CARMELITE MEETING

This morning's Carmelite meeting most certainly appeared to have gone quite well even though hardly anybody showed up. Sister Catherine, Rita, Rosemary, Barbara & I were there. Anne showed up just in time for Mass. Dana is moving to Florida to be with his parents. Surprising, at the home they were having the parking lot paved this morning so I was forced to park in the other lot. It only threw me off for around a minute or two. Sister Catherine got us looking through a bunch of old books to see if there were any available that we'd be able to take advantage of. While she was looking, she broke a chair. The woman I invited, I met her at O.L. Mt. Carmel's feast last weekend, never showed up. Last night my parents told me that Aunt Helen, Gino's mother, was supposed to visit them late this morning. Her birthday was early this month. This was the very first time she's ever visited them so I was surprised to hear about it. Last night there was yet another electrical storm. It didn't amount to much of anything but it was very loud & annoying. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. On top of everything else I won a basket of bath & shower gels & lotions from a chance I took over at O.L. Mt. Carmel last weekend. I most certainly don't usually win much of anything at those functions so it was quite a really nice surprise. Later today I have to lector at 5:00 Mass.

READ & PRACTICE

Yesterday since it was the Feast of O.L. Mt. Carmel, I made sure I took advantage by reading books about Sts. John of the Cross & Therese of Lisieux. On top of everything else, I'll be that much more prepared for Saturday morning's Carmelite meeting. Besides that, I also made sure I did quite a whole lot of practicing on my guitar. To my chagrin, I haven't taken a good long walk in somewhere around a week by now. Around here there's not a whole lot of anything else to do except exercise in a place like this. So far there haven't been any pictures sent out by the relatives from the Fourth of July by way of e mail but I see Cousin Danny, from Hilldale, has a bunch of them on his official site. I haven't managed to find any acceptable pictures of me though. Those candid shots can really work to a guy's major disadvantage, if you get my drift. I watched "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" & "I Love Lucy" yesterday. There's still nothing on that's good these days other than old stuff & a few game shows. Uncle Frankie didn't come over yesterday as far as I know. Maybe he showed up when I wasn't even around. Knowing him it's entirely possible. I'm thinking he's been entirely too busy lately. KrissyKrissyKrissy hasn't sent any e mails about the christening so far but we're awaiting the big news any time now.

O.L. MT CARMEL FEAST DAY

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Yesterday & last night were somewhat busy for us. My father needed help with getting some paperwork done. Michelle (Gino's wife, not the blood cousin) & her mother showed up. So did Uncle Frankie. Mary Anne even called, though I don't think there was any connection. KrissyKrissyKrissy called. She wanted to make sure she told us about the plans for Natalie's christening. It's supposed to be very early next month. Unfortunately, I got some really bad news from Dave, the neighborhood handyman, this morning, when I first left to go to Mass. He told me that someone had stolen his gas can, which was full. My parents reminded me later on that it wasn't such a particularly bright idea of him to have left it out in the wide open in the first place. That's a whole nother story of its own though. Dave's more than a bit hard to explain. There's most certainly no shortage of neighborhood characters around here, shall we say? I sent a card out this morning to Grace, Daren's mother. Daren died in 2005 & Monday, the 21st, would have been her birthday. Yesterday I made sure I practiced my guitar & read some more of a book I have about St. Therese of Lisieux. We haven't seen hide or hair of Fran in quite a while. I assume she's been very busy lately. There hasn't been any rain or otherwise bad weather lately so I'm quite happy with it all these days.

QUIET DAY

Lately nothing much has been happening to me, which is good news. Yesterday I arranged very many books of mine into a reasonably decentish kind of order on some shelves. I have more books than I can be expected to handle easily so it pays to keep after them & avoid too much of a mess. I read more of that book about Marxism yesterday too. It gets more interesting for me as I keep going through it. For certain extremely obvious reasons, I've never been able to see what could possibly possess people to be so smitten with this kind of worldview but it most certainly has quite a fan club. I read some more from those Carmelite books too. Yesterday I also did quite a bit more practicing on my guitar. My lazy musical period seems to have ended a little while ago. I've gotten into the habit of going back & forth between scales & Beatle songs. It gets a bit stale after a while but it gets the job done. Once again yesterday there was still no sign of Uncle Frankie. Maybe he's been entirely too busy for us lately. Although it's hay fever season, so far my allergy troubles seem to be restricted to the occasional sneezing & runny nose & eyes. For that I am quite happy.

O.L. MT. CARMEL ANNUAL FEAST

O.L. Mt. Carmel's annual family feast was this weekend. I didn't remember until Saturday morning. It was pouring out last night so I never botherd to go but I showed up for a while on Saturday night. It was really nice. Besides entering a few contests, I also ate French fries & drank a cup of Pepsi. My father asked me to get him some funnel cake so I got him the next best available thing, a pizza frita. When I went over to the statue of O.L. Mt. Carmel, I ran into a young woman who's one of the regulars in the parish. Her name's Jean & she said she'd be interested in showing up at our lay Carmelite meeting next Saturday morning. We need new people. On Saturday I got a call from Laura. She said she wouldn't be available at 5:00 so I'd have to do the lectoring alone. There was another visitin priest like last weekend. This one was a really familiar face but I can't remember his name. Last weekend we got Fr. Jim Price from the Passionists in Scranton. I first met him when he was their vocation director. Danny came over with the big picture from the Fourth of July yesterday. I wasn't even in it because they kept postponing it. They only decided they were good & ready to take it when I wasn't available. Without me, what in Sam Hill good is it? Of course, as always, I made sure I put in a lot of time reading & playing my guitar over the weekend. Uncle Frankie didn't show up yesterday. That happens every once in a while.