BUSY TIME

The night before New Year's Eve I got a very violent attack of the flu. I was at O.L. Sorrows lectoring at 7:00 p.m. Mass when my voice started getting hoarse & I started getting very weak. I spent the next few days in bed with a violent headache & cough, besides all sorts of other aches & pains. Eventually I made an appointment to see Dr. Radzwilka in West Pittston. He prescribed a couple of kinds of medication before I made the appointment. The syrup gave me violent headaches so I gave up on it. When I went to the appointment I got him to do some blood work too. So far I have gotten no results. When I started feeling better I made sure I called Chris Calore, in Wilkes_Barre to see about getting onto a bus for the trip to Washington, D.C. next Monday for the annual pro_life March. He was forced to put me on a waiting list but he eventually called & said I get to go. I went last year & all worked out quite well for me even though it was too strenuous. Nothing gets me so crazy as haveing to be restricted like that all day long. I have to get my car inspected in January each year. This Saturday I noticed at the last minute that I desperately needed an oil change. I went to De Leo's gas station on Wyoming Avenue in Wyoming because it's the closest to me. He also does inspections so I made an appointment, for yesterday, to get my inspection. It was a long boring day for me but ultimately I got my usual expensive repairs done & I'm now set until next March. He says I now get a two~month grace period. This past Saturday was our monthly lay Carmelite meeting on S. Meade Street in Wilkes_Barre. Barbara & Rosemary were the only regulars who couldn't show up. Sr. Mary Robert spent the morning with us though & she was very helpful. The weather lately has been very violently cold with entirely too much snow & ice. There have been so many birthdays this month. We wish a very happy birthday to my mother, several cousins & , among the non~relatives, Tim, Lisa & Laura.

CHRISTMAS TIME IS HERE AGAIN...O~U~T SPELLS OUT

Yesterday cousin Larry's daughter Jennifer gave birth to a baby boy. He's now the tenth Joseph among our relatives. I got a haircut at Rose Chairge's new barber shop in West Pittston yesterday too. It's right inside her husband's comic book store. It was a little hard for me to track it down but I got there eventually with no trouble. Aunt Lauren came over last night for a while when I was at confession at O.L. Sorrows. A few weeks ago Tom sold me a St. Monica's sweatshirt. I picked it up last night. I've been re~reading Cervantes' "Don Quijote", the classic picaresque novel. It's long & the small print gets me crazy but it's always been quite a favorite of mine. My nephew Michael just graduated from Hofstra University this past weekend so he's been quite excited lately. It's still insanely cold but I can handle it as long as the snow doesn't get any worse. Last week, from Monday until Wednesday, there was no priest at our church so I went to Mass each day at St. John the Evangelist in Pittston. This year is very fast coming to its end. We should most certainly hope that 2011 will bring us much better times.

IT'S FINALLY OVER WITH

Yesterday was the last day of 2010's family reunion. This one was a bit of a milestone because it was the fiftieth. It all started in 1961. On Sunday, Gino & Michelle threw a nice big surprise party for Aunt Helen at the Checkerboard Inn in Trucksville. A splendid time was had by all. Aunt Helen's not a blood relative. She was married to Uncle Rego who died in 1993. She's the youngest of the oldest generation of us. Some of the kin went to the Italian graveyard to visit the deceased family members' graves right before the party. As always the weekend's conversation ranged from sports, trivia, religion & politics to nostalgia, philosophy & music. I haven't gone into the pool in very many years. Oddly my cousin Danny asked if I've ever been thrown in. In our crowd, getting thrown into the pool is quite an entirely inevitable rite of passage for the very young. He appeared to have forgotten that when I was a kid & young adult he, more than anyone else, was the one who always threw me in.

HILLDALE

We're all in Hilldale. Today's Larry's & Rose's thirty fourth wedding anniversary. This month also abounds with relatives' birthdays. The festivities started early yesterday. As always there's quite a large unruly crowd of relatives. Mary Anne & Steve are here with the kids. Michael's even brought Erin with him. Last night we spent a while on the patio playing in a sort of ad-hoc band. We shall be playing our annual softball game & taking a picture later today. Unlike previous years I haven't gotten any significant sunburn in recent years because I no longer take any chances like that. With any luck Vinnie & I shall be taking Anthony for ice cream later. All the intellectually inclined cousins are, as always, trying to drive each other nuts with drastically incompatible points of view about life.