IN CASE OF TROUBLE WITH THIS BLOG

my new blog address~:        Recently I got a notice from Google saying that they are making some new changes & that each blogger is supposed to log into his account to take care of certain details in order to facilitate the new circumstances.  I haven't been able to log into that part of my account so just in case of trouble I have started a new account where I can post entries until further notice.   Please keep in touch.

R.I.P. FR. MCGROARTY

On this day in 1616, literary giants William Shakespeare & Miguel de Cervantes both died.  It was not on exactly the same day though, but it is recorded as such because of the difference in England's & Spain's calendars during their era.   The weather lately has been very bad.  There has been an icy cold rainstorm around here ever since early last evening.   Last week I got my very first ever ticket for a moving violation.  It was on Tenth Street in Wyoming.   The library & Methodist church next door will be having another book sale.  They have some very good prices on some very good books.   Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday to have supper with us.   The Carmelite meeting went well this past Saturday morning in Wilkes~Barre.  We have them every third Saturday of the month at 9:00 a.m. at the Little Flower Manor.  While I was there my parents went out for some Chinese food with Fran & Uncle Frankie.  Unfortunately Fr. McGroarty from St. John the Evangelist Church in Pittston died last week at about ninety~four years of age.  I went to his wake on Thursday afternoon.  There was also a Mass of Transferral on Thursday at 7:00 p.m. & a funeral Mass on Friday at 11:00 a.m.  I used to see him at St. John's quite frequently for Mass & confession.

DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY

Yesterday was Divine Mercy Sunday.  It was my turn to lector at 4:00 Mass on Saturday at O. L. Sorrows.  All went well.  The men's meeting in O. L. Sorrows' rectory on Saturday morning  went well too.   On Saturday, from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. there was a really nice big book sale at the Methodist church right next door to the Wyoming Free Library on Wyoming Avenue.   The church & library worked together on it.   For only five dollars, I got quite a few very good books & plays.   I used to like the ones I attended at O.L.P.H. too.   I'm so happy to see that the spring weather is really getting started although it's often too  cold in the morning.   The campaign season continues.  Unfortunately Rick Santorum has dropped out of the race.   We can't afford another four years of Obama because our First Amendment rights are literally at stake.   Gas prices are obscenely high too.  By now even a gallon of regular gas, at any station, is already up to more than $4.00.   Lately I've been driving my father, quite frequently, to his doctor's appointments at the Veteran's Hospital in Wilkes~Barre.   It's  not usually too bad a trip but the traffic congestion in the parking lot is often annoying.   The centennial anniversary of the Titanic was yesterday so it's a major topic of conversation these days. 

OIL CHANGE

Easter went well.  Mary Anne, Steve, Michael & Bridget were here.  Gary & Maria called.  So did Fran & Uncle Frankie  Aunt Lauren came over to say hello.  We ate a nice big supper on Holy Saturday & then again on Easter Sunday.  I went to 8:30 a.m. Mass on Easter.   As always we ate entirely too much.  I shocked Michael a bit.  I told him my vocabulary was exceptionally good so he tried to get me to prove it.  He looked up a word, for me:

floc·ci·nau·ci·ni·hil·i·pil·i·fi·ca·tion. 

   Little did he know that I've heard of it.  Uncle Frankie's home from his having spent Easter with Fran.  Of  course he made sure he showed up with lots of  candy to show for it.   We are now halfway through the Octave of Easter.  I've always been told I have a distinctive voice but yesterday was a true surprise.  Having gotten a little paranoid about the oil in my car, I made sure I called Frank, at the Auto Lodge in Plains, to make an appointment for an oil change.  As soon as I told him what I wanted he said: "Who's this, Larry?"  So far I've only spoken to him very few times so it struck me as quite a shock.   His voice is very distinctive too, a bit on the gritty side.   His intense Pa. accent really stands out too because I'm a New Yorker.  Alas he still can't find an odometer for me.   Fortunately all I needed was an oil change.  Today , besides its being the Feast of  Passionist St. Gemma Galgani, is also the forty~second anniversary of the infamous break~up of the Beatles.   As  we all know they've always been my very favorites.

