HAPPY DREARY FRIDAY

It's been pouring out at least since last night. Recently I read that they're afraid that a drought will decimate the crops around here. I suppose that may be technically quite true but it seems to rain quite a whole lot lately for my taste. I completely overlooked yet a whole nother St. Joseph's feast meeting Wednesday night. Today's Mary Anne's birthday. She, Steve & young uns are spending it in Ireland. For the past few days I've been re_reading Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. It's one of the novels I've gotten into the habit of reading many time over lately. Cindi just reminded me that it's time for the Friday dance. Vinnie just sent me an e mail reminding me of all our old musical interests. He & I used to do mean versions of Eric Clapton's "Cocaine" & the Allman Bros. "Ramblin' Man" & he & Jim used to have an entirely imaginary band named Parasite.

GAVE BLOOD YESTERDAY

Yesterday I gave a blood donation at St. Anthony's in Exeter. It was close to a half hour longer than the average donation but nowhere as long as apheresis. They take blood out & put it back in at the same time. I've forgotten the exact name of this specific kind of donation but it's no harder than the average one. The seats are substantially more comfortable. Rocco is a volunteer over there. I got a headache for the rest of the day. It just ended a short time ago. They just give a fruit drink & junk food after you finish. My Lindenhurst KofC council gives a really nice entire meal but that's an exception. Here, they also give coupons for McDonald's & Wendy's. Yesterday I was looking through old photograph albums. Where in Sam Hill has all the time gone? Instead of fifty six days until I get to give again, I now have to wait exactly twice that long. Oh well, I didn't win the big lottery. Uncle Frankie showed up last night with his usual supply of candy. Tomorrow's Mary Anne's birthday.

POURING OUT LAST NIGHT

I never get any sleep at night so of course I couldn't avoid being treated to the sound of last night's torrential downpour. It was going on at about 3:00 a.m. ish. There's some absolutely horribly anti.social annoying woman right next to me in the library, rambling on on a cell phone. As if many people these days aren't already mind.bogglingly ignorant and arrogant enough anyway, cell phones just make it that much more interesting & convenient for them to proffer their disgusting ways. Copiague's library boors, of course, are the absolute & all.time worst, but this character seems quite qualified to be there. I've always absolutely & utterly despised the concept of the phone anyway but cell phones really disgust me beyond belief. Hey please, don't tell me! The library lady finally told this rude character to hang up. The head librarian showed up a few minutes ago in casual clothes. He told a patron that it's dress_down week. Most workplaces have at least a dress_down Friday each week. Around here they get at least a week a year. Today's the big blood drive over at St. Anthony's in Exeter. I go stark raging nuts when all those Red Cross characters call me frequently immediately before each blood drive. They are obscenely aggressive.

HEAT WAVE

This morning was very seriously foggy when I first went out before 7:00 a.m. Today is supposed to be a truly intense heat wave. It's most certainly quite a good thing for me I've always really enjoyed a good heat spell. Cindi from Newblog is now the artist formerly known as Pollyanna. She's changed her blog's name to Its-just-Cindi. It's the end of an era. That's my big deal for the day. Besides the two books I mentioned recently, I've also started reading a little book about the works of St. John of the Cross. I've just finished looking over the official list of kinfolk's birthdays this month. Happy birthday wishes are most certainly in order to all who qualify. The libraries around here have most certainly been hyperactive lately. Yesterday there were quite a whole lot of blabbermouth young uns in this one. Last night I watched a half hour special about the life & times of Fr. Michael J. McGivney who, in March of 1882, founded the famous Knights of Columbus in New Haven,Ct. I've been involved with the KofC since May, 1982. I'm a fourth degree so I get to do all sorts of especially groovy far out stuff too. I got my certificate from the Diocese of Scranton on Sunday because I sat through that lector course a few weeks ago. Today I found out that young uns usually like the taste of food much better simply because it happens to be packaged in a McDonald's container. That's quite a mighty groovy job of brain washing. McDonald's food is nothing but poison that makes people fat, but it's very strangely popular. It's as if it's a cult or something. I used to work at Lindenhurst's McDonald's so I know they have all sorts of extremely seriously bizarre things going on in places like that.

