JUNK FOOD

This morning I took advantage of my McDonald's coupon from the last blood drive I attended. I went over to the McDonald's on Wyoming Avenue in Wyoming & got a coffee with milk & sugar, & an egg mcmuffin. It was really nice for a change of pace but I could never get into the habit of eating in a place like that. I still have one for a Wendy's milk shake. When I pulled into the parking lot some complete buffoon of an old woman was pulling out from her space & never bothered to stop to avoid hitting me. It was lucky I came up with the presence of mind, ahead of time, to stop so I could avoid an accident. She came too close to me & barely missed my car. The weather's very nice & springy today but to my chagrin, I heard on the classical radio station this morning that we're expecting snow again soon. There should be an inch, followed by rain. This morning, right after I got the Citizen's Voice at the local Wyoming Avenue Unimart, I took a ride down Eighth Street toward O.L. Sorrows & got a reminder of exactly how paranoid I've always been around policemen. As I got into the left_turn lane & got ready to turn from Wyoming Avenue to Eighth Street, it occurred to me that there was a Wyoming police car right behind me. He didn't have his lights or sirens on. He was just there. I started getting suspicious thinking I was in trouble for having done something stupid even though I knew perfectly well I couldn't have. That's typical of me.

ANOTHER COLD MORNING

This morning was another icy cold day. My windows were covered with ice. I tried filling out a job application this morning for one of the local rehabilitation centers. They ask all sorts of questions I've never even heard of before. They wanted to know about whether or not I have a criminal record. That's always been standard up to a point but these characters go way beyond overboard. They ask about all sorts of specific federal offenses, including the most grossly graphic. Since they deal with people whose circumstances are ultra.hypersensitive, though, I guess they have to be supremely careful about whom they get mixed up with. Filling out forms like that gets me crazy but it has to be done. I woke up with a headache in the middle of the night but I took a couple of pills & it's gone. My nephew Michael just sent me some of his philosophy homework. He's been studying David Hume. I've always been an especially big fan of philosophy & could use a bit of a refresher course in it all. Last night, a little while after Uncle Frankie showed up, I went to 7:00 Mass at St. Anthony's in Exeter because I wasn't available in the morning. After that I watched over half of Frank Capra's classic "Lost Horizon". Yesterday, in the latest issue of one of the Carmelite periodicals I like to read, I found out that the Carmelites' NGO is trying to lobby for a carbon tax to limit the amount of CO2 in the environment.

EASTER SEASON

It is now the Easter season. This morning we left slightly before 10:00. Mary Anne went to work at around 9:30. Steve's doctor appointment was a little while after that. Because of a couple of stops, at a Wantagh gas station & the Wawa on Rte. 115, the trip took us around three & a half hours. The weather today has been quite exceptionally nice so far. I'm most certainly hoping that spring can be counted on to stay this way permanently. Uncle Frankie showed up a minute after we got home. The computer I got from Mary Anne & Steve was very heavy & hard to carry but I could handle it fairly well. Surprisingly, gas has been going down a little lately. Last night I finished "Mrs. Dalloway". While there, I managed to figure out where at least a few of my missing books have ended up. They have them. At least now they're accounted for. I was beginning to get paranoid. I've really been trying to get involved in the site, Librarything, lately. It's a good way to organize all the books I've been reading. Amazingly I've managed to track down people whose interests are quite similar to mine.

ALLELUIA!

Easter most certainly went quite well. We all went to Mass at noon at St. Mary of the Isle in Long Beach. It was in the hall next door to the church. The place was absolutely packed. My claustrophobia most certainly kicked in. A very large number of the people were Hispanic, Filipino & Korean. To my chagrin, the cantor couldn't sing her way out of a brown paper bag. After we got home, we spent the entire remainder of the day pigging out. We ate pork, lamb, Brussels sprouts & baked potatoes among other things. There were also all sorts of candy & pastries. Steve & I went to the boardwalk between six & seven o'clock. He jogged & I walked. It was a bit on the cold, windy side for me but I really enjoyed it. It's sort of like the levee over by the Midway in Wyoming. Michael has been taking philosophy courses lately. He & I got into a nice intense debate. We talked about the nature of reality, the right relationship of faith & reason & all sorts of other artsy_fartsy kinds of things. Many thanks to Profs. Friel, Phelan, Groner & Soupios who all dared to try to teach me philosophy. If there's one class I could really be counted on to go entirely overboard in, it's philosophy. Because I haven't taken any classes lately, I was really forced to dust off that section of my brain cells. I try to keep up with things like this by reading books, periodicals, etc. that deal with this kind of subject matter.

EASTER VIGIL

Today is the day before Easter, the single most important day of the entire year. We all went over to see Aunt Norma in Amityville. Uncle Larry, Larry, Rose & Maria were there. When we first showed up, it was at the very beginning of their Mass at 2:30 for the Easter Vigil. While there, we drank espresso & coffee & ate pastries. I really was sorry not to have gotten a chance to see Gary or any of the kids. I ran into a guy who was in my Lindenhurst KofC Council 794 around twenty years ago. I also met Pete from the O.L.P.H. Holy Name Society. A splendid time was had by one & all. I truly enjoyed all the catching up. That part of Nassau County most certainly has changed. By now, I'm just about up to the last couple of dozen pages of "Mrs. Dalloway". Somewhere over the course of the last few years, I seem to have left a few of my books here. Everybody's gone to bed by now except for Michael who's out visiting his friend Anthony. Other than Bridget, who just snuck up on me for a minute, I'm really enjoying all the peace & quiet right now. Tomorrow will be a busy fattening day. Although the kids are all very much past the Easter Bunny days by now, they still most certainly enjoy a good pig_out fest whenever there's a lot of candy around. I shall most certainly be doing a bit more than my usual share of eating too. Since I can't possibly attend Mass at my parish, I shall be sitting in the pews tomorrow instead of being a lector.

