IT'S DEJA VU' ALL OVER AGAIN

We're very well into spring & the weather is still cold with lots of bitter rain. I was hoping to be able to go to Middletown, New York this morning for a Carmelite day of recollection but I couldn't get in touch with anyone to make the necessary arrangements. No one was available at their office to answer their phone when I called. I spoke to Barbara & explained it all to her. We St. Gabriel's people are still quite saddened over the closing of our school. I was really happy, though, to find out on Facebook that one of the women in our group has tracked down Sr. Rose Eugene, my first grade teacher. She's now Sr. Evyleen Larkin. Mary Anne couldn't scan the picture of Mr. Di Noto & me so I could show it to him on Facebook but I sent it to him in an email. He really liked it. Uncle Frankie's back from his trip to Fran's house. He gave me a coupon to go to A&A to get an oil change for around half the average price. This afternoon I have to lector at 4:00 Mass. Cheryl hasn't called me in quite a while for some reason. A couple of weeks ago I ran into Arlene, from the Catholic radio station, at CVS in the Midway. She told me to call Carol & Ed & ask if they need any help lately. A few days ago Carol called & asked me to put up posters at the local churches. That's really easy. As always I've been continuously reading, watching movies & playing my guitar.

ST. GABRIEL'S

It's so hard to believe but St. Gabriel's, my grammar school over in East Elmhurst, New York, will be closing down in June. Br. Edward Shields, F.S.C., who has been the principal for the past quite a few years gave us the bad news a couple of days ago. I spent my first six years of grammar school there. The Vincentian Sisters of Charity & De La Salle Christian Brothers, as well as many good lay teachers, gave me quite an exceptional education there. The priests of the Brooklyn Diocese were in charge of the parish. I left Queens right before my twelfth birthday but I shall always remember those days. That parish was quite a fine environment. Now because of the internet I can always keep in touch with all my old friends from there. It's still so sad, though, to see our school close. All good things must come to an eventual end & I haven't been actively involved with the parish or school in the past few decades but those memories of long~gone days will follow us all throughout our lifetimes. It's especially sad that this news comes so soon after the death of Miss Geraldine Watzel, everyone's very favorite second grade teacher. She was a symbol of how good St. Gabriel's was.

CELL PHONE

Recently I broke down & got a cell phone. Because of my mother's obsessive~compulsive thing about the home shopping channel I got it that way. It's a little Samsung Tracfone. The deranged thing about it all is that I've never been able to stand the telephone in general. On top of that I have an absolutely insatiable hatred of the way people are always rambling on in public, interrupting others & making complete horse's butts out of themselves on these kinds of phones. I've been enjoying it immensely though. I've developed quite an insanely obsessive~compulsive need to put people's numbers into it, & to do all sorts of other things, all except for using it to call anyone. Predictably I use a few seconds of the Beatle classic "She Loves You" as my dial tone. Lately there's been entirely too much snow & bitter cold weather in general so no one would notice that spring has officially sprung. A couple of weeks ago there was a violent blizzard. We all hope it will be the very last of this year. My cousin Larry's family has been very busy with his new grandson & cousin Maelene & family are anxiously awaiting the birth of her new granddaughter. The last Carmelite meeting, two weekends ago, went quite well. We meet on the third Saturday morning of each month at 9:00 at the Little Flower Manor in Wilkes_Barre. Uncle Frankie is gone away to visit Fran for a few days so predictably I've ended up having to get his mail for him each day while he's gone. Lent progresses so far without any major trouble. Easter is very late this year. Finally & at long last the bridge on Eighth Street, after its having been under construction for such an annoyingly long time, will be officially opening to traffic at 4:00 this afternoon. The old one, right next to it, is soon to be torn down. It's like the end of an era around here.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY