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PASCHAL TRIDUUM

Uncle Frankie can't show up for Easter because he's visiting Fran.  I shall have to get his mail for the next few days.  This evening's Mass at O. L. Sorrows begins this year's Paschal Triduum.  Fr. McKernan has asked me to get my feet washed.  It's the first time I've ever done that.  His sister is visiting him from Long Island for Easter.   Mary Anne, Steve & the kids will be coming in soon.  Of course all the liberal troublemakers are coming out of everyplace insisting we refer to it as just another holiday, as if any other holiday counts.   There's not such a lot of shopping to do for Easter.   I've always really enjoyed the beauty of all the decorations, nice clothes & flowers.  The only disadvantage is that it's entirely too fattening.  Because of my not having gotten a haircut in quite a while I got one this morning, after morning prayer at O. L. Sorrows, at Rose Chairge's in West Pittston.  Yet again it was a little hard for me to find her place because her husband has changed locations.   He got rid of the Batman logo & that was my only way of finding it.  After a few extra minutes of going crazy I got there.   She knows Michelle & Gino so I found out from her what they've been up to lately.  Spring is here but the weather is often still too cold.   Dave is always going through the neighborhood looking for things to do.  He cuts people's  grass,  trims bushes, etc. in the warm weather.  There's still no word from  Frank about my odometer.   Gas prices are still going up & it's gotten plum out of control.

ACTIVISM

I was supposed to go to Middletown, N.Y. this past Sunday for a lay Carmelite day of recollection.  It didn't work out well though.  Originally I planned to meet Rita at the Perkins in Pittston Township, on Rte. 315.  I got a telephone message from Barbara, though, on Saturday afternoon.  When I called her back to see what she wanted she explained that Rita has been having trouble with her health & would not be available for a while.  I don't know how to get to the exact place in Scranton where we always meet for things like this so I was forced to back out of the trip.  It's fairly easy to get there but I don't have the directions memorized.  Lent is soon to end.  Last night at O.L. Sorrows there was a penance service with individual confessions available.  I made sure I went to  confession.   The men's meetings at O.L. Sorrows' rectory, twice a month, have been working out really well.  Tomorrow night there will be another meeting at St. Anthony's in Exeter.   Spring has been going well so far but yesterday & today have both been too cold.  I like, though, that there has been no ice on my car windows in the morning.  Yesterday was a national day of epilepsy research.  Everyone was supposed to wear purple.  To my chagrin the only purple article of clothing I have is a short sleeved t~shirt.  I was quite cold.  Lately I've been reading a lot of poetry, as well as Thomas Mallory's "Morte D'Arthur", Harold Bloom's "The Western Canon" & Samuel Beckett's trilogy, "Malloy", "Malone Dies" & "The Unnameable".  Because this is a presidential election year people really have to take the HSS Mandate quite seriously & to do all we possibly can to rid the world of Obamacare.  Our First Amendment right to freedom of conscience is literally at stake.  All my activist friends & connections are working to make things happen.  Unfortunately entirely too many of them are liberals so they are working to the detriment of the common good.

ST. PATRICK & ST. JOSEPH

The lay Carmelite meeting, this past Saturday morning, went really well.   We meet every third Saturday at 9:00 a.m. at the Little Flower Manor in Wilkes~Barre.  Rosemary Lancellotti & Fr. Garth were there from Middletown, N.Y.   Our attendance was really good.  Sr. Mary Robert showed up early to help set things up for us.   We're supposed to get together to go to Middletown for a day of recollection this coming Sunday.  It will be the Feast of the Annunciation.    Last weekend's meeting was on St. Patrick's Day.   That's the big day each year when we Irishmen get to celebrate our cultural heritage.   The English, since even before the Protestant Reformation, have always been abusing the Irish so we truly deserve a good party every once in a while.   Uncle Frankie, Fran & Lisa visited my parents.  I hung around with them for a while before I went to O. L. Sorrows for their party.  While I was there I ended up sitting at a table with a woman who was the mother of one of the girls Fran grew up with.  She  said I must be related to Fran on her Irish side because I couldn't possibly pass for Italian in a million years.  I'm both.   Each year I always make sure I tell people about the time my father took Mary Anne, Earl & me to the parade in Manhattan where we met Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.   Unfortunately it was his last parade.  He was assassinated in June of that year.   Today is the first day of a long~anticipated spring.  Our weather this past winter was unusually mild but I'm glad it's over.  The weather lately has been nice but lately there's been a bit of rain.  I always get headaches when the weather changes.  The meetings on Thursday nights have stopped.  Now we go to St. Anthony of Padua Church, at St. Barbara's Parish, in Exeter, for a meeting each Wednesday night.    Oblate Fr. Phill Massetti is in charge.   Yesterday was the Feast of St. Joseph.  All went well.  I've been reading quite a lot of classic poetry lately.  Thngs get a bit weird when I get to the collected works of people like Walt Whitman & Allen Ginsberg.

