Coming Down to Earth

Hmm... Husband is hospitalized. Wonder if that means Fio and Sonia Dog are going to have to handle another set of plumbing problems all by themselves.
*
Daughter's novio nuevo started un fuego en la chimenea para Fio, which elevated him to the highest level in her books, but it's los libros de hija that count.
*
O happy day! Fiorella found the drone she'd bought Husband for Christmas! The bag was tucked away under a pile of clothes on her side of the bathroom, where she'd hidden it in preparation to being wrapped. She'd already seen the bag a couple of times when she was searching the house, but an erroneous memory of what the box looked like meant she hadn't recognized it. (Maybe tomorrow she can find the missing bag of birds and butterflies.)
*
 Fio's palabra nueva en el espanol es deprimida (depressed). Wonder why?
*
Speaking of Christmas gifts, Someone better not complain about Fio misplacing his drone when Fio has seen neither hide nor hair of the new chainsaw she wanted.

Chapter Two

Fiorella's euphoria didn't last.  In the later afternoon, she checked in on Husband again and didn't like the way he was breathing so she took his termperature--100.6. It sounded like pneumonia to her so she bullied him into the car and drove him to the ER as the evening deepened. After getting him settled,she drove home before it was too dark for her to drive at all.

A nurse called later to confirm that, yes, Husband did have pneumonia, but this time, the hospital had decided to investigate further and scheduled him for a bronchoscopy the next day.

Fast forward to today, the day of the surgery. Fio felt drained last night after coming home from the ER, and by the morning, she was even weaker. Daughter y su novio visiting helped for a while,  but Fio was definitely not herself. She couldn't think or remember. She couldn't find things. Her balance was off, she was soooo tired, and she needed to check on Husband, but before she could call the hospital, he called her to report in. Fio was relieved that he sounded like a new man, although no one will know the outcome of the broncoscopy and biopsies until tomorrow. Meanwhile, Husband was in quarantine so he wasn't inviting anyone to visit, which was a good thing because Fiorella was too tired to move. If the maid hadn't been there for the afternoon, Fio might have fallen into the fireplace. As it was, she fell asleep on the couch.

Now that Fio and Sonia Dog are all alone in the house, Fiorella feels like she's thrown off whatever was dragging her down--worry about Husband, a pinch of whatever he has, post-Christmas blues, who knows. Let's hope she can feel the same way tomorrow.

Fiorella Resurected!

As Fio has often said, she is a doctor, not a nurse, which means she has no aptitude for taking care of sick people. Thus when Husband is having problems, she does everything she can to help, but her first impulse is to tell him to tough it out--which is appropriate in some situations, but not in others, and Fiorella is not equipped to discern the difference.

Fiorella herself had a hard night and a hard awakening, but why should that stop her? She had a house to clean up, an important letter to mail, and a trip to Click Computer Repair to make. No choice but to grit her teeth and head into the mailstrom. So after checking in to make sure Husband was still breathing, putting a load of clothes in the washer, and picking up odds and ends in the den and dining room, she took off.

Getting away from house turned out to be  just what the--uh--doctor ordered. Fio's mood lightened as she drove to the post office and it bubbled over at Click, where she spent about half an hour laughing and joking with the guys who were working on her computer.

But it gets even better. On the way home, Fiorella decided to stop at Walgreens to paw through left-over Christmas chocolate. BINGO! RUSSELL STOVER CANDY BARS FOR 40% OFF!

Hitting the road again, Fio gobbled down a chocolate, which upped her energy so much that she stopped inside the driveway, picked up the mail, lugged the CHRISTMAS GREETINGS sign over to the car and into the trunk, reconnected the garlands that had become disattached, and took a picture of the scene. Then, after parking in the garage, she unloaded the sign, la computadora, and her Walgreen purchases, ate another candy bar (this time with milk to control the rush), greeted Sonia Dog, checked on the laundry and her still-sleeping patient, and started in on the house.

A good hour later, Husband awoke and called for her so she bounced upstairs and tended to his needs in between moving more laundry between the washer and the drier and walking a ladder into the bathroom to hang dry a large table cloth over the shower rod to dry. Downstairs again, she used the rim of a plastic cup to scrape white stuff off the dining room table. Now, quite proud of herself, she is sitting on the couch and looking around to see what she should do next as she finishes this blog.

