BIRTHDAYS

Today's the infamous Friday the 13. There have been a lot of birthdays lately. Mary Anne's birthday was three days ago. Uncle Frankie's was yesterday. He, my parents & I went to the Pittston Diner by the Pittston Bypass to get something to eat. Today is my cousin Maelene's(Mary Ellen) birthday. She lives around Buffalo. July 21 would have been Daren's birthday. She died in 2005. Her mother, Grace, sent me a card. Yesterday was also cousin Java & Nunziata's thirty seventh wedding anniversary. The annual bazaar for St. John the Evangelist Church in Pittston started yesterday & will last until Saturday. They never let it go until Sunday. I didn't go yesterday because it was such a rainy day & those things have all their main attractions outside. I shall hope to go later today. It starts at 5:30 each day. Pittston's world_renowned annual Tomato Festival begins very soon. It goes from Thursday, August 19th to Sunday, August 22th this year. Be there or be square. Lately I've been reading a lot, including Carmelite books & classic poetry. I've also been listening to my usual bottomless pit of old music, ranging mostly from the 1960's to the early 1980's.

MANY BIRTHDAYS

A few days ago a woman called from a political organization. I know those surveys are unavoidably necessary but she drove me crazy for around ten minutes with all sorts of annoying repetetive questions about my opinions about the Pa. politicians & how they stand on things. Mary Anne, Steve, Sam & Bridget came in on Friday night & left last night. Michael's enjoying his big trip to Costa Rica. This month has many birthdays & we had quite a nice party for them all. All the gang from West Wyoming showed up. All their birthdays are this month. Sam did a lot of work over the weekend. He, Steve & Bridget helped my father with the garage too. Steve, Uncle Frankie, the kids & I went, as always, to Jitty Joe's last night. Sam's favorite singer & musician these days is Jack Johnson. Johnson does a really nice version of Beatle John's "Imagine". Recently I got the new schedule for O.L. Sorrows. Now that Rocco's back I'm not on the schedule that frequently anymore. One individual makes quite a difference. My hay fever has been going crazy lately. I've been doing quite a bit more coughing than sneezing. There's a bit of a drought these days besides the excessive heat. After a brief respite the temperature this week will be back up past ninety degrees.