A STAR IS BORN!

Fio is ecstatic!  In second heaven! She received a cast call yesterday afternoon, and she's going to be a S-T-A-R!

Well, maybe--Serena, who represents an advertising agency, asked Fio if she would be willing to participate in an ad for Roger Beasley Mazda, which has serviced Fio's car for the past ten years, and what could Fio say but YES, YES, YES!  The Mazda people have taken good care of her as well as her baby car, and she wants to tell everyone how wonderful they are, but she also looks forward to being in the spotlight again.

Not that it's set, of course--the ad may fall through or Fio may not give a good performance. But for the time being, she can dream.  First Mazda, then Hollywood, then People Magazine, then the Oscar.

And to think. An hour before Serena called, Fio didn't have anything to tell you about today.

Christmas Is Coming

The gypsies have parked their porta-potty and RVs at the back of the fireworks lot, loaded the shelves of the sales stand, and turned on the string of lights across the entrance off the road. Yep, it's Christmastime in Texas.
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Fio  drove into Austin today to visit with friend Paula and brother Bill at Dan's Hamburgers. She almost missed her turn off I-35. but her baby car made it automatically. Yes, the car knows the way/To pull the sleigh/ Through bright and drifting snow-o.
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What is it with the balmy weather and summer skies? Fio had to turn on the car air conditioning on the way back from FedEx Kinkos. Is this any way to celebrate Chrstmas?
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It looks like Fio will have the house fully decorated by Friday...or Saturday.  Whatever, it's moving. Now to leap in the car again and drive in to FedEx for more cards and envelopes. She'll try to put the cover of her card on the blog for you--it's her sonnet, but decorated, and she's sending it out to the world.
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Two-car Family

It's nerve-wracking when you're down to one hoss. Husband rode the Miata to the local drivers' license bureau, and Fio is sitting at home trying not to think of all the dastardly things that might happen along the way.  Like that he'd get picked up for driving without a license and Fio's baby car would be impounded, leaving them completely without transportation. Like that he'd lose the ONE AND ONLY KEY. Like that he'd get into an accident. Like that he'll run late, forgetting that Fiorella needs the car by 1:00.

But if all goes well, Husband will come home with a replacement driver's license in hand, and we will pick up his repaired boat of a car tomorrow, which will put two hosses in our corral again.  Then Fio can let her well-developed worrying powers dwell on whatever other possible crisis rears its ugly head.

Bad Day

Yesterday was not a good day.  The body shop called to tell Fio that it would cost $1800 to repair her Miata so the adjuster had decided to total it. To make it even worse, the adjuster didn't have the courtesy to make the call herself so Fiorella doesn't even quite understand what is going on except that Allstate is screwing her.

She went into shock, then anger--yes, screaming and ranting are her forte.  Then came the sobbing, the depression and despair.  Finally the dull acceptance, the final stage of grief that Emily Dickinson expressed so well:

After great pain, a formal feeling comes – (372)

Related Poem Content Details

BY EMILY DICKINSON

After great pain, a formal feeling comes – 

The Nerves sit ceremonious, like Tombs – 

The stiff Heart questions ‘was it He, that bore,’ 

And ‘Yesterday, or Centuries before’? 

The Feet, mechanical, go round – 

A Wooden way 

Of Ground, or Air, or Ought – 

Regardless grown, 

A Quartz contentment, like a stone – 

This is the Hour of Lead – 

Remembered, if outlived, 

As Freezing persons, recollect the Snow – 

First – Chill – then Stupor – then the letting go –

What Will Happen When God Cuts off the Electricity?

Fiorella has long been concerned about our increasing dependence on electronics, and earlier this month, she was the victim of it.  Her credit card was hacked and she misplaced her car keys,   Mastercard thwarted the baddies and sent her a new card, and Mazda leapt into action and reprogrammed a new key for her, but it all took time--and Mazda cost money too.

We are all vulnerable.  What if Isis figures out how to shut us down?  How would we manage to drive our cars without pushing buttons?  How would we light out homes without flipping a switch?  How would we communicate with each other over the miles?  How would we cook our meals?

It's back to the cave man days, people. Thank God for Boy Scouts.

