Sunday, April 12, 2015

Help!

Although the younger generation seems to find it amazing (“wow, you mean someone your age has Facebook???”), I have managed to accustom myself to the modern world and even enjoy it. I do enjoy using that excellent tool, the computer (yes, I did grow up using a manual typewriter – and it worked pretty well too), and have managed to learn to do most of the necessary things to reboot, upload and download, add new programs, do research, and watch YouTube.  I have actually become addicted to the technology and can’t imagine what I would do without it.

A few months ago I got a new cell phone, a Smart Phone.  Since for me, a telephone has one primary purpose, and that is for making phone calls (I can accept SMS messages as legitimate also), I have for years had the simplest model, that actually only could make and receive phone calls. But finally, it started to gasp its last, and when I went to the store to buy a new battery, I was told that they had stopped making those batteries years ago…No choice but to buy a new phone.

So I got a Smart Phone, not one of the super models that does everything including making the morning coffee, but a more moderate one, but still with plenty of functions.  I could now get my emails on the phone, see the internet, take, get and send photos and videos, and unlimited other activities, most of which were totally unknown to me.  But I began to get used to this clever convenience, and began to add a few “apps”.  I added WhatsApp, which I knew of only as something that school kids used, but which turned out to have some use, and I added a GPS program Waze.

I have a GPS for my car, but it is an antique, and most of the roads that have been built in the last ten years are totally unrecognized by it. So having an up-to-date GPS in my phone was a very attractive idea.  My navigation up to now had been looking up the location on an internet map and then printing out the map with directions on how to get there.  Waze turned out to be a very positive program – it talked to me in a nice voice that was easy to understand, it knew where everything was, how long it would take to get there, and if there were traffic jams en route.  This was fun!

So last week I was due to give a lecture in Tel Aviv.  I had been there before a few times, and remembered reasonably well where the location was, but wasn’t quite sure about the correct exit from the highway and which turns to make in Tel Aviv to get there.  But now I had my Smart Phone and Waze!  Waze recognized the venue by name, I didn’t have to put in a street address, so I put the name in, Waze found a route, and we were ready to go.  The distance was between 45 minutes and an hour drive from my place, depending on the traffic.

I set off well in time – I always like to be on time, and usually am early.  I drove along happily, thinking about my lecture, with Waze making little comments – not much to say, I was driving on the highway.

And as we entered Tel Aviv, with three exits clustered within a few kilometers of each other, in the exact area where I was not sure of which turn to take, my Smart Phone gives me the message “No SIM card found”, and everything stops working – no GPS, no telephone or internet connection, nothing except the main screen with the (now useless) icons.

What????? Of course there is a SIM card!!!! I haven’t touched anything!!! I wouldn’t know how to remove the SIM card if my life depended on it!!!

This, of course, happened while I was driving in heavy traffic and needed to make a fast decision about my exit!!!

The phone suggested that I turn it off and on again. This was a very difficult procedure to accomplish while I was driving, and on the highway there is nowhere to stop on the side to work out technical phone problems.  But I managed, it came on again, and told me, “No SIM card found!!!!!!”

Now what?  I had taken an exit and was driving around a neighborhood I didn’t recognize at all, trying to find a place whose address I didn’t know. No GPS, no telephone – I couldn’t call to ask where I was and how to get there, or even to warn them that I was late.  I tried turning on my computer in the hopes that I could get on to the internet and find the address or a map – but of course, there was no access to the internet unless I had a password for the multiple networks out there that were all password protected.

I don’t think I have ever felt so totally helpless – and stupid!!! If I hadn’t had such a complacent trust in technology, I would have had a paper map with me with the address!

I stopped at a little convenience store to ask if they had a phone. No. But the sole customer, a man who obviously felt sorry for my clear distress, allowed me to use his cellphone.  I thought that if he had Waze, I could find my venue, see the address, and then get instructions to get there.  But no, he did not have Waze.  I tried to call the organizers, and got only voice mail, and could only leave a message that I was lost and was still trying to get there.  By now, I was already about 20 minutes late.