My parents held their St. Patrick's Day party early this year. It was this past Saturday. Mary Anne came in on the bus on Friday night. Steve & the kids couldn't come. They were too busy. The relatives from West Wyoming showed up, as always. Fran, because she has so far to travel, stayed with Uncle Frankie overnight. I made sure I put some Irish whiskey & whipped cream into my coffee so I could have it Irish style. The parade from Scranton was on. I've never been to that one but I went to the one in Manhattan quite a few times when I was young. I even met Robert F. Kennedy at the last one he attended right before he was assassinated. As always we watched a few movies on cable TV while they were here. Yesterday I saw a DVD of Woody Allen's first movie, "What's Up, Tiger Lily?". A couple of weeks ago I saw a DVD of his "Hannah & Her Sisters". He's always been quite a favorite of mine. I've been playing my guitar quite regularly lately & I read every day too. I'm almost finished with Sir Thomas Mallory's "Le Morte D'Arthur". When I first added Mr. Di Noto, my tenth grade theology teacher, to my friend list on Facebook, he asked if I had any pictures of me from my school days that I could show him. Yesterday I made sure I dug up one of him & me from my last day at school. I asked him if he'd be willing to let me take a picture of him & he nudged me into getting one of both of us. I asked Mary Anne if she'd be willing to scan it onto her computer so I could show it to him. Looking through the old albums gave me all the inevitable nostalgic flashbacks to my days as a young hep cat. To my chagrin my violent cough persists. Although all the other symptoms of my recent bouts with the flu are gone my throat continues to drive me crazy. Linnae asked me to switch with her this weekend. We lectored at each other's Masses. It's especially aggravating when I start coughing in front of a lot of people. Daylight savings time began this Saturday night. It's my favorite time of the year. The weather though is still too cold & it's even been snowing for the past two days. The temperatures are somewhat warmer than recently though.

BAD WEATHER

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. Instead of 7:00 a.m Mass today at O.L. Sorrows I shall be going to 7:00 p.m. Mass at St. Joseph's. I have put away my brown breviary & gotten started on the red one. My mother's eye operation was yesterday morning at 6:55 a.m. My father took her to the hospital at around 6:00 a.m. She has another appointment today & will have to go back for quite a while from now on. Things have changed quite a bit since my eye operation at Brunswick Hospital in Amityville when I was a fourteen year old kid. Mary Anne & family, & a few other relatives & friends, called to see how she's been feeling. Mary Anne's kids have been doing well lately. Michael is quite happy with his girlfriend Erin & his new job. Sam will be graduating from high school in a few months & is looking forward to college. Bridget is a typical kid in her early teens. There was a very bad blizzard this week that lasted from Sunday night into Monday. It started with a very bad rainstorm all day Sunday. Spring is only twelve days away & I have been desperately awaiting it. I'm still practicing my guitar on a regular basis & reading a lot each day. My flu is virtually gone by now except that I still have the slightest bit of a cough left. Dr. Radzwilka has me taking two iron pills each day because my iron count has always been entirely too low.

IT'S ONE OF LARRY'S FAVORITE DAYS OF THE YEAR

Larry's cold is as good as over by now although he's been going absolutely crazy with a persistent cough that just won't go away. He doesn't have any of his medicine left but he can still go to the drug store for a refill. The weather has been getting nicer lately now that February is gone. All the raging blizzards & thunderstorms appear to be behind us. Uncle Frankie comes over lately every once in a while. Larry has a seemingly compulsive habit of always locking the door when he comes inside & Uncle Frankie isn't the least bit fond of this so he always whines about it. He has a key anyway though so Larry doesn't care. Cousins Mark's & Gary's birthdays were at the end of last month. Larry wished each of them a happy day. Beatle George would have been sixty eight years old at the end of last month. Larry enjoyed listening to all his good music. One of the big upcoming events in Larry's world is the reunion, this June, at St. Gabriel's. He'd very much like to be able to go. It turns out that Mary Anne's friend Steve, from Lindenhurst, is now married to an alumna of their old school. Larry really enjoys keeping in touch with people from those days. There's a Carmelite day of recollection coming up, in Middletown, N.Y., next month. Larry really wants to go. Last Friday at O.L. Sorrows, St. Monica's held a Night at the Races. Larry really wanted to go. He even made sure he got a ticket. Oddly, though, he plum forgot exactly which night it was supposed to be held. He assumed it was supposed to be on Saturday or Sunday & missed it. Larry's tenth grade theology teacher just sent him a Facebook message explaining that he's on the far left wing. Of the two teacher's of his on his friend list they're both extreme liberals. The reason Larry has written today's entire blog in the third person is because today is National Talk in the Third Person Day. On days like this Larry is reminded of Elaine's boyfriend Jimmy on a certain episode of "Seinfeld".

WEATHER CHANGE

The bitter cold weather, at least for now, is over. I find it rather hard to believe that I went out without a coat today. The snow's melting. St. Gabriel's in East Elmhurst is planning a big reunion in June. Jo Anne said she may go. Tim, From California, will even go too. I just found out that Mary Anne's old friend, Steve from Copiague, is married to a woman who went to school there. I'm still reading quite voraciously lately. I try always to finish one book & then virtually immediately pick up another one. I've also been trying very conscientiously to practice my guitar each day. Uncle Frankie is supposed to visit Fran for a couple of days this weekend. I shall have to pick up his mail again. Fr. McKernan won't be available for a few days at St. Monica's so I shall have to go to St. John's in Pittston for a few weekdays. Recently I added a second teacher of mine to my Facebook friend list. Jerry Di Noto was my theology teacher in the tenth grade. I tracked him down a few days ago. Tomorrow I shall have to go to another lay Carmelite meeting in Wilkes_Barre. It's at 9:00 a.m. at the Little Flower on South Meade Street. We meet on the third Saturday morning of each month. There will be another day of recollection in Middletown, N.Y. this spring. I'm hoping to be able to show up. Mary Anne's family has been doing quite well. Michael just got a really nice new job & we're all happy for him.

