Sunday/ Domingo

MORNING: You'll remember that Fiorella and her brother are lactos persistent, a heritage from their father's Carpathian-Rusyn blood line, but what you may not know--and Fio herself didn't until she did some research--is that the ability to digest cow milk past childhood is a relatively recent development for humanity...and a good one too, because it provides us with another easy food source.

EARLY AFTERNOON: Fio was totally despondent and angry with the world in general.

LATE AFTERNOON: Son L, in his knightly armor, invited Fio to go shopping at Walmart with him and you can bet she grabbed her mask and ran for the car. Sox and Scotch Tape were on her list, as well as getting out of the house.

HOME AGAIN: She's feeling much better except for a slight headache. As soon as that clears, maybe she'll take up where she took off in knitting together Lolly's story.

EVENING: Can't sleep. Worrying about everything. Thinking of Sonia Dog.

 

 

 

Winter Weather and a Yapping Doggy

 It must be winter--Fio is wearing a long-sleeved shirt and has had to turn off her air conditioning. On the other hand, this is Texas, and the afternoon might turn into a scorcher.

Saturday, Saturday, Saturday--maybe your girl's neighbors will come out in force and make some friends. Yeah, like that's ever going to happen! Fiorella has lived in this neighborhood for eight months and doubts if anyone but her immediate family even knows her name. 

HOW-SO-EVER, the minute,  Fiorella stepped outside the door to walk up to the mailbox to deposit bill payments, her adventures began. First, she encountered a friendly brown dog and a gentlemanly young man, who actually spoke to her, then a small white dog, which kept circling and yapping angrily at her feet. Now, having been a dog owner for m-a-n-y years, Fio wasn't fazed...until she realized the little dog, still yapping, had followed her all the way back to the house. 

Who was its owner? Your girl checked in with the next-door-neighbors to the right, who didn't own the dog but told her who did--the neighbors on their right. So, your girl led the desperate dog in that direction, where it was claimed (somewhat reluctantly?) by its owners.

It was an interesting way to begin the day. What next?

 

 

 

Hope, Plan, Excitement, Information, Disappointment

 At last, Fiorella's sniffles are abating, which probably means she had an allergy all along and could have healed herself by buying an over-the-counter pill or two. Ah, well--at least your girl will know better next time. 

Fio has her Lolly chapters spread out from one end of her studio to the other, and what she wants to do at this point is make sure everything connects, which means she has to control herself and ignore the bumps along the way. The frosting can come later.

Oh-oh, from what your girl can figure out regarding a morning phone call, two home nursing services are fighting over your Fiorella.  Will keep you in the loop. Could be interesting....

In Fio's early days, boys wore jeans that zipped down the front while girls wore slacks that zipped or buttoned down the side. Tuck that away in your trivia box.

At the end of the day, Fiorella realizes that she hasn't gotten too much done  and it's all her fault. Instead of making sure everything connected, she started revamping the story, page by page, which was a BIG mistake.

 

From Keenexes to Covid

Uh, the glamorous life of a romance writer is overblown. Fiorella is currently trying to separate Lolly's twelve chapters with folded Kleenexes because she didn't do so when writing.

Your girl watched a wonderful TV show about the history of native Americans, then gathered together some photographs and items that she thought Minnesota son would enjoy seeing again and prepared them for mailing, then worked with one of her therapists, then gathered together her many versions of Lolly's story as she waited for Daughter to come pick her up for a visit. Ah, for the days when Fio was driving.

Like it usually does at this time of year, the weather has turned, and Fiorella has had to drag a couple of long-sleeved shirts out of the back of her closet, which means she'd better get going on her plan for renovating that rabbit hole.

Son L and Fiorella are planning to make a trip to Pflugerville this weekend and will probably hire a team to help them--that piano can't walk back to Austin on its own. (Any volunteers?) 

Hey, this is great--your girl will be getting yet another nurse tomorrow to check her out. All in all, it's quite impressive how the local medical establishment has adjusted to the Time of Covid.

 

 

 

Everything is part of me/ And I am part of immortality....

Fio's Voice

 Had a nice call from Brother today. Not only does Fio enjoy talking to him, but it's good practice for your girl who's voice went numb during the snowstorm and who is still suffering from it. (Luckily, she can still think and write.)

The rest of the family is out today so Fiorella has the house to herself and--oops...she started to say "Sonia Dog," but that solace has been ripped from her forever.

Reading through her first published romance, Fio doesn't like the final chapter, the wedding scene, which as she remembers, was called for by the publishers. Your girl wanted it to end it all with Laurel and Jase flying off to her Hollywood hometown to meet her family, then getting married there, and, earlier in the story, she would have liked to have kept in her her references to teen age drug problems in small towns, something she heard about all the time when she was teaching. 

Of course, with self-publishing now being the rage, things may have changed, and as soon as Fiorella completes this blog, she'll start working on Lolly again. And if Lolly doesn't make it, there are plenty more old scripts for Fio to look over. And if none of them work out, your girl will gather all--ALL--of her poetry together for publication!

FIORELLA'S VOICE WILL BE HEARD, NO MATTER WHAT!

 

 

 

Complete Accounting

 (1) Daybreak, and your girl is up early, thanks to a rare insomnia--or maybe excitement. Oh well, she'll make up for it by dozing all afternoon when she gets home from voting.

(2) Mid-morning, and Fiorella has cast her votes regarding local legalities and feels so goooood. Yep, voting turns her on!

(3) Back at the house, Fio spends a couple of hours sitting on the floor of her studio and going through a bag of old photographs. She treasures each and every one of those pictures but knows she can't keep all of them so she's putting aside photos that are her favorites and sending the rest off the to the kids so they can remember old times.

(4) At the end of the day, Daughter drives Fiorella to Walgreens to get her booster shot from a very nice young man. And, as with her first two shots, your girl hardly felt it. Try it--you'll like it!😀

(5) Sleep well, my friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From Beauty Preps to a Halloween Poem

At present, Fio's doesn't have a place in the house where she can sit down to comb her hair and put on her make up, but she's a-lookin' and a-thinkin'....

Your girl found one of her old Christmas cards and was totally impressed---a  poem on the horizontal line with the first letters of each perpendicular line spelling out "Merry Christmas."  WOW! Wonder if she could pull off something like that this year? Hmm....

Fiorella seems to have lost her bats, the ones she decorated the front hall with, and please don't tell her they flew away at midnight😕

Speaking of Halloween, there wasn't much of a show in Fio's neighborhood, probably because most of the kids are young'ns. Apparently, there were some adult gatherings, though, which she will be  on the lookout for next year 😁

It's morning after Halloween

And not a beggar to be seen

They've packed away their morbid gear

To keep it safe until next year 😃

 

Our children are our joy and sorrow, just as we were to our own parents.