Clapping on Planes

Kalypso and I are back in Israel as we begin our excavating season at Tel Zeitah. We seem to have a good group of volunteers this year. Many are older, which is OK with me, as it makes me feel and look young. Archaeology is sort of like meditation for me. I don't have to deal with insurance agents or the political bureacrats, I just have to carry rocks, fill out locus tags, measure, and record. It's like a giant puzzle. I have to admit that I'm finding being away from New Orleans quite healthy, even though being in Israel, not too far from Gaza, brings along with it another type of stressful baggage. But for the first time in a long time, nobody clapped when the plane landed at Ben Gurion airport. I was happy about that. I was never very patriotic, and the whole idea of "school pride" made me ill. It's tough to be away though, especially from Therese and Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh lost his first tooth last Friday. He was very impressed with the whole tooth fairy setup, getting money for a tooth and all. I told him that he could get much more money by selling a kidney.