R.I.P. DAVY JONES

Recently we were all saddened to hear of the death, at only 66 years of age, of  Davy Jones, the sole Englishman among the members of the 1960's pop quartet, the Monkees.  The 1960's coincided with the first decade of my lifetime.  Everyone who knows anything about me knows about my lifelong obsessive love affair with the music of that era.  To this day I still enjoy their TV show in reruns.  They were originally intended as a variation on the Beatles but they seemed, right away, to have taken on a life & perosonality of their own.  Jones, Peter Tork, Mike Nesmith & Mickey Dolenz were a jovial quartet, at least from the looks of their public persona.   It was nice to see all the outpouring of interest in Jones & sorrow for his death.  Women in my age range have reminisced about how he was their first crush in grammar school.   I was especially happy to hear about his connection to both New York & Pa.   I can still remember the Monkee Halloween costumes my  Jackson Heights friends & I used to wear during the band's heyday.  Over the cours of the several decades since then, the band's members had often gotten back together for reunions, most notably in 1986, & they very recently went on a concert tour to celebrate their forty~fifth anniversary.   Etta James, another famous 1960's singer, & Whitney Houston, also died recently, but as far as I'm concerned there is something especially sad about Jones' death.  He was a part of the world in which I grew up. 

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2012 SO FAR

Last month's Carmelite meeting went well. Sister Mary Robert gave each of us a Christmas present. We went through all the usual necessary business & agreed to start reading a new book. This month's meeting, though, scheduled for last Saturday morning, was cancelled because of the snow. Mary Elizabeth called me & explained that because a few of the ladies live in Lackawanna County they might have had a rough time getting through all the snow we were expecting. It snowed that day but the weather didn't stay bad. Within a few days it was melted. I really wanted to go to Washington, D.C. this past Tuesday for the annual March for Life. Unfortunately, though, I ended up not going. It rained that day so the trip would have gotten me crazy anyway. My parents have both been sick lately. My mother's birthday is this coming Saturday & we all hope she will be feeling well enough to be able to enjoy it. There are lots of relatives' birthdays this month. Today we wish a very happy birthday to cousin Larry's wife Rose. Over the past few months, a few people in my class in high school have died. My classmates & I are all so sorry about them & shall pray for their souls. Last week my car's battery died so I went to Frank Gubbiotti's garage in Plains to get it fixed. Frank & His partner were both ill with the flu so their secretary got Sam to put a new battery in for me. Sam said that I should need a new starter to go with the rest of my troubles. My inspection is coming up soon, no later than March, so I shall get it done within only a very short time. Last year at this time I was violently sick for a long time but so far this year the I've gotten has been a few days worth of a very bad headache a while ago. Besides that I get slight headaches every time the weather changes. Lately I've been watching old TV shows like "Alfred Hitchcock Presents", "Bachelor Father", "The Time Tunnel" & "The Mothers~In~Law".

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas very fast approaches. It's time yet again for all the reminiscing & partying to begin in only a few days. Mary Anne & her family will be coming in on Friday. Fran will be here then too. Uncle Frankie went away to visit her for a while recently. Conveniently my father has been out of the hospital for a while & he's even allowed to drive now too. I sometimes have to take him to the hospital for check~ups. Over the course of the past week, ever since Friday, I've gotten three nightmarishly blinding headaches. As far as I know they may have been becaus of sinus trouble. The first one was on the day of St. Monica's Christmas party. I went to the party but I was miserable. The party was supposed to be in Fr. Leonard's honor but he wasn't available. Winter officially began yesterday. We have no snow but there's been a lot of rain. Ruthie complained about how odd that is. I went back to Frank's garage a while ago to find out about whether he can help me with my odometer in time for the inspection I have to get by next month. He took down all the information he needs. I got my annual Christmas card from Carole but so far I haven't gotten one from Grace, Daren's mother, yet. They're the only cards I get each year. I made sure I sent one to each of them. I also sent one to Lisa from my class in high school. She's been very ill. Unfortunately Burt Koza just sent out a Facebook notice recently telling us all that O.L.P.H. in Lindenhurst, after ninety~nine years, will also be closing down the school at the end of the school year.

