MARY ANNE AND BRIDGET

Mary Anne & Bridget showed up last night sometime after I went to bed. Steve, Sam & Michael will soon follow, I should suppose. The main bulk of the crowd will show up starting tomorrow afternoon. We shall have around four days of fattening food, sunburn, personality clashes and all sorts of other fun things up ahead of us. Bridget was telling me this morning that she has no intention of going back to the Christian(Protestant) camp she went to last summer. So far, she's been thinking of going to a soccer camp. It was a little on the foggy side when I first left this morning but after only a little while the weather started turning out really nice. Let's just hope we can count on it to last all week. The guy who's sitting right next to me is nothing but trouble. Knowing only too perfectly well that they have a rule against cell phones in here, this anti.social character does nothing but ramble on, at the very top of his lungs on top of everything else, on his cell phone all day. On top of that he rambles on about private personal things of a very serious nature that nobody else should have to hear about. Of course he's a New Yorker. As if Pa. doesn't already have more than its share of supreme ignoramuses(ignorami?)anyway, we really have so much to gain by bringing them in from New York too. I have absolutely no patience whatsoever with a big mouth & this guy overdoes it.

WELCOME TO JULY

Welcome to the month in which, each year, England's butt gets kicked twice over. I found out from one of my Canadian connections(on Myspace, etc.) that today is Canada Day. Tomorrow all the kinfolk will start trickling in for the Fourth of July. Thursday is the official beginning of it all. This morning, while getting the paper at Turkey Hill, I ran into Rose, the barber. She was standing right behind me on line wearing dark glasses. We didn't recognize each other at first because of our glasses. Lately I've been seeing on TV that Mr. Bill's been making a comeback. Alf has his moments too. There's been no word from Max Headroom these days though. Happy Anniversary to Cousin Larry(& Rose). Edie, one of my Myspace connections, has a birthday the same day too. Uncle Frankie, for the past few days, went to his family's big reunion. I watched a little, last night, of an old movie with Joseph Cotten, Jennifer Jones & Claudette Colbert. I just found out that because I am between 41 & 52 years old, I fit into Generation Jones, the largest adult generation in the U.S. I'd always thought that I was a baby boomer, having been born between 1946_1964. It turns out that it's been narrowed down a bit more than that.

MARY ANN'S FUNERAL

Unfortunately I ended up having to go to Mary Ann's wake & funeral this morning. It was at St. Ignatius of Loyola Church. A few of the other Carmelites made it too. Fr. Joe Kakareka, from St. Martha's was the main celebrant. Last night, besides practicing my guitar again, I listened to a bunch of old eighties albums by Frank Zappa, the Rolling Stones & the Firm. Today is the seventy second anniversary of the publication of "Gone With the Wind", Margaret Mitchell's beloved classic. We should all get our hands on it & read it before the liberals ban it in their insatiable quest to control us completely. The original working title was "Tomorrow is Another Day". I went to bed last night with a bit too much of a headache but it went away after a while. The violent thunderstorm may have been somehow responsible for it. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while yesterday. Fr. Walsh told me on Saturday that Rocco has, for some unknown reason, left the parish. I watched part of the old Jodie Foster movie, "Freaky Friday" last night. That goes back to the days when she was still interesting. The Fourth of July is fast approaching & everyone is supposed to start showing up as of Thursday. Unfortunately Nick, our old landlord from Queens, has died. I remember him from when I was a kid even before my teens.