QUIET WEEKEND

Yesterday, after all the lousy weather we started out with, turned out to be quite nice for most of the day. Nothing much has been happening lately, which is always a very good deal. Mary Anne called last night. I didn't answer the phone until the fourth ring, so the answering machine went on. Bridget has been feeling quite a bit better lately. She even went to a slumber party. I read more of "War & Peace". I'm really getting down to the very end. Uncle Frankie came over last night. There are no high school football games this time of the year. On Xanga, somebody asked, as today's featured question, if it's possible to love an animal as much as a family member. Ever since I was only a kid, I've always found it rather odd that many people claim it's entirely healthy to have that much love for a mere animal. I've never even liked animals the least bit anyway but even I can understand if somebody else does. It gets me more than a smidge on the shocked side, though, when somebody goes pathologically crazy over them. The occasional grappling with all sorts of eccentricities, neuroses, etc. is one thing but that's just plain weird to treat an animal as an equal.

BITTER MISERABLE DAY

So far, today has been icy cold & rainy. I'm always insanely cold anyway. Days like this get me crazy. Yesterday was much nicer. I just found out about a new law that, although it won't affect me, is still bad. All Americans born after Dec. 1, 1964 are now required by law, thanks to the geniuses at Homeland Security, to get more secure driver's licenses. It's supposedly an attempt to protect us against terrorism. Are people's civil rights now at stake even more than they usually are in this country anyway? I never agree with the A.C.L.U. about anything but this sounds like a mighty intense invasion of privacy. I only have a little while to go yet of that Tolstoy book. I've never really had the patience to be able to put up with any one book for so long. It's quite odd for me to have to remember that people have been known to RE.READ the thing! The weekend is most probably going to be, as far as I know, quite a nice, typical one. Nothing eventful, to the best of my knowledge, should be going on. I'm a fairly sedentary kind of fellow so that suits me just fine. Before the end of the month, I shall have to get my car inspected over at Jiffy Lube.

GAVE BLOOD

Yesterday I went over to Plains to give blood. I was originally scheduled to give a double red donation but the lady who was in charge insisted that my iron count was too low so I was only allowed to give a normal donation. Maybe it's because I only ate pizza, with no meat, on Tuesday. Maybe my iron shortage accounts for the fact that I'm always so much colder than everybody else. I usually associate iron problems with womenfolk. After I gave blood, I ate pepperoni pizza, cookies & cupcakes with a cup of coffee. I got a t.shirt but accidentally left it there. There were also the inevitable contest entry & coupons for a Wendy's shake & Egg McMuffin. The place were very crowded but the only familiar face was Rocco, who was one of the volunteers. The place was right by the ice cream place Vinnie, Anthony & I went to last July. Later I went to the rectory of my church & explained to Denise, the secretary, that she appeared to have left me off the lector schedule. There was no telephone number for the others to get in touch with me. All worked out quite well. I even read some more of "War & Peace" last night.

YET ANOTHER BLOOD DRIVE

For the past couple of days, the weather has been unseasonably warm. Early this morning it was pushing its way up toward sixty degrees, rainy but in a nice way. Last night I got a call from a woman who wanted me to give a double red cell donation today. My appointment is at 2:00 p.m at the Waterfront Banquet Facility in Plains. I've never been there before. This morning, when I went to 9:00 Mass at O.L.Sorrows, I noticed that Denise never left me my new lector schedule. She very conscientiously left a schedule for everybody else, but mine wasn't there. I told Fr. Walsh about it, so he gave me one of the extras & recommended that I ask her about it later today. Rocco isn't available in the morning anymore because of his volunteer work with Meals on Wheels so I lector every day. Yesterday I ate around a half dozen slices of pizza for supper. Between that & all Uncle Frankie's & Fran's candy, I'll have to spend 2008 in a pair of pants with a sixty inch waistline. Too much food, enjoyable though it may be, gets me stark raging nuts after a while.

VERY NICE WEATHER LATELY

I woke up in the middle of the night with yet another headache. I took two pills & it went away after a while. Today I went over to that book store in the mall with the application filled out. It's most certainly quite a really nice environment over there. My parents went out & got a really nice big wide_screen TV set yesterday. With their lousy eyesight, it was very well worth the expense. The last one was very hard to see. I always used to have to squint to be able to see the least bit of anything on it. The new one's flat. So are computers & all sorts of other things these days. In the olden days everything was really big & bulky. Yesterday, I pulled sort of a prank on O.L.P.H. in Lindenhurst. I wanted to be absolutely positive I got their phone number right for my application, so I called it, waited for an answer from the receptionist & hung up on her. I always could pull a good one on that bunch. From the Get A Load of This Files: Few names can possibly turn out to be more annoyingly trendy than Jessica. I just found out on a name site, though, that the name was coined by Shakespeare. Thanks a lot, Willie. Uncle Frankie showed up this morning, just as I was leaving to go to the mall. Yesterday I made sure I read more of "War & Peace". Amazingly, I now have fewer than two hundred pages to go & I shall be finished.

BIG PARTY LAST NIGHT

Yesterday Laura & I lectored at 10:00 a.m. Mass. I woke up with a headache so I was really miserable for most of the day. Fortunately it stopped in time for me to be able to show up at the volunteers' party at the church. I sat with Rocco & his wife & a few other people. Rocco & I talked about all sorts of literary & musical allusions. John, Fran's old friend from school, showed up. I met lots of her friends when we were kids but somehow I managed to have missed him completely until just recently. The menu was really nice with appetizers including cheese & cold cuts & a main course with mushrooms, fish, potatoes & a few other things. There were fruit cocktail & cake for dessert. They also included coffee, soda & drinks. I drank a fuzzy navel. That's both a drink & a source of many an extremely seriously bad joke. Yesterday, headache or no headache, I managed to read some more "War & Peace". The headache showed up again in the middle of the night & lingered until very early this morning. Aunt Helen called my parents a few hours ago. That was a very nice surprise for them.