RAINY WEEKEND SO FAR

It started raining yesterday. Last night I tried to get to the Oblates' seminary on Rte. 315 for the second night of the novena. After I stopped for gas, I absent_mindedly went onto the road to 315 that leads to nowhere near the right place. Instead of bothering to stick with it in the miserable weather, I went home. I've really been putting a lot of books into my shelfari site over the course of the past week. I'm still reading that Jules Verne book. On my way home last night, I made sure I turned on WVIA, the classical station on my radio. That's where they play all the artsy_fartsy music & intellectual stuff. The were interviewiing Richard Dawkins, the famous English atheist. He was touting his new book, "The God Delusion". Of course, I most certainly disagree with him entirely. He seems quite determined to stick to his side of things. I've seen all those atheist on public access TV shows. They really like to spread the big word. When you think about it, they're really the only ones who bother to go public about the supposed ABSENCE of something. Madeline Murray O'Hair & her family were like that too. Many people don't believe in the existence of penguins but I've yet do see anybody devote his entire life to convincing people that penguins don't exist.

I CAN NOT HAS CHEESEBURGER

Usually, the priest warns us about it at Mass the weekend before. This year, though, I heard it from the library lady. The time change is, once again, upon us. It's my very favorite time of the year. Yesterday I saw, again, "Bandolero", the old sixties movie with Dean Martin, Raquel Welch & Jimmy Stewart. I can remember having seen it in a movie theater in my old neighborhood when I was a kid in Queens. All I remember of that time, in the Fair Theater, was that it starred Raquel Welch & Dean Martin, was a western & there was groovy music in the background. Today there's no meat because it's a Friday. The dancing still goes on quite well though. I got my new lector schedule at O.L.Sorrows this morning. Last month they plum forgot me & I ended up having to get one of the extra copies & ask Denise for help. The first night of the St. Joseph novena, at the Oblates' seminary, was last night. A Passionist priest from Scranton is there each night. I made sure I showed up. All those roly poly mountains between here & Rte. 315 get me pert near plum loco. By now I'm already quite used to them though.

SUPPOSED TO SNOW AGAIN

I overheard the library lady telling people that it's supposed to rain or snow over the weekend. Today is a reasonably nice day though my car windows were absolutely covered with ice when I first left. That always gets me quite crazy. Last night I went to 7:00 Mass at St. Anthony of Padua in Exeter. I made the mistake of walking on the grass for a few minutes. It was absolutely saturated from all the flooding. I found out recently that pretty soon there will be a job fair at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes_Barre. I'll be there with my resumes. I've been to a few of those things so far. They're always really interesting & informative. They're most certainly much more interesting than trying to find openings at those companies through normal channels. They even like to give out a lot of souvenirs. I noticed today that it's Michelangelo's birthday. He was born in 1475. I'm quite good at collecting trivia like that. Mary Anne called yesterday. All has been going as well as usual over there in Long Beach. Nothing much distinctive seems to be happening lately over there.

WEATHER STILL VERY BAD

It rained miserably yesterday & this morning. My car, surprisingly, wasn't even the least bit flooded although there's been much flooding in the general area. I got a call yesterday from St. Joseph's. The secretary asked me to go over at noon today to pick up my Christian Prayer book. I accidentally left it in a pew yesterday. Fran called a little while ago. She most certainly isn't all that crazy about her broken gam. I told her about all the trouble I was forced to put up with because of my arm in the early nineties. I was much younger then than she is now. To this very day, I still have all sorts of weird aches & pains because of it. Last night, I finished watching "2001: A Space Odyssey". I was forced to stay up until pert near midnight, which I can't stand. I've never been a fan of staying up late, but to my chagrin that's how it turned out. Insomnia is only one of my myriad curses. The movie has all the psychedelic trappings in it that you could expect from a sixties milestone. I've been plowing quite well through that Jules Verne book too. Karen, according to Mary Ellen & Vinnie, has been doing reasonably well lately. She's still having a very hard time of things though. The cousins have been very active lately with all sorts of e mail messages. It's very nice that we can have such an interesting time keeping in touch.

ICY COLD BITTER RAIN

Yesterday was entirely too nice to last. The rain that started this morning is absolutely miserable. It's even ice cold too. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. Of course, he made sure he had chocolate candy with him. There must not be any big news about Fran because he didn't bother to say much about her. Last night, I read a lot more of that Jules Verne book. It goes pretty fast. I especially like the extra large print in this edition. Entirely too many books have such small letters. Russian books are notorious for that. Dickens books are pretty bad about it too. Oddly, the library most certainly doesn't seem to have any kind of a crowd today. Usually a lot of people show up, at least for a little while. I've been looking through some anti_liberal sites lately. Those left_wingers really bring out quite a whole lot of resentment in everybody who disagrees with them. I guess theirs is a point of view somebody either has to share or despise in quite a hard_core kind of way. There just doesn't seem to be any available middle ground. The stakes are entirely too high.

SPRINGY DAY

I wholeheartedly welcome the very first genuinely nice day of the month. Today's the first day I've felt comfortable going out without a jacket or coat on. Also good news is that Mary Ellen has sent us all an e mail telling us that Karen's condition has been steadily improving lately. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. Fran's doing fairly well so far too. She's been having lots of trouble with mobility. She drives a car with a standard transmission & it's no picnic. Yesterday I saw "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" starring Keira Knightley, Johnny Depp & Orlando Bloom. For the information of all you trivia buffs, I just noticed that this month is even Keira Knightley's birthday. I also watched over an hour of "2001:A Space Oddysey" with Keir Dullea. I don't get channel 72 anymore, so I have to rely on my own DVDs until further notice to be able to catch any interesting movies I may wish to see these days. Last night my parents & Uncle Frankie Spent a lot of time watching the Osmonds. It was a fiftieth anniversary special. I've always kind of liked them, ever since I was only a kid. A couple of nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with a headache, but when I took one of my very favorite headache pills it went away. It seems to be a weather_change kind of a thing with me.