THANKSGIVING AND ADVENT

Thanksgiving worked out reasonably well. Mary Anne & family couldn't come in but the relatives from West Wyoming were here. Fran got here for a little while. The food, as always, was entirely too fattening. The only disadvantage was that at the end of the night I went to bed with a very bad headache. I took an Excedrin migraine pill, though, & it soon went away. A lot of relatives called to say hello. Gary called. He & I spent quite a long time on the phone. The Ronald & Linda even showed up from Washington State to visit Hilldale. They showed up for a couple of hours a few nights ago. Recently I went to a Lay Carmelite meeting in Wilkes_Barre & a men's group meeting at St. Monica's. Those meetings really keep me busy. Recently I saw Alfred Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man" & the famous Humphrey Bogart movie, "The Maltese Falcon". Now that my father's home from the hospital he has to go to the V.A. hospital in Wilkes_Barre frequently. He can't drive for now so I have to drive him there. I also have to do the grocery shopping. That's a major advantage because I always use my Price Chopper card to make sure I get credit for gas for my car. This past Sunday the Church started using the new translation for the Mass. It's a little hard to handle at first because of such an old habit but it should be very easy after a while. It's the same translation as the one they used when I was a kid. I went to a meeting a while ago at St. Monica's where a visiting monsignor explained all about it for us. Advent has begun. Christmas will soon be upon us. Unfortunately today marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Beatle George.

BAD TIME FOR QUEENS KIDS

Lately it's been such a sad time for us kids from 92 Street & St. Gabriel's. Earl's mother died in October, two weeks before his birthday. He & his brother, Jr., were really good kids. Tommy, Jo Anne & Ruthie were also friends of mine from those days. Their mother died last week too. When Earl's mother died I made sure I talked to him on the phone. It was the very first time we'd spoken since we were twelve years old. We haven't seen each other in person since then. I also spoke to Jo Anne on the phone when her mother died. My father was recently rushed to the hospital a while ago too. First he went to the Veteran's Hospital. Then he went to the General Hospital. They're both in Wilkes_Barre. He gets lots of visitors & phone calls. He's been recovering slowly but it's a seriously strenuous time for all. Mary Anne, Steve & Bridget came in for a couple of days last weekend to see how everything's been working out so far. We've spent a lot of time going back & forth to the hospital but my mother & Uncle Frankie are getting a bit too old for this kind of aggravation.

NOVENA

During the first week of last month I went to Rose Chairge's in West Pittston to get a haircut. I was a little afraid to ask her because of the floods up there. Fortunately she didn't have any trouble. The lay Carmelite meeting, a few weeks ago, went quite well. The attendance was exceptionally good. A few people talked about the retreat in Middletown, N.Y. in September. Recently I went to the annual St. Jude novena at O.L. Eucharist Church on Main Street in Pittston Junction. I really like to go there every year. I only missed the first night. One night I went nuts because they put up orange cones to block the parking lot so outsiders couldn't steal spaces. The problem was they kept me out to. Sister Mary Ann explained the circumstances. This month I also needed an oil change. I made an appointment to have Frank Gubbiotti, from Plains, do it. He's on River Road. His place needs lots of repairs because River Road was hit so hard by the flood. I made sure I asked him to help with my odometer too. If I don't get another one by January I shall not pass my inspection. Recently my oldest friend, Earl from Puerto Rico, gave us all such very sad news. His mother recently died. She was always such a very good person when I knew them in Queens. When I went to a recent Guardian of the Redeemer meeting at the Oblate Seminary on 315, last Saturday, there was a bad blizzard that started early in the day. & drove us crazy all day. That's not a good place to have to deal with a snowstorm because the road back & forth to there is so steep.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

