My poor dad was in and out of the hospital since a week before Christmas with what ended up as pnuemonia.
He's out now, but in rehab gaining strength until he can reliably walk again.
But, before that, while my mom was helping him in the hospital, she got knocked flat by the flu. In his hospital room.
Generally, you don't want someone with pneumonia exposed to the flu.
Anyway, we all (10 of us) had to get tested.
The score was 4 to 6. Mumpy and Pa were sick with type A, and two of us were carrying type B (but never got sick). Ten rounds of Tamiflu later, I'm here to say: GET YOUR FLU SHOT!
The 8 of us who had the shot were fine, and the other two scared me. A lot!
Anyway, between hospitals, ERs, Rehab, quarantines, and doctor visits, it's been pretty crazy, but I think we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.
And just in time! Zorg and Leena start college this week!
The Journey Of The Magi by T.S. Eliot A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The ways deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.’
And the camels galled, sorefooted, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
and running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty and charging high prices:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.
Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arriving at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you might say) satisfactory.
All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we led all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly
We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.
The Zoomlians bring to you: best wishes and a blessing for the New Year!
Remember us, O God;
from age to age be our comforter.
You have given us the wonder of time,
blessings in days and nights, seasons and years.
Bless your children at the turning of the year
and fill the months ahead with the bright hope
that is ours in the coming of Christ.
You are our God, living and reigning, forever and ever.
Amen.
