It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood!

Alright, yes, I do remember Mister Rogers fondly.  I was just thinking about what a beautiful day it was today and that song popped into my head.

I think it was a little above 75 degrees today, though it's supposed to go back down to mid 60's tomorrow and after.

Still, days are getting longer, weather is getting warmer, and pretty soon it will be too warm for the heavy blanket on the bed, at which point it will go into storage until around December.

I love Spring.

Well, except for the allergies.  lol

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Alright, after I posted today's post, I got a bug to redo the page, so yes, same blog but different colors and design to it.  Let me know what you think.  Like it, hate it, text too small, ugly colors, whatever.

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Things seem to be progressing here, though admittedly I am not keeping up with all of the latest news.  I do get headlines and an occasional story but after all the constant news watching I did for a couple of weeks I really need a break from all that.

One thing that I have found very interesting, is that the government, well, now the military, send out text messages to everyone on their cell phones.

The way cell phones work here, is that you buy a sim card, which has a phone number on it, and put that in your phone, and then you buy some minutes for your phone and that's it!

Although you can buy a monthly subscription here for your phone, what the majority of people do is to buy minutes for their phone, no monthly plan involved.

So instead of paying a monthly bill, you just go to any corner stand or grocery and  you will be able to buy cards (they are like the gift cards you can buy in the States for places like Target, etc.) worth a certain monetary amount, and then you enter the card information into your phone by dialing the phone company and entering the "fill up" number, and it fills up your phone with a corresponding number of minutes you can talk for.

So anyways, I have received probably 7 or so text messages on my cell phone, all in Arabic of course, from the government and military.  Mostly just saying that they are here to protect the citizens and everything is fine.

And many other people are getting the messages as well.  I even got one on my internet connection, which looks like a memory stick that you put in the USB port on your computer.  The connection uses a sim card of course.  Though that is on a monthly plan.

Well, the point is, I find this a really great means of communicating with citizens, and I'm wondering why this isn't done in the States?  Or if it is done there, why it isn't more widespread, because I've never heard of it being done there.  Seems like an effective way to get in touch with people during an emergency.

And of course, no matter how poor the people are here in Egypt, pretty much everyone has a cell phone.

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Okay, on with today's log.  It's a bit shorter than the last one.  And maybe not as interesting.  I can't remember now though I read it last night.  lol

One thing to note, I'm copy and pasting the text into this window from the file I originally wrote in.  I have not made any spelling or other grammatical changes to clean the log up.  This was how it was written and that's how it will stay.

Next post to come on Monday insha'Allah.

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Sunday, January 30th


Was asleep by 7 a.m.  Woke several times and though hubby was out of bed by 11:30 or so, I actually managed to sleep til 2:30.

Just finished doing some cleaning on the balcony and hubby is cleaning the floors.

3:45 p.m. and we can hear some type of jet fighter flying by.  Alright, I went outside to check them out.  There were 2 jets and they made many many passes in the area.  I tried to get some video but, you know, they move pretty fast and it's hard to estimate where they're going to come from exactly.  The last couple of passes they made were so low that it was starting to get painful to listen to, even inside.

I was honestly a bit nervous, figuring that it was bad that they were flying around, but hubby thinks it's a good thing, to scare any thugs and report any masses to the army down on the street.

Speaking of which, we will not have army on our street, they will be on Pyramid street, which I mentioned is a 5 to 10 minute walk away.  So, our streets will continue to be manned by the residents and I can only assume that tonight and some nights further, will be like last night.

Anyways, the jets stopped about 4:15 or so, so I had a good while to watch them flying overhead.  Which, despite the fact that it made me a little nervous because I wasn't sure of their intent at the time, was actually pretty awesome.  They are great to watch and I kind of felt like I was getting my own  private air show.

5:40 now and the evening call to prayer is sounding.  I heard today that the curfew starts at 4 p.m. and ends at 6 a.m.?  Not sure the end time in the morning, but starting it at 4 seems a bit early.  That's almost 2 hours before the sun hits the horizon.

Also heard that the president named a vice president for the first time in 30 years, though there is always supposed to have been one, and an elected one, not one who was appointed.  Although it's a good step that there is at least a vice president, even if the people didn't get to elect him, the problem is that he's the equivalent of the head of the CIA or something like that.  I'm not sure that's a great person to have as a vice president.

And even if the president is replacing ministers, I still don't trust what is happening.

