RAINING MOOCHO

Last night it was extremely bitter cold & pouring out. Today it's warm & pouring out. A lot of the Carmelites are going to Middletown, N.Y. this morning for a day of recollection. Somehow I didn't end up going. I went to the St. Jude novena last night in spite of the miserable weather. The pews were jam packed. That area's still a little tricky for me to have to drive through, even under the very best of circumstances. I finally finished the Emily Dickinson book. Now I can finally move on to something else. The author claims that Dickinson & Walt Whitman were the nineteenth century's greatest poets. Whitman's always struck me as a boorish, self_obsessed narcissist feeb. "When Lilacs Last in the Door_yard Bloom'd" is really good, though, especially for Lincoln fans. "Leaves of Grass" bored the hell out of me. Robert Browning is about my favorite of the poets of that era. His characters & imagery have always struck me as quite impressive. A few years ago I even read Maisie Ward's biography of him. I have all sorts of collections, anthologies, etc. of poetry. Hey, the Beatles mooched literary references from Shakespeare & Thomas Dekker to Lewis Carroll & Edward Lear. I don't bother to watch current TV shows but I found out that "The Office", which is set in Scranton, is having a convention over there pretty soon. That should give our area at least a certain amount of much_needed hep. I suppose it will have to be cancelled because of the miserable weather, but the big football game is supposed to be today.

BLOCK OF ICE

It's been exceptionally cold so far this morning. Last night I went to the St. Jude novena once again. Msgr. Joseph Quinn was in charge. The predictably large crowd showed up. I'm getting extremely close to the end of that Emily Dickinson book. Yesterday I read so much, though, that I woke up very early today with a headache. Fortunately, a pill took care of that. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. All has been working out well so far for him & Fran. He went out & got pizza yesterday. Today we shall all have to do a right groovy Friday dance for Cathleen. It's all because of her that we even have our Friday dance. I was just reading, on the Conservative Voice's website, that Reed R. Heustis, Jr., a columnist of theirs, intensely dislikes the Beatles, qualifying him, perhaps, as the only person who has ever been able to make that claim. He cites, in particular, John Lennon's anti_Christian viewpoints. While I most certainly agree entirely with his reminder that God, by definition, absolutely has to come first, & that Christianity has no possible rival for its truth claims, I 've always succumbed to the Beatles' on an entirely show business level. Hey, talent is talent. Today the library people will be throwing a Halloween party for all the little tykes who want to come. It should be lots of fun. I should most certainly hope for everybody's sake the big game works out tonight. It should be unbearably cold though.

ODDLY SWELL WEATHER LATELY

Tomorrow is Cathleen's birthday. Her brother Jim's is on Halloween & her other brother Steve's is November 3. Her brother Brian's was October 2. Their sister Gael is the only one with a distinctive birthday. Hers is March 30th. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. He seems to be recuperating fairly well so far. I made sure I went over to the St. Jude novena last night. Fr. Richard Loch was there. As always it went quite well. The weather stunk all day and all night but this morning it's back to unseasonably nice. Cindi, from Newblog, has just told me that it's Pablo Picasso's birthday. I've never liked him. His art was part of the modernist side of things. Beatle Paul McCartney, in 1973, sang about him on the "Band On the Run" album. His full name was: Pablo Diego Jose' Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santissima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso. I read forty pages of that Emily Dickinson book yesterday. Soon I shall have finished it. Then I can move onto something else. I'm reading other things, a little at a time, now anyway. Unfortunately, I just found out that Fr. Mark Garrow, MIC, died on October 19. He was the Marians' former Superior General. I met him at least once in the nineties, at their scholasticate in Washington, D.C. when I wanted to see if I should join them.

MAJOR RAINSTORM

Yesterday was rainy all day even into the night. As of the last time I went out today, it was icy cold, foggy & pouring, a generally miserable day. Of course, we need the rain & cold is much more consistent with weather for this time of year anyway. All has been going fairly well for me so far. Last night I went back to the St. Jude novena. Msgr. Joseph Kelly was in charge. It was the pastor's birthday. Fr. Walsh showed up this morning for Mass, so I suppose he's been feeling better lately. I've still been reading that Emily Dickinson book. Large as it is, I now have fewer than one hundred pages left. Yesterday, I made sure I watched some of those news reports on the California fires. There were bulletins all day. Things like that really get lots of coverage around the entire country. Even the governor was forced to get something done about it. Halloween is coming up very soon. We can count on all sorts of annoying circumstances with traffic, young uns, etc. I haven't bothered to don a costume or go trick or treating in very many years. In my days as a yound hep cat I could be quite the Halloween party animal but now it just doesn't seem to interest me as much. Jerry from Lindenhurst just sent me my latest Holy Name Society newsletter. Of course, I see they've already started their annual turkey raffle. I always used to be quite active with that kind of thing.

ST. JUDE NOVENA

The weather outside is still unseasonably warm, especially during the main part of the day. So far, we got a little bit of a rainstorm this morning but the last I saw of it, it most certainly didn't amount to anything. St. Mary Help of Christians' annual St. Jude novena started on Sunday. I made sure I went there last night. Fr. Paul McDonnell, O.S.J. celebrated the Mass. I only go to that church once a year because of the novena. They had lots of things for sale. last year like statues, medals, etc. but this year the selection is nothing to brag about. They only have very small things. This morning, at the bus stop on Sixth Street, I found some high school kid's bag full of gym stuff. The woman who's the crossing guard on the other side of the street, for another school, explained where his school is, right next door to St. Anthony's Church, so I took it over. I just left it in front of the doors to avoid getting arrested. Cathleen just told me that there have been lots of fires over in California lately, with Santa Ana winds at up to 108 mph. That's really bad. My shoulder, as I mentioned once before, always hurts. Maybe I should get what Cousin Larry calls shoulder mpads. Yesterday I read a whopping fifty pages of that Emily Dickinson book. It's taking me a while but I'm finally getting very close to the end. Long books always bother me because I get very impatient. Halloween very fast approaches. It's only slightly more than a week away. I'll try to make my musings suitably scary in keeping with the occasion.

VERY BUSY YESTERDAY

Yesterday I spent most of the day at the Holy Name Society's big ziti dinner. Father Walsh & his father both showed up. Rocco, Ed, Howard & all the other guys were there with their wives & young uns. The old timers have grandchildren too. I made sure I helped with all kinds of stuff, as I always used to do with my New York crowd. Fran's old high school friends, John & Linda, even showed up. Linda said she once worked with Fran & Aunt Lauren in Stroudsburg. I met lots of her friends when we were kids but I only met these two lately. Besides ziti & meat balls/sausage, there were salad, bread & cake. The drinks were wine, beer, coffee & soda. Anyone who wanted to could get a take_out order. It worked out really well & everyone seemed to have been quite happy with it all. The weather was very bitter icy cold today but since then it's been getting progressively warmer & warmer. Unfortunately, Uncle Frankie got very sick this morning & my father ended up having to rush him to the emergency room. He's been ill lately.