Even though I was taking a day off today*, I got up at 5:30 am and took the dog for her early morning walk. By about 6 am, she had done what she had needed to do, and we were about a third of the way through our walk. At this stage, my phone started emitting a sound that I couldn't place at first: I took it out of my pocket and saw that the home guard were dispaying a warning message about an imminent air raid warning. So I immediately turned and we started walking back home at an increased pace, not stopping for any sniffing around. At about a distance of 100 metres from my home, the air raid warning starting sounding - it's quite frightening to hear it when outside. People from the building neighbouring ours were coming down the stairs and heading for the nearest air raid shelter whereas the dog and I were half running home in order to get to our secure room. There are only a few buildings on my side of the kibbutz that have a secure room so we are quite privileged in this respect.
After the all clear signal had been given (via telephone), we were free to exit the room. I had intended to go swimming this morning at 7 am, and I saw no reason not to go. If the pool was closed then all I would have done was complete my early morning walk. By 7 am, I was at the pool and saw the life guard open up; there was only me and another swimmer there. At that hour, the air temperature is much closer to the water temperature, so the cold water didn't bother me. After swimming a few lengths, I thought that I heard an odd sound, so I treaded water for a bit, then carried on. A few minutes later, the air raid sirens sounded again.
So it was out of the pool and into an air raid shelter that was conveniently close to the pool. When I went down into the main room, I was surprised how many people were there; presumably the odd sound that I had heard before was the early warning. A few people made some comments about my attire, but I wasn't paying attention so I didn't realise that they were talking about me. After about 20 minutes, the all clear sounded and we all exited the shelter. By this time, I had lost interest in swimming, but I had to go back to the pool to pick up my headphones, cap and robe; the other person who had been swimming with me was back in the water.
On the way back home (I live on the opposite side of the kibbutz from the pool), three or four people stopped me and asked if the pool was open. I repeated my story. Later on, a message appeared on the electronic notice pool that all pools in our general area would be closed for the rest of the day.
So it's just like 'old times' of the earlier wars with Iran and Yemen from the past year.
* A few weeks ago, I noticed that I had accumulated many days of holiday. As I will soon be retiring, these days would be turned into money and as a result I would be paying a great deal of income tax for this extra payment. I also receive two days holiday a month, so if I did nothing, I would end up with 36 days of holiday. As a result, I've been taking one day of holiday each week.
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