Passover begins at sundown today. It commemorates the freedom of the Israelites from ancient Egypt. When I was younger Passover meant a seder at someone’s house. These were big, and I mean big, dinners but first we had to sit through about 2 hours of praying. Some of my favorite dishes were:

Mother’s thin and super crispy potato kugel and, matzo meal pancakes
Sister’s ultra sweet and stringy beef brisket
Aunt Mildred’s Charoset
Aunt Ruth’s matzoball soup
Nanny’s matzo brei

And in my later years, particularly after moving downstate and eventually Buffalo, the seder dinners were held at my sister’s house. Unfortunately, with everyone scattered throughout the country, these days are missed very much. Those were the good old days but at least, we all celebrate in heart and spirit.

Tomorrow is the start of 8 weeks of speech therapy designed to help me hear without lip-reading and hopefully, be able to use the telephone. Things have pretty much settled down. Even though there hasn’t been much progress over the last couple of weeks, this is a good sign in that things have stabilized and my brain has gotten used to all of the sounds. Now is the time to take it to the next level!

Also tomorrow, the first Checkers AC track practice, 6:00 at UB stadium. At least they aren’t predicting a snowstorm like we had last year. With 4 races under my belt this year, I have pretty much picked up where I left off last year. The next race – Bunny Hop this Saturday, at 9:30 in East Aurora.