lj status

It looks like posting is working again. The only notice I've seen is the absence of the "we're working on it" message from the status page. (It's back to the "no current problems" default message.)

I was able to edit longer posts last night (to bring in text I'd posted elsewhere and linked to). LJ swallowed several comments I posted yesterday and the day before, but I didn't notice it doing so last night.

I assume a post in lj_maintenance explaining what happened will appear eventually.

shiva minyan

I led a shiva minyan tonight. Two liturgically-competent Conservative Jews thought I was a rabbi, which I'll take as a compliment. :-) (My rabbi had clued me in that the family was a mix of Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist, several very involved in their congregations, so I did more Hebrew than I would have otherwise and watched/listened for people having trouble. Sometimes families aren't that comfortable and since the whole point of the service is to help the family in mourning, you adapt to their needs.)

I feel bad about one thing. Even though I allowed extra time as insurance against this, I had a lot of trouble finding the building -- well-hidden behind trees and in an area largely lacking in posted numbers (and street signs for that matter). I ended up being about five minutes late, after calling the house and asking for guidance. That meant a few things: first, I walked into a room full of people sitting patiently waiting to daven (embarrassing); second, I didn't get to speak to the family beforehand to offer condolences (just the person who ushered me in); third, I didn't get to double-check a couple things in the special siddur for a house of mourning before we started (and they only had the smaller-print edition).

I need to remember that Google Maps offers a satellite view and this can provide useful information. In this case, it would have given me a gas station as a landmark. I'm too used to the idea that maps are line art, but they're a lot more now.

The family didn't seem to be miffed and I apologized to each of them. But it shouldn't have happened; it looked unprofessional.

I should also get myself a (larger-print) copy of that siddur -- so that I'll always have it available, and so that I can paste in two versions of E- Malei Rachamim, one for each gender, instead of messing around with the parenthesized alternate words. That's just too hard to read.