ENOUGH, ALREADY!

IT'S LIKE FIORELLA IS BEING STYMIED AT EVERY TURN. She left her purse at home when she drove to Austin to have brunch with friend Evelyn and ended up having to to mooch off her. She spent an hour trying to get a pop-up off her computer screen and finally had to drive over to Click Computer Repair for Travis to push two buttons (that she swears she had already tried) to make everything right. And she's dealing with some banking problems with Chase, which owes her big time for the crap it's put her through. Also, her phone won't let her posting pics on FB. And she had a horrible time emailing a couple of chapters of Lolly's story to a friend. And, to top things off, Colbert is on vacation AGAIN!

From the Past to the Future

Fio has started cleaning out her upstairs office, and this afternoon, she went through a bundle of stuff from when she was teaching--accolades from students, their parents, and colleagues. Needless to say, she's not tossing a single page. In fact, she may even request they all be put in her coffin as grave goods.
*
Hip, hip hooray! Fio and friend Patricia are off and running on the romance/murder mystery, and the ideas are flying fast and furious. Keep an eagle eye out for excerpts.
*
Sabrina's story (formerly Phillipa's story) is riding high. Fiorella is whizzing through 40 pages of revisions a day now, but will probably slow down to about 20 per day when she crosses the halfway mark. The good thing is that she's finally worked out all the plot knots so all that's left is pulling the whole thing together (gulp).
*
Lolly's story got a solid boost last week when Fiorella had to close down the murder mystery until friend Patricia got back from California, and Fio is more excited about it than ever. It's wonderful to start reading something you packed away five years ago and realize it is hot, hot, hot!
*
Fio's gradually adjusting to her new computer, but she's going to have to run off to Click tomorrow to learn how to make her Kindle reappear and how to "find" numbered pages. She'll also visit a Michael's store for adhesive alphabet letters and Mazda for touch-up paint. Yes, your Fio is a busy bee.

Thinking Things Over

Back in the day--the day before the proliferation of paper and plastic products, to be exact--a woman's joy was to possess a nice set of china. Thus, through various twists and turns, Fio inherited two sets of really good china of the same pattern (Haviland, to be exact), one from her great-grandmother, the other from Husband's grandmother, and she uses them at Christmas every year. But now she's considering selling both of them off. The times, they are a-changin', and Fiorella doubts that the next generation will value this heritage. besides, there's only so much one can pass on without weighing people down.
*
Fiorella has been blessed with good friends. The guys at Mazda take good care of her baby car, Click  Computer Repair provides not only good service, but good advice, and the lady bankers at Chase are helping her through a financial situation she wants to settle. Thank you, one and all.
*
Fio has been hearing a lot about meditation lately so she researched it on line--and decided it wasn't for her. Fiorella doesn't want to sit still, doesn't want to clear her mind of everything she has commited to, and doesn't want to hypnotize herself into nothingness. Ever since she was a child, she's had an acute perception of time passing, and she doesn't want to lose that feeling because it is what drives her to do what she must do before she leaves this earth.

Catchng Up On the News

Good morning! Did you miss me? Fiorella was paying a visit to computer hell. More specifically, yesterday afternoon, her laptop decided to block her from getting on line, although Husband's laptop was happy to accommodate him. And because it was Sunday, Fio couldn't run over to Click for a quick fix. That meant she went almost twent-four hours without Google News, Facebook, and gmail, which drove her crazy.

But all is now well, thanks to a visit with Click an hour ago, and guess what? IT WASN'T FIO'S COMPUTER, IT WAS THE ROUTER, WHICH IS UNDER HUSBAND'S JURISDICTION.  When Fio came home and gave him the news, he scrambled around upstairs and took care of the problem so now she's now getting caught up on everything--but she doesn't like what she's hearing. The LasVegas massacre is beyond comprehension, and the only theory Fio has heard so far is that the shooter, who loved to gamble, lost everything and was wreaking his revenge on Las Vegas. If so, how sad, to make one's legacy a horror story. The only one who benefits from it is Trump because it's taken the spotlight off his mishandling of the Puerto Rican situation and the football kneeling.

Bad Day

As if it weren't enough that Fio spent a couple of hours at Mazda on Monday, only to learn that her engine light wouldn't go off because she hadn't tightened down the gas tank lid. As if it weren't enough that her brake light wouldn't go off on Tuesday, and she'll have to take the car in again this morning, hoping to get it back in time to meet with Evelyn, then Paula, in Austin. As if it weren't enough that her computadora has been pinging off at random times for two days, although when she left it at Click Computer Repair yesterday afternoon, it behaved like an angel. As if all these things weren't enough, Fiorella, who watches very little television, had to choose between Mi Marido Tiene Familia and The Little Couple last night. She chose the former, of course, because Little Couple will be rebroadcast at some point, but her teeth are gRRRRRRRRRRRRinding.

Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate

Fiorella is going to have a full house for Easter when Minnesota son and his wife visit.  She's been buying up Peeps and chocolate bunnies over the the past week  for the occasion. She's also stocked up on bags of chocolate kisses for the guys at Click Computer Repair and the Mazda service department. And she's cashed a check ot give out some holiday tips. And she's planning to don her rabbit ears and deliver treats to her neighbors who have helped build her murita de rocas. 

Never say Fio doesn't know how to celebrate a holiday.

Helpers

Fiorella loves people who help her, like the man at HEB who got the leche down from the top shelf in the dairy case for her yesterday and the checker who taught her the Spanish word for "bag"--bolsa. Like Patrick at Click Computer Repair, who unfroze her computadora and put an icon on its desktop so Fio could do the job herself in the future. Like our Chase Bank person who listened to Fio babble on about Husband's hospital stays and comforted her.

God is good. People are good. All will be well.

Technologically Challenged

Your Fiorella is making a somewhat bumpy crossover from Windows Live Mail to gmail this weekend. Friend Patricia reguided all future emails, Husband figured out how Fio can "delete," and now she hopes someone at her critique group this afternoon can tell her how to "send." Then Fio has to trot over to Click on Monday to find out if there's any way to rescue all her old email addresses.

Tell her again how technology is supposed to make our lives easier.

Falling Apart

Click Computer Repair, the Mazda service department, and Walgreen's Pharmacy.  Three businesses where people greet Fio by name when she comes through the door. Maybe that says a little more about her than you want to know.

Here He Comes to Save the Day!

Fio's reporting in late this morning because (1) she got caught in a dastardly plot to invade her computer and (2) when she grabbed her laptop, jumped in the car, and turned the key, nothing happened.   She couldn't get any further than control-alt-delete, and she couldn't drive over to Click for help.

Stymied.

Then, with perfect timing, Austin son burst through the door.  He had come over to get Husband's signature on a legal document, but he also rescued Fiorella (control-alt-delete, then use task master to remove the offender), and now he's working on the car.

Our hero.

Politics, Easter, Gratification

Fiorella has enjoyed watching the political scramble lately.  It's been a combination of a circus parade and a badminton match.
*
Walgreen's must be observing Lent.  It's just five weeks till Easter and chocolate-covered marshmallow eggs are nowhere to be seen on their shelves.
*
Fio delivered a big bag of candy kisses to the guys at Mazda yesterday afternoon when she picked up her car, and she'll deliver another bag to Click Computer on Monday.  She believes in instant gratification for good people.

Drama and Trauma

Yes, Fio is running late on her revisions, but it's a miracle that she is running at all.  Everything struck at once--she's been burning the midnight oil on revisions, her printer gave up the ghost, and her internet connection disconnected.  And it all happened on the day before she'd promised her revisions.

One panic attack and three hour on the road to Click Computers and Fry's and Fio's electronicized again, but those revisions are even further behind.

Gimme a break!

Better Late Than

Yes, Fio is late posting, but she's been through the mill.  Her blog icon disappeared last night when she was working after everyone else had gone to bed--God only know where her cursor wandered or what combination of keys she accidentally brushed her fingers over. Anyway, a quick trip to Click at nine o'clock this mroning, and Fiorella is back in business again.

But Click is having its own problems.  Georgetown's popular computer repair shop was bursting at the seams so it moved across I-35 to a bigger spot between Shipley's donuts and Cricket.  Click has a nice painted sign which would fit the space above its door, but the landlord is insisting on an expensive sign similar to Shipley's and Cricket's--a large plastic number with raised letters.

Fiorella is behind Click all the way, and she's given Travis, who mans the front desk, the email address of the features editor at the local newspaper.  Meanwhile, her ever-inventive mind is mulling over the idea of suspending the painted sign right above the shop, but not touching it.  Where's that drone armada when you need it?

Warrior!

You  can come out of your bomb shelter now. Fiorella is at semi-peace again.  She took her laptop to Click, where Patrick, despite working on it for about twenty minutes, couldn't get the "send" file unclogged and had to give her a reference to someone else.  But when she got home and opened up her computer again, everything was A-OK.  Apparently Patrick had fixed the problem, and a fresh boot-up was all that was needed to finish off the job.  Yea!

Now to conquer her other electronic problems.  And to ace that interview she intends to have with the American Statesman book reviewer.

