MANY SPECIAL OCCASIONS

Yesterday I went on one of my typical jaunts to the Barnes & Noble by the Wyoming Valley Mall. While I was walking around KrissyKrissyKrissy came over to me & said hello. She & Ed were in town visiting his parents. They recently went to Jason's wedding. Jennifer's birthday is today so we shall all say happy birthday to her. Sam's birthday went well yesterday. My parents made sure they called to wish him a happy birthday. He wasn't home but later he called back. Mary Anne's & Steve's twenty second wedding anniversary was June 4. Amazingly I can still remember their big day as if it were only yesterday. Finally & at last, Brianne gave birth recently to her little daughter, Nina Genesee. This kid really took her time. Brianne & Matt are quite happy. So far I haven't done much walking in spite of the conveniently warm weather. Yesterday, though, I made sure I walked for a few minutes outside. I truly should try to get back into the habit from now on. I've been doing a lot of reading these days. I've been reading the autobiograpy of Bl. John XXIII & poems by Emily Dickinson, William Butler Yeats & John Milton, among other things.

ELECTION DAY

Yesterday I went to Barnes & Noble again. I needed another can of de_icer for my car so I wanted to make sure I took advantage of the trip to see if there was a car care store in the area. Other than Sears in the mall, there doesn't seem to be one. I ended up going to AA in Exeter, on Wyoming Avenue, to get what I needed. Today is Election Day so I made sure I stopped into the election booth to vote. People were handing out flyers outside the door so it appears electioneering isn't considered unethical around here. From what I know of Luzerne County politicians' reputation, neither is anything else. When I got inside the room, Howard asked if I should be willing, unlike everybody else so far, to pose for a picture for the Citizen's Voice. I said yes. Today's Steve's birthday. He's one of my old friends from Lindenhurst, now living in California.

Trip to the Book Store

Yesterday, KrissyKrissyKrissy decided she wanted another book by some favorite author of hers. Not having had any idea of how to track down a book store around here, she asked me for directions to one. I took her to that really famous store over in Wilkes_Barre. It was a very nice, very short trip. Having always been quite a compulsive bookworm over the course of my lifetime, I know how to get to places like that. I just wish we had more book stores over here. There's only one Catholic book store anybody knows of around here & it's on Rte 11 in Scranton. The traffic congestion & parking absolutely stink beyond belief in Wilkes Barre. Especially because of the snow these days, it's really bad. We couldn't help noticing all the (ahem)local color, shall we say? That area must have more oddballs per square inch than nine out of ten places in this country. At the very least, they're most certainly extremely eccentric looking. Last night it snowed a little & today the streets & sidewalks were, at least for a while, all icy.