COLD MORNING

It's been very cold but very nice so far this morning. I haven't been able to help noticing that spring or no spring, the trees don't have any leaves yet. I heard the Bangles' version of Simon & Garfunkel's "Hazy Shade of Winter" on my car radio this morning. In a way, it's still appropriate. We haven't seen Uncle Frankie lately. He seems to go on streaks. Last night I went to St. Anthony of Padua for the Divine Mercy novena. I heard from Step by Step about a job. The woman I spoke to said exactly was I expected anyway. She wanted me to fill out my application & take it to their place on Kidder St. in Wilkes_Barre. She says it's by the mall & Toys R'Us. I made sure I checked out their official website. Bridget's big doctor appointment was a couple of days ago. All seems to be going quite well with her so far, especially considering how she felt on Christmas. Yesterday I read in the paper that Johnny Crawford, who played Chuck Connors' son on "The Rifleman", is now a really big name in big_band era music. He's also engaged to Kim Darby, the nerd girl from "True Grit". That's our official trivia thingy for this weekend.

VERY COLD & RAINY

Today, it's a miserable day so far, though it may get better later on. The rain is very cold & anything but spring_like. So far the weekend doesn't seem to have anything distinctive in store for us, though I have to lector tomorrow, with Laura, at 5:00 p.m. Mass. So far, I've gotten only two answers from my resumes at the job fair. They're both for places that help the handicapped. Today's the day for our legendary Friday dance. Limber up the gams & let's get hoofing. I'm still reading "The Iliad". It's more than a little thick & tough on my brain cells. The references are obscure. I try to read at least thirty pages a day but it's hard because it's not an easy style to handle. I'm still putting as many of my books as possible on Shelfari & Librarything. The high school football season has started up again. I overheard my father & Uncle Frankie say recently that they'll be back to their Friday night jaunts pretty soon. I've never liked sports so I'm always exempt from things like that. Fran is still recuperating from her broken gam. All is still about the same as ever.

NICE DAY SO FAR

The weather today is nice but fairly cold. Last night I read more of "The Iliad". Uncle Frankie came over for a while. I went to 7:00 Mass at St. Anthony of Padua. It was just a typical night. After Mass, I stopped at CVS on Wyoming Ave. for 2% milk & bread. I only ended up being able to get a gallon of milk. It cost around $3.50. On top of that the lady at the counter insisted that because it was Gerrity's brand & they don't sell Gerrity's_well then why in Sam Hill did they have it there, duh!_I'd have to put it back & take another. I did. There was no bread. That forced me to go to Turkey Hill down the road apiece. I spent around another $3.50 for rye bread. It was either that or twelve.grain. Their selection absolutely stunk. I just noticed, on Netpotion, that Rainee & I both live in the same general area. She was quite stunned to find out that one of her connections could possibly live in the same area as she. Unlike the past few days, there was 9:00 Mass at St. Joseph's this morning. I went to confession right before Mass.

JUNK FOOD

This morning I took advantage of my McDonald's coupon from the last blood drive I attended. I went over to the McDonald's on Wyoming Avenue in Wyoming & got a coffee with milk & sugar, & an egg mcmuffin. It was really nice for a change of pace but I could never get into the habit of eating in a place like that. I still have one for a Wendy's milk shake. When I pulled into the parking lot some complete buffoon of an old woman was pulling out from her space & never bothered to stop to avoid hitting me. It was lucky I came up with the presence of mind, ahead of time, to stop so I could avoid an accident. She came too close to me & barely missed my car. The weather's very nice & springy today but to my chagrin, I heard on the classical radio station this morning that we're expecting snow again soon. There should be an inch, followed by rain. This morning, right after I got the Citizen's Voice at the local Wyoming Avenue Unimart, I took a ride down Eighth Street toward O.L. Sorrows & got a reminder of exactly how paranoid I've always been around policemen. As I got into the left_turn lane & got ready to turn from Wyoming Avenue to Eighth Street, it occurred to me that there was a Wyoming police car right behind me. He didn't have his lights or sirens on. He was just there. I started getting suspicious thinking I was in trouble for having done something stupid even though I knew perfectly well I couldn't have. That's typical of me.

ANOTHER COLD MORNING

This morning was another icy cold day. My windows were covered with ice. I tried filling out a job application this morning for one of the local rehabilitation centers. They ask all sorts of questions I've never even heard of before. They wanted to know about whether or not I have a criminal record. That's always been standard up to a point but these characters go way beyond overboard. They ask about all sorts of specific federal offenses, including the most grossly graphic. Since they deal with people whose circumstances are ultra.hypersensitive, though, I guess they have to be supremely careful about whom they get mixed up with. Filling out forms like that gets me crazy but it has to be done. I woke up with a headache in the middle of the night but I took a couple of pills & it's gone. My nephew Michael just sent me some of his philosophy homework. He's been studying David Hume. I've always been an especially big fan of philosophy & could use a bit of a refresher course in it all. Last night, a little while after Uncle Frankie showed up, I went to 7:00 Mass at St. Anthony's in Exeter because I wasn't available in the morning. After that I watched over half of Frank Capra's classic "Lost Horizon". Yesterday, in the latest issue of one of the Carmelite periodicals I like to read, I found out that the Carmelites' NGO is trying to lobby for a carbon tax to limit the amount of CO2 in the environment.

EASTER SEASON

It is now the Easter season. This morning we left slightly before 10:00. Mary Anne went to work at around 9:30. Steve's doctor appointment was a little while after that. Because of a couple of stops, at a Wantagh gas station & the Wawa on Rte. 115, the trip took us around three & a half hours. The weather today has been quite exceptionally nice so far. I'm most certainly hoping that spring can be counted on to stay this way permanently. Uncle Frankie showed up a minute after we got home. The computer I got from Mary Anne & Steve was very heavy & hard to carry but I could handle it fairly well. Surprisingly, gas has been going down a little lately. Last night I finished "Mrs. Dalloway". While there, I managed to figure out where at least a few of my missing books have ended up. They have them. At least now they're accounted for. I was beginning to get paranoid. I've really been trying to get involved in the site, Librarything, lately. It's a good way to organize all the books I've been reading. Amazingly I've managed to track down people whose interests are quite similar to mine.

ALLELUIA!

Easter most certainly went quite well. We all went to Mass at noon at St. Mary of the Isle in Long Beach. It was in the hall next door to the church. The place was absolutely packed. My claustrophobia most certainly kicked in. A very large number of the people were Hispanic, Filipino & Korean. To my chagrin, the cantor couldn't sing her way out of a brown paper bag. After we got home, we spent the entire remainder of the day pigging out. We ate pork, lamb, Brussels sprouts & baked potatoes among other things. There were also all sorts of candy & pastries. Steve & I went to the boardwalk between six & seven o'clock. He jogged & I walked. It was a bit on the cold, windy side for me but I really enjoyed it. It's sort of like the levee over by the Midway in Wyoming. Michael has been taking philosophy courses lately. He & I got into a nice intense debate. We talked about the nature of reality, the right relationship of faith & reason & all sorts of other artsy_fartsy kinds of things. Many thanks to Profs. Friel, Phelan, Groner & Soupios who all dared to try to teach me philosophy. If there's one class I could really be counted on to go entirely overboard in, it's philosophy. Because I haven't taken any classes lately, I was really forced to dust off that section of my brain cells. I try to keep up with things like this by reading books, periodicals, etc. that deal with this kind of subject matter.