{"id":5182,"date":"2014-02-13T23:47:17","date_gmt":"2014-02-14T04:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=5182"},"modified":"2014-02-14T06:34:14","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T11:34:14","slug":"my-folks-generosity-and-culprit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=5182","title":{"rendered":"my folks, generosity, and culprit"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rudi&#8217;s back in the hospital with pulmonary embolisms, so things have been a little stressed around here. No reading, although I&#8217;m listening to <em>The Thin Man<\/em>, and no knitting, which means there&#8217;s absolutely no chance of finishing the sweater I designated for my Olympic knitting. But, you know, that&#8217;s how these things go. He&#8217;s getting better and will be home again soon, and those are the important things.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, three beautiful things from the last week of my thirties:<\/p>\n<p>1. My parents send a box full of prettily wrapped and bowed birthday gifts to be opened throughout the week. I open at least one at the end of each day, and some I use as an incentive to get through rough patches. As I open the packages, I eat heart-shaped cookies my mother sent back with me when I was home last month and try to guess what each item could be. (Sparkle sugar was an easy one; funkily patterned tights not so much.) To be honest, this week would have been much more challenging without this box o&#8217; love.<\/p>\n<p>2. An online friend, reading of how hard I&#8217;ve been taking this last month, makes a donation on my behalf to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.heifer.org\/\">Heifer International<\/a>, one of the charities I support. So now every time I see a flock of ducks, I will think of <a href=\"http:\/\/readingontheftrain.blogspot.com\/\">Jessica<\/a> and her thoughtfulness.<\/p>\n<p>3. My car fails inspection &#8212; twice. After the first time, I take it to a mechanic recommended by a friend of Rudi&#8217;s, who also drives an elderly vehicle, and get it tuned up. After the second failure, I call the mechanic back and ask what our next step is, and he suggests it&#8217;s likely a catalytic converter problem. Turns out he was right, and he and two other mechanics were waiting to show me what mine looked like when I picked up the car. (Imagine one of those peekaboo Easter eggs, except it&#8217;s made of metal and filled with a scene of post-apocalyptic platinum rubble.) He finds me a new, less expensive converter, installs it for just the cost of the part, and sends me on my way. It is with great relief that I pass inspection on the third try.<\/p>\n<p>How about you? What&#8217;s been beautiful in your world this week?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rudi&#8217;s back in the hospital with pulmonary embolisms, so things have been a little stressed around here. No reading, although I&#8217;m listening to The Thin Man, and no knitting, which means there&#8217;s absolutely no chance of finishing the sweater I designated for my Olympic knitting. But, you know, that&#8217;s how these things go. He&#8217;s getting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-three-beautiful-things"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>my folks, generosity, and culprit - sprite writes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.spritewrites.net\/?p=5182\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"my folks, generosity, and culprit - sprite writes\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rudi&#8217;s back in the hospital with pulmonary embolisms, so things have been a little stressed around here. 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