Be happy for Fiorella. She is herself again.

Four Confessions, One Rant

Fiorella is depressed. Somehow, she missed Christmas this year. Maybe because she still hasn't finished her decorations, maybe because she wasn't part of the family dinner preparations, maybe because she's a year older than last year.
*
One thing that is hanging over Fio like a raincloud is that Husband's drone still hasn't shown up. Fio will ask elder son where he got it and arrange for another one, but it upsets her that she can't find the original. Losing Christmas presents is not in Fiorella's usual modus operandi.
*
Another thing that's bringing Fio down is that she missed out on a girl talk with friend Suzy G because she had to drive back down to H-E-B and pick up her libreta amarilla, which she had stupidly left in the shopping cart. Fio had been in a hurry, but how can she be so dumb?
*
Fio's sort of overwhelmed. She has to make post-Christmas calls, take a trip to Click about Vipre, contact Mazda about Baby Car coming to a standstill, do her laundry, and get the yearly check off to church. Then there's the prospect of spending all of January getting everything ready for her accountant and IRS.
*
Of course, the political news is far from uplifting. Trump's endorsement of the governmental shut down is, for all intents and purposes, an open invitation to the baddies to have their wicked ways all over the globe. But then, Trump enjoys chaos and conflict because while everyone else is engaged in attcking or protecting, he makes off with the loot.

Prospects and Reflections

While searching for Husband's drone, Fiorella found the paper-art piece she had promised her doctor, then lost. Hmm....it took a month for the art to reappear. Maybe, in another month, the drone will show up.
*
Don't tell anyone, but Fio's still adding finishing touches to her Christmas decorations. Yesterday she taped miniature holly leaves and berries (cut out of paper, of course) to the sides of the stairs below the steps. Today. she's going to add birds and butterflies to her swag over the dining room window.
*
New Year's Eve approacheth and Fiorella's only resolution is to finish that long-awaited WIP and maybe squeeze in another one--the Lord be willin', the creek don't rise, and la computadora minds her P's and Q's.
*
Fio has finally realized that she is no good at big gatherings, even with her own family, that she's more comfortable with one-on-one or maybe one-on-two. Of course, if she's holding the gavel, she's the life of the party.
*
Actually, FaceBook has given Fiorella a way to join a group on her own terms. She's part of a political movement, but can say whatver she wants to without having to answer to anyone.

Christmas Shorts

Interesting that Fio was sick for Christmas because that's what usually happened to her when she was a child in Ohio. She remembers lying on the couch in the front room as the quarantine sign went up on the door.
*
Hoping to garner some appreciation, Fiorella is posting pics on Facebook of her best Christmas arrangements and compositions. The family is so accustomed to her magic that they don't notice any more.
*
This year's Christmas sonnet seems to have hit the spot. Even the rampant Trumpsters liked it.
*
The star of the show yesterday was Baby, who is now Toddler. She seemed to get an unholy joy out of ripping up wrapping paper and stuffing it between the boughs of the Christmas tree.
*
Today, Fiorella is dedicated to finding that dang drone she bought for Husband. First off--oh joy--will be going through all the trash bags..

Christmas, 2018

Fio was so sick today, but, as she always tells herself, why should she let that stop her? There were a lot of loose-ends decorating and a lot of cleaning-up needing to be done, and who else was there to do it?
Daughter, lugging the makings of a Christmas feast, arrived in the midst of Fio's endeavors and took over the kitchen, moving to the dining room table when Fio finally had cleared it of all her birds, butterflies, twisties, ribbons, Scotch tape, and scissors (tijeras). Soon the guests began arriving, and Daughter and the other ladies set the table with the Fio's antique china and wedding flatware, then did the cooking, then invited everyone into the dining room, where "a good time was had by all." Afterwards, Fio and the other ladies cleaned up the table and washed most of the china. This evening, Husband and Fiorella finished everything off  and will put the china back on the shelves tomorrow.

Now if Fio can just find the drone she bought for Husband.