CARMELITE MEETING

Yesterday was a relatively nice quiet day. I didn't see Uncle Frankie all day but he may have shown up when I wasn't around. Today we must say a rousing happy birthday to Aunt Lauren. I knew it was sometime in the middle of the month but my mother just reminded me yesterday that today's the big day. I watched Ingmar Bergman's "Wild Strawberries". It all in Swedish but the subtitles made it easy to figure out. It's one of those really profoundly didactic movies, a commentary on the ultimate meaning of life. The only familiar name in all the cast was Max Von Sydow. I remember having heard of him when I was a kid because he was in "The Greatest Story Ever Told", or something like it, in the 1960's. This morning I went to the Carmelite meeting. First I got the Citizen's Voice & I left immediately after that. They have a new sister in charge of the Religious over there. She's from Queens & her aunt even was a parishioner at St. Gabriel's. Fr. Betts is there regularly at the home now too. As usual, some PA. missing link ran a red light while I was on my way back from the meeting.

CARMELITE MEETING TOMORROW

Today's weather is much nicer than yesterday's so we can count on quite an especially easy Friday dance this week. Uncle Frankie came over again yesterday with the usual gossip about current events & the olden days. For supper yesterday I ate corned beef & cabbage. Until further notice, this morning was my last day at St. John's. As far as I know Fr. Walsh will be back as of this weekend. I'm pretty sure Aunt Lauren's birthday is this month too but I'm not absolutely positive of when it is so happy birthday to her. I'm still reading a lot of different Carmelite books lately. Tomorrow is our big monthly meeting at the Little Flower Manor in Wilkes_Barre. It always pays to be as knowledgeable as possible about things that are relevant to the circumstances.

PA HAS THE WORST DRIVERS

The weather so far today has been an absolute nightmare. It's a bitter, damp, cold, rainy day. I was the lector at 8:00 Mass at St. John's in Pittston. Uncle Frankie showed up yesterday for a while. As always it was a relatively uneventful visit. Another thing I noticed yesterday was that no one appeared to call on the phone for a very long period of time. Of course, after a while it rang too much but for just that very brief instant there was nothing going on with the phone. Of course over the course of my lifetime I've always noticed that PA. seems to have the single largest percentage of losers & undesirables than any other state but this morning really clinched it. As I was driving to Pittston, at the intersection by the Sunoco station, a car just shot right over from the opposite lane into the gas station's parking lot as if this blithering idiot owned the road. A couple of minutes later at a red light, another clown in an SUV went right through the light, apparently under the distinct impression that traffic laws didn't apply to him either.

BARNES & NOBLE

Yesterday was a big day for my cousin Vinnie, & Helene. It was their birthday. I surely hope all went quite well for them both. I went over to the Barnes & Noble next door to the Wyoming Valley Mall in Wilkes_Barre yesterday. The exercise is really good for me. I made sure I walked a few laps around the store. While I was there I got a copy of the Ingmar Bergman movie, "Wild Strawberries". They have a nice foreign films section in the back of the store. I've been trying to see as wide a variety of movies as I can. Over the course of the past few years I've really spent quite a while on Rte. 309 & the other roads around here. Oddly, I just got a notice, on Facebook, about a guy whose last name is the same as mine & his first name's Thomas. I've never heard of him before. This morning, on my way home from 8:00 Mass at St. John's in Pittston, I stopped at Turkey Hill in Exeter for the Citizen's Voice & a half gallon of 2% milk.

McDONALD'S COUPON

It's been a very nice quiet week so far. The weather's a little chillier than I like it in the morning but it warms up over the course of the day. Yesterday I started a diet, at least in the sense that I fully intend to cut down on my eating from now on. I also have to wise up & start exercising again. I have an exercise chair I can use. I can walk a lot too. Today I got a message from one of the sites I use, telling me that Mike, an old friend from high school, had left a comment at my profile picture. It was really good getting in touch with him again. This morning I decided to take advantage of the McDonald's coupon I got the last time I gave blood. I went over to the Wyoming McDonald's on Wyoming Avenue. As soon as I got there I noticed Uncle Frankie was there, reading the paper. I tried to say hello but he was too engrossed in it. Later on a woman he knows said hello to him. As soon as he looked up he noticed me so we ended up sitting together for a while. Some women, who are cousins of his, were also there.