From Deep Thinking to Dog Training

Fiorella confesses that as much as she craves recognition, she wants it to be from a distance. For some reason, close-up recognition makes her nervous and she says dumb things. A pseudonym would fit the bill, although "Fiorella Plum" has never hit the big time.
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Fio wakes up in the morning, notifies the kids she is still alive, gets dressed, brings in the newspaper and leafs through it, feeds herself and the dog, lights a fire, checks out email, blog, and Facebook, then starts in on the thousand-and-one tasks she's assigned herself for the day, knowing there will be even more tomorrow.  Sometimes Fio gets tired of the day after day after day.
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With a well-tended fireplace and a dog who eats anything, Fiorella doesn't put much out on the road for the trash pick-up anymore. No wonder the guys didn't complain about the Christmas tree special.
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Thursday was the day that Fiorella decided to test the harness with which Elder son and wife had kindly supplied her that would, in theory, keep Sonia out of the front seat of the car.
     Doggie, who loves rides, leaped into the only back door to the Queen Mary that was open, and Fio quickly hooked up the right lead to the underside of the harness, then discovered that the left lead was secure under Sonia's walrus-like bottom. Whipping around to the other side of the car, Fiorella pulled the missing lead out from under Doggie's ampleness, snapped it in place, closed the door, and started up the driveway.
     As Fio moved onto the road, Sonia decided she wanted to come up front for a better view, and actually got her face and paws between the sides of the front seats. Fortunately, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't get through the breach, although the scrabbling drove Fio crazy.
      When they reached Dairy Queen, Sonia seemed quite satisfied to finish off her Pup Cup in the back seat and behaved herself all the way home--sort of--but all's well that ends without Doggie in the front seat.