NICE QUIET DAY SO FAR

I wonder where all my books have gone. Since moving here from New York, I have noticed that very many of my favorite books have apparently gotten lost in the disaster area that was the move. I know they're most certainly out there somewhere. They just don't seem to be available at any particular spot I've stumbled upon so far. I have all sorts of poems, plays, theology, philosophy, etc. stashed away somewhere. That's an old habit of mine that's always gotten me stark raging nuts. It's started more trouble than it's even come close to stopping. Because of it, I always have to keep re_reading the same stuff over & over again. I always seem to have quite a flair for finding things I have no need for or interest in. This happens with all sorts of other kinds of things too. In cold weather I fiind light clothes & other kinds of summer/spring stuff. As soon as the weather gets warm, though, I'm suddenly swamped, from out of nowhere, with things I need now. Tomorrow I have to lector at 10:00 a.m. Mass with Laura. I've never met her in person before, only once on the phone. I've always known that the press is the Fourth Estate. Yesterday I found out, in that Chaucer biography, exactly what the other three are: the clergy, nobility & commoners.

STILL COLD

Mary Anne called yesterday. So far, Bridget has been doing quite well. She & Sam are already back in school but college boy Michael still has a lot of time off. The weather is absolutely bitter around here. At least there's no precipitation so I'm quite happy with it all. I watched "I Love Lucy" again last night. Today, in the "Citizen's Voice", I read an article by a columnist who bemoaned the TV writers' strike. I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, current pop culture isn't even worth bothering with anyway. Another columnist, quite a curmudgeonly sort, devoted his entire column to the overuse of certain words, often divorced from their legitimate contexts, thereby rendering them bereft of their legitimate meanings. This has always been quite a pet peeve of mine too. If there's one thing that really rankles my nerves, it's abuse of language. Today it's time for 2008's very first ever Friday dance. One new year's resolution must be to perfect the Friday dance.

WENT TO THE HOSPITAL

I went over to the General Hospital in Wilkes_Barre this morning to see if I could get an application for a volunteer job. Mary Anne gave me the idea last week based entirely upon the assumption that a volunteer job, in a place like that, could get me easy access to openings for a real job, which is what I really need. It's very close to home & quite easy to find. While I was there, I put enough quarters (two)into the meter for forty minutes. The parking was nowhere near as annoying as I should have expected. The only catch was that I ended up only sticking around for fifteen minutes. I spoke to a woman whose name was something like Daria. She wrote down my name & gave me an application to fill out & mail back to them. It's a particularly cold day today, or I would have made sure I stuck around to get my money's worth. My mother went over there for a doctor's appointment today. "The Beverly Hillbillies", always a favorite of mine, are now on TVLand. They come on right after "I Love Lucy". It's weird that "Just Shoot Me" is also on that channel because it's so recent compared to them. Gas prices are getting insanely high even around here so I can only imagine what they must be, by now, over in New York. Oil is currently over $100.00 per barrel.

HAPPY 2008!

The old year is gone. The new is here. On New Year's Eve, with 4:30 reservations, My parents, Uncle Frankie & I went to Agolino's on Luzerne Avenue in West Pittston for something to eat. I got the veal. I can't remember the last time the subject of veal ever even so much as came up so it was very nice. It's very cold & snowing today but only flurries. Mary Anne gave me the idea to go to a local hospital to get an application for a volunteer job that may lead to a legitimate one so I'm going tomorrow. I have to take my application back to that book store too. On both New Year's Day & New Year's Eve I watched "The Twilight Zone" absolutely constantly on the Sci Fi channel. I made sure I called Mary Ellen on New Year's Eve early in the afternoon. My parents & I all got a chance to say hello to her. It was a very nice conversation & we caught up with each other's lives. I never get a chance to go to Buffalo lately. I finished watching "Goldfinger". That movie came out around the time the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan Show & Bond mentioned them in one of the scenes. My parents spoke to both Gino & Michelle on the phone yeaterday. They've both been very busy lately. This year's a leap year so there will be twenty nine days in February as well as a very controversial election in November. I've never been able to help noticing that around here they sell out of state papers, mostly from New York, but when I lived in N.Y. I could never find an out of state paper there, except for in places like Manhattan.