CONSTRUCTION

I sent messages to some O.L.P.H. classmates on Facebook yesterday. So far only George has sent me an answer. He remembers me well. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while again yesterday. I'm still reading "Northanger Abbey" & "The Waste Land". Tomorrow morning I have to go to Wilkes_Barre for the Carmelite meeting. It's at 9:00 a.m. every third Saturday of the month at the Little Flower Manor on South Meade Street. Last night, fairly late, it started pouring out. I was already in bed by then but I couldn't help hearing all the violent noise. We really needed the rain. I was very surprised to see this morning that there was no construction work going on over in Pittston. Maybe they don't work on Fridays around here. I was very happy to see, in the Citizen's Voice this morning, that Oprah Winfrey will no longer be on TV starting in 2011. It can't possibly be soon enough for me.

LINDENHURST FRIENDS

Uncle Frankie came over for a while. Yesterday I mistakenly said he didn't show up on Tuesday but he did. I must have forgotten. Mark, from my high school class at St. John the Baptist in West Islip, has joined my Facebook friends list. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been terribly newsworthy but I was checking out his friends list & couldn't help noticing that he's in touch with people from our class at O.L.P.H in Lindenhurst. Until now I'd never been able to track down people who were only in my class in O.L.P.H. I went to that school during the seventh & eighth grades. Construction work every day in Pittston is still getting me crazy. It's only bad during the day. Last night I went to the meeting at O.L. Mt. Carmel on William Street. Everyone except Lynn Marie showed up. Oddly I couldn't help overhearing the church's band playing "Kashimir" from Led Zeppelin's "Physical Graffiti" album.

WEATHER

Tonight I have to go to another O.L. Mt. Carmel meeting in Pittston. Sometimes it's cancelled but so far I haven't heard anything. We haven't seen Uncle Frankie for a couple of days. He's probably really busy with something. Yesterday I read around fifty pages of "Northanger Abbey". It gets easier each time I read it. Jane Austen's always been a favorite of mine. A couple of days ago I saw another episode of Joseph Pearce's show about Shakespeare. The episode was about "King Lear" & its relevance to today's world. The weather's a bit colder today than it's been lately. There was ice on my windows this morning. I just overheard someone say that it's really nice out now. There's a never ending barrage of construction work all over the place these days. Ths Saturday I shall have to go to another Lay Carmelite meeting.

JANE AUSTEN

Autumn continues to bring us above average temperatures & much nicer weather than I'm used to for November. All this week I shall be going to Pittston for 8:00 a.m. Mass at St. John's. I still don't know anybody who shows up but by now I'm getting used to all the familiar faces. So far nothing much of note has been going on over there. I'm still practicing my guitar. Lately I've been trying to get the hang of the scales in the mixolydian mode. It only seems difficult at first but each scale inevitably follows a set pattern anyway so it's more confusing than physically difficult. I've just started re_reading Jane Austen's "Northanger Abbey". I've already read it quite a few times. I'm still reading all those other things too. Gas prices have been going down very slowly lately. At least that's a little bit of temporary good news.

ITALIAN

I made a couple of big mistakes over the weekend. I thought the ziti dinner was at O.L. Mt. Carmel. It was really at St. Anthony's In Exeter. I wasn't really determined to show up anyway. I also thought O.L. Mt. Carmel's blood drive was today. It was yesterday so I missed it. Lately I've been practicing a lot with Acoustic Guitar magazine. It provides me with quite a lot more variety than just a few Beatle & Eric Clapton books. Uncle Frankie visited for a while yesterday. I overheard him & my parents say that Mary Anne & Michael both speak Italian really well. With all my Italian connections I shall have to follow their lead & brush up on my command of the language. On my way home from Pittston this morning I noticed that part of Main Street was blocked off to traffic. It was the part that starts right at the Valero gas station. Today's cousin Luigi's birthday. There are two cousin Luigis on Facebook. They both have my last name.

NO GAME

The weather this morning has been very cold, dreary & rainy. I found out yesterday that New York's weather, & southeastern Pa's, was worse. It was raining violently. Lately I've been practicing my guitar more after quite an unfortunate lull. Last night there was another football game but my father & Uncle Frankie didn't bother to show up because it's playoff time & their favorite team didn't make it this year. Today would have been my cousin Karen's fifty third birthday. It's her first birthday since her death. Tomorrow's yet another milestone birthday for a classmate of mine. We now shall give a major doffing of the hat to Mike upon his fiftieth. We were in the same class in high school. On Monday, although I don't have an official appointment, I shall be giving blood in Pittston.

FRIDAY THE 13TH & BROKEN ARM

Yesterday I went to Barnes & Noble at the Wilkes_Barre Hub for a while. On my way home I made sure I stopped at a local Sunoco station for gas & at Price Chopper for pumpkin pie. I also read T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land". It's considered a classic among twentieth century poems. Having been a bit lazy lately about practicing my guitar I took advantage of the latest issue of "Acoustic Guitar" magazine. It always has a lot of really good songs & music in general in it. I went to Rose Chairge's barber shop slightly before 10:00 this morning for a haircut. As I reminded her, I noticed recently in my schedule book that my last haircut was on June 5. Nothing much is on TV these days but lately I've been watching reruns of "Cheers". It's always been quite a very favorite of mine, better than anything new I've seen.

COLD WEATHER

Uncle Frankie came over yesterday. It was just a typical visit. It was a really nice quiet Veteran's Day. It just occurred to me that Labor Day is another source of confusion for me. I seem to get the three of them mixed up. Somehow I didn't notice any parades or celebrations. Today is my cousin Java's birthday in Florida. It's also cousin Loredana's birthday in Italy. She's just a distant relative & we've never gotten a chance to meet in person, only on Facebook. Thanksgiving is now exactly two weeks away. I miss the trips to Buffalo but it's really nice around here too. Lately the weather's been getting colder than it's been so far. I've never liked cold weather but I don't mind it as long as the rain & snow don't get out of control. I still go to St. John's each morning. I found out this morning that their bus ride yesterday was a trip to a show.

MEMORIAL OR VETERANS' DAY?

Father Marchetti will be gone for a while so I shall be going to Mass at St. John's in Pittston until further notice. This morning I overheard Fr. McGroarty & some other people in church talking about some bus ride they intend to take today. Today is Veteran's Day, or is it Memorial Day? I've always gotten them confused. It's just a naturally bad habit I appear to have. I've always made the same mistake with Sidney Poitier & Harry Belafonte, & Doris Day & Debbie Reynolds. I recently noticed that this past Monday was the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. At my age it seems as if it were only yesterday. I was working at Citicorp Retail Services in Farmingdale in those days. I still haven't gotten a haircut but I've been thinking of getting one in time for Thanksgiving.

HOLIDAY TOMORROW

Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. He & my father spent a lot of time arguing over dollar coins, including the Eisenhower dollar , Susan B. Anthony's & the Indian woman's. He even called me on the phone, a little while after he left, to explain something about them. Tomorrow will be Veteran's Day. Banks will be closed but the library only closes down for very big occasions. My scratchy throat lingers but at least I'm not violently ill like other people. A happy twentieth birthday is in order to cousin Mary Ellen's son Scott today. He's the youngest of her four kids. The weather today, although it's colder than I like it, is still unusually warm for November. It watched a half hour of the show "House" a few nights ago. It turned out to be a horrendously left wing show. Aren't they all though?