FOURTH OF JULY

This past weekend Sam, the younger of my nephews, had quite an exceptionally nice & busy time.  He went to his Senior prom & his graduation from Long Beach High School, on Long Island.  He's eighteen years old as of earlier this month.  It's a month of major milestones for him.   Following in his brother Michael's footsteps he intends to attend Hofstra University in September.  He recently got his driver's license too.   Michael is also quite busy too with his girlfriend Erin, job & new life.   Bridget, their sister, the youngest of all, has just finished her time at summer camp.   Mary Anne came in on the bus a couple of days ago to help with all the necessary cooking for the Fourth of July.  Very soon we shall have to face the inevitable crowd in Hilldale.   Unfortunately I missed the big final farewell reunion at St. Gabriel's in East Elmhurst, & shall also be forced to miss the big reunion at St. John the Baptist in West Islip.  It's on July 1.   My parents still constantly pester me to water the plants & flowers for them each day.  There's so much rain lately though that many days it's entirely unnecessary.  Last night at around 10:30, there was an absolutely overwhelming electrical storm.  My cell phone works really well.  My parents now have the one I started out using because they don't want to be bothered with all the extra things.  I was forced to spend an absolutely insane amount of time on the phone with the Tracfone people to get theirs re~activated but other than that all goes quite well.

WEATHER CHANGE

The bitter cold weather, at least for now, is over. I find it rather hard to believe that I went out without a coat today. The snow's melting. St. Gabriel's in East Elmhurst is planning a big reunion in June. Jo Anne said she may go. Tim, From California, will even go too. I just found out that Mary Anne's old friend, Steve from Copiague, is married to a woman who went to school there. I'm still reading quite voraciously lately. I try always to finish one book & then virtually immediately pick up another one. I've also been trying very conscientiously to practice my guitar each day. Uncle Frankie is supposed to visit Fran for a couple of days this weekend. I shall have to pick up his mail again. Fr. McKernan won't be available for a few days at St. Monica's so I shall have to go to St. John's in Pittston for a few weekdays. Recently I added a second teacher of mine to my Facebook friend list. Jerry Di Noto was my theology teacher in the tenth grade. I tracked him down a few days ago. Tomorrow I shall have to go to another lay Carmelite meeting in Wilkes_Barre. It's at 9:00 a.m. at the Little Flower on South Meade Street. We meet on the third Saturday morning of each month. There will be another day of recollection in Middletown, N.Y. this spring. I'm hoping to be able to show up. Mary Anne's family has been doing quite well. Michael just got a really nice new job & we're all happy for him.

OCTOBERFEST

A while ago I started using the discount card they have at Price Chopper. Not having had any idea which gas stations accepted it, I first took it to the Unimart in Exeter. The guy behind the counter mistakenly told me it was for Turkey Hill. The lady at Turkey Hill in Exeter told me it was for Sunoco. I took it to Sunoco on River Road in Plains & the guy there told me it was for only certain Sunocos. Eventually I found out that it's accepted at the Sunoco on Main Street in Pittston. Columbus Day & Octoberfest went by without any festivities. At least I didn't attend any. St. John the Baptist in West Islip, my high school, called me with a recording advertising their Homecoming Day. There must have been a nice time on Wellwood Avenue in Lindenhurst for Octoberfest. I always used to enjoy attending things like that. The St. Jude novena at St. Mary Help of Christians, on Main Street in Pittston Junction, has been going quite well so far. It lasts until Wednesday night, his feast day. So far I've gone there each day, or night. Last night it rained but it was a nice rain. the weather has been awfully unseasonably warm lately. When I was a kid Halloween was always bitter cold. We used to have to wear very heavy winter clothes under our costumes. This month's birthdays are Georgia, Nicolas, Tony Jr., Tammy & Joseph, among the relatives. For friends, there are Frank, Earl, Jim, Cathy, Brian. Uncle Frankie comes over once in a while lately but recently he went away to visit Fran at her new house. Fr. McKernan left this past weekend to go to India. He's visiting Mother Teresa's sisters for two weeks.

LINDENHURST FRIENDS

Uncle Frankie came over for a while. Yesterday I mistakenly said he didn't show up on Tuesday but he did. I must have forgotten. Mark, from my high school class at St. John the Baptist in West Islip, has joined my Facebook friends list. Ordinarily this wouldn't have been terribly newsworthy but I was checking out his friends list & couldn't help noticing that he's in touch with people from our class at O.L.P.H in Lindenhurst. Until now I'd never been able to track down people who were only in my class in O.L.P.H. I went to that school during the seventh & eighth grades. Construction work every day in Pittston is still getting me crazy. It's only bad during the day. Last night I went to the meeting at O.L. Mt. Carmel on William Street. Everyone except Lynn Marie showed up. Oddly I couldn't help overhearing the church's band playing "Kashimir" from Led Zeppelin's "Physical Graffiti" album.

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.