, Barbara. I had never been alone before. Being alone during these long dark nights during The Three Weeks will make for scary moments. I always make sure the house is locked up, we have security grilles and security doors, bolt locks, a lock on my gate, and I leave lights on all night due to paranormal activity. But it won't stop me from being rather anxious during these Three Weeks. Normally I am not bothered so much about being along at night. But The Three Weeks is a very intense time of chaos when anything can and often does happen!! And with no rain in the forecast for at least this week, it will make it worse. I feel safer when it rains, the energies from the water makes me feel better. But no rain makes for even more anxious times.

Here's a list of possible issues that may crop up during The Three Weeks.

MY CAR

Due to the financial and time pressures associated with Sally's care our car has not been serviced since about March 2011. When our next service in September 2011 came up due we were in the middle of the month from hell when Sally needed most intensive care and I needed to use my Long Service Leave to take the month off work. The due date of the car service passed us by and so the warranty became void. I think we had about two years left on it anyway. So far the car is running quite well in spite of the lack of service. It is a late model Nissan Pulsar which is a good little car, the only time we needed to call the RAC since acquiring the car was for a flat battery!! This is in contrast to previous cars when we would be making more than the average use of the RAC, really making them earn the money that we pay them each year!!!! However even the best car will eventually falter due to a lack of service. I am still recovering from needing to pay of Sally's medical debts and still am paying off the ambulance fees so there is little scope for getting the car serviced for at least another two months. I will have my tax check by then but due to govt cutbacks it will be a lot less, they have cut out the spouse offset for this past year, so I will not enjoy the financial benefits of being Sally's carer for the last nine months of her life. Ironically I was denied carer's payment from Centerlink because they deemed Sally's condition to be only "temporary". Well I guess it was "temporary" but not in the way that they expected!!!! So the most I am likely to get back on my taxes would be a couple of hundreds dollars, down from a couple of thousands from being Sally's carer. The only claim avenue I have left is my union dues. This will be barely enough to cover a basic car service, and I am certain there will be other issues cropping up that they will find, perhaps new brakes, or tires, or any of the other issues that we come to expect with cars. In any case I will not be surprised if the car starts playing up during The Three Weeks, it is just a matter of how it will play up. Since I haven't yet gotten my bike serviced, it seems likely that Transperth will once again be possibly enjoying my patronage!!

Furthermore the alarm on the car hasn't been fixed, or more specifically the remote control clicker of the alarm system. It had given up the ghost also a couple of years ago, and having long discounted the obvious, a dead battery, by replacing it with a fresh new battery, it has long been deduced that the problem is something else aside from a dead battery. However I have heard that just to replace this tiny plastic device with cheap electronics inside would cost over $200!! WHY in hell's name it would cost THAT much to replace something so simple is utterly beyond me but I guess they can charge whatever they darn well like. And that is the reason why the car is still without an alarm system. Now fortunately the car spends its nights in a safely locked garage adjacent to my house, and at work it is parked near the rear door of the warehouse where various couriers and delivery persons makes regular visits and my office is just inside the door there, so my car is relatively safe there. It is mostly the trips to the mall that is a worry, and so for at least the duration of The Three Weeks I will take extra precautions. I will avoid the Mirrabooka mall in spite of the fact it is the closest major mall to my house, but it is also where the crime rate is highest. I normally have my wits about me, I never visit the mall at night, and I am very aware of my surroundings, keeping my cell phone on me, and watching for any suspect people and avoiding potential situations. But with The Three Weeks the risks are much higher so I will avoid Mirrabooka altogether, I will instead go to Dog Swamp which is safer, or across to Innaloo which is also relatively safer. My car is insured, but the insurance assumes a working alarm system so should it get stolen and they discover the alarm was not working, they may not cover the theft or at the very least charge me extra. So bar any The Three Weeks calamities, the alarm system will be the first thing that will be attended to as soon as I get caught up financially, this even before getting the car serviced.


FINANCES

I am still trying to catch up after paying off Sally's medical debts, and I still have the ambulance to pay off, that should be another four to six weeks. It is taking my longer than expected to catch up, there are always bills and other expenses to deal with. True enough my bills are less, indeed my utility bill was about half of what it usually is since there is no longer the heating and laundry requirements consequent of Sally's care needs. Nevertheless the bills still come and I am yet to get a sufficient break to catch up with them. And due to the govt cutbacks as explained above, my tax check will be of little help. And in any case I never do my taxes during The Three Weeks and Mercury's retrograde, so it will be near end of July before I do them, so any refund check as little as it will be won't be in my bank account until well into August.


COMPUTERS

The Three Weeks coincides with Mercury's retrograde, and computer problems often occurs when this planet goes in reverse relative to the earth. So together with The Three Weeks, there is a high potential for problems with my computers and devices such as the phones and tablets. I have backed up my data today, and will continue to back up my data on a regular basis during The Three Weeks and Mercury's retrograde.


HOUSE/LEASE

Well my lease doesn't end until end of October, and the landlord usually leaves us alone, we don't even have rent inspections as we are renting privately. He still have the right to conduct rent inspections, but he has never done so for the duration of our leases. He visited me only once since Sally's death so he knows about that. Perhaps the worse it can happen is if he pays me a visit during The Three Weeks and decides to not renew the lease in October. Of course being single and not having to worry about Sally's special needs it will be easier to move house, but we still have a housing crisis, and many flats are more expensive to rent than this house!! Our rent is cheaper than market rates cos of us renting privately. And there is still a lot of things that needs to be done, sorting out Sally's items which has been an ongoing process, and dealing with other issues attached to the house, such as the oven needing to be cleaned, and the shed cleaned out. So it is going to take a lot longer than four months to sort all these issues out. I really need an extra year, or at the very least, an extra six months here, then I will be ready to move.

