What A Long Strange Trip It's Been

Well, folks, this blog has been around for about a year by now. Over the course of the past twelve months, I've gotten all sorts of hits & comments about it. The temperature today, last time I checked was around four degrees. At least my windows weren't all icy but the ice & snow on the ground may never melt at this rate. I spent around five minutes warming up my car today. I have a headache today. St. Patrick's Day is right around the corner, being only eleven days away. I hope it doesn't snow, rain or anything else on all the parades. My cousin Fran says they can usually count on a very nice one over in Scranton. I'm half_Irish so I get to be involved. Tomorrow I have to go to the doctor & on Thursday I have to show up for some kind of blood donation. Hey, has everybody gotten a load of how those two super genius icons of modernity, Hilary Clinton & Madonna have been affecting accents other than their own. Madonna plays the snooty British dame & Hilary the redneck. At least when that Ann Coulter character does something stupid even she has at least enough of a brain to mouth off in her own voice.

Went to Uncle Frankie's

Yesterday was rather nice but not especially eventful. We went to Uncle Frankie's. Fran's quite a really good cook. My parents are having their bathroom fixed all day today. That always makes for an extremely interesting time. Last night I watched James Stewart's Harvey. It's a very good movie. When last I looked the snow was coming down only very slightly. I'm sick and tired of all this rotten dreary weather & can't wait for spring to have sprung. One advantage of the way things are now, though, is that I've been noticing that it's light earlier in the morning and lasts until later in the evening. I've even heard we're getting a break with the time change this year. KrissyKrissyKrissy is visiting another relative for today. I woke up in the middle of the night with yet another headache. I was on a streak for a while there. I found out from my New Yorker connections that it's true about Msgr. Hamilton's retirement. O.L.P.H. will seem much different without him in charge anymore. The Flannery O'Connor site I'm on has been bugging the hell out of us lately for a few months. It has lots of spam on it.

TTFN, DSH?

I've heard from a pretty good source that Msgr. Daniel S. Hamilton, pastor since 1985 of O.L.P.H. over in beautiful downtown Lindenhurst, is supposed to retire. Great Caesar's ghost! It's the end of an era. I hope everything works out well for my former boss. On top of that, Lindenhurst's Baptist church is suppposed to be taken over & turned into a Catholic church for Poles. They're the main ethnic group these days in that originally German town. It was originally named Breslau. Today includes yet a whole nother trip to Uncle Frankie's later. It's getting to be an awfully predictable first_weekend_of_the_month jaunt. Having rrecently noticed that I hadn't gotten a headache in a while, I woke up with one in the middle of the night. It's gone now. KrissyKrissyKrissy isn't back yet. Yesterday I got my Pa. KofC newsletter. I haven't been to the council in quite a while but I want to go as soon as the weather gets nice.

Thought For the Day

"If the nose of Cleopatra had been shorter, the whole face of the earth would have been changed." Hey, technically I stole that from another blogger, but he stole it from Blaise Pascal's Pensees anyway. Leave it to those young 17th century Jansenists to think like that. Warm as it's been getting lately, the snow_because it's even more ice, I reckon_has yet to melt much. Since it's time for yet another first Saturday, I suppose Msgr. Hamilton's crowd got together today for Mass & continental breakfast over at O.L.P.H. Over there I managed to get to know all the local yokels but here I'm still running on quite a shortage of connections. KrissyKrissyKrissy is back in N.Y. for a family death. St. Patrick's Day's coming up & the decorations are going up all over the place. I've always liked St. Patrick's Day, being an Irishman as I am. I even met RFK at the big parade one year.

