MISERABLE DAY

It's icy cold & raining all morning so far today. The pea soup fog always gets me crazy on days like this. We were warned that the real October would start pretty soon around here. The Emily Dickinson biography is really interesting. I've been reading a lot of it each day. She was more than a slightly offbeat kind of character, to put it very mildly, shall we say? Lately I've been pigging out on entirely too much junk food. These days there are all sorts of peanuts, old birthday cake, Pop Tarts, etc. just lying around waiting to be eaten. On top of that, I even just ate pizza a couple of days ago too. I haven't really been getting all that much exercise either. Uncle Frankie's still on our official sick list. It seems awfully odd not seeing him constantly wandering in & out but he's always calling on the phone. The big football game's coming up this weekend & he may not be able to show up. Every weekend it's usually on Friday night. This time, though, it has to be Saturday because the school's lights don't work so they're forced to play during the day. I just found out that Rosie O'Donnell will be at Huntington, N.Y.'s Book Revue in a couple of weeks. She's somebody I'd never want to be bothered with seeing. I got a kick out of her for a little while when she was on Nell Carter's "Gimme A Break" a very long time ago but these days she's nothing but trouble.

NEW BOOKS

I finished the book about Charlotte Bronte. A few days ago, I started one about St. Mary Magdalene de' Pazzi, a famous Italian Carmelite mystic from the era of the Counter_Reformation. I read it only a little at a time. I've also started a book about Emily Dickinson, the nineteenth century poet who was the subject of the nineteen seventies play "The Belle of Amherst", featuring the legendary Charles Nelson Reilly. She's a distant relative of Amy Dickinson, the syndicated advice columnist. I have a book of her poetry too. Uncle Frankie called yesterday. He's still very sick. I just found out on that Russell Johnson, the Professor on "Gilligan's Island", is from Ashley. Hey, I wonder if he knows Shirley (Mrs. Partridge)Jones. She's from Kingston. Yesterday we got thunder & lightning all day followed by a storm starting early in the evening. We needed it, not having gotten rain in quite a while around here. I found out on the Beatles' official website that George Harrison's music is being released digitally. As a lifelong fan, I absolutely have to know stuff like this.

THE OTHER KRISSYKRISSYKRISSY'S BIG DAY

Yesterday was Columbus Day. He & Queen Isabella take a lot of garbage from the liberals but they were both very good. There's even been some talk, in certain circles, about their eventual canonization. That would be of inestimable advantage to Catholic culture in the United States. Around here, we don't seem to have any big parades like all the city slickers in New York get to see. I used to go to the big Manhattan parade once in a while as a kid. Yesterday I went to the weekly St. Therese novena in Wilkes_Barre at the Maronite church. Today, if he would have lived, would have been John Lennon's sixty_seventh birthday. It's always struck me as very weird that two of the Beatles are already dead. I still enjoy keeping up with all the latest breaking Beatlenews & Beatlegossip but it was much more interesting when I was a kid. Cathleen's on jury duty this week. My turn may come up next month. I got my notice a while ago. It will be my very first time ever around here. Unfortunately, I'll have to go to Scranton. That's more than ten miles away on Rte. 81. Uncle Frankie's been very sick lately. He's been stuck at home for a while. My father ended up having to go to the game alone on Friday night. I just recently got my notice. Attention St. John the Baptist D.H.S., class of 1977: Our big reunion is December 1. Be there or be square.

TOO FOGGY

I went over to Pittston for 7:30 a.m. Mass today at O.L. Mt. Carmel & the weather was so foggy I could barely even see an inch in front of me. The heat wave still goes on. It's very odd but I fully intend to enjoy it while it lasts. I've still been reading those books, each one a little at a time. Nothing much of any note has been going on lately. Autumn progresses in its typically droll sort of a way. People are all getting ready for everything from Halloween to Christmas. I get sick & tired, in quite a very big hurry, of seeing all the obscenely premature decorations, commercials. etc. Speaking of obscenity, the liberals have already started their disgustingly predictable scampaign to ban even so much as the very word, Christmas, from people's vocabulary. This, of course, is indicative of our secular culture's poisonous antipathy toward all things Christian, under the guise of a supposed respect for equal rights. I haven't bothered to go trick or treating, or to a Halloween party, in many years. I always used to enjoy things like that in my days as a young hepcat. By now my New York Knights of Columbus council & Holy Name Society must be selling all sorts of contest tickets. Out here, though, I don't see much of things like that.

