SNOWED AGAIN LAST NIGHT

Happy birthday to my cousins Mark, on Feb. 23 & Gary today. There was lots of rain yesterday followed by a bit of snow last night. I hardly ever bother to waste any time on the likes of Oprah Winfrey but yesterday I just couldn't help it. Rick ("Jessie's Girl") Springfield, Henry "The Fonz" Winkler & William "Captain Kirk" Shatner were all on it. Hey I couldn't help getting that extra dose of retro. They were all reminiscing about their glory days. Unfortunately, I just found out that the prominent conservative commentator, host of TV's "Firing Line", author & founder of the "National Review" William F. Buckley has died at the age of eighty two. Yesterday, I got my much_anticipated copy of "Latin Mass" magazine. You never know when a thorough knowledge of the things they cover will come in quite handy. I always seem to have to deal with people who are quite knowledgeable about obscure things. Hey you can't possibly even begin to imagine how many times I've been hanging around at bowling alleys, Walmarts, etc., when somebody will start rambling on about Kant, Locke or the Golden Age of Catholicism in seventeenth century France. A guy has to make sure he's prepared for things like that.

MORE SNOW

It's snowing again. It started somewhere during the course of the time I was at St. Joseph's. Everybody says, though, that it should dwindle down to only rain after a while. Yesterday I noticed that the Citizen's Voice, believe it or not, is now only a quarter. It used to be a half dollar. I'm still reading that Jules Verne book. Having always known of it, it's kind of odd that until recently, I'd literally never bothered to read it. It's such a cliche by now & a landmark of the Western literary canon. Yesterday I ended up eating a couple of Burger King hamburgers & French fries. It's not that I don't like that kind of food. I just dread getting into the habit of messing with it. It's quite seriously enjoyable but it's very bad for the health & weight. Mary Ellen & I have been in touch lately on e mail. Karen, unfortunately, has been having a very hard time these days. I'm still watchin "I Love Lucy" pretty much ever day these days. Old pop culture has always been much more interesting than the current & recent tripe.

BEATLE GEORGE BIRTHDAY BOY

As February progresses slowly into March, we try quite hard to recuperate from our recent snowstorm. It's getting warmer but mornings are awfully icy. Today, if he could have lived, George Harrison would have been sixty five years old. Uncle Frankie & Fran came over on Saturday night for coffee & a pastry. After he & my parents went to Michelle's grandfather's wake, Uncle Frankie came back last night for coffee & Dunkin' Donuts. Fran went back to work early. I watched "The Diary of A Country Priest". It's a real classic. I've always liked old movies & this one's one of the really good ones. Unfortunately, it's entirely in French, & I don't speak French. I was really forced to give my undivided attention to all the subtitles. I finished "The Thanatos Syndrome" yesterday & have started Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". Yesterday there were all sorts of ambulance's, policemen & emergency vehicles at a house across the street. They were there for quite a while. One of the neighbors died. His obituary was in the paper this morning. For the information of all you liberal Democrats: Yesterday I watched something about a new book, just written, that shows the hidden history of the Democratic party. The author of the book makes the point that Woodrow Wilson & FDR were both quie friendly with the KKK.

BAD BLIZZARD

The bad blizzard started a couple of nights ago. All sorts of trouble comes from these kinds of things. We're supposed to end up with around seven inches of snow over the course of the weekend. New York has gotten an even worse trouncing than we. JFK, LaGuardia & other airports are entirely out of control. Mary Ellen says Buffalo isn't all that bad though. Predictably, schools over here are all closed. The TV screen is constantly flashing all sorts of information about closings, & news about the damage that's been done. Mary Anne& Steve have to take Bridget to the doctor for tests today. That must be annoying for them, especially considering their weather. The library was closed yesterday but they're back to the normal schedule today. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while yesterday. Fortunately he only lives around a mile away so it's not all that big of a trip for him. Unfortunately, I read in the Citizen's Voice yesterday that the price of wheat is going up. That means that pizza prices will also be going through the roof. The article specifically singled out pizza, a major Lenten staple, as one of the things that have been hardest hit by the price hike. Gas prices have also started to get out of control lately. Yesterday meat wasn't allowed so I was forced to improvise with lots of vegetables, pizza, peanut butter & jelly etc. Sometimes it can get rather boring with that kind of menu but I have been known to be at least fairly creative about it all.

STILL VERY COLD

Uncle Frankie showed up again yesterday & hung around for a while. All has been going quite well, so far, for him. He keeps busy by constantly chasing after the dog. I'd go crazy with something like that. I've never liked animals but I suppose it's cool for somebody who does. Unfortunately, Karen's been having trouble lately. We've all been trying to keep in touch with Mary Ellen about her progress. I'm still reading that Walker Percy book. I have a few more books of his someplace but I have no idea of exactly where they are. There is now officially a plant named after Yoko Ono. Here are a couple of comments about it: "I wouldn't tap that even if I was blindfolded". _Oscar Wilde. "Hating Yoko Ono is now officially the Ninth Beatitude"._God. I found out all about it in the Uncyclopedia. To my chagrin I keep hearing that we're expecting snow tomorrow.

