Weekend Travail

Fiorella was pleased--and relieved--to notice that she didn't have many things on su lista amarilla yesterday. Just a drive over to Target to get a lipstick and find a cute outfit for the the baby visiting in the morning, then to Home Depot to get a couple of bags of dirt in which to plant the Asian Jasmine she'd bought the day before, followed by a stop at Walgreens to pick up a few treats.
       And that is where her day went haywire--Fio's beloved Baby Car allowed her to unlock the door, but refused to let her turn the steering wheel or start the engine. (Translation: Fiorella could put her key in the ignition, but not turn it on.)
       After fiddling around with the key for far too long, Fio went back into Walgreens to enlist the help of an employee. A nice young woman contacted her local Mazda for her, but the person on the other end of the line directed her to Mazda Roadside Assistance, which is apparently a national set-up. Fio, of course did not know any of the required numbers or codes, and when she tried to talk to the guy on the other end of the line, everything he said was echoed into the uninteliagiable. Finally, she cut the call short and asked the Walgreens girl to please get a taxi for her.
       The cab was there in fifteen minutes, but first of all, Fiorella and Trey, the driver,  headed over to a service station, where she paid for her ride by filling up the his tank on her credit card. On the way to her house, they had a nice conversation about how Georgetown was changing (there used to be only one taxi service in town, but now there were two), and when she finally walked through her own front door, she was greeted by a frantic mastiff (WHY HAVE YOU BEEN GONE SO LONG, MOMMY!) who had to lick her all over to be sure she was uninjured.
        Exhausted, Fio sank onto the couch and closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again, an hour had passed. Reaching for a phone, she called her local Mazda, then drove to the dealership in the Queen Mary to turn the malfunctioning key over to her pals there.
       Later in the afternoon, they called to tell her that Baby Car had behaved beautifully for them--no problema.
       At a loss, Fiorella can only assume Baby Car decided it was time to straighten up and fly right because she realized the Queen Mary was about to take over her prized spot as Fio's favorite car.