it's in the past

In English, to express something that took place in the past, there are several options. For example: I walked, I was walking, I did walk, I had walked. Or if I had planned on it, but it didn't work out: I was going to walk.
In French there are more. The passe compose, the imparfait, the plus-que parfait, the conditionel passe, the subjonctif passe. Aside from these, there are four more that are only used in literature. Encoced in the meaning of these tenses is duration of time, relation in time to other past events, and mood.
Hebrew on the other hand, has one past tense- only one! That makes it nice for a beginning student. Also the endings are regular. One still has the variations of the seven different benyanim (and we've really only learned pa'al) But still, this should be less challanging than french... More to come on Hebrew past tense- I still haven't figured out how to post in Hebrew characters...

May Belle 1989-2005

this poem is written in honor of Maybelle Mary Anne Murry Fleece Marie, a cat with enough spunk and personality to fit her name.

She was born in May,
blythe, bonny and gay,
with spunk, purrs, and play,
her fur: soft and gray

she played with a dart
how funny and smart!
in all the cat's arts
she knew her part

in a move left behind
her clever little mind
worked a path to find
in the nick of time

handsome she did grow,
she played in the snow,
but home was her show,
she'd stay and not go

call her and she'd come
and though there were some
cat-folk thought it dumb
she just said, "ho, hum"

after years of good play,
how now to turn gray?
but youth crept away,
it would go and not stay

she soars now with wings
in heaven she sings
before our good king
who gives us good things

There's a mess on the loading dock

They said it was vomit, but upon closer inspection (did I have to inspect it? Of course, professional curiosity!) it appeared to be spilled spaghetti sauce.
It was yesterday that I started cleaning something I thought to be bubble tea. It was pink, a deceptively cute color. The chunks of this, that, and the other aroused my suspicions- confirmed by my coworker- it was actually vomit!
And for some strange reason or other, I then felt compelled to relate this discovery (alas, in some detail) directly after lunch. Oops! Well, we all have strong stomachs here. I just hope that this doesn't turn into the theme of the week. Last week's themes were broken glass and broken (raw) eggs. Thursday morning Luis and I spent a whole hour de-egging the elevator- oh, la la, quelle horreure! They did such a complete job of it! Of course, it could be a lot worse. I am just glad that we don't clean the way cats clean...