GOOD FRIDAY

This morning, at around 10:10, we left for Mary Anne's house. All went well & because there was no significant traffic, & the weather was very nice, the trip only took around three hours. My headache is finally gone by now. Mary Anne, Steve & all three kids were here when we got here. Over the course of the day, we ate meat_free pizza with ziti & peppers, & the kids colored Easter eggs with their grandparents' help. Michael & I played guitar & Sam played drums. His drumming teacher was here for his weekly lesson when we first showed up. So was the guy who was helping them with their new computer. He even spent a while rambling on about his Greek ethnic background & religion. So far, over the course of today, I read about a third of Virginia Woolf's "Mrs. Dalloway". I Ofirst read it in one of Amy Zarett's classes over at Adelphi in the nineties. Bridget & Sam, as always, got into quite a fight downstairs over some trivial things. My mother wanted to call Dottie & Ann but couldn't figure out how to get her hands on their phone numbers. Unfortunately she left her purse home too. The Easter Triduum continues. At O.L.P.H. everybody really used to like to keep me very busy but my schedule at .L.Sorrows isn't quite so hectic, even at times like this. So far I haven't really gotten involved with that much of the parish's life. Last night, at 7:00 Mass at O.L.Sorrows, I showed up & made sure I was available in case they needed me for anything. They didn't put me to work though. I wore my green jacket just in case. Green seems to be the official color of the parish.

HOLY THURSDAY

Today's Holy Thursday. It's a very cold first day of spring. I'm not absolutely positive of when spring starts. The library lady said nobody else is quite positive either. There's even been a little snow. By now the miserable weather's all been getting beyond disgusting. I went to 9:00 Mass at St. Joseph's where I ended up being an usher instead of a lector. I'm most certainly used to both by now anyway. Besides Frannie's cookies yesterday, Josephine & Mary Anne gave me a rosary & Carmelite book mark this morning from their trip to Israel. While they were there they saw all the significant Biblical attractions. I have a headache. I'm assuming it comes from the change in weather. Yesterday I saw "It Happened One Night" again. It's one of Frank Capra's best. A few months ago, a columnist in one of our local papers claimed that it was outdated & hard to find these days. I think it's pretty groovy. It's easy to track down too. Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert & all those other old_timers were quite a bunch of cut_ups in their time. I think the guy who played Perry White in "Superman" was even in it.

ICY COLD RAIN

The weather's very bad today. It's a bitter cold rainstorm. I'm just very happy yesterday was much nicer. In only two more days, as impossible as it is to believe, spring will have sprung. KrissyKrissyKrissy called my mother yesterday. That was good news. This morning, before 9:00 Mass, I found my breviary in the sacristy. One of the church ladies gave me a bunch of cookies. She baked lots of cookies for her grandchildren. The bad news was that I left my hat in the pew. My father called Sam last night, but unfortunately he was at a hockey game. The kid enjoys sports for some insane reason. He most certainly doesn't take after me for that. Can New York ever be expected to get a governor who's not hysterically frisky or what? The big news story yesterday was that the new governor & his wife have a history of cheating on each other. Between that & Obama's insane preacher, I'm getting bored with all the scandal. I found out yesterday that Bill Clinton is supposed to appear at Coughlin High School today. Amazingly, we always seem to get quite a few real biggies around here. He's certainly picked on quite an unfortunate day for it.

JOB FAIR

Today I made sure I showed up at the job fair at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes_Barre. To get there, I followed my father, who knows the way much better than I . I came home by way of Rte. 81 & 309. There was lots of traffic but I didn't let it bother me. I gave out at least a dozen resumes. Like the New York job fairs it was all very informative & interesting. They even give out souvenirs & candy at each booth. Aunt Lauren was right. There were flights of steps to have to climb. Yesterday I watched the swearing_in of New York's new governor. It's very nice to see that he has a jolly good sense of humor. He appears to be quite a frustrated stand_up comic. That will serve him quite well, considering his ominous responsibilities. To my surprise, he's even Catholic. Among other distinguished characters, former Gov. Hugh L. Carey even showed up. I met him once in the late seventies while attending S.U.N.Y. Farmingdale. To my extreme chagrin, I just overheard the library ladies complaining that starting in May, a first class postage stamp will cost forty three cents. That more than kind of stinks.

HOLY WEEK

Saturday I went to O.L.Sorrows where Linnae & I were the lectors. After Mass, as soon as I got home, I pigged out on corned beef & cabbage. All went well. Yesterday I went to the Latin Mass at Child Jesus Church. On the way home, it started snowing a little. I'm trying now to read "The Iliad" by Homer. It's a little on the thick side. Over the weekend I made sure I saw a few movies. I watched "A Man & A Woman" & "The Maltese Falcon" on Saturday. Unfortunately I ended up staying up until one in the morning. Yesterday I watched "The Blue Angel". Rose called my mother yesterday with all the latest N.Y. gossip. Bridget called this morning on her way to the big parade in Manhattan. I even met RFK at his last parade when I was a young un. Tomorrow I shall have at least a fairly busy day up ahead of me. There's a job fair at the Wachovia Arena in Wilkes_Barre. It lasts from 11:00 a.m. until 6:00 p.m. Yesterday I found out, in the Times Leader's jobs section, about the companies that will be showing up. I used to like the ones I attended at S.U.N.Y. Farmingdale & Adelphi. Today I made sure I got fifty copies of my resume from the library. I was forced to part with five dollars for them. I found out in the paper yesterday that they're looking for phlebotomists at the American Red Cross. I'd always assumed that that must require some kind of a specific college education like a background in health care. All they want, though, is a high school diploma & valid Pa. driver's license. They train.