I was driving home from work the other day. Left the office early to reduce driving time in the evening hours. Hamas likes their 6 p.m. missile barrage and I\u2019m honing my missile-avoidance routine.<\/p>\n
I was listening to talk-radio, but have kind of had enough of the news. Too much war talk and it\u2019s getting a bit overwhelming. So, I switched to Spotify and up popped Supertramp, \u201cThe Logical Song.\u201d How \u201cwonderful, beautiful, magical\u201d life once felt. Before Oct. 7. Before Hamas.<\/p>\n
Then, as if on cue. I gazed towards the sky and saw missiles flying overhead. At first, it didn\u2019t really click. And then, yikes! I quickly switched back to the news where, in a very calming voice, they were announcing areas under missile attack, which is another reason to listen to the radio while driving during war \u2013 real-time information. Lesson learned.<\/p>\n
Suddenly, my smartphone\u2019s flashlight started flashing, which was pretty darn cool! And there I was, on Star Trek<\/i>, standing on the bridge. I even recalled the vessel number, NCC-1701. I was with Captain Kirk. No! I was Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy by my side, Sulu and Chekov at the controls. The Klingons were attacking and Mr. Spock, standing to the side, was calmly advising the attack coordinates. No, wait! That was the radio announcer. Seriously, this all took place within a split second in my over-active imagination.<\/p>\n
The flashing continued. I realized my cellphone was communicating with me, warning of danger. I have the Home Front Command application, which sounds an amazingly loud alarm during a missile attack in my area, but changing between the radio and Spotify prevented the siren from going off. So, instead, the phone activated my flashlight, sending out an SOS. Now how neat is that?! In a geeky sort of way. Like for someone who imagines himself on Star Trek<\/i> during a real-life missile attack.<\/p>\n
Reality set in. There were Home Front Command instructions to follow.<\/p>\n
Momentary panic set in. Where was my wife, to tell me what to do? Like she always does \u2026 but that\u2019s another story. This time, I wanted her there, instructing me.<\/p>\n
All these thoughts raced through my mind in milliseconds. As I calmly slowed the car and veered to the shoulder, like other cars around me, I put on the blinkers. More flashing lights, but the bridge of the USS Enterprise was now a distant thought. Looking both ways, I left the car and hopped over the road barrier, moving away from the car, although probably not far enough, because there was a steep decline just below. It was getting dark and, suffering from poor night vision, I didn\u2019t want to trip and hurt myself. I heard my son laughing at me. \u201cNerd!\u201d he called out. But that was just my imagination.<\/p>\n
I should have laid flat, prostrating myself for maximum protection. But it had rained earlier that day, the ground was wet and I didn\u2019t want to get muddy. \u201cNerd!\u201d This time, it was my daughter in my mind\u2019s eye. \u201cOK,\u201d I said to no one in particular, \u201cI\u2019ll squat.\u201d Good enough, but not really.<\/p>\n
The family in the car ahead were huddling together but too close to their vehicle. I shouted for them to move further away, but they didn\u2019t react. Maybe they didn\u2019t understand me, given my still heavily accented Canadian Hebrew. This time, I heard both my kids teasing me \u2013 30 years and still talking like an immigrant! \u201cHey, they just don\u2019t hear me,\u201d I said to the darkness.<\/p>\n
It was very moving seeing the father crouching down on top of his brood, in a protective sort of way. \u201cIsn\u2019t that touching,\u201d I said to my wife in my imaginings. \u201cFor sure,\u201d she responded, somewhat sarcastically, in the back of my mind. \u201cI know you\u2019d do the same.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Then it was over. The sky went quiet. People returned to their cars. The nestled family broke apart and entered theirs. We should have stayed in place several more minutes. Ten minutes is the recommended time. But it was dark, getting late, also a bit cold. I just wanted to get home, back to the real chiding of my kids and to my wife, somehow longing for her ordering me about.<\/p>\n A few minutes later, my wife called, to make sure I was safe. And then routine set in. \u201cDon\u2019t forget to pick up some milk and bread from the corner store,\u201d she instructed me.<\/p>\n Am Israel chai.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Bruce Brown<\/b>, a Canadian-Israeli, made aliyah 25 years ago. He works in high-tech and is happily married, with two kids. He is the winner of a 2019 American Jewish Press Association Simon Rockower Award for excellence in Jewish writing.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was driving home from work the other day. Left the office early to reduce driving time in the evening hours. Hamas likes their 6 p.m. missile barrage and I\u2019m honing my missile-avoidance routine. I was listening to talk-radio, but have kind of had enough of the news. Too much war talk and it\u2019s getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4329],"tags":[4361,4330,22334,4735,1774],"class_list":["post-43009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-israel","tag-hamas","tag-israel","tag-missiles","tag-star-trek","tag-terrorism"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43009\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}