When we arrived home last night after a delightful dinner with my nephew William and his very pregnant wife Rachel (due in a few weeks), we found out that we had no Internet and Cable. It was working yesterday morning before we left for work.

Eliot sprang into action because the Academy Awards is on tomorrow night and we saw every movie nominated. We are in a total panic state because the Verizon repairman is not due until tomorrow. Life without our connection to the outside world makes us feel so isolated. I almost started to twitch.

Coincidentally, today is the day my nephew Sam (William’s older brother) and his wife Mara are hosting their son’s bris in our apartment. They also have a 2-1/2 year old darling boy. Just to make sure everyone knows what I am talking about, a bris is the ceremony for a male circumcision performed on the eighth day of life. A mohel (rabbi or cantor) performs the circumcision.

The reason why Mara and Sam wanted to use our apartment was because the mohel, who doesn’t travel on the Sabbath, lives in Manhattan. They live on Long Island. The mohel walked from the Upper West Side to our East Side apartment and the climbed the 10 flights to our apartment.

While the mohel talked about the importance of people gathering together in good times, I thought about how he was spending the day deep in prayer and away from anything related to work. Religious Jews refrain from turning lights and appliances on and off and do not ride in moving vehicles.

After everyone left for the day, Eliot and I were alone without cable and Internet. We felt lost for a little while until we dusted off the backgammon set. Years ago we used to have fierce competitive games. We played for a while but longed for our TV shows. We are so caught up in the electronic world that a night without the boob tube is like a day without eating.

Then Eliot remembered we had one last resort, a DVD player. We are now watching Doctor Zhivago. It is raining and cold outside. We are happy to be home after a wonderful day but do not take away our electronics, please.