NICE WEEKEND

I went to 4:30 Mass on Saturday at St. John the Evangelist in Pittston. That's the church I was baptized in. Other than that, my weekend was thoroughly uneventful. Uncle Frankie showed up for a little while each day. Bridget called up once. My mother said Aunt Lauren came over for a while on Saturday. That was a really interesting surprise because she pert near never visits. Once again, I pigged out on entirely too much junk food last night. At least the peanuts are all gone. I've never been able to handle too much interesting junk food. I practiced my guitar a lot over the weekend. For the past few days, I've been shaving with an electric razor instead of my usual habit of a hand razor. It's nice for a change of pace every once in a while. As always I consistently practice my guitar. I have no electric guitar though. I only have acoustic guitars. That seriously limits the kinds of songs I get to play, unfortunately. The weather's been very nice lately. Surprisingly, we haven't been surprised by any sudden thunderstorms for the past few days.

CARMELITE MEETING

This morning's Carmelite meeting went quite well. Amazingly, ten people showed up, including Theresa who's just moved into town from Middletown, N.Y. She showed up at a meeting a few months ago. Little did we know she'd ever be back. We now have a new name, Our Lady of the Mountain, for our fraternity. I'm having more than a slightly difficult time of things, of course, being our new formation director. I lectored at 5:00 Mass yesterday but they couldn't find anyone to help me. Uncle Frankie & my parents went to Mass at noon yesterday for Aunt Mary Theresa over at St. John the Evangelist in Pittston. Yesterday I practiced my guitar for a while. By now it's not even the least bit hard to keep up the habit anymore. I just take it entirely for granted at this rate. Happy twentieth birthday to my goddaughter Kristy Nicole in North Tonawanda, N.Y. She's cousin Mary Ellen's daughter. She & my nephew Michael, who's her age, are both my godchildren. His birthday will be next week. Unfortunately I ate yet more junk food yesterday & last night. Pop Tarts & nuts aren't really all that good for me but they can both be quite annoyingly addicting when they're around.

HAPPY FRIDAY

The week ended in just about its usual droll manner. Uncle Frankie came over yesterday. He made sure we ate yet another batch of his pasta. After a while he & my parents went shopping. Because it's the Feast of the Assumption I have to lector at 5:00 Mass later today. I went to confession at the Oblates' seminary this morning. When I went to Turkey Hill this morning to get gas & the paper, they hadn't gotten the Citizens' Voice. A woman on line said it wasn't delivered to her either. There was none at the Unimart either. I ended up having to get the Times Leader. Gas has gotten substantially less expensive lately. That's a bit of a surprise considering how far in the opposite direction things were a while ago. Tomorrow is yet another Carmelite meeting. Yesterday I made sure I did some more of the required reading. It always pays to show up well prepared for things like that. My guitar practice goes on. A little bit each day seems to be going quite a long way lately. To this very day, I have no idea how to tune the thing but that's most certainly never stopped me before. August is half over. September bugs me because the weather's still really nice but it's the beginning of the bad part of the year.

POWER BALL

Because of my having won so many prizes at the local parishes lately, Fran got the big idea that I should take a chance & play the lottery. I put down two dollars for the power ball yesterday & found out in this morning's Citizen's Voice, of course, that I'd lost. I never win anything of any significance. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. It was just the usual typical kind of a time. There was no Mass at St. Joseph's this morning but I plum forgot & went anyway. It's tonight at 7:00 because of the Feast of O.L. Assumption. There was all sorts of confusion because the janitors never completely locked the door last night. I ended up accidentally locking a couple of books & my glasses into the church when I left so I was forced to ask Noreen, the secretary, to get them out for me. The weather's been very nice lately but a bit cooler than it had been for a while. I played my guitar last night. "I Feel Fine" is really getting interesting now. It's a little on the tricky side for me but I can handle it. I've been quite conscientiously practicing scales too. My Carmelite meeting is on Saturday morning so I made quite sure I got some stuff done last night. It's always good to be prepared. Unfortunately I'm still pigging out these days on all the leftover junk food, slowly devouring a can of Pringles & a can of peanuts among other things.

COOL DAY

Uncle Frankie's birthday went well yesterday. He, my parents & I went to Jitty Joe's, the official ice cream place of northeastern Pa. I got a seriously sloppy butter pecan in a cup. It was as bitter cold as it was messy & that always plum aggravates the hell out of me but it was very nice. It was also Java & Nunziata's thirty fifth wedding anniversary. Today is Mary Ellen's birthday too. August most certainly has no shortage of milestones. Cathleen's back from visiting her family in Bakersfield. Dottie called yesterday but as always when she calls, my mother was gone shopping. They can pert near never quite seem to keep up with each other somehow. Yesterday I watched the old Vincent Price movie, "The Fly". It's one of the horror movies I won recently at St. John the Evangelist's bizarre. There's never anything worth bothering with on TV anyway so I go for old stuff, the occasional game show & DVDs. I practiced my guitar last night. I usually like to stick to the songs I've always really liked but I'm going most certainly to have to get around to everything sooner or later.

