NICE QUIET SATURDAY

Uncle Frankie's birthday is tomorrow. Fran will be having a party for him later today at around 4:00 p.m. Hers, last weekend, was really nice. Java & Nunziata's thirty fourth wedding anniversary is also tomorrow. There are lots of birthdays & other special occasions this month. Yesterday's weather was really lousy. It was icy cold & pouring out all day. Today's is much sunnier though. I've been reading quite voraciously lately, usually getting around to at least fifty pages a day. It keeps my horizons widened. We don't usually get to see much of Java & Nunziata since they moved to Florida. The library's pretty quiet so far. Right now there are only two reasonably sane grammar school girls here besides me. Yesterday, at the Hairem hair salon in Plains, some humongous three hundred pounder hit a bunch of old women over the head with a hammer. It's at a local shopping center on River Road in Plains.

HAPPY DREARY FRIDAY

It's been pouring out at least since last night. Recently I read that they're afraid that a drought will decimate the crops around here. I suppose that may be technically quite true but it seems to rain quite a whole lot lately for my taste. I completely overlooked yet a whole nother St. Joseph's feast meeting Wednesday night. Today's Mary Anne's birthday. She, Steve & young uns are spending it in Ireland. For the past few days I've been re_reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. It's one of the novels I've gotten into the habit of reading many time over lately. Cindi just reminded me that it's time for the Friday dance. Vinnie just sent me an e mail reminding me of all our old musical interests. He & I used to do mean versions of Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" & the Allman Bros. "Ramblin' Man" & he & Jim used to have an entirely imaginary band named Parasite.

GAVE BLOOD YESTERDAY

Yesterday I gave a blood donation at St. Anthony's in Exeter. It was close to a half hour longer than the average donation but nowhere as long as apheresis. They take blood out & put it back in at the same time. I've forgotten the exact name of this specific kind of donation but it's no harder than the average one. The seats are substantially more comfortable. Rocco is a volunteer over there. I got a headache for the rest of the day. It just ended a short time ago. They just give a fruit drink & junk food after you finish. My Lindenhurst KofC council gives a really nice entire meal but that's an exception. Here, they also give coupons for McDonald's & Wendy's. Yesterday I was looking through old photograph albums. Where in Sam Hill has all the time gone? Instead of fifty six days until I get to give again, I now have to wait exactly twice that long. Oh well, I didn't win the big lottery. Uncle Frankie showed up last night with his usual supply of candy. Tomorrow's Mary Anne's birthday.

POURING OUT LAST NIGHT

I never get any sleep at night so of course I couldn't avoid being treated to the sound of last night's torrential downpour. It was going on at about 3:00 a.m. ish. There's some absolutely horribly anti.social annoying woman right next to me in the library, rambling on on a cell phone. As if many people these days aren't already mind.bogglingly ignorant and arrogant enough anyway, cell phones just make it that much more interesting & convenient for them to proffer their disgusting ways. Copiague's library boors, of course, are the absolute & all.time worst, but this character seems quite qualified to be there. I've always absolutely & utterly despised the concept of the phone anyway but cell phones really disgust me beyond belief. Hey please, don't tell me! The library lady finally told this rude character to hang up. The head librarian showed up a few minutes ago in casual clothes. He told a patron that it's dress_down week. Most workplaces have at least a dress_down Friday each week. Around here they get at least a week a year. Today's the big blood drive over at St. Anthony's in Exeter. I go stark raging nuts when all those Red Cross characters call me frequently immediately before each blood drive. They are obscenely aggressive.

HEAT WAVE

This morning was very seriously foggy when I first went out before 7:00 a.m. Today is supposed to be a truly intense heat wave. It's most certainly quite a good thing for me I've always really enjoyed a good heat spell. Cindi from Newblog is now the artist formerly known as Pollyanna. She's changed her blog's name to Its-just-Cindi. It's the end of an era. That's my big deal for the day. Besides the two books I mentioned recently, I've also started reading a little book about the works of St. John of the Cross. I've just finished looking over the official list of kinfolk's birthdays this month. Happy birthday wishes are most certainly in order to all who qualify. The libraries around here have most certainly been hyperactive lately. Yesterday there were quite a whole lot of blabbermouth young uns in this one. Last night I watched a half hour special about the life & times of Fr. Michael J. McGivney who, in March of 1882, founded the famous Knights of Columbus in New Haven,Ct. I've been involved with the KofC since May, 1982. I'm a fourth degree so I get to do all sorts of especially groovy far out stuff too. I got my certificate from the Diocese of Scranton on Sunday because I sat through that lector course a few weeks ago. Today I found out that young uns usually like the taste of food much better simply because it happens to be packaged in a McDonald's container. That's quite a mighty groovy job of brain washing. McDonald's food is nothing but poison that makes people fat, but it's very strangely popular. It's as if it's a cult or something. I used to work at Lindenhurst's McDonald's so I know they have all sorts of extremely seriously bizarre things going on in places like that.

ANYONE FOR TENNYSON

On this day in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England in 1809, Alfred Lord Tennyson was born, the fourth of twelve children. Thanks to my blog_friend, Cindi, I got a reminder of that. It turns out the she googles a lot. It was pouring out last night. I'm glad it's not raining right now. The weekend was nice. Uncle Frankie came over yesterday for a while. I've been reading a lot lately, as usual. Fran's birthday is over & Uncle Frankie's & Mary Anne's are right around the corner. August is a very busy month birthday wise. My Yahoo account's been going bananas on me today. On Wednesday, I shall be donating blood at St. Anthony's in Exeter.