Slow, Dreary Day

Fiorella was tired yesterday. Maybe it was the weather, maybe the political scene, maybe she was depressed, maybe all three plus some.

One bright light in her day was that Husband was finally able to get through to stupid Verizon and get the credit card transfer made, but today she herself has to figure out how to convince Facebook, which will not accept her name, that she is legitimate so that she will be able to post pictures again. Please explain again how the digital world is making our lives easier.

Oh--another good thing was that she was able to immerse herself in Sabrina's story and is now up to 60,000 words.

All the News That's Fit to Print

Fiorella is determined to post a picture of a nascent bluebonnet patch with the heading "A watched bluebonnet never blooms, or at least it seams that way," a clever little observation she made when she first started trotting off to Verizon to get her newish phone set up. Actually, now, five days and three trip to Verizon later, there are four bluebonnets starting to bloom around the driveway, but Fio doesn't want to lose such a good  line so if you're reading her FB posts too, please don't give her away.
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La casa has been taking a couple of hits lately.  Some of the electricity is out and the alarm system went wacko.
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The local newspaper covered Fio's four-person march quite nicely, and Fiorella's planning to photocopy the page and preserve it for posterity. But first she'll probably wag it in the faces of everyone she knows.
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From NCIS to Jane Perrine

SCREAM! Husband has been watching NCIS all day, and Fio is at the point that she'd gladly wipe out Gibbs herself just to get the TV turned off. What is about about men and TV power figures?
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Your Fiorella is planning to return to the Verizon store tomorrow for the third day running. It's a matter of getting her "new" cell phone set up. The problem this time is that she apparently needs to update something or other in order to transfer a picture to FB. You can bet the guys will be drawing straws when they see her coming--short straw has to take care of the stupid old lady.
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Easter is a-comin' and Fio has prepared mini-baskets of chocolate eggs for four neighbors who have been especially helpful to her. She's also given Stephanie and Lisa, her two favorite bankers, little bags of chocolate Easter coins. Now she's preparing for the family celebration, which will feature Baby WALKING!
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The bluebonnets are gorgeous this year--not ours, but the ones in the neghbors' yards and along the road.
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In case you're wondering how to say "Happy Easter" en el espanol, it's felices pascuas. Thank Jane Myers Perrine for that infromation. It's nice to have a friend who taught high school Spanish and is willing to share.

Pluses and Minuses

Disaster has struck Fiorella's cell phone. For some reason known only to itself--Jay, the Verizon guy couldn't begin to figure what was going on--the camera went black with white lattices. Jay told Fio that her pictures were safe in the cloud, but didn't tell her how she could obtain them. Fio has put out an SOS on FB, but so far, no takers.

On the plus side, Fiorella seems to have finally recovered from the Gunk. Yes, she knows she's been saying that for about a week now, but this time, it's for real...she hopes.

Another minus is Fio's baby car, which has been in the shop for a week now. The key got stuck in the ignition, which aparently means that the aforementioned ignition is giving up the ghost. What it will cost to replace the ignition is another minus.

Fio will try to be more jolly tomorrow.

Five Factoids

Yep, your Fio is a delicate flower. As she confessed to you yesterday, she does not fare well in hot weather. Neither, she wants you to know, does Sonia dog. Poor baby follows Fio out the door, then, five minutes later, barks to be let inside again. Mastiffs aren't designed for Texas summers.
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Three words that Fiorella wants newscasters to memorize the pronunciation of: realtor, nuclear, and athletic. They are NOT re-la-ter, nu-cyu-ler, and a-tha-letic.
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Every life hangs by a thread. Anything can happen any minute, no matter your age, your health, or how careful you are. Fate is fate.
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The way one says "Good morning" in the Nigerian dialect that Tosin at the Verizon store speaks is "e-k-a-a-r-o," which is pronounced like a rainbow. starting at a lower pitch, rising in the middle, and settling at the end. Fio would have loved to have studied a pitch language at some time in her life, but maybe there's still time after she learns Spanish, reviews her Russian, and picks up Telugu again. And then there's her Latin that she'd like to renew, and her German, Fio's study of which was cut short after ein semester. Oops, she didn't mention the French, which she passed a reading a exam on long ago, but which she never did learn how to speak.
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Surely the circus act in DC cannot continue much longer.

Good Times Are Here Again

Fiorella couldn't make her new computer move any of her Gallery pics into Facebook so she drove down to the Verizon store, asked for help, and a nice young man showed her how to do it directly from her phone.  Now she needs to learn how to move a photo onto her blog.
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Fio just got another check from Half-Price books, which sells her books at full price.
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Fio and Husband took nephew Aaron and his new wife out to lunch at Frisco, an old-time Austin establishment that the family has patronized since Husband was a child.  Good food, good service, good conversation.  Wonderful day.

Repaired!

It was THEIR fault!

Friday evening, Husband spent an hour on the phone, working his way up through the chain of command till he got someone who could authorize a Verizon repairmen to come to the house on Saturday morning instead of waiting till next Thursday.  The repairman checked us out and the problem was not with our phone, not with the line, not with the jack.  IT WAS WITH VERIZON. Yes, one of their people had hit the wrong switch and turned us into a dial phone instead of a touch phone, knocking us off the grid.

Now about those TV channels that aren't coming in . . . .

Communication Deprivation

It's official.  The land line is off till Thursday--THURSDAY WEEK--when the Verizon repairman appears.  Supposedly.  And it will be fixed.  Supposedly.

But Fio, you ask.  You and Husband surely have cellphones, don't you?  Well, yes, Fiorella answers.  But we live in a cellphone dead area and can only use our phones when we're leaning off the second floor balcony or are up at the mailbox beside the road.  Or, of course, when we are driving.

So--no incoming calls, no outgoing calls for a week and a half.

In a way, it's rather freeing.