I drove around and around, looking for something familiar. I knew I was in the correct general area, but the area is a maze of little streets, and I didn’t even remember the name of the street I was looking for. I was in despair!

And then I had an idea.  There was a taxi stand ahead of me, with about five or six taxis waiting for fares.  I stopped, approached one of the drivers, tried to explain my situation, and asked if he had Waze – taxi drivers certainly must have a GPS! Apparently my hysterical appearance did not encourage his feelings of cooperation – no!  After trying a few more taxi drivers who were not cooperative, I finally found one who seemed to be sympathetic. I was able to persuade him to let me use the Waze on his phone to look up the venue, and then to find what the actual street address was.  It was in fact only a few minutes away.

The driver gave me instructions on how to get there, but when I got back in my car, I took out my old antique GPS, put in the address, and got instructions – it took me about five minutes to get there.

As I walked into the lecture room, almost an hour late, all the students were sitting and waiting with the organizer – they had gotten my message, but of course there was no way for them to get in touch with me either.

Of course, at the end of the lecture, when I tried turning my Smart Phone off and on, it immediately returned to full function.

I will continue to travel with paper maps, and never again will I leave the house without knowing the exact address of my destination.



Monday, April 6, 2015

Dardar

Two weeks ago, we took a drive into the desert in search of Canaan Dogs.
We are always looking for new desert born Canaan Dogs to add to the gene pool of the breed, but they are becoming harder and harder to find.  Civilization has invaded their niche in nature, and the Bedouin, for whom they held great value as protectors of the herds, are now settling in villages where they have no need for dogs. But we still can occasionally find Canaans in isolated areas.

Over the years we have made many expeditions of this sort. It is impossible to know in advance if there will be success in finding or seeing dogs – it is possible to travel around for days and see none.  But hopes were high!

And indeed, we were in luck.  Throughout the morning, we saw a number of Bedouin herds out to pasture – at this time of year even the desert is green and there is plenty of grazing – and all were accompanied by dogs, some of them really beautiful examples of the breed.
As we were getting to the end of our planned route, we passed a small Bedouin village, Hura.  Outside the village was a garbage dump, and this was the spot that dead sheep were discarded.  There were some vultures circling above, so it was obvious that there was food here, so maybe we would also see some dogs that had come to scavenge.

As we slowed down, we spotted a black and white Canaan male. The dog didn’t bark or threaten, but paced back and forth and seemed to be trying to lure the invading humans away from the spot.  When we went back in the direction from which the dog had come, a female Canaan, brown and white, jumped out of the dense thicket of thistle bushes, barking, and trying to lead us away. It was clear that this bitch was nursing a litter, her teats were full of milk.

After some searching, on the edge of the extremely smelly dump, well hidden under the thicket of thistles, and comfortably ensconced on a thick layer of old sheep skins, with many well chewed and cleaned bones scattered around, we found the litter – four puppies about six weeks old, all females and all brown and white like their mother.  The puppies were calm as they looked at these odd beings invading their territory.  The worried parents watched from a distance, unable to cope with so many strangers, but never thinking of moving out of sight of their pups. There were no signs of fear – obviously these pups had never seen people before and certainly had never had any experience of abuse or mistreatment.  When I approached and stretched out a hand, the puppies one by one approached. They had no objection to being picked up and cuddled, and were very plump, healthy, and completely free of ticks or fleas.  The parents were also in excellent condition, very well fed from the carcasses, even though belonging to and cared for by no one.

It has been very rare over the years to find puppies in the desert.  The dens are usually very well hidden and a distance away, but in this case the food supply was so good in this spot that the litter was accessible.  And this was a unique opportunity to once again really see the life of free living Canaans!


One of the puppies came home with me, and has very easily and quickly adjusted to modern comforts.  Her name is Dardar – the Hebrew name for the thistle thicket that was her first home.  We hope she will grow up to introduce another new bloodline to the breed.  Meanwhile, she has become my granddaughter’s dog and has taken over the household, enjoying all the perks of modern life. The only thing she didn’t enjoy much was the very needed bath, to free her of the essence of dead sheep…