Maintenance issues are likely to come up during The Three Weeks, such as blocked drains, leaking taps, etc, necessitating a visit from the landlord, and greater chance of him telling me he is not likely to be renewing the lease!!


MY JOB

My job is pretty well quarantined from our govts plan to abolish 1000 jobs in the public sector, working for a school and they rarely touch the schools as it is too politically sensitive!! So even given The Three Weeks I don't expect any such problems to arise. But it doesn't mean that there won't be any possible issues cropping up at work as it often does during The Three Weeks. The worst of it was a few years ago when I was banned from using the microwave in one kitchen because of "complaints" about smelly food, a blatant case of anti-semitism as I had just adopted the kosher diet. Anyone who suggests there are no racism nor discrimination in the public service has their heads up their own butts!! My boss can be difficult to deal with at times especially when he is in a bad mood. And often the computer systems falls down, and with Mercury's retrograde, it is more likely to fall down in these Three Weeks.


HEALTH

My energy has been very low lately, lethargic, and always tired. I have before suffered health problems during The Three Weeks albeit relatively mild. But something like the flu or gastro seems the most likely to afflict me.


HOSPITAL LOAN EQUIPMENT

I still have the hospital loan equipment that Sally has been using, the reason I hadn't been able to take them back was because the Equipment Loans dept's opening hours coincides with my working hours!! But I had last week received mail from them wanting their equipment back. I was hoping to have had it done this week but got too busy with the legal hoops hopping involved with changing our bank account from a joint to a single account. That thankfully has been successful and BEFORE The Three Weeks, but it does leave me with the loan equipment issue and I don't think they will wait another three or four weeks for them. The biggest issue is likely to be the electric recliner chair, they will have to come pick it up as it is too big to fit into my car. While Sally was using it she kept the chair protected with towels, sheets and water-proof protection pads. However due to her leaking sores, etc, small amounts of fluids did manage to find its way to the chair causing some slight damage. My main worry is they are likely to charge me for the damage, and being a $6000 chair, the charges are likely to be high. In any case we all know that the charges are always higher than the actual cost of repairs. As it being The Three Weeks this seems to be most likely to occur, that I would be sent an expensive repair bill.


FOOTBALL - OFFICE TIPPING COMP

I was hoping to get into the top six before The Three Weeks but due to last week's diabolical results I am still outside the six, albeit just in 7th spot. The top six at the end of the season collects the prize money. I had always won prize money up until mother's death but had won nothing since her death, and it looks like this year will continue this trend. My tipping strategy for The Three Weeks will be, I will go with the top tipsters in the sports pages, they submit their tips the day prior to the round, and the top guys usually get between 6 and 9 points - 9 being the perfect round as there are 9 games each round. Since none of the tipsters (as far as I know) are Jewish, they won't be affected by The Three Weeks, so I will just tip whom they tip. But for matches involving the West Coast Eagles, whom I affectionately (NOT!!!!!) call "Weavils", I will simply go with TAB odds since our sports writers are slightly biased and they all wish for an Eagles premiership!!! So for games involving the Eagles I will tip the team with the shortest odds. And for points variances that one must pick for the first match of the round, that is, basically predicting the winning margin, I will go with the shortest odds on the TAB as they have markets for various winning margins. Where we have equal tipping points in our tipping competition, the variances decides our spots on the ladder, those with the lowest variances being in the highest spots on the ladder, this often means the difference between being in the top six (prize money contention) and being outside the six (getting zilch, zit, nyet prizes!!!)


JULIE

She is likely to be the reason I will get through this tough The Three Weeks period relatively unscathed with no suicide or self harm issues. She understands me so well, she understands about these energies, and though The Three Weeks doesn't affect her, Mercury's retrograde does affect her, so will be suffering similarly. Each time we communicate the connections and feelings grow deeper, she is indeed my deepest soul mate. However during The Three Weeks, anything can happen and often does. Something unexpected may crop up and she decides to no longer want any contact with me. This is unlikely given the depth of our feelings and connections, but this IS The Three Weeks, so I am prepared for anything, at least as best I can be. Also I am yet to meet her, and with things progressing as apparently are, it is likely the meeting will take place during The Three Weeks. As stated in a previous blog, this is different from the Barbara scenario. Julie and I are already established in our relationship, and we both agree that we have already met and even spend our lives together over several of our past lives. So in the grand scheme of things, our relationship is already established from lives past, and we were just "temporarily" separated during this life time, and the separation is about to end. Any issues that may crop up even during The Three Weeks should not impact on the long term of our relationship, but as I said, being The Three Weeks I have to be prepared for anything. Also we haven't started any courses yet, and I am not real keen to start any courses during The Three Weeks, but will have to take things as it comes. But being with Julie will make it easier for me to cope with The Three Weeks.


I think this covers at least most possible areas of possible calamities that are most likely to occur during these The Three Weeks and Mercury's retrograde. I will be giving progress reports during this time, the frequency of the reports depending on when the calamities occurs. So "pray" or send energies that will remove the need for me to send frequent reports!!!!!!!