Disheartened

Synonyms: baffled, bested, circumvented, conquered, cowed, crushed, disappointed, discomfited, disheartened, frustrated, humbled, licked, mastered, overcome, overpowered, overthrown, overwhelmed, routed, ruined, subjugated, surmounted, thwarted, trounced, undone, vanquished, worsted

The deer won. When they got into the garden and ate the hearts out of the tomato plants, it stunted the growth of the plants and they are no longer setting fruit. There are no blossoms for future tomatoes and even if there were, that would mean the tomatoes wouldn't be ripe until late November. Yesterday Denny pulled eight of the remaining eleven plants because there was not a single tomato on them.

I know I have been running on about the garden over this summer's blog, but you see, Denny's dad loves his tomatoes and garden and just this week his surgeon told the family that Dad's slow-growing bladder cancer has passed the point of surgical intervention. Dad will start radiation therapy sometime next month. As a 96 year old, I don't know how he's going to react to radiation since he's already so frail.

So that's why it is so disappointing to Denny and I that the tomatoes didn't make it. We wanted Dad to have the biggest and best tomatoes ever this summer.

Now we're just hoping that we have a chance to try again next summer.