SICK LIBRARIAN

This morning's Carmelite meeting went well. We no longer meet in the conference room upstairs. The sisters have moved us downstairs to a very nicely furnished new room. Today's the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. There was a larger turnout than average for the meeting. They have a new chaplain. Fr. Betts has been transferred to Hazleton. I'm hoping to make it over to St. John the Evangelist Church on William St. in Pittston. It's the last night of their annual bizarre. None of us ended up going to see Michelle & Gino bartend at the Ooh_ooh Bird last night. I was forced to miss it because I wanted to be available to get up early this morning. Today is the sixth anniversary of Aunt Mary Theresa's death. I just got a reminder that tomorrow's my very favorite goddaughter's birthday. Happy birthday goes to Kristy Nicole in North Tonawanda, N.Y. I can remember when she was first born & now she's engaged. Yesterday was quite weird. The library was locked. No one bothered to show up. I know now that the head librarian was sick & couldn't come in but no one else bothered to cover for him either. We regulars were all befuddled. We hung around outside for well over an hour. The fortieth anniversary of the Woodstock Concert is this weekend. Unfortunately I wasn't there. Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, who attempted to assassinate President Gerald R. Ford in September 1975, is scheduled to go free tomorrow. She's part of the Manson family so it's a little bit more than a slightly stupid idea. Maybe it's somehow symbolic that it's on the anniversary of Woodstock.

TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR

Uncle Frankie & Fran showed up for a while yesterday. It was his real birthday. She has to get a new car so she was in town to do some shopping around. Today's cousin Maelene's birthday. Her real name's Mary Ellen. Maelene is just a nickname I gave her because it's the Irish version of her name. St. John's annual feast in Pittston is starting tonight. A couple of years ago I was on a winning streak at those church feasts. I won a bunch of horror movies at St. John's. It was somewhat hard to park there this morning. I hope their weather will be much better than it was last night. It was pouring out. In the Carolinas they got eight inches in eight hours. At least the construction work by the bridge seems to be less intense today than it's been lately. There was no road block, unlike the past few days. I have a slight headache today. I got one a few days ago too. It must be from the weather. Maybe it's because I've been doing too much reading. I've been trying to read a lot of "Don Quijote" each day. I continue to practice my guitar each day too.

HAPPY IT'S OVER!

Barbara from the Carmelite meetings called yesterday with more information & questions. Our next meeting is this Saturday morning. Bob from St. Joseph's called last night too. He spent a lot of time talking about the lates developments at the churches. I also ran into him outside the church this morning. Fran's old friend, Linda, with her mother, was at Mass this morning. I haven't seen Linda in a few decades. She still looks about the same. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while yesterday. It's his birthday today although the party was on Sunday. Java's & Nunziata's thirty sixth wedding anniversary is also today. Another milestone today is Marie's birthday. She & I were in the same class from the eighth grade through high school. She's a little red haired girl but I've always liked her anyway. Lately the weather's been exceptionally hot & it rained for a while yesterday. I'm quite happy that there was no road block this morning on my way home. That was so annoying having to go through Wilkes_Barre just to get to my neighborhood from Sixth Street. Unfortunately I just overheard someone say that they've started working again. They must have gotten a late start today. I'm still reading "Don Quijote". Much of it is coming back to me because of my having already read it before.

DETOUR CONTINUES

It was pouring out last night. There was a threat, all day, of a very violent rainstorm. The TV reception was even temporarily lost on most channels. It started pouring late at night. Mary Anne called last night from Mark's house. Larry called over the weekend. The phone gets a lot of mileage. After I finished "Mansfield Park" I started re_reading Cervantes' "Don Quijote". It's overwelmingly long but quite interesting. It's classified as a picaresque novel. I don't know of anything else Cervantes ever wrote so I'm a bit surprised that his reputation is pert near as good as Shakespeare's. They both died on the same day. Yesterday QVC had a really nice special on about the Beatles. I didn't end up buying anything but it was especially interesting to watch because of all the good souvenirs. There was yet another detour today because of the bridge. It was easy for me though because I'm quite used to it by now. Yesterday I played more of my guitar. The guitar solo for "And I Love Her" still drives me plum loco but it gets a little bit easier each time.

MANY BIRTHDAYS

The weekend was very nice in spite of yesterday's major thunderstorms. There was even a jolt of lightning that knocked out one of the TV's. Danny came over yesterday to give my parents, Mary Anne & family, & Gino & Michelle the official picture from the Fourth of July. He was wearing his maroon shirt & showed up in his maroon truck. It was all so fabulously color_coordinated. Leonard called to ask my father about some kind of a recipe he wanted. This morning the doors at St. Joseph's were locked because no one wanted to be bothered with opening them. We got in really late. I asked Father Marchetti, after Mass, if he'd be willing to let the Carmelites use one of the churches for meetings from now on. He says our chances are pretty good so far. Uncle Frankie's birthday party was yesterday even though his birthday's not until Wednesday. All went quite well. Mary Anne's birthday is today. August is a busy birthday month. As Uncle Frankie warned me over the weekend, there was yet another detour today because of construction on the bridge. Once again I was forced to go home by way of Wilkes_Barre at the courthouse. I listened to classical music, a lot of Mozart, & jazz over the weekend. I'm starting to learn to play the lead guitar to the Beatles' "And I Love Her". It's fairly easy but extremely annoying.