BAD BLIZZARD

The bad blizzard started a couple of nights ago. All sorts of trouble comes from these kinds of things. We're supposed to end up with around seven inches of snow over the course of the weekend. New York has gotten an even worse trouncing than we. JFK, LaGuardia & other airports are entirely out of control. Mary Ellen says Buffalo isn't all that bad though. Predictably, schools over here are all closed. The TV screen is constantly flashing all sorts of information about closings, & news about the damage that's been done. Mary Anne& Steve have to take Bridget to the doctor for tests today. That must be annoying for them, especially considering their weather. The library was closed yesterday but they're back to the normal schedule today. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while yesterday. Fortunately he only lives around a mile away so it's not all that big of a trip for him. Unfortunately, I read in the Citizen's Voice yesterday that the price of wheat is going up. That means that pizza prices will also be going through the roof. The article specifically singled out pizza, a major Lenten staple, as one of the things that have been hardest hit by the price hike. Gas prices have also started to get out of control lately. Yesterday meat wasn't allowed so I was forced to improvise with lots of vegetables, pizza, peanut butter & jelly etc. Sometimes it can get rather boring with that kind of menu but I have been known to be at least fairly creative about it all.

STILL VERY COLD

Uncle Frankie showed up again yesterday & hung around for a while. All has been going quite well, so far, for him. He keeps busy by constantly chasing after the dog. I'd go crazy with something like that. I've never liked animals but I suppose it's cool for somebody who does. Unfortunately, Karen's been having trouble lately. We've all been trying to keep in touch with Mary Ellen about her progress. I'm still reading that Walker Percy book. I have a few more books of his someplace but I have no idea of exactly where they are. There is now officially a plant named after Yoko Ono. Here are a couple of comments about it: "I wouldn't tap that even if I was blindfolded". _Oscar Wilde. "Hating Yoko Ono is now officially the Ninth Beatitude"._God. I found out all about it in the Uncyclopedia. To my chagrin I keep hearing that we're expecting snow tomorrow.

VERY COLD

Yesterday Uncle Frankie came over for a few hours. After he went home to feed the dog, he showed up again so he & my parents could go shopping at the Dollar Store. Now, there's a for sure interesting trip. Of course they ended up getting the inevitable endless supply of chocolate candy & pizza to show for it. I've been getting a few e mails from Mary Ellen lately, keeping me informed about Karen's circumstances. Everybody was expecting snow last night or today but it seems to have passed us by so far. Rocco showed up at Mass Monday & today so he was the lector both times. His schedule's been more than somewhat on the confusing side lately. I just noticed that Feb. 18 was Yoko Ono's birthday. I hear she claims to be a witch. She's also having trouble with a new singer(woman) named Lennon Murphy. Sir Paul Mccartney & his wife Heather are still trying to finalize their divorce. I've gotten through quite a bit of that Walker Percy book so far. I've read it a few times already.

QUIET DAY SO FAR

Last night, I finished "Emma" & started Walker Percy's "The Thanatos Syndrome". It's another one I've read a few times. February is more than half over by now. Yesterday, on the news, I saw something I couldn't possibly even begin to try to believe. There's a bit of a hoo.hah over here these days about whether school districts should be allowed to have separate schools for boys & girls. Amazingly, the left_wingers....what else is new?...managed to bring accusations of discrimination into things. One black woman even compared it, predictably, to Jim Crow legislation. When I was a kid, separating boys & girls in school was fairly common practice. At St. Gabriel's in East Elmhurst, nuns got the younger kids & girls from sixth grade on. Brothers got the boys from sixth grade on. For high school, St. Pius X in Uniondale got the boys & Queen of the Rosary Academy in Amityville got the girls. It was all based entirely on what the families wanted. These days nothing happens without its being seen through the eyes of liberal paranoia. If it doesn't meet with the approval of the tolerance gestapo it doesn't happen.

NICE WEEKEND

It turned out to be a nice quiet weekend. There's been rain since last night. I read more of "Emma" & now only have a couple of dozen pages to go before it's finished. My mother tried to get in touch with Mary Ellen last night but all she could get was Michael's message on their machine. I turned on channel 72 over the weekend & found out that for whatever reason, the channel with all the old movies isn't available now. It's all static & fuzz. I suppose I shall have to get my nostalgia fix elsewhere for at least a little while anyway. Fran hasn't been around lately. She's staying close to work these days. For her that's an extremely smart move since she works so extremely far away. On top of everything else, gas prices have been shooting up like crazy lately too these days. Today's Presidents' Day. In earlier days, Washington & Lincoln were the only biggies. Each got a day of his own. Now it's a collective sort of a thing for the whole bunch. Days like this inevitably fall on Monday. Those three day weekends are important. The library people claimed to have been forced to get rid of Myspace starting today, but I just logged into my account with no trouble. It will most probably kick in soon enough though.