AWFULLY WEIRD WEATHER

Over the course of the past few months, we've gotten very short, very violent rainstorms, usually at the rate of at least one a day. Only one was very destructive though. Today's Uncle Frankie's birthday. He came over for a while yesterday. I got gas this morning at the Unimart in Exeter. Gas has been substantially less expensive lately than it's been in quite a while. The Olympics are all over the place these days. Unlike most people I just plain don't happen to like sports. Not liking sports is assumed to be the equivalent of not having a sex drive. It's just taken for granted, somehow, that everybody likes sports. Unfortunately, because of all the partying over the weekend, there's an absolutely insane amount of junk food left over. I even won popcorn & licorice with all those videos. My will power goes down as the junk food supply goes up. Each day, I play my guitar & it seems to get quite a bit easier each time. I always seem to lose track of my picks though. That went on back in the really old days too.

BUSY WEEKEND

It was quite a hectic weekend with all the birthdays. Surprisingly, I got a call from St. John the Evangelist Church yesterday. It's all so weird that I keep winning things lately at church functions. I won yet another basket at their feast. It was a bunch of horror movies. While I was in the rectory I met the two monsignori. Mary Anne borrowed one of the movies. Fran has always especially like those kinds of movies ever since we were only kids. Mary Anne & I took the kids on Saturday to the mall. We went to a bunch of head shops so they could get some clothes. In one of them there was constant, non_stop Beatle music playing. She said the kids these days really like retro stuff. I ended up having to go to F.Y.E. in the mall to get another DVD case because I didn't have any room left over in any of mine. Uncle Frankie & Fran were cleaning out their attic & they gave me Aunt Mary Theresa's old Passionist prayer book & my grandmother's old missal from the Latin Mass. It's dated September 26, 1961, which is only ten days after my second birthday. Typically, there was an extremely violent storm yesterday but it only lasted an extremely short time.

08_08_08

Today is the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year. Oddly, people have always gotten quite a hoot out of those kinds of things. Yesterday it was raining all day & all of the night. At least during the day the rain was just a very nice mild shower. After a reasonably uneventful spell, this weekend we shall be having the big combined birthday bash. Fran, Mary Anne & Uncle Frankie all have birthdays. There are others this month to but not right away. The cousins continue to ramble on about their latest obsessive controversy, nuclear power. Yesterday I made sure I want back to Barnes & Noble again. Until I get around to going way up to Borders, it's one of my favorite places around here. Uncle Frankie came over yesterday. He reminded me about the Bazaar over at St. John the Evangelist Church in Pittston so I made sure I showed up for a while. That's the church I was baptized in. It was a really nice time. I got a slice of pizza with garlic salt on it & a Pepsi. I took the pizza fritta home. I also made sure I took some chances on the baskets again. Lately I seem to be on a winning streak with them. So far I've won something at both the last two church feasts I showed up at. Last night I even won $10 at the money wheel. The guy who was in charge pert near forgot to pay me. At least the weather didn't make too much of a noticeable difference in the feast. One thing I've never been able to help noticing is that churches around here are plum flea market crazy for some insane reason. They always have them & this time was no exception.

QUIET DAY SO FAR

I've been checking out some directions on msn & mapquest. Amazingly, I've never set foot into Scranton alone. Some one of these days I'm going to have to go on some kind of a trip over there anyway so I might just as well get started on it as soon as possible. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. There's nothing much going on with him lately. He was talking, for a little while, about the churches' annual feasts around here. Other than that I really didn't have any connection to anything he said. Mary Anne's supposed to show up over the weekend for her birthday. A few days ago was Fran's birthday so they're supposed to have a party for both of them. Fran recently sent me an e mail about it. Alas we're all getting older by the second. I played my guitar & read a little of my book about St. John of the Cross yesterday. Sanjuanist theology is more than a little bit on the heavy side but I'm quite used to it by now.

STORM & BLACKOUT

Saturday there was quite a bit of trouble around here because of a violent storm early in the day. We have a lot of them these days anyway but this time a transformer got hit by lightning leaving us in the dark until late afternoon. Life is awfully boring & annoying without electricity. It was impossible even to make a pot of coffee. Anything even the least bit electric was entirely messed up. Fortunately yesterday was nice enough to be able to go to KrissyKrissyKrissy's for Natalie's christening. I pigged out of course. Every time I get too close to junk food, I lose all self control. There was legitimate food too. My parents, Aunt Helen & I went together. I was quite happy to be able to see Larry, Gary & their families. It's a nice way to keep track of all that's been going on over in New York lately. There was too much traffic on the way, though, because the annual race was on that day. The church, St. Joseph's, was exactly what a church is supposed to be like as far as I'm concerned. Modern style churches make me cringe. Ed's car got sideswiped in a hit & run when he wasn't around but someone reported it & a policeman arrived as soon as we got outside. Happy twenty fifth wedding anniversary to Aunt Lauren & Uncle Jim (May), & Gary & Maria, this month. On Saturday I lectored at 5:00 Mass & all seemed to have gone well.