From Boardom to Jigsaw Puzzles to the Weather to Notes to Sonia Dog

 What can Fio say except that she is very, very board. The rest of the family has cleared out to the other grandmother's house, and, after going through everything in the City of Austin's Senior Transportation Program--which she can't make heads or tails of--and rethinking her plans for this year's outside decorations--which are pie in the sky--your girl is running glum. Ah, well, maybe inspiration will hit her as the evening passes on.

One of the first things she'll have to do for sure is pack away the1000-piece jigsaw puzzle that Son L bought for her her recently. She doesn't have the room for it right now, and besides, if she went after the puzzle full blast, she'd miss Christmas.

Either the next-door-neighbors have turned up their TV or an ice cream wagon is coming down the street, and Fiorella is betting on the latter. Cold one day and warm the next--that's Texas for you.

Has Fiorella ever confessed to you that her bedroom wall--the inward-facing one--is covered with pictures, instructions, and every other kind of note you can imagine? And that some of these notes have leaked into the hall? But what else can your girl do when there is so much that she has done or needs to do?

Son just called and said he'd be two hours late getting back to the house, and Fio appreciates his call, but would feel safer if she had a dog sitting beside her....a big mastiff like her Sonia, God bless her soul.