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.

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.

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".

FAMILY FEASTS

Saturday morning's lay Carmelite meeting went well. We meet at the Little Flower Manor on South Meade Street every third Saturday of the month, from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. Anne & Mary Elizabeth were there for a while but they had to leave early. Barbara couldn't show up because she got very sick from all the bitter cold air conditioning at the meeting in Middletown. They really overdid it that day. Last Sunday I won twenty dollars on the money wheel at O.L. Mt. Carmel's family feast. This Saturday I won a basket of shampoo, soap & bath products. I lectored at 10:30 Mass yesterday. Amazingly my cousin Maelene's son, Joey, turned thirty on July 16. They live in North Tonawanda. I can still remember when he was first born. At times like this I feel like such an old geezer. Uncle Frankie & Fran came over for a while yesterday. She had to leave early but he stayed for supper. It rains every once in a while lately, including this morning but it's not enough. I've never been able to help getting a kick out of the really nice green border around the otherwise parched grass on people's lawns these days.

BLOOD DRIVE

Yesterday Barbara called to see if I really intended to attend Saturday's Carmelite day of recollection in Middletown, N.Y. Later last evening Rosemary called to confirm our driving plans. Rosemary & I shall have to meet at the Little Flower Manor in Wilkes_Barre at around 6:00 a.m. From there we shall join Barbara in Scranton. We just went to Middletown very recently. Judy & Yvonne will be at the meeting & they also have to come visit us next month. They show up once a year. On Tuesday I started re_reading Jane Austen's "Sense & Sensibility". Since I've already read it quite a few times, & seen the movie with Emma Thompson & Kate Winslet a few times, it gets a lot easier to figure out each successive time. The heat wave continues although today, so far, seems a bit cooler than yesterday. My car still doesn't have air conditioning although I tried a while ago to get it fixed. Some things are simply entirely hopeless. Yesterday I gave blood in Plains. My appointment for a double red cell donation was for 4:00. I got there around 3:00. Unlike the last time I went to the Waterfront Banquet Facility for a blood drive, it was exceptionally crowded. Yesterday hardly anyone showed up so I got finished slightly before 4:00. My New York K of C council gave each donor a full meal. Here we just get water, juice & muffins or cookies or something. They also gave out a free coupon, as usual, for three pints of Friendly's ice cream. One of the volunteers said she recognized me because she lives on Tenth Street & goes to St. Cecelia's. Fr. Leo McKernan is now the pastor at St. Joseph's & O.L. Sorrows. He showed up for 8:00 Mass at St. Joseph's this morning. He's our fourth in the past two years.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

This past Saturday morning I went to the monthly Carmelite meeting in Wilkes_Barre. Seven people showed up. After the meeting Sr. Mary Robert opened up the gift shop for us. I promised Barbara that I shall be going back to Middletown, N.Y. again on July 10 for another day of recollection. Now I know exactly how to get there really easily. Father's Day went really well this past Sunday. My parents & I went out with Uncle Frankie & Fran. We went to a Chinese restaurant in one of the malls in Wilkes_Barre. It's one of those all-you-can-eat places & we all really overdid it. I've never really liked Chinese food but nobody ever bothers to listen to me. After we left Uncle Frankie, Fran & my mother went to Wegmann's for a while. My father & I went straight home. Mary Anne & the kids all called up to say happy Father's Day. I got a very violent headache at night after I went to bed. I lectored at 5:00 Mass on Saturday. Starting on July 7, Fr. Leo McKernan will be our new pastor. As of November we shall even have a new name for the parish. From then on it will be named St. Monica's. Yesterday was cousin Larry's birthday so I made sure I sent him a happy birthday e mail. The July 4 weekend is coming up very soon so many of my relatives will be getting ready for a big time. It's the fiftieth anniversary this year.

