The fer is now largely gone, replaced by a mass of nervous energy. A few hours sleep punctuated by waking every couple hours to re-arrange the insides of my luggage. There is now a pile on my chair of things I wanted to bring but could not find space for, or removed to save weight.

It is not as if I will be trekking all over the place with my huge rolling duffel. That will stay behind as I move on with a backpack loaded with just the essentials. But it does have things I need in it.

The decision to bring my digital SLR along has taken most of the space in my carry on. I decided early in the process that I couldn't be there for this long and not take it. The point and shoot photos from the last time were pretty good, but my inner photographer wouldn't let it go if I did not go up properly armed to the Holy Land.

There is also the supply of airsoft parts I am bringing my friends. Gerber and Leatherman, multi-tools-- one a request from a friend, the other to give to one of the soldiers I find myself working with. My sense of history perked up as I packed all of that. It reminded me of all the weird things they had to do in '48 to get real military equipment past the various international embargoes. While this isn't nearly comparable, we are trying to circumvent some taxes- which like sheshbesh, is something of an Israeli pastime.

I do have about the same amount of clothes as the last time. Light on outerwear, heavy on underwear. There are a couple exceptions. I had to bring a set of more formal clothes for the holidays. My poorer appearance might be excusable due to my living out of a suitcase, but I'm not going to show up on Rosh Hashanna looking like a schleper.