September 16 was my birthday & the 25 was my father's. All went well. As always Uncle Frankie & kin came over from West Wyoming. They stayed for a few hours & we all had a really nice time. The only trouble was that Mary Anne & her family couldn't come in because they were all too sick. I got a surprise on my birthday from my old friend Jim. He said he was in Baghdad with the Air Force. Fr. McKernan's birthday was the 17 so he & I went to breakfast the morning of mine at the Colonial Pancake House on Wyoming Avenue in Wyoming. It was a really nice time. The week after that Walter & his wife, after 8:30 Mass at St. Joseph's, invited me to go to breakfast with them at the Avenue diner on Wyoming Avenue in West Wyoming. While we were there I noticed a lot of other people were there from St. Monica's too. Unfortunately Fr. McKernan got into a very bad accident on Rte. 309 in Wilkes_Barre last Thursday. His car was totalled & he was slightly hurt when an old woman ran a stop sign & hit him. Unfortunately because of the recent flood there have been all sorts of troubles around here. I went to the St. Therese novena for five of the nine days over this past week. Her feast day was this past Saturday. It was insanely hard to get home though because the northbound lane of River Road is closed down. It was severly damaged in the flood. One day I made the very definite mistake of trying to go home by way of the detour. It didn't work out well. I was afraid that Rose wouldn't be available to cut my hair because West Pittston was especially badly hit. I asked Michelle about her though & she told me to go to her Facebook site. When I sent her a message there she said that nothing bad had happened to her. I can make an appointment to go to her barber shop now. Today is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. We wish a happy day to all Franciscans.

BIRTHDAY EARTHQUAKE

Two weeks ago I went to the annual Bazaar at St. John the Evangelist Church in Pittston.   It was a really nice time even though it was violently hot & crowded.  The traffic was so bad that even though I got there fifteen minutes after it started I was still forced to park around a quarter of a mile away.  I gave them my usual five dollars to buy some contest tickets.   I won a twenty five dollar gift certificate to a nice Italian restaurant in Forty Fort.   Last week was Pittston's annual Tomato Festival.  I went there for a little while one day too.  The guy whow was in charge of the San Cataldo Society's basket of cheer reminded me that he recognized me from last year.  We see each other over there every year.   A couple of days later my mother, Fran & I went there to check it out.  I got a falafel at the middle eastern food stand.  Fran got something too.  We took something home for my father.  We also got t~shirts as souvenirs.   Unfortunately for two nights in a row I got extremely violent headaches a while ago.   I'm still supposed to water those really nice flowers whenever it doesn't rain.  Lately, though, it seems to rain so frequently that I hardly ever bother even to think twice about them.   Yesterday was my nephew (& godson) Michael's twenty~third birthday.   Amazingly it was also, for most people I know, our very first ever experience with an earthquake.  Although it occurred somewhere over in Virginia, because it registered at 5.8 on the Richter scale it affected the entire eastern seaboard.   I happened to have been looking at my Facebook account at the time so I was able to get  reactions & comments from friends, relatives & former classmates & teachers of mine in many different parts of the country.   When it first happened the woman sitting right next to me made a comment about how maybe it was from the truck that was passing by.  We then realized, though, that that couldn't have been it because the building shook violently & it lasted for about ten seconds.   There are very many birthdays in August so happy day to all who qualify. 

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OIL CHANGE

Lately I've been watering the flowers in the front yard every day that it doesn't rain.   That most certainly didn't include yesterday.   There were two absolutely torrential downpours, each one fairly brief, with lots of thunder & lightning.  This year has been quite a record breaker for extreme temperatures.  I have absolutely no idea whatsoever of what the names of most of the flowers are, except the buttercups.  They're the big yellow ones.   The flowers appear to go through phases somehow.  There are times when they're all out either in full bloom or on their way, with exceptionally nice buds.   Then they go through periods of total absolute death.  They all get stark & horrible looking.   Each stage seems to last for only a fairly short time.  Recently I went to Di Leo's Garage on Wyoming Avenue & Ninth Street in town to get an oil change.  It's only right down the street.  It went fairly well except for the price.  It got a little steep because I needed a new oil filter & a rim for my tire.  The guy who's in charge is named Joe.   Another guy gave me a ride each way so I could stay home while it was getting fixed.    Fortunately it only took a few hours.   Sometimes those things can last for an unbearably long time.  Daren's birthday was July 21.  I made sure I sent her mother, Grace, a card.  She sent me one too.  She included some very nice pictures of Daren & her(Daren's)two sisters.  Daren died in 2005.   Fr. McKernan has been doing a really good job so far of keeping our men's group running.  We meet on the second & fourth Saturday mornings of each month in O.L. Sorrows rectory.  The last Carmelite meeting, a couple of weeks ago, went really well too.   Attendance wasn't so good but we got a lot done there.  Our meetings are every third Saturday of the month at 9:00 a.m. at the Little Flower Manor on South Meade Street in Wilkes_Barre.  We always welcome new members.

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