MIDDLETOWN CARMELITES

We have to wish Aunt Lauren a happy birthday. Yesterday was her big day. The lay Carmelites' Marian day of recollection went really well on Saturday. My father drove me over to Anne's house before 7:00 a.m. She, her daughter Mary Elizabeth & I left for Middletown after a few minutes. we were there by around 8:30 in spite of Uncle Frankie's having absolutely insisted it was at least a two_hour drive. We went on Rtes. 81 & 84. Rte 380 was up there too. Port Jervis is on the way. The weather was really nice. That was only my second time I've ever been to the shrine. I went there once in 1995, around the time Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. I went when Fr. Mike Kissane was vocation director, to see if I should become one of their friars. That's when I first met Fr. Mario Esposito & Fr. Brocard Connors. Fr. Brocard died a few years ago. Fr. Mario was in charge of the day of recollection. Yvonne De Thomas & Judy Knidds showed up from Pa. Theresa, & Jim & Rosemary Lancelotti were there from Middletown. Dianne Massiello was the only one I recognized from the Long Island people. The food was really good & it was very crowded. It's an especially nice place with lots of nice scenery.

OIL CHANGE

Today is my cousin Vinnie's birthday. He's around five years younger than I. Raised in & around Buffalo, he's now a policeman in North Carolina. For some reason I always seem to back away from oil changes for my car. Yesterday, though, I made sure I made an appointment at A&A because of my upcoming trip to Middletown, N.Y. on Saturday. I'll probably not even end up driving anyway but I didn't want to take any chances. I couldn't stand the phone call because they kept me on hold for over six & a half minutes. I got there slightly before 8:00 a.m. today. All worked out quite well. I took a biography of Emily Dickinson with me to keep me occupied. It all lasted only for slightly under an hour anyway. Immediately after it was all over I went to the Unimart in Exeter to get the papers. Then I went right over to see Uncle Frankie. It rained violently all last night & the weather's been miserable all day so far too.

MIDDLETOWN TRIP

My big trip to Middletown, N.Y. is coming up. It's for the Carmelites' annual Marian day of recollection. I called Barbara & Ann yesterday to make sure I got all the arrangements right. To my undying chagrin Barbara is entirely too fond of the phone. She talks for an entirely unnecessarily long time. I'm supposed to meet Ann at her house in Pittston at around 6:45 a.m. on Saturday. We have to arrive at Middletown by 8:30. I went there once in 1995, when Fr. Mike Kissane was their vocation director, to see if I should become a friar. I still take the paper over to Uncle Frankie's house each day during the week. Fran is frequently home on weekends so I don't often have to be bothered then. My parents' anniversary party on Saturday went well until the end of the night when my mother got a bit ill. She was feeling very poorly on Sunday too. Mary Anne went back home, on the Martz bus, on Sunday morning. Fran took her to the bus station. Sam's induction into the National Honor Society was last week. Even though spring has been here for quite a long time already, we still have very cold days. It's very easy to get sick & tired of the bad weather.

BEATLE ANNIVERSARY

To my chagrin, I was forced to miss this past weekend's big reunion over at St. Gabriel's. It was for Sr. Bernadette's & Sr. Catherine's milestone anniversaries & St. Gabriel's seventieth anniversary. Jo Anne & her mother went. Jo Anne said that of all the people from our class only Mike & Margreen were there. I can't even remember Margreen. Of all the kids in our old crowd I can only remember a few dozen well. Today would have been Aunt Mary Theresa's birthday. Tomorrow Uncle Frankie, Fran, my mother & I shall be going to 8:00 a.m. Mass for her at St. John the Evangelist Church in Pittston. After Mass my father will be joining us for breakfast. Every morning for the past to weeks I have getting the Citizen's Voice for Uncle Frankie & taking it over to his house right after 8:00 Mass. This past Sunday I called Kelly Stuart to find out about the details for the Marian day of recollection for the Carmelites in Middletown, N.Y. in May. It will be on the third Saturday of the month so it will have to replace our usual meeting. Last weekend's meeting worked out well. The new people stayed after the meeting for their formation classes. This month marks the fortieth anniversary of the Beatles. Pope Benedict XVI recently released a statement commending their brilliant talent & forgiving them for all their checkered past. Of course Beatle Ringo's not all that impressed.