The president shut down the only news agency that was reporting the truth here in Egypt, Al Jazeera.  How can you trust a leader who not only limits free press but shuts it down entirely?  I don't think you can.  If the people let these changes go, and let things move forward with the changes the president has made, I think all of this, all the effort, will have been wasted.  I don't think anything will change until and if they can manage to have a fair and un-tampered with election in September.  Then, and only then, I think there might be some hope of change.  Because you can bet that the people will not be voting to elect people who will keep the present regime in place.

Heard that the multi-national companies and embassies have internet back, but us common folk still have no internet.  It's been 3 days now.  Another restriction of freedom that tells me that the current government shouldn't be trusted.

I know things will be different now but I'm still not sure how.  One of the things I am curious about is law enforcement, and what will happen with the police.  It is well known that they are very easily bribed and from what I have read and heard, there are more criminal elements in the police structure than in the general society, if you do it by percentage or something at least.  I'm not saying that there are NO honest police, but it is so well known that they are crooked that people really don't trust them.

I forgot, earlier, about the time that the jets were flying over, I noticed that there was a helicopter making circles.  I figured it to include the area where my in-laws live and hubby confirmed it, though how large of an area it was  circling I'm not sure.  And neither sure what it was doing.  Just interesting as I've never seen or heard a helicopter in the two years that I've been here.  Not that I've ever heard jets here either.

6:45 and the first tank of the evening is rolling by.

7:42 and another tank going by.  Whistles along the street as it goes by.

7:44 and the first gun shots of the night.  Middle to far distance and rapid fire.

7:52 helicopter flying by somewhere near.

7:59 and I hear the helicopter flying nearby again, so maybe it's making a regular sweep of the area for a while?  Really hard to know anything.  Though it is much closer this time than when I heard it just a bit ago.

No surprise that the regular air traffic, which we hear a fair amount of since we seem to be close to the landing pattern, has died off quite a bit and I think I've only heard a few planes in the last few days.  We really aren't that close to the airport at all, but I know on my return flight here from my visit to the States over the summer, I found it strange that we flew right over the pyramids, which is basically right next to where I live, before making our way over to the airport.  I guess it really isn't that far for an airplane, though it takes us 45 minutes to drive there, without traffic.

8:34 and time for another round of helicopter flying around.  Very close this time.  If it had been daytime, maybe I'd be able to see if they were army helicopters or what, but as it's night and dark out, I don't think I'd be able to tell.

9:00 and time for another tank to pass by, to lots of whistles as usual.  At this point, there really is no other traffic to speak of on the roads, so it's very loud and obvious when the tank comes by.

9:07 Just went out onto the balcony to see if I could catch the tank, but of course it had already gone.  I waited too long to decide to try to see if I could get some video of it.  But, there are lots of guys milling around out on the streets, walking in small groups, talking, carrying sticks and other weapons.  I learned, actually, that the people here are very well armed, with many more people than I had imagined carrying guns of some sort, many of them even automatic weapons.  I'm not sure if I feel safer with this news or not, seeing as how most of the people using them are probably not trained in how to use them and how to be careful and safe of other people in the area while they are shooting.

Hubby is out now with the others on the street, doing his guard duty.  I know he really misses being able to read the news online to find out what is happening, and one way to find out is to be out on the street to hear what is going on, and to see the t.v. in the cafe down on the corner.

9:25 and time for another very close pass by the helicopter.

11:00 tank goes by and I finally catch it, but just the tail end, hardly able to be seen.

12:07 and tank time again.  I love that everyone gets so excited when they go by.

12:25 and helicopter time.  Further away this time.

Parents call and it's nice to hear from them and we catch up a bit on the news.

12:26 gun shots ack, very close.  continual.  whistling now and gun shots further away.  no idea what is going on.  not sure that it's a good idea to go out to check.  yelling in the street.  more gun shots, further away.

12:31 just went out onto the balcony to see what i could see and call hubby to see what was going on.  i guess they caught a couple of guys with guns, and so the gun shots were to warn the guys they caught.  i think.  there were some more gun shots while i was out on the balcony.  i think everyone is kind of trigger happy and i'd be a little nervous if i was hanging around anyone down on the street with a gun right now.  lol?

12:33 and i hear a tank but the timing isn't right going by the rest of the night.  they're about half hour early.  who knows!

1:07 and tank time.

1:25 and hubby home.  not sure if he will go back out or not.  he says the police will be here tomorrow to guard the streets.  not sure if i think that's a good thing or not, but off hand i'd say not.  do you trust the people who let everyone out of jail to begin with??!

2:27 single gunshot in the distance.

3:35 multiple gun shots mid distance away.

3:43 hubby just got a text message on his cell phone from the phone company saying that the army was in the streets.  i find this beyond strange!  hubby says it's for people who don't have t.v. to be able to see the news i guess.  weird.