VERY COLD

Yesterday Uncle Frankie came over for a few hours. After he went home to feed the dog, he showed up again so he & my parents could go shopping at the Dollar Store. Now, there's a for sure interesting trip. Of course they ended up getting the inevitable endless supply of chocolate candy & pizza to show for it. I've been getting a few e mails from Mary Ellen lately, keeping me informed about Karen's circumstances. Everybody was expecting snow last night or today but it seems to have passed us by so far. Rocco showed up at Mass Monday & today so he was the lector both times. His schedule's been more than somewhat on the confusing side lately. I just noticed that Feb. 18 was Yoko Ono's birthday. I hear she claims to be a witch. She's also having trouble with a new singer(woman) named Lennon Murphy. Sir Paul Mccartney & his wife Heather are still trying to finalize their divorce. I've gotten through quite a bit of that Walker Percy book so far. I've read it a few times already.

QUIET DAY SO FAR

Last night, I finished "Emma" & started Walker Percy's "The Thanatos Syndrome". It's another one I've read a few times. February is more than half over by now. Yesterday, on the news, I saw something I couldn't possibly even begin to try to believe. There's a bit of a hoo.hah over here these days about whether school districts should be allowed to have separate schools for boys & girls. Amazingly, the left_wingers....what else is new?...managed to bring accusations of discrimination into things. One black woman even compared it, predictably, to Jim Crow legislation. When I was a kid, separating boys & girls in school was fairly common practice. At St. Gabriel's in East Elmhurst, nuns got the younger kids & girls from sixth grade on. Brothers got the boys from sixth grade on. For high school, St. Pius X in Uniondale got the boys & Queen of the Rosary Academy in Amityville got the girls. It was all based entirely on what the families wanted. These days nothing happens without its being seen through the eyes of liberal paranoia. If it doesn't meet with the approval of the tolerance gestapo it doesn't happen.

NICE WEEKEND

It turned out to be a nice quiet weekend. There's been rain since last night. I read more of "Emma" & now only have a couple of dozen pages to go before it's finished. My mother tried to get in touch with Mary Ellen last night but all she could get was Michael's message on their machine. I turned on channel 72 over the weekend & found out that for whatever reason, the channel with all the old movies isn't available now. It's all static & fuzz. I suppose I shall have to get my nostalgia fix elsewhere for at least a little while anyway. Fran hasn't been around lately. She's staying close to work these days. For her that's an extremely smart move since she works so extremely far away. On top of everything else, gas prices have been shooting up like crazy lately too these days. Today's Presidents' Day. In earlier days, Washington & Lincoln were the only biggies. Each got a day of his own. Now it's a collective sort of a thing for the whole bunch. Days like this inevitably fall on Monday. Those three day weekends are important. The library people claimed to have been forced to get rid of Myspace starting today, but I just logged into my account with no trouble. It will most probably kick in soon enough though.

CARMELITE MEETING

As virtually always, I managed to be the first one to show up at this morning's meeting. It's a nice quiet environment over there. Another typical thing happened. One of the residents, an old woman, didn't recognize me & asked what I was doing there. I usually run into somebody like that once for each visit. Sister Catherine showed up a little while after I got there. Rosemary, Anne & a couple of other ladies also made it. There were the inevitable absentees. We don't have enough people. Unfortunately, Sr. Catherine told us that Mary Anne is extremely ill. She & Anne both left early to visit her in a local hospital. I got elected as formation director. They gave me a huge book to work with from now on. Yesterday the weather was bad with rain & snow but today we got a nice break. After a cold morning, it's been much nicer lately. That's good because I have to lector at 5:00 Mass today. Yesterday, in lieu of meat, I ate all sorts of peanut butter & jelly, cheese & pizza. I passed by Sabatini's Pizzeria in Exeter yesterday & could have sworn that it's been closed down & replaced by a furniture store.

NICE BUT COLD

Today is turning out, so far, to be a nice quiet day. There's no meat but we get to dance. It appears that Uncle Frankie is back in commission. He showed up yesterday & hung around for a few hours. Predictably, he's still more than a little bit on the hoarse side. He just started feeling well enough to get out again on Wednesday. The latest among the cousins is a quiz & trivia, first started by Java & Nunziata, about St. Valentine & all the romance, candy, etc. of the big day. Mary Anne really started it with her picture of the preserved remains of St. Valentine in Italy. Technically yesterday was really the Feast of Sts. Cyril & Methodius. St. Cyril was the one who devised Russia's alphabet. That doesn't strike many people as all that romantic, though, so they chose Valentine. As of Monday, Myspace sites will no longer be available at the library. At a recent board meeting, the top bananas decided that the only way to protect the young uns was to block it completely. Of course if they would have blocked it for only minors, according to the lady I spoke to, there would have been inevitable cries, from all the troublemakers, of discrimination. Thank the liberal influence for that.