fito (fly in the ointment) update

My how things can change from one day to the next, especially at this time of the year in the gardens.

Since the previous fito post, it has been only five days--how can that be? Can you hear that noise? It's another list approaching--a Reader's Digest version of the last five days:

1. After posting the first fito post, Jack and I decided it was time to do some serious shopping, so we did. We were amazing--the ideas, the implementation, the inspiration--it was truly (!!OVERUSED WORD ALERT!!!) AWESOME!!! We were feeling so ready to move on to wrapping and party preparation. Until we received another call from the firstborn. He was back in the hospital and sicker than ever. We went to the hospital and I spent the night there with him so his wife and daughter could go home and sleep in their own beds. Needless to say, that call evaporated the awesome feeling we were experiencing. (Let it be known that we do not blame the firstborn for the evaporation--it's just one of the things he and we go through some times. We hate it for him and he hates it for us.)

2. For the first time in 30 years, Jack and I did not wake up in the same bed on Christmas morning. That was an odd feeling. While it was good to be with the firstborn and good also when he and his wife let us take their daughter with us for Christmas visits to family, I missed hearing Jack's Christmas greeting as the first thing in my ear early in the morning. Christmas was a long day--longer even than the day that Jack Jr. and I had the flu when he was 1 1/2 years old and I spent the day upstairs in my bed/bathroom and he spent the day downstairs raiding the Christmas stockings. And I spent the day changing his diapers... After the firstborn spent some alone time with Jack, received some infusions of fluids, drank some fluids, and a survived a couple of near catastrophies, the day ended with the firstborn feeling calmer emotionally and better physically. Or at least it felt that way to me.

3. Yesterday and today were spent partly at work and partly visiting family and partly watching old episodes of The Sopranos (the best tv ever, really.) Both days also included lots of treat eating and minimal amounts of tidying up and disposing of wrapping paper scraps.

4. Now it is time to finish up with the pre-Christmas list. The gardens have yet to produce the caramels (or the turtles that were originally planned), the spritz or teacakes (yes Jack Jr. made spritz, but somehow, blue and green spritz are not the same as red and green spritz), or the cheeseballs. We also need to write a couple of notes to friends and family and visit with a dear friend who was diagnosed with an illness that will likely be the cause of her lingering until she passes on. That was not a good Christmas card/letter/update to receive. But that is life. For all of us, it will end sometime, somehow.

While this may seem like another long post, it is really the RD version. It was much longer in real life.