Be strong, Fio.  Remember that BuzzFeed said you are a warrior!

Attack of the Machines

Fiorella is accustomed to computers attacking her.  The first mortal blow she can remember was many years ago when she took weeks recording the Christmas carols she had written, not by note, onto an expensive program Husband had bought her for her birthday.  The program produced sound, and she envisioned herself listening to her compositions in eterna.  But soon afterwards, the program rejected her, insisting she was illegal. Two years later, when Fio had to switch computers, despite Husband's assurances everything would transfer, all her music disappeared.

And that's the way it's gone through the years.  Computers have played Fiorella false, and now her jumpy Toshiba has lost the ability to connect with the internet.  Click, her trusty repair shop, says it's not going to be a quick fix, which means Husband will have to transfer all her documents to the upstairs desktop, which scares her because she understands mortal blows.

Wish Fio well.

Computer Madness

Will Fiorella's computer triangularization never end?

Her old faithful Dell laptop has fallen in battle.  Translation: Fio dropped it one too many times and its lid is tearing off, which is probably what is causing it to scramble words Fiorella writes, randomly fail to save, and sometimes erase what Fio has written earlier.  Her new Toshiba laptop has been captured by a browser hijacker.  Translation: Fio has inadvertently run ads down the side of her blog and can't reach Google, her favorite research engine.  Her upstairs desktop is old and clanky.  Translation: it doesn't have Fio's blog or updated work-in-progress on it.

On the other hand, Fio can still contact Google on the Dell, can use Documents without fear of electronic shenanigans on the Toshiba, and can answer email without weird things happening on the desktop.

The only solution is to copy Fiorella's work-in-progress to the desktop, rush the Toshiba to Click Computers as soon as Fio finishes copy edits, and pray for electronic sanity as Fio writes her blog on the remains of the Dell.

Weren't computers supposed to make our lives easier?

Retrenching

Fio was born with her engine running.  She can't remember any time during her life that she hasn't been busy with one project or another.  And right now she's super busy.

Basically, Fiorella is a creator and an organizer.  She's always thinking, considering, designing.  And because her current literary project is held captive in Click Computer's repair shop, she is turning to other projects like--gasp--the house.  Her mother would be pleased.

Fio on Furlough

Fiorella is bereft.  Baby, her laptop, is at Click for what Fio had hoped would be a quick fix, but has turned out to be an extended stay.  Life is odd without Baby.  Fiorella has figured out how to maneuver her way through Husband's entangled programs to find her blog and thus can post every day, but she can't reach the morning news, can't research idle items that come to mind, and can't get to her email or her romance work-in-progress.  You might say she's on furlough.

On the other hand, she's cleaning up her downstairs desk, working out plans for those purses she told you about, and venturing upstairs to try to redeem her supposed study from Son's occupation.

But she'd rather have Baby back in her loving arms again.

Jello, Jello!

Fiorella admits it--she can't even cook Jello.  In fact, she probably blew out the microwave trying to boil water for it.  But the whole scene is in keeping with her weekend.  Friday night's lightning storm took out her internet, as you may have figured, so she took herself off to her neighborhood Starbuck's, rented herself an on-line connection by buying two slices of pound cake and a cup of milk, then settled down to write enough blogs to tide her over till the ECPI repairman came on Monday afternoon.

But every time she pushed "publish," the blog disappeared into the ether.  With a full stomach and a heavy heart, she resigned herself to fate and departed the premises.

The technician fixed everything this afternoon so it was with great joy that Fio opened up her laptop after the he left.  But, not matter how many outlets she plugged into, she still couldn't get any internet access.  She had visions of another week lost while another repairman showed up.  Maybe her laptop had been fried by a lightning strike and she'd have get to hire Click to transfer all her data to a new one.  Maybe God was, at last, as she had predicted, turning off the electricity.

A call to husband, then to ECPI's Darren, who has worked long-distance miracles before., and, lo and behold, as Fio was on the phone with him, the internet clicked in! Fiorella's world has been set to rights, even though she still can't cook Jello.

Driven to Desperation

My name is Fiorella.  I am a computer addict, currently going through withdrawal.

Fio's Dell laptop (my precious, my precious) went down on the afternoon of her birthday, just as Son was sitting down on the couch to help her with Facebook a la Jane Myers Perrine's sage advice.  Husband hacked Fio into his computer so she could keep up with her blog, but she'll have to wait till she gets her machine back  from Click Computer to catch up on her email.

And then there's her manuscripts--what can she do if she's not writing on Princess of Bosque Bend and Princess Redlander?

Housework?


Oh no, Say it isn't so!