Fuel Pump Blues

Fio had a busy day planned yesterday--stopping by BookSpot in Round Rock, then driving to Austin to check in with BookPeople and join a friend for lunch before speeding back to Georgetown to sit in on a writer's circle. Then her car went dead. Thank goodness it was at a service station in Georgetown and that Click Computer was just two storefronts down. Friend Travis contacted Mazda for her, and Mazda's Jason Gardner, also a friend, came to her rescue, called a tow truck, and delivered her safely home. Later she learned the problem was the fuel pump, which is expensive to replace, but Fio's baby car can't run and play without it.

Holiday Snippets

I worship every inch of my six-foot-tall daughter-in-law who took a few steps up a kitchen ladder and replaced the can lights in the house that were out.  She is not only agile, but kind.
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The three offspring pitched in to get Husband's car and my car detailed as a Christmas present, and--wow--my thirteen-year-old baby car is now queen of the highway!
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I pushed the emergency button on my key-ring car control to locate my Miata when I came out of the supermarket and was rewarded with a high-pitched beep, beep, beep.  Suddenly, another car joined the chorus with a low-pitched honk, honk, honk, and I looked across to see another woman with her control out. For a second there, I thought we had something going.

Of Fio's Baby Car, Fire in the Fireplace, and Mosquitoes

It's official.  Fio's thirteen-year-old  baby car, her beloved  navy blue Mazda Miata, is falling to pieces.  The window control broke inside the door panel and the dealership is repairing it for her, but advised against putting out the $$$ for replacing the front end panel. It's a quality of life decision, one might say.
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Fiorella is still running around in shorts, which means there's still no fire in the fireplace.  Let's hope all the firewood stacked across the driveway doesn't rot in place.
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Mosquitoes.  Fiorella is beloved by them.  Not a day goes by that she doesn't have a fresh bite.  The first freeze can't come early enough for her.

THERAPY BY ANGER

Have you noticed Fio's on an upswing?  It's all because of that ninety-year-old woman front-ending her in the Walgreen's parking lot.  Fio wasn't injured, and it turned out that Baby Car wasn't hurt either, but Fio was very angry about the woman's refusal to acknowledge she'd hit Fio or that Fiorella had honked the life out of Baby's horn beforehand.

In fact, Fiorella's mind flamed with anger all the rest of the day and the next day too, and the immediate anger overcame the recurring depression caused by rerunning the mental tape of last summer.   Now Fiorella has to  find other things to blow up at.

Break-down

Fiorella had a break-down yesterday.  She's usually a very busy person, with a to-do list a mile long, but yesterday that list ganged up on her. She couldn't edit the last three pages of the second chapter of Moira's story because the printer wouldn't work.  She couldn't find Nephew Barrett's new address to send him a BD present.  She couldn't find the two paperbacks she wanted to use as examples of POW writing in her romance writing class.  She suddenly realized she may have offended her sister-in-law. One of the little gold hoops she always wears in her ears turned up missing.   And, to top it off, when she tried to drive to Fed-Ex and the post office, her beloved baby car made such strange noises that she turned around before she reached the highway, came home, called Husband, and cried.  He told her to have Mazda pick up the car.

Strangely, just when Fio thought all was lost, she found Nephew's new address on an old email and spotted the two paperbacks on a bookshelf, tucked away under some papers.  Then, when he came home, Husband fixed the printer.  And early this morning, he spotted her missing earring on the floor in the hall. Fio will have to arrange for a rental car to keep her appointments in Austin today, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

Accident

Fio had an auto accident yesterday. She rear ended a taxi cab.

She had spotted the shiny yellow vehicle several minutes earlier and marveled both at its beauty and the fact that it was tooling down a rural road.  The taxi stopped at the red light at the exit onto the highway, and Fiorella, who was a comfortable distance behind, started to brake. But her foot slipped off the brake and got caught between the brake and the accelerator..

In slow motion, she saw the back of the yellow cab getting closer and closer.  Finally, her foot found the brake again--at the very same moment her baby car made contact with the cab.

No one was hurt and the only damage to the cab was two dime-sized chips out of it shiny yellow hide.  Fio's baby car now sports a dented-in front license plate and a yellow smudge.

Thank God it wasn't worse.

Baby Car

Fiorella's darling baby car is in the shop. It started acting odd Wednesday, sort of like it was trying to stop on her while she was racing up I-35 from Austin at 70 mph.

Anyway, the dealership called yesterday morning with the damage--Fio means the bill. Fifteen hundred to get baby car in tip-top shape. Fio hates spending the money, but she can't let baby car die. All the old guys at HEB give her the once-over when she eases out of her sassy little sports car. It's her image.