LECTOR MEETING WENT WELL

This morning I went to St. Joseph's on 6th Street in Wyoming for the big lector meeting. Officially it was only supposed to last for three hours but it ran around an hour late. Fortunately I wasn't on a deadline. Fr. Walsh showed up & there were a few other people there too. It was really interesting & informative. Yesterday, I completely messed up & took a pair of my father's reading glasses when I first went out in the morning. That drove me bananas trying to drive. I couldn't see well enough to find my way out of a brown paper bag. Another dose of my usual shenanigans was when I went down to the levee(please sing) to take a walk. I walked all the way down there & made sure I followed the little blue numbered markers until I got up to an entire mile, then turned back. When I got home, there was a callous, once again, on my right foot. The thing was as big as five people put together. It hurt & I limped quite a whole lot. That's why I've never been all that fond of exercise. The next time I go down to the levee I intend to drive.

LIBRARY CROWDED

KrissyKrissyKrissy's back today. I got kicked out of here early yesterday so at first I went to West Pittston's library. They were entirely too crowded so I went to Pittston. Everything worked out. It's time to do the Friday dance. The Fourth of July is getting ever so much closer by the second. Most of the Buffalo gang, I think, will be showing up. Michael & Anthony will not be there though. Richie & the young uns will be there, but we shall not see Tammy. That's all I can guarantee. Tomorrow morning, bright & early at 9:00 a.m.,I shall have to be at St. Joseph's for the lector training course. It only takes three hours. I could swear I saw, on channel 12, that they'll be charging $15 for it but so far I have no idea. I see the Vatican recently came up with Ten Commandments for drivers.

SUMMER MY TIME OF YEAR

Welcome to the very first day of summer. So far it's been a doozy. Today's cousin Larry's birthday. Pretty soon will be the Fourth of July. Walk, don't run, to Hilldale. Otherwise, my favorite cousin, Arnold Ziffel, may beat you to the chow line. There should be, from what I've been hearing, quite a really big turnout this year. I'm still reading that Thackeray book. Hey, those fifty pages a day really pile up. The traffic in the library is heavy & my computer is slow. That's about typical. Cathleen was available for a while to say hello but now she has to work. Yesterday was a very nice day for me mail_wise. I got my copy of St. John the Baptist alumni magazine. My class, I suppose, won't be having a reunion this year. I also got my copy of Latin Mass. It's all about Catholic culture. It's quite interesting & educational, a perfect antidote & bulwark against all the never ending left_wing propaganda. Next year will be the fiftieth anniversary of the death of the great Pope Pius XII. I'm very happy to see that they're always pushing to have him beatified. They also covered the Siglo de Oro in Spain. I've always been a very big fan of Victoria, the Carmelite mystics, Cervantes, the first Jesuits, etc. It was good being able to read about them. Yesterday I made sure I finally trudged right on over to Rose's for a haircut. She's right at the shopping center by the 8th Street bridge. She's also very fast & very inexpensive. Now I'm all set for all the big festivities. There were, of course, a couple of old women ahead of me but it was over with reasonably fast anyway.

RAINY LATELY

Last night & very early this morning we most certainly got quite a for really & for truly doozy of a rainstorm. We need lots of rain though so it's good news. This morning I cut the grass after it dried up. I found an old pair of sneakers in my trunk at the Carmelite meeting on Saturday. I made sure I put them on just because of the grass. KrissyKrissyKrissy's off once again to New York today. My big lector meeting is coming up this Saturday morning at St. Joseph's. So far I don't know of anyone else who's agreed to show up. It's supposed to last from 9:00 a.m. until noon. I used to lector absolutely constantly at O.L.P.H. Now I can do the same thing around here. Oddly, I most certainly don't seem to have any kind of anxiety or anything about that kind of public speaking. I should assume that very many people would be all sorts of stark raging terrified of it. It's especially surprising that I can handle it so well because I've always had more than a smidge of a shy streak.

