HAPPY FREAKY FRIDAY

Well, folks, welcome back to yet a whole nother Friday 13. I don't happen to think they're all that unlucky but alas, the day is still young. I gave the secretary at my church the form for the Harvest Festival in September. It's on my birthday this year. That should be really neat. Tomorrow I have to go to a Carmelite meeting at nine a.m. It should be really interesting because Mary Elizabeth & at least one of the others are supposed to be getting professed. I made sure I did all the stuff I was supposed to do for the homework they want. I even watched the EWTN special about St. Teresa of the Andes last night. I completely missed the first few episodes but I caught the fourth.

LADY BIRD FLIES AWAY

Alas, yet a whole nother significant 60's icon has bitten the dust. As with Gerald R. Ford, who was born the very same year as she, Lady Bird Johnson, wife of Landslide Lyndon, the thirty sixth U.S. president, she just never seemed to want to get it over with. Today I walked two & a half miles & cut the grass. It's a wonder I can still walk & chew gum at the same time after all that strain, but I am improving. Eddie's Beatle thingy doesn't work on my CD player so I shall have to ask the librarian for help. There was a crowd at the library when I first showed up today so I was kept waiting for a while. It's a very nice sunny day out today. Yesterday it was raining & miserable. My father & I went over to Aunt Ann's because she wanted to get rid of all Uncle Joe's old clothers. I'll say one thing for him. He was most certainly quite the dapper dresser. Java & Nunziata are still around.

MUGGY RAINY DAY

Today the weather is, so far, nothing to brag about. The sky is one humongous cloud. It will most probably start pouring sooner or later. I went over to Our Lady of Sorrows this morning & got my new schedule. I've never met more than a few of the people I shall be working with from now on. Bridget seems to have forgotten to give me back my dvd of "The Lord of the Rings". Of course, I've already seen it by now anyway. Tolkien feeds my obsessively pro.western culture side. He's one of the true greats but great Caesar's ghost none of his current fans appears to understand why. I get a good laugh at all those liberals just a_trudgin' over to the movie theatres & book stores to check out his stuff. Liberal Tolkien fan is like the ultimate in hyper oxymorons. His worldview is so anathema to theirs it's like insane_o. My bones, muscles, etc. are all sore these days but I reckon I can attribute that to a rough weekend.

THE TRIP IS FINALLY OVER WITH

The long, hot arduous trip is finally & at last over with. I've never liked traffic & heat but it all worked out quite well. Yesterday I spent the day working with Steve in his shed, even though all he really did was clean up & move tons of old stuff around. I pretty much ended up helping with only relatively little things. The weather then, as now, was unbearably hot. I took a walk for a while over into the direction of Rockville Centre & got as far as the Blockbuster on their main street. I considered going to the beach but the lights & traffic got me paranoid. Besides that, I made sure I checked my e mail & played the guitar. I was quite surprised a couple of days ago when I made sure I took a smidge of each of the different kinds of hooch. Sometimes I get nightmarishly violently sick from just a brewski or two, especially in all that heat. This time around, though, I did quite well & got absolutely no trouble whatsoever. Michael, Sam & Bridget have most certainly turned out to be quite an interesting bunch of characters. They've been really busy with friends, school(not now because it's summer) & everything else that goes with being a young un.

RIDE HOG & PICK UP CHICKS

My parents have gone over to our old stomping grounds to see their friends Dotty & Anne. Mary Anne's at work. Steve originally wanted to go out jogging but now he wants to wait a while because of the heat. He wants me to help him clean out the shed today. Michael's still fast asleep. It's nice & quiet around here & I'm taking every possible advantage of all this rare & fabulous concept known as peace & quiet. Bridget warned me this morning that it would be very warm today. Laura just sent me an email telling me about Sir Paul's "Chaos & Creation In the Backyard" special. This must be a quite major Beatle time for me.