LIBRARY BUSY

Happy casual Friday dance. We all have to do the official weekend cha_cha_cha when the time comes. All is well so far. Lately, I've been continuing my constant reading. I've been plowing through those books about St. Therese & the one about Charlotte Bronte. Of course, I only read a little at a time of each of them. They both lived in the nineteenth century. I've always had quite a flair for life in the past lane. I've always really liked literature & Catholic history so it works out quite well. Oddly, the heat wave goes on. It may yet portend very bad news in the opposite direction though. Last autumn & most of winter were very warm but the end of winter turned out to be very bitter with lots of snow & ice well into March. The library is absolutely packed right now. I've only been here for around fifty minutes & already every computer is spoken for. There are occasional days like this. I've been checking out, among other sites, Fuelmyblog lately. It has a very seriously eclectic variety of blogs & I made sure I submitted mine to it. Tonight is the big weekly football game. I suppose my father & Uncle Frankie will be determined to make sure they show up.

UNSEASONABLY WARM

Oddly, it's over eighty degrees lately. That's more than kind of on the strange side for a Pennsylvania October. Ever since I was a kid in New York I've always associated October with exceptionally cold weather & Pa., as a general rule, has always been substantially colder than New York. I haven't seen much TV lately, which is very good news. In my days as a young hep cat, I reall liked it a lot & kept up with the then_trendy pop culture. Except for old movies & old shows in general, I don't usually bother much with it these days. I really like "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire" & "Jeopardy" but they ask lots of questions about current pop culture & I have no idea of what's going on these days. Every day things come up about all sorts of characters I suppose I most certainly should have heard of by now but I'm stumped. Sometimes I watch "The Simpsons" & "Seinfeld" but neither of them is exactly new stuff. It's fun being such a throwback.

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QUIET TIME

So far it's been a very quiet uneventful time since October got rolling. The weather is more summer or spring than autumn. I seem to have a fairly persistent, annoying cough lately. I'm still sneezing quite a lot too. My hay fever just doesn't like to give me the satisfaction of budging, fall or no fall. Flu shots are available these days. I really should think of getting one. Since the St. Therese novena, I got the idea to start reading a couple of the books I have about her. One is her "Last Conversations". The other one is "Maurice & Therese: The Story of A Love". They're both required reading for anyone who wants to be as knowledgeable as possible about St. Therese. Lately I have been pigging out on all sorts of junk food, including candy, cookies, etc. Fortunately I'm not such a naturally heavy guy anyway but I still have to watch my diet. Sometimes my weight goes up too much. Oreo has a cookie out, just in time for Halloween, that has Halloweenish orange in the middle with monster designs on the cookie part. All the cliche_riddled junk food, from now on, will be out in full force. It's boring but it can't be avoided.

THE CLOCK

LAST NIGHT OF NOVENA

Last night, the big St. Therese novena finally came to its inevitable close. 5:00 Mass went well. There was a big crowd. I sat too close to the air conditioning. Because I was wearing long sleeves but no sweater, I was too cold. The bishop was the principal celebrant. It was a very long night & I never got home until around 7:30. There was a little party after it in the church basement but it was getting dark so I just left. Thus ended my very first ever time in an Eastern Rite Catholic church. The parking was much less of an absolute nightmare than I could have expected. There was the inevitable road block, of course, on River Road, but I made it home easily anyway. By now, I must have seen more of Wilkes_Barre accidentally than most people have gotten to see on purpose. Mary Anne called this morning. Everyone has been doing well. She reminded me that she might have connections that could help me get a job in something like proofreading. Happy birthday to Brian in California. This will be quite a big birthday month for him & his family. Groovy word of the day: supervene. Ringo Starr & Paul McCartney intend to attend the unveiling of the Imagine Peace Tower. On top of that, Ringo's old EMI catalog albums are now available digitally. Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Quote of the Day: "Society, my dear, is like salt water, good to swim in but hard to swallow."_That one's from Arthur Stringer. The Phillies beat the Mets so I don't reckon Jo Ann is all that happy.

OCTOBERFEST

Today is the very first day of October. I'll bet the folks over in Lindenhurst are all geared up for the Rotary Club's big Octoberfest next weekend. I miss the days when I could show up at those things. I knew everybody in town over there. Today, St. Therese's feast day, is the last day of the novena in Wilkes_Barre. Mass is at 5:00 p.m. & will by celebrated by a visiting bishop. The traffic & parking will be an absolute nightmare. Uncle Frankie & Fran showed up on Saturday & gave my father lots of popcorn for his birthday. Last night I saw an old classic movie, Gaslight. It starred Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotten & Angela Lansbury. I can remember having seen it twenty years ago, but I don't remember anything about it. Soon, I shall have to get back to all those Hitchcock movies. Lately, the weather has been very cold in the morning & warm later on in the day. Saturday night, my lectoring at O.L.Sorrows went well. There was a visiting priest & all ran quite smoothly.