ANYONE FOR TENNYSON

On this day in Somersby, Lincolnshire, England in 1809, Alfred Lord Tennyson was born, the fourth of twelve children. Thanks to my blog_friend, Cindi, I got a reminder of that. It turns out the she googles a lot. It was pouring out last night. I'm glad it's not raining right now. The weekend was nice. Uncle Frankie came over yesterday for a while. I've been reading a lot lately, as usual. Fran's birthday is over & Uncle Frankie's & Mary Anne's are right around the corner. August is a very busy month birthday wise. My Yahoo account's been going bananas on me today. On Wednesday, I shall be donating blood at St. Anthony's in Exeter.

NICE LITTLE BIRTHDAY BASH

Uncle Frankie, both my parents & I went out with cousin Fran last evening for her birthday. We all went to Kildare's Irish Restaurant in Montage at the shopping center. Fran hepped me to their quite groovy Harp brewsky. A splendid time was had by one & all. It's a very nice place & believe it or not, The Irish Pub & Katie Daley's on Long Island could take a few tips from this bunch. The variety of food, hooch, etc. seems to be much better at this one. The AAA Yankees were playing at their nearby stadium so we were, alas, forced to contend with more than a smidge of traffic. When we first showed up, it looked as if it were going to start absolutely pouring. The sky was full of dark clouds. Nothing ever came of it though. They have such an especially groovy mall over there but I've still never seen it from the inside. It's right by the same place Gino & I went to see Meat Loaf. I've finally & at last finished the Dostoyevsky book & moved on to Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood again. It's much shorter & infinitely easier on the eyes & attention span. I've been reading another book too. This one's about St. Bernard of Clairvaux. It's awfully stuffy & deep but quite seriously interesting. Hey, somebody most has to be preoccupied with that kind of thing. We most certainly can't all be expected to like sports.

PARADISE BY THE SKI SLOPE LIGHT

I got a surprising call last night from Cousin Gino. Friends of his got him a bunch of tickets to a Meat loaf concert in Montage. Meat Loaf was a big name when I was only but a mere young hepcat. He was in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show". Somehow Gino messed up & got the idea it started at 7:00 but the official starting time was 8:00. Of course, it didn't REALLY start until around 8:30. Although I've never really very much even noticed Meat Loaf, I went to the concert with him. It was a really nice time. We even got insanely good seats. He told us about his very brief marriage to Nadia Comaneci. She demanded a divorce after a very short time because she was sick & tired of people constantly saying: "Nadia Comaneci Meat Loaf". Of course, after a while he got around to the inevitable "Paradise By the Dashboard Light". The girl who sang it with him was a real looker in a Dallas Cowboys' Cheerleader outfit. That's odd because it's such a baseball song. Unfortunately, today is the forty third anniversary of the death of an all_time favorite of mine, Flannery O'Connor.

HA! HA! FRANNIE'S FIFTY!

Today cousins Fran & Elaine, both from Pa., celebrate birthdays. Fran's fifty. Elaine's too old even to try to figure it out. I've just sent Elaine her official Beatle posty. It appears that she's already gotten it. Yesterday I got an invitation in the mail from Fr. Kakareka to go back to St. Martha's for yet another day of recollection in Stillwater. I already went to one last year. When I spoke to Ann on the phone, though, she explained that it's more for the Elysburg Carmelites & our fraternity wasn't planning on showing up this year. It's sort of far away for me. I got a ride last year with Mary Anne & Dana. I just overheard the library lady telling a patron that today's supposed to be even hotter than yesterday which was way up there anyway.

STACY'S WEDDING PICTURES

Jennifer, one of the New Yorkers of our crowd, poor kid, sent out some pictures of Stacy's recent wedding. We all had a smashing time. Well, folks, it's the very first day of a brand spankin' new month. Tomorrow is Cousin Frannie's fiftieth birthday, by golly. Where, oh where has all the time gone? It really very much seems as if only a very short time ago, we were all young_uns. Yesterday I got an invitiation from St. John's High School in West Islip to fill out another questionnaire for their very latest updated alumni directory. I was in the class of 1977. I just found out that there's a comic strip character, created by Shannon Wheeler, named Too Much Coffee Man. Ever since I was only a really young_un in my late teens, my vile, evil, nefarious & even bad coffee addiction has been making my life a living nuthouse. It does extremely bad things to me but I stick with it through thick & thin. It used to give me all sorts of weird problems & still, to this very day, gets me awfully knocked out of whackish. I refuse to give up anyway. I am too much coffee man.