BUSY NEW YORK TRIP

Today was the big party for Gary's & Maria's daughter Tina. She recently graduated from high school. This week is also Maria's birthday. There were food & hooch galore, but then what else is new? Dino & Roseanne, Joe Jag, Adrian & Josephine, as well as all the other predictable classic characters made their inevitable appearance. I've known many of them since around 1980. We got here yesterday. Bridget & I sat in the back of the car & spent most of the trip watching that Robin Williams movie, "Mrs. Doubtfire". I really enjoyed it. Bridget got many very nice souvenirs from that holy roller camp she attended. The weather has been very hot both days. Today, on the way over to the party, my father dropped me off at Eddie's house first. Eddie gave me a Beatles' CD. I most certainly got quite a kick out of seeing a few of my Lindenhurst connections again. It's impossible to believe, but Msgr. Hamilton, believe it or not, is no longer in charge at O.L.P.H. Father John is gone back to India. The old neighborhood still looks really nice. I go way back in that area & have many really nice memories over there. When I later told Gary about the Beatles' CD, he gave me a Beatles' DVD. I accidentally cut my hand on it, but Maria supplied the much needed first aid. Well, folks, shucks & wazoo but it's finally & at last the end of an insanely long & arduously confusing era of my life story. Our legendary KrissyKrissyKrissy has moved out. Oddly, I do believe I shall miss her never_endingly confusing antics. We wish all the very best of luck to her & big & little Eddies.

WEEKEND PARTY FOR TINA

This Sunday is the big party for Tina's high school graduation. She'll be going to S.U.N.Y. Farmingdale. I hope, for everybody's sake, that none of my old teachers notice any connection between us. Jennifer sent out a few very nice looking pictures from the recent Fourth of July. Danny has a site but so far all the pictures on it are still from previous functions. I should suppose these things take a while. Yesterday I got my copy of the Tidings from my Lindenhurst KofC council. They're still keeping busy over there. Jim has passed the torch to Gene as grand knight. I see Cathleen from California is on her way to Bakersfield to visit her mother whose birthday is tomorrow. So is Ringo Starr's. Happy birthday to both of them. Yet another Russian looker has been sending me mail lately. They're quite a bunch of scam.meisters(mistresses, technically). Her name is Yulija.

FOGGY MORNING

This morning was awfully foggy. The weather out here lately has been driving me stark raging bananas. My father drove Bridget to her camp this morning & didn't seem to have any trouble getting back & forth. She seems to be having quite an enjoyable time over there. It's a holy roller camp & they're very strict about all sorts of things. I went there once & saw the outside of the place. In that area it's all mountainous. It's one of those kinds of places where they seem to think it's tres gauche to live within a thirty mile radius of a gas station. Uncle Frankie came over with (what in Sam Hill else is new?) candy last night. Pretty soon I shall most certainly have to get back to all my walking again. In a few more days we shall all be on our way back to Massapequa for Tina's big graduation party. It will be very nice for me to be able to see my old stomping grounds again. Yesterday, I watched an all_day

Twilight Zone

marathon. That's the really groovy thing about holidays. There always seems to be something interesting on.

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Happy anniversary this week to Elaine & George, Karen & Tony, & Larry & Rose(today). My headache is finally gone. The weekend was quite swell. I got all sorts of invitations to visit the kinfolk. Joey & Liz's dogs took quite a whole lot of getting used to but they weren't all that dangerous or anything. Vinnie & Danielle rambled on quite incessantly about teaching, martial arts, police work etc. Vinnie kept showing people the proper use of a gun. Unfortunately, some vegetable puffs appear to have been recalled because of salmonella. None of us can recall having eaten any of them though. Yesterday I waited until Vinnie left before I did. Richie & his young uns, & Alan, Kim & David left this morning.

IT'S FINALLY OVER WITH

The long, hot, fattening weekend is finally over with. Right now I have an extremely seriously annoying headache. Anna Maria went to Perkins with Mark & Frankie & their families. Somehow when they all went into the restaurant, she didn't end up getting out of the car in time & got locked into it for about a half hour. That's the wildest story of the entire weekend. They went back to the parking lot & found her trying to get out. I stayed until after 3:00 p.m. today. As soon as Vinnie finally left, I got moving. He & I went to Perkins this morning & got pancakes for breakfast. Amazingly, unlike most years, I went away without significant sunburn this time around. Alan told me that he knows a guy from that sixties band that recorded the mellow hit, "Oh How Happy". Even now they tour all over the place. I've always really liked that song.