BUSY & COLD

Tomorrow is the big Super Bowl. Until recently it had always been at the end of January on the weekend closest to my mother's birthday. The weather lately is still an absolute nightmare. I got my car stuck in the ice in front of the house one day after a particularly bad storm. I spoke to Bob, at O.L. Sorrows, on Thursday night. He said he couldn't go to Washington, D.C. because some woman's pipes had burst because of the weather. He was forced to help her. Phil, the groundhog, saw his shadow on Groundhog Day though so supposedly we shall be seeing an end to it all very soon. Uncle Frankie, after a brief spell with some kind of sickness, is back on his feet again. Fran was supposed to stay at his house this weekend for the big game but she was forced to go home yesterday because of the weather. Aunt Lauren finally & at last showed up yesterday to get Benjamin's Christmas present. If she would have left it for another week & a half it could have been his birthday present. Today she's coming over with some pizza from her church. Donna, the ex~nun, called last night. She wants me to lector for her later today at 4:00 Mass & she can take my turn tomorrow at 11:00 Mass. My flu is gone but it lasted throughout all of January with all sorts of aches & pains to the very end. I still have a slight cough.

ROE V. WADE

Unfortunately I ended up having to miss out on Monday's trip to Washington, D.C. for the annual pro~life march, although I'd already paid for a ticket. I went to bed insanely early on Sunday night, as always, in order to make sure I could count on getting up in time. When I got up, though, the temperatures in this part of Pa. were significantly below zero degrees. That gave me the distinct impression that I may have been taking on entirely too much of a risk because I knew that I should have to spend all day long outside in the bitter cold. Although Dr. Radzwilka said I should be allowed to go, I wasn't anticipating that much of a cold spell. A couple of days before the trip Bob called & said he'd be going. He wanted me to call him on Monday morning to wake him up so I called him at 5:00 a.m. His wife answered & said he couldn't go. Maybe his reasoning was the same as mine. Uncle Frankie's been very ill lately with something like the flu. Aunt Lauren came over yesterday. Today is Noreen's birthday. The Super Bowl is only two weekends away. Life around here is much easier at this time of year than it was in New York when we all used to have to go to Levittown's American Legion post with my father to see the game over there. I could never handle all the food, crowds & cigarettes. Since I've never enjoyed sports anyway it was quite a major chore for me.

BUSY TIME

The night before New Year's Eve I got a very violent attack of the flu. I was at O.L. Sorrows lectoring at 7:00 p.m. Mass when my voice started getting hoarse & I started getting very weak. I spent the next few days in bed with a violent headache & cough, besides all sorts of other aches & pains. Eventually I made an appointment to see Dr. Radzwilka in West Pittston. He prescribed a couple of kinds of medication before I made the appointment. The syrup gave me violent headaches so I gave up on it. When I went to the appointment I got him to do some blood work too. So far I have gotten no results. When I started feeling better I made sure I called Chris Calore, in Wilkes_Barre to see about getting onto a bus for the trip to Washington, D.C. next Monday for the annual pro_life March. He was forced to put me on a waiting list but he eventually called & said I get to go. I went last year & all worked out quite well for me even though it was too strenuous. Nothing gets me so crazy as haveing to be restricted like that all day long. I have to get my car inspected in January each year. This Saturday I noticed at the last minute that I desperately needed an oil change. I went to De Leo's gas station on Wyoming Avenue in Wyoming because it's the closest to me. He also does inspections so I made an appointment, for yesterday, to get my inspection. It was a long boring day for me but ultimately I got my usual expensive repairs done & I'm now set until next March. He says I now get a two~month grace period. This past Saturday was our monthly lay Carmelite meeting on S. Meade Street in Wilkes_Barre. Barbara & Rosemary were the only regulars who couldn't show up. Sr. Mary Robert spent the morning with us though & she was very helpful. The weather lately has been very violently cold with entirely too much snow & ice. There have been so many birthdays this month. We wish a very happy birthday to my mother, several cousins & , among the non~relatives, Tim, Lisa & Laura.