communication error

[cellio]

Argh. That was close.

Our garage came with an ameteurish "wood-burning stove" that we have never used. It was, essentially, a 55-gallon drum with a chimney and a barrel of wood scraps. The previous owner of the house used the garage as a workshop. We use it to store cars.

A couple months ago our garderner asked if we would be willing to sell it to him and we told him to just take it (so long as he didn't leave a hole in the wall). We also told him he could have the wood pile. When Dani and I talked it was about taking the barrel and the box of wood scraps, but apparently, either Dani said or the gardener mis-heard "clear out everything". The stove etc disappeared during Pennsic, I think, and I didn't pay much attention.

This morning something in the back of my head told me to make sure all the parts of my sukkah are in good shape. (Sukkot begins a week from Friday night.)

You see where this is going, right?

Fortunately, the gardener still has the expensive roof part, which -- as a roll of laced-together bamboo really ought to have set off the "this might be important" alarm, but didn't -- and he will return it tomorrow. The other important piece is gone, though, so I will have to fabricate a new corner post. Fortunately, it isn't expensive in dollars, just time. (Three corners are anchored to existing architecture; the fourth is a free-standing post with braces and stuff.) Just what I needed, a project to be done in the next week.... I'm pretty inept at carpentry, too. Someone competent could probably make this part in 10 minutes; when I did it before I think it took a couple hours.

Comments

[magid.livejournal.com]

At least you discovered it now, not, say, next Thursday...

[cellio]

That would have been tempting fate. :-) Specifically, waiting until the last night to set up a sukkah is just asking for a non-stop deluge....

[magid.livejournal.com]

Last year, that was pretty much what I did. The (3rd generation) sukkah went up in a couple of afternoon hours counting down to the Shabbat before the holiday.

I think there is some minhag that you finish Yom Kippur, and move into the next mitzvah by starting the sukkah... I could do this more readily if there weren't that pesky work thing eating most of my days...

[cellio]

I've heard the same thing -- that when Yom Kippur ends, that night, you are supposed to start building the sukkah. (I assume this is usually symbolic, as it's dark and late by the time you've broken the fast. I take the pieces out of the garage. :-) ) And, apparently, you're not supposed to build it before Yom Kippur, because you are supposed to be focusing on the high holy days then. (There's a story about a rabbi who sees one of his students picking out an etrog [something used for Sukkot] a couple days after Rosh Hashana. He says to the student "Atonement you've achieved already?".)

[cellio]

Clarification: I know that you know what an etrog is; I throw in these little asides/definitions/etc for the benefit of others who may be reading this. Sorry I didn't make that clearer.

[dvarin.livejournal.com]

I don't know, it was obvious to me why that was there, but then again, I'm in the stated target of the "needs explanations" audience. :)
Anyway, they are appreciated--please continue to add them.