My Important Thoughts RE: Beatle Paul & Heather

I just found out at that Beatle Paul's ex_wife is trying to punish him by making an insulting animated sitcom about the McFartneys. She's doing it by way of her production company, Raspberry Fields. For many a decade, Paul was the Beatle who'd always managed to stay in the divorce_free zone. Linda may not have been everybody's spot of tea, but at least she didn't drive him all that bloody daft by way of stupid puns.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

Yes, folks, it's true. On this very day in 1904, Dr. Seuss was born. I'd always really liked his stuff as a young_un. A few years ago, I even read a good biography of him. The weather has been awfully gross lately. Yesterday the temperature was around fiftyish but damp. Today it's been raining quite a whole lot so far. There are puddles & slush galore. A couple of nights ago, I watched most of The Great Dictator with Charlie Chaplin. So far I've seen more than half of John Travolta's Pulp Fiction. I like watching movies. It gives me something to say to people, considering that I've never liked sports. I see KrissyKrissyKrissy made it home quite well. All the folks in N.Y. must miss me. Ha!ha!. Having her around, I get to keep track of all my city slicker connections. Besides her, I also rely on my e mail connections. Yesterday there were so many people using the computers around here, I got kicked out early. It's Friday so it's an entirely meat_free zone. Yesterday I ate fast food junk & I don't like to get into that kind of habit. It messes up my Friday dance, shall we say?(ahem!)

Welcome Back, March

Finally & at last the nightmarishly long boring winter months are dwindling to a close. In spite of all the disgustingly rainy, snowy weather, at the very least it is March. That means that spring will soon have sprung. I get ten more hours coming to me on my computer because it's a new month. Last night I got a call from a woman at the blood services place. She asked me to give a certain kind of blood donation because they need us O people & I'm O+. I've been giving blood for many years by now so I'm used to things like this. It's an annoying experience but I can handle it. My old KofC council gives each donor a full meal. Unfortunately, though, other places aren't usually so generous.

Trip to the Book Store

Yesterday, KrissyKrissyKrissy decided she wanted another book by some favorite author of hers. Not having had any idea of how to track down a book store around here, she asked me for directions to one. I took her to that really famous store over in Wilkes_Barre. It was a very nice, very short trip. Having always been quite a compulsive bookworm over the course of my lifetime, I know how to get to places like that. I just wish we had more book stores over here. There's only one Catholic book store anybody knows of around here & it's on Rte 11 in Scranton. The traffic congestion & parking absolutely stink beyond belief in Wilkes Barre. Especially because of the snow these days, it's really bad. We couldn't help noticing all the (ahem)local color, shall we say? That area must have more oddballs per square inch than nine out of ten places in this country. At the very least, they're most certainly extremely eccentric looking. Last night it snowed a little & today the streets & sidewalks were, at least for a while, all icy.

Feast of St. Gabriel Possenti

I went to St. Gabriel's Elementary School in Queens. Today is my patron saint's feast day. The temperature is up to around fortyish degrees & all the snow & ice is turning to slush. I'm been making very nice progress with that Dickens book. Life around here is quite groovy. I'm still in touch with many of my N.Y. connections & keeping up with all the gossip over there. KrissyKrissyKrissy goes home regularly & I have all sorts of e mail news I can count on. Pretty soon March will be here & that will be even more frustrating for me because it's so close to spring. It's very annoying though because it's such a long wait with the last gasps of sucky weather. Phil saw his shadow though so we're entitled to an early break. Everyone's been breaking out his St. Patrick's Day decorations, making party plans, etc.

George Harrison Quiz

Which of the following is the title of a Harrison song & the name of a convenience store in Pa.? : a)Apple Scruffs b)Thanks for the Pepperoni c)Ding Dong Ding Dong d)Crackerbox Palace e)Wah Wah Last night it snowed again but all is not yet lost. It didn't amount to much. It's still coming down a smidge. I don't envy people who have to travel moocho in that weather. Happy Birthday to my New Yorker cousins Gary & Mark. Last night was the Academy Awards but I didn't bother even to think twice about it. Unfortunately, a couple of the little young_uns among our kinfolk have the flu or something like it. Amazingly the library's not crowded today. There were lots of people last week. Java Jr. from Buffalo sent me a souvenir from his wedding even though I couldn't show up. I hear the new dollar coin has finally & at last arrived. People didn't like Ike on a dollar. Even Susan B. Anthony & that Indian woman with the big name didn't do the trick. Most people don't expect a fab reaction to this one either. Am I the only one who likes them or what? Every time somebody gets one I hope he'll send it to me. I like them.