BUSY & COLD

Tomorrow is the big Super Bowl. Until recently it had always been at the end of January on the weekend closest to my mother's birthday. The weather lately is still an absolute nightmare. I got my car stuck in the ice in front of the house one day after a particularly bad storm. I spoke to Bob, at O.L. Sorrows, on Thursday night. He said he couldn't go to Washington, D.C. because some woman's pipes had burst because of the weather. He was forced to help her. Phil, the groundhog, saw his shadow on Groundhog Day though so supposedly we shall be seeing an end to it all very soon. Uncle Frankie, after a brief spell with some kind of sickness, is back on his feet again. Fran was supposed to stay at his house this weekend for the big game but she was forced to go home yesterday because of the weather. Aunt Lauren finally & at last showed up yesterday to get Benjamin's Christmas present. If she would have left it for another week & a half it could have been his birthday present. Today she's coming over with some pizza from her church. Donna, the ex~nun, called last night. She wants me to lector for her later today at 4:00 Mass & she can take my turn tomorrow at 11:00 Mass. My flu is gone but it lasted throughout all of January with all sorts of aches & pains to the very end. I still have a slight cough.

ROE V. WADE

Unfortunately I ended up having to miss out on Monday's trip to Washington, D.C. for the annual pro~life march, although I'd already paid for a ticket. I went to bed insanely early on Sunday night, as always, in order to make sure I could count on getting up in time. When I got up, though, the temperatures in this part of Pa. were significantly below zero degrees. That gave me the distinct impression that I may have been taking on entirely too much of a risk because I knew that I should have to spend all day long outside in the bitter cold. Although Dr. Radzwilka said I should be allowed to go, I wasn't anticipating that much of a cold spell. A couple of days before the trip Bob called & said he'd be going. He wanted me to call him on Monday morning to wake him up so I called him at 5:00 a.m. His wife answered & said he couldn't go. Maybe his reasoning was the same as mine. Uncle Frankie's been very ill lately with something like the flu. Aunt Lauren came over yesterday. Today is Noreen's birthday. The Super Bowl is only two weekends away. Life around here is much easier at this time of year than it was in New York when we all used to have to go to Levittown's American Legion post with my father to see the game over there. I could never handle all the food, crowds & cigarettes. Since I've never enjoyed sports anyway it was quite a major chore for me.