08_08_08

Today is the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year. Oddly, people have always gotten quite a hoot out of those kinds of things. Yesterday it was raining all day & all of the night. At least during the day the rain was just a very nice mild shower. After a reasonably uneventful spell, this weekend we shall be having the big combined birthday bash. Fran, Mary Anne & Uncle Frankie all have birthdays. There are others this month to but not right away. The cousins continue to ramble on about their latest obsessive controversy, nuclear power. Yesterday I made sure I want back to Barnes & Noble again. Until I get around to going way up to Borders, it's one of my favorite places around here. Uncle Frankie came over yesterday. He reminded me about the Bazaar over at St. John the Evangelist Church in Pittston so I made sure I showed up for a while. That's the church I was baptized in. It was a really nice time. I got a slice of pizza with garlic salt on it & a Pepsi. I took the pizza fritta home. I also made sure I took some chances on the baskets again. Lately I seem to be on a winning streak with them. So far I've won something at both the last two church feasts I showed up at. Last night I even won $10 at the money wheel. The guy who was in charge pert near forgot to pay me. At least the weather didn't make too much of a noticeable difference in the feast. One thing I've never been able to help noticing is that churches around here are plum flea market crazy for some insane reason. They always have them & this time was no exception.

QUIET DAY SO FAR

I've been checking out some directions on msn & mapquest. Amazingly, I've never set foot into Scranton alone. Some one of these days I'm going to have to go on some kind of a trip over there anyway so I might just as well get started on it as soon as possible. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. There's nothing much going on with him lately. He was talking, for a little while, about the churches' annual feasts around here. Other than that I really didn't have any connection to anything he said. Mary Anne's supposed to show up over the weekend for her birthday. A few days ago was Fran's birthday so they're supposed to have a party for both of them. Fran recently sent me an e mail about it. Alas we're all getting older by the second. I played my guitar & read a little of my book about St. John of the Cross yesterday. Sanjuanist theology is more than a little bit on the heavy side but I'm quite used to it by now.

STORM & BLACKOUT

Saturday there was quite a bit of trouble around here because of a violent storm early in the day. We have a lot of them these days anyway but this time a transformer got hit by lightning leaving us in the dark until late afternoon. Life is awfully boring & annoying without electricity. It was impossible even to make a pot of coffee. Anything even the least bit electric was entirely messed up. Fortunately yesterday was nice enough to be able to go to KrissyKrissyKrissy's for Natalie's christening. I pigged out of course. Every time I get too close to junk food, I lose all self control. There was legitimate food too. My parents, Aunt Helen & I went together. I was quite happy to be able to see Larry, Gary & their families. It's a nice way to keep track of all that's been going on over in New York lately. There was too much traffic on the way, though, because the annual race was on that day. The church, St. Joseph's, was exactly what a church is supposed to be like as far as I'm concerned. Modern style churches make me cringe. Ed's car got sideswiped in a hit & run when he wasn't around but someone reported it & a policeman arrived as soon as we got outside. Happy twenty fifth wedding anniversary to Aunt Lauren & Uncle Jim (May), & Gary & Maria, this month. On Saturday I lectored at 5:00 Mass & all seemed to have gone well.