HOT, HOT, HOT

I'm still reading Thackeray's
Vanity Fair. I've been trying to get into the habit of reading at least fifty pages a day because it's a really long book. The temperature's in the nineties outside. I've always really enjoyed exceptionally hot weather. My car, though, without air conditioning, can be a little on the rough side. It works really well except for that one detail. I'd go stark raging nuts if I tried to talk a walk on the levee today. Fran came over last night. KrissyKrissyKrissy's back as of this morning. The Fourth of July beckons. Happy birthday very soon to cousin Larry, in two days, & Jennifer, a few weeks ago.

BEATLE PAUL'S BIRTHDAY

Sir James Paul McCartney was born on this day in 1942. He's the second youngest Beatle & second to join the Fab Four. Later on today I shall be cutting the grass. The library's been extremely busy these days. Father's Day went well. We went to a Sicilian restaurant in West Pittston. I ate the veal. KrissyKrissyKrissy will be back tomorrow. Shall I ever get a haircut or what? We soon shall see. Dave came over this morning. Uncle Frankie is on vacation so we shan't be seeing him for a while.

LAY CARMELITE MEETING

Very early this morning, I got up to go to the lay Carmelite meeting over on S. Mead St. in Wilkes_Barre. Sister Catherine was available this month. Anyone in Northeastern Pa. is asked to visit the Little Flower Manor on the first Saturday morning of each month & check us out. Our meetings start in the chapel at 9:00 a.m. At the meetings, we even have coffee, tea & pastries. It was very nice to see that one of our own, St. George Preca, was recently canonized by Pope Benedict XVI. KrissyKrissyKrissy is still in New York. All has been rather droll over here lately. The real action will be starting in a few weeks. A while ago, I found a pair of good sneakers in my trunk. Having forgotten they were even there, I got stuck wearing only shoes for quite a while. I hope they turn out to be a welcome change of tootsie pace for me. They'll be very nice for the grass cutting I shall have to do later on today. It's boring but it only takes a very short time. Happy Father's Day, tomorrow, to all you guys who qualify.

GO TO HELEN HUNT FOR IT

On this day in 1963, the living legend of Helen Hunt was born. KrissyKrissyKrissy will be staying in New York until Tuesday. The painters are still finishing up the house. One of them even has his kids working. With any luck, it should turn out to be the very last day. Tomorrow is the big Wilkes Barre Carmelite meeting. From now on, until further notice, they're starting at 9:00 a.m. I'm an early bird anyway, so either way I'm cool about it. I started reading William Makepeace Thackeray's Vanity Fair yesterday. Because it's summer, the library has been very busy lately.

LONG WALKS/HAPPY FLAG DAY

Lately I've been learning to walk really well. I've never gotten around to it before but I need the exercise. Last year, during the nice weather, I really set my mind to it. Yesterday, at the levee, I walked a full mile along the path. Including the walk each way, to & from, I really must have put on quite a whole lot of mileage. Unfortunately, I ended up with a very large callous on my right foot. Because yesterday was the Feast of St. Anthony(pronounced Ant'ny) of Padua, I made sure I went to 7p.m. Mass at St. Anthony's Church in Exeter. They gave out the traditional bread. I finished that Jane Austen book too. Although it's usually been very warm these days, today's awfully cool. It's a nice change of pace, but I'm still much more of a hot weather kind of guy. Yesterday there was the slightest smidge of a drizzle. Besides Stacy's wedding & the Fourth of July, we shall be soon getting ready for Tina's graduation too. I suppose all of her hundreds of best friends will be there. Because it's summer, the library has been getting insanely crowded lately.

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY

It's not that I enjoy a drought any better than the next guy, but lately when we get rain, we get all sorts of electrical storms. I most certainly shouldn't like to have to travel in all that mess. KrissyKrissyKrissy has gone to little Eddie's graduation from pre_school this morning. Those things are always just as cute as a bug's ear. I didn't go to pre_school. When I was a kid, school started with kindergarten. Yesterday I read a couple of dozen more pages of that Jane Austen book. The Fourth of July & Stacy's wedding are getting closer & closer with each passing day. They're the two very big upcoming milestones these days. Sometimes summer's just too much fatteninger & fatteninger.