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.
*
La casa has been taking a couple of hits lately.  Some of the electricity is out and the alarm system went wacko.
*
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.
*

Mission Accomplished

FIORELLA SURVIVED THE MARCH! Survived and prospered, actually. We were just four people, but that was enough. Fio wielded her NEVER AGAIN sign, and the others took up guard posts around her, but we didn't run into any trouble as we walked around the county courthouse striking up conversations wth all and sundry. In fact, most people were interested and thought along the same lines we did. And the added bonus was that WE HAD NEWSPAPER COVERAGE! Of course, Fio doesn't know how much will show up in print, but the reporter scribbled down a volume of notes and took many, many pictures.

All in all, it was a very satisfying experience for Fiorella, but she also hopes it got some people thinking.

Tidbits a la Mode

Happy birthday to Sonia dog!  She is five wonderful years old today, and Fio loves her more than ever.
*
Fiorella's prediction of two more Trump biggies before the election has come half-true, but Fio's timing was off.  Instead of it coming before the third debate, it came at the end of it, and el hombre malo provided it by calling Clinton a "nasty woman" like a second-grader saying all girls have cooties. Now let's see if there's another reveal between now and November 7.
*
When Fio opened her front door and picked up the newspaper this morning, she noticed there were a few dead leaves on it and the porch.  Aaah--fall is here at last.

Edge City Down the Tubes

Nooooooooooooooooooooooo. . . . Tell me it ain't so! Doonesbury has dwindled down to a hit-or-miss Sunday strip, Luann flounders with an unsteady footing in college, and now Edge City is retiring.

What is Fiorella to do?  The comics are the main reason she still subscribes to a newspaper.  Well, that and the anagrams.

Dear God--are the anagrams next?

Personal Items

You may take the high road, but Fiorella will take the low road from now on.  Yes, she's donating every last high-heeled shoe in her closet (even the red ones, sigh) to The Caring Place for some young chick to enjoy while she grounds herself with flats.
*
Fio's hairdresser has moved to Washington State, which is too far a drive for Fiorella. It's not just the hair care Fio misses, but the company.
*
Fio wants a tummy tuck.  Yeah, three kids with an average birth-weight of ten pounds will do it to you.  Then there's that seventy pounds of avoirdupois she gained and managed to shed a while back.
*
More and more, the only part of the newspaper that makes sense to Fio is the comic strips.

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?

To Subscribe or Not to Subscribe

Should Fiorella continue subscribing to the newspaper or not?  She isn't interested in sports, never reads the entertainment section, and ignores ads.  And she could get the comics and her fix of national and international news on Google.

On the other hand, Fio likes reading stuff on paper, and she'd miss out on the screwball vicissitudes of Texas politics.  And she'd  miss the anagrams too--which are more decipherable than the politics.

Time and Circumstance

So far this week, Fiorella and Sonya Dog have both been staying in bed till eight.  Neither of them has made the transition to Daylight Savings Time.  But that has to change, at least for Fio because she's also staying up till eleven, which is w-a-y too late for someone who needs to spend all day working on editor's revision.
*
The newspaper has changed its comic strips page format.  It's also subscribed to a different crossword puzzle maker, which irks the hell out of Fio.  She liked the old one, the one who used "oboe" and "opal" every chance he got, the one whose solvable puzzles gave her the confidence to face the day.
*
Every morning at 11:30, the TV sound turns itself on.  No picture, just the sound.  Fiorella doesn't understand why, and Husband can't figure it out either.

Catching Up with Fio

If it makes,  Fiorella will be teaching a poetry class at the local library this fall.   She enjoys discussing  iambic, trochaic, anapestic, dactylic, and the varieties of rhyme forms while her co-teacher talks about free verse, inspiration, and emotional responses.  Yeah, Fio's friend is ethereal while Fio is more earth-bound.  If they had a party, Fio would bring the sandwiches while her friend supplied the wine.

In other news, the news has disappeared from Fio's computer.  For as long as she can remember, Fio has opened up Google for her morning update, but that option no longer exists.  Even Husband's computer-wise tinkering couldn't bring it back to her.  Good thing they're still taking the newspaper.

Speaking of Husband, he's now reading a chapter a day of Lolly's story--and he ASKS for the chapter if Fio forgets to run it off for him.   But now he's up to chapter seven and, since Fiorella's just written ten chapters, she'd better sign off and get to crackin' on the other ten.

Personal Observations

Fiorella is a multi-tasker.  When she takes the dog for a walk, she practices her physical therapy posture, walking with her shoulders back and her chin up like a soldier.  When she eats breakfast, she also reads the newspaper and does the crossword.  And when she goes to the bathroom--never mind.
*
When Fio studies Sonia's solidly-built Mastiff body and remembers the streamlined shape of  Wendy the Weimaraner, she wonders why she's constantly fighting her own body type.  DNA is destiny.
*
Fiorella is one of those people who used to have migraines with auras, which means, according to Google medical news, she's destined for brain lesions.  And the heavy birthweight of her babies indicate she'll get diabetes.  To top it off,  cancer runs in her mother's family and heart trouble in her dad's.  Guess all that means she's gonna die some day.

Bad Start

Fio woke up feeling pretty chipper this morning, then discovered the newspaper had not been delivered.  Now, your Fiorella always begins her morning with the newspaper, after which she checks out the Google news and her emails, after which she does the newspaper crossword and anagrams.  Obviously the non-arrival of the paper has messed up her routine.

The world is off-kilter. Don't be surprised if the sun sets in the east this evening.