CARMELITE MEETING

The weather has been much nicer today than it was yesterday. There was a very cold miserable rainstorm yesterday but it's reasonably warm & sunny now. Everybody was afraid that tonight's big game was inevitably going to have to be cancelled because of the weather but it all seems to be working out quite well so far. When I went out to my car I found out that the lining on the top of the inside had fallen down because of its having rotted away. There's always been a leak in the car. I just made sure it got cut off because I couldn't see anything behind me. The meeting went quite well. It's a good thing I made sure I did my homework because they made sure they put me on the spot this month with all those questions. I now have Mary Anne's old job. She seems to be feeling better lately. In spite of what she said a while ago, she is willing to come back to meetings as soon as she possibly can. Dana, of course, wasn't available this month. Mary Elizabeth told us about her trip to Yankee Stadium to see the Pope. On the way back & forth, I got a chance to hear a bunch of old songs on the University of Scranton's official station. They played, among others, "Barbara Allen" by Joan Baez, "See Emily Play" by Pink Floyd, & a bunch of songs from a very favorite Elton John album of mine, "Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy". I got that album for Christmas in the eleventh grade. That was during his flamboyant period, during the tail end of the glam rock era.

MISERABLE WEATHER

At least ever since I got up this morning, it's been absolutely pouring out. The weather's annoyingly cold too. Yesterday when I got home I ended up having to take two headache pills. The headache was gone within a half hour. After a while I went outside & picked up a bunch of leaves & branches from the front yard. Hey it's boring but it beats the hell out of shoveling snow & ice. The mailman came obscenely late yesterday. He never showed up until around 4:00. That's really late for my neighborhood. The usual guy was on vacation or something so somebody else took his route. I got some mail from the Carmelites in Middletown, N.Y. Fr. Mike Kissane, O.Carm. is now their provincial. in the mid_1990's he was their vocation director. That's how he & I first met. He sent a letter out explaining exactly what changes have been recently implemented in Carmel. Rose Mary Lancelotti is replacing Fr. Francis Amodio, O. Carm., who has to go to Trinidad. Cathleen's vacation starts today. I shall have to remember not to bother to send her any e mails. Mary Anne called yesterday on Bridget's cell phone. I recognized it, right away as Bridget's because her name was on the caller ID. Same got braces. Uncle Frankie showed up yesterday.

RAINY NIGHT

Last night it rained in the middle of the night. Since I never get any sleep I couldn't help hearing all the thunder. I went to the Turkey Hill gas station in Exeter this morning. Gas is going way through the roof at $3.74.9 per gallon. I just found out from Cathleen that she'll be on vacation all next week, starting tomorrow. She's going on a cruise to the Mexican Riviera. It's like one of those Love Boaty places. The only other country I've ever seen is Canada. Right now I have a little bit of a headache since I got up. This usually happens when the weather changes. The Ronald just sent out a bunch of obscure facts about the State of Washington, where he lives. As usual it started all sorts of controversy. Whenever my kin get started on something everybody has to do his inevitable share of rambling on about it. As far as I'm concerned I'm not even the least bit interested in Washington anyway but it keeps them happy to throw these things around. I still have a couple of pages of answers to get out of the way for Saturday's Carmelite meeting but the questions are pretty easy. Each one only requires a very short simple answer.

BLOOD DRIVE

Yesterday was O.L.Sorrows' blood drive. Unfortunately I wasn't eligible to give blood, already having given entirely too recently. I used to help at my old KofC council's drives anyway so I went over to help for a while. To everyone's chagrin there wasn't much of anything to bother to help with. Because of its having been scheduled at the same time as the local high school's drive, we lost a lot of people to them. Normally, their teachers come to our drive but this time they went to theirs. There were only around eleven donors. A few were deferred & a few more couldn't finish their donations. There was a lot of food left over. Each of us ended up having to take stuff home. I got a few sandwiches, pickles, cakes & coffee. Believe it or not, today really is National Dance Like A Chicken Day. The weather's been very nice lately but it should get worse over the weekend. Last night, right after the blood drive, I made the mistake of eating a Whopper & French fries with a Dr. Pepper. I've always really liked those kinds of things but they're absolute poison. I most certainly don't have to lose weight but it's still a very bad idea to eat like that. My hay fever has been getting somewhat annoying lately. It doesn't usually get entirely out of control until September when the school year begins but I've been sneezing lately & my throat is extremely dry & scratchy.

WARMER TODAY

Yesterday was cooler than today. My father took my mother to her doctor's appointment at 10:00 this morning. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while yesterday. There's been no big change of pace lately around here. Lately I've been listening to the University of Scranton's radio station. They play all sorts of obscure songs. Mainstream radio doesn't interest me. Gas prices are still going absolutely through the roof. Last night Glenn Beck blamed it on polar bears. He reminded us that in 1980 there were only 5,000 polar bears in the world & now there are 25, 000. Oddly, now, not then, they're classified as an endangered species because of all those tree_hugging Greenpeace(among others) obsessos. They try to cheat us out of a chance to get our hands on new fuel because they want us to kiss the animals' butts. I'm assuming Vinnie's & Helene's birthdays yesterday both went well. There are many other birthdays over the course of this month too. It's very quiet at the library today. Lately the cell phone idiots have been getting more & more out of hand. The librarian's off today so the lady who works for him is stuck alone with us. Today is O.L. Sorrows' blood drive. As I said yesterday, I can't give because my last donation was entirely too recent. On Saturday I have a Carmelite meeting in Wilkes_Barre.

BUSY MOTHER'S DAY

Mother's Day most certainly went quite well. My parents, Uncle Frankie, Fran, Lisa & I went to the diner in Port Blanchard for breakfast. I got egg whites & toast. I ended up having to finish Uncle Frankie's pancakes too. For some reason their pancakes come in much larger servings than the average restaurant. Fran wanted Terri & Mike's E mail address. The girl who was our waitress was entirely new to day shift but did quite well anyway. All were happy. Fran's broken gam is getting much better gradually but it's still been giving her quite a whole lot of trouble. It's very annoying & inconvenient. Later on in the day my parents & Uncle Frankie went to the local graveyards for a visit. That seems to be quite a long_standing tradition around here. On the way home they made sure they stopped for ice cream. I lectored for Linnae on Saturday. Mary covered for Rocco too. I have no idea who ended up doing what yesterday. Today's my cousin Vinnie's birthday. Happy day to him & his. Mary Anne called yesterday. All is going well with them. Bridget even went to Shea Stadium to see the Mets. I just noticed today, at O.L. Sorrows in West Wyoming that there will be a blood drive over there tomorrow. I shall have to go over for at least a little while to see how things work out for them. Unfortunately I can't give any because my last donation was entirely too recent. Today's been substantially cooler & windier than I like. I've been noticing that it's been a windier than average day around other parts of the country too. At least there's no rain over here. I've really been plowing through that book by Cardinal Newman lately. Over the weekend I read quite a bit of it.