DIVINIE MERCY SUNDAY

In my last post I mistakenly said my appointment for the blood drive was on Friday. It was on Thursday. Conveniently it was very easy for me to get there because it was at O.L. Mt. Carmel church on William Street in Pittston. Although it wasn't until 4:00 p.m. I, of course, being so compulsively punctual, got there at around 3:00. A few of the phlebotomists who showed up that day were regulars so at least two of them, Marlene & Tina, recognized me quite well by now. The women I spoke to at first, when I told them I was so early, let me get an early start. Marlene, though, came over & reminded me that I was going to have to wait until a double red cell opening was available because that's what I had promised to do. After it was all over I got some apple juice & cookies & a coupon for a contest. My old Knights of Columbus council, 794 in Lindenhurst, N.Y., used to give us a really nice full meal. There's a bitter rainstorm right now ever since last night. It's very common lately for some obscene reason. We always get such bad weather, with intermittent spurts of niceness. Easter & Divine Mercy Sunday are now both over. The English prince's wedding supplied us with a lot of nice hoo~ha, as did the beatification of Pope John Paul II. On the more morbid side we were all relieved to find out about the death of Osama bin Laden a few days ago.

BITTER COLD

Today's the coldest day of the year so far. At least it's not snowing. Yesterday I went to 2:00 p.m. Mass at St. Rocco's in Pittston. It was my very first time there ever. The Divine Mercy people were there. I messed up on a left turn I should have taken. I know exactly how to get there but one mistake & the trip turned into an absolute nightmare. The area is full of one_way streets so it's not easy to backtrack. There was a big blizzard & winds around thirty m.p.h. on top of that. On top of everything else, this morning I needed more anti_freeze in my car. Nobody from our crowd ended up ended up being able to show up at Benjamin's party either because everybody's entirely too sick. I'm still reading "Emma". Uncle Frankie & Fran came over for a few hours on Saturday night. My cousins' latest adventure is about e mail addresses. There are some new ones on the list. As always with that bunch, confusion reigns supreme. Lately everybody's all abuzz about November's big election. It should be quite an interesting time. The Democrats have gone all controversial on us. This weekend in church, everybody was asked to sign a petition, that will be mailed to our Congressmen, asking that they vote to pass the Pa. Marriage Protection Amendment to protect us from homosexual encroachment upon people's legitimate rights. Of course, I most certainly made sure I signed it. Today's the big blood drive over there but I already gave blood entirely too recently. I got my St. John the Baptist newsletter over the weekend. That's my high school in West Islip, N.Y. They're having a blood drive in April. The last time I gave blood in N.Y. it was there. While there, I ran into my favorite history teacher, Brian Clancy.