TO HILLDALE

Yesterday, from around 3:00 until about 8:30 we were in Hilldale. All went quite well even though I can't handle crowds. I have to watch what I write on my blog because now I know they pay attention to this stuff. My cousin, the Ronald, a twenty year navy veteran, wrote & recorded a song about the armed forces & gave each of us a copy complete with sheet music. I've been trying to give it a lot of publicity on my blogs. Matt explained his Ph.D. thesis to us. Mary Anne & family left today at around 11:45. Michael is a little disappointed about his having gotten such an especially short haircut. I gave him my book about the evils of liberalism & he has promised to read it. Jennifer & Java have been keeping us informed of the progress of her pregnancy.

HAPPY FRIDAY TURKEY TROT

Thanksgiving went quite well yesterday. Mary Anne, Steve & the kids showed up late in the morning. Uncle Frankie, Fran & Lisa got here early in the afternoon. I've been getting a very bad headache each day lately, unfortunately. There was entirely too much food & the coffee pot stopped working. Fortunately we managed to dig up another pot. Today we shall be going to Hilldale to see the kinfolk. The Ronald & the Linda, along with Brianne, Matt & family will be there. Bridget & Sam are just as colorful a couple of characters as ever. Michael, of course, is still interested in philosophy & physics & has been delving into Marxist theory. He & I most certainly disagree about quite a whole lot. That vinyl cover for my windshield most certainly makes quite a difference. Last night I never bothered to put it on & my windshield was an absolute sheet of ice this morning. Steve has car trouble so he spent a while this morning looking through the phone books for someplace that might have a part he needs.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Yesterday I gave blood at the Polish American Legion Post on Oak Street in Plains. As usual the phlebotomist I got mixed up with was quite a talkative woman. My appointmet was for 1:15. It lasted only a little while compared to most donations. I got a coupon for a McDonald's Egg McMuffin with my coffee & junk food. I followed my parents to the place & they took advantage of the trip, from then on, as an excuse to go shopping. Uncle Frankie was there for a little while until we left. The weather has been an absolute nightmare lately with bitter cold, rain & snow for the past few days. I got a call yesterday from Bob from the Holy Name Society. He wants me to return the two contest tickets I got in the mail a while ago. Tomorrow will be, as always, crowded & fattening. I just hope it's a reasonably nice day.

THANKSGIVING APPROACHES

Thanksgiving & Michelle's birthday are only three days away. Mary Anne, Steve & the kids will be here for a while. Fran has to work but she'll be available as much as possible. The weather's been so cold lately that Uncle Frankie hasn't been bothering with those games on Friday nights anymore. He came over for a while on Saturday & yesterday. I used to go to Buffalo for Thanksgiving but that was quite a long time ago. Unfortunately the weather over here is just as bitter cold & it's mountainous too. On England's Telegraph website, & Yoko Ono's site, I just read that the Vatican has recently forgiven Beatle John for his March 1966 boast that the Fabs were more popular than Jesus. This morning I read some more of "Much Ado About Nothing". I got a very seriously annoying headache yesterday. It may have been a sinus headache because my normal headache pills didn't get rid of it but the sinus pill I took did.

FORTY FIFTH ANNIVERSARY

Friday, November 22, 1963 was the day that changed the world. The JFK assassination was the single moment that made the sixties the sixties. Uncle Frankie's been very sick lately with a flu or something. He didn't even bother to show up at the big game last night, so that's how we know he's not feeling even the least bit well these days. Lately I've been watching, for a few minutes at a time every once in a while, the show "Scrubs". Other than the looker from "The Drew Carey Show", there's nobody else on it I can even try to recognize. So far it seems like a pretty neat show. I don't have to lector this weekend & there's nothing much of anything else going on so far either. Things are bound to be pretty quiet & uneventful. The temperature when I first went out this morning was only in the twenties. Once again, the windshield cover came to the rescue. The kids in the library are watching a movie today so there's a bit of a crowd.

FRIDAY DANCE

It's the end of a quiet uneventful week. The temperature's under thirty degrees today. The windshield cover is a right nice investment. From now on I shall have to wear very heavy clothes & a hat every day upon going outside. Gas prices are still going down. The Unimart in Exeter is even down below the $2.00.9 mark. I've been still reading that Shakespeare play. Today I'm in the West Pittston library, having been kicked out of Wyoming's. I just read a blog comment on Blogster this morning about how the liberals are masters of the English language for purposes of deception. They manipulate language, & symbolism in general, for the purpose of affecting change. The guy who wrote the blog & comment said they literally won the entire national election merely by exploiting the one word, "change".

YET EVEN MORE SNOW!

I woke up to yet another snowy morning. It's also boring & aggravating. Today I wore my grey sweater with the hood. Unfortunately, I've been reading lately that people have been attacking President_elect Obama not for the reasons for which he should be condemned(his unutterably obscene radical left wing agenda, of course), but merely because he happens to be black. Of course, racism is no better or any more logical & rational a response to things than liberalism, so people who are against him based on mere race can't possibly be dealt with logically. It's like that famous logical fallacy which every philosophy student knows: the enemy of one's enemy isn't necessarily his friend. Mary Anne called this morning. It was one of her usual calls.

VERY COLD

The weather was cold last night & there was ice on people's windows this morning but I was spared any trouble like that because of my vinyl windshield cover. I got a call from O.L. Sorrows yesterday. Amazingly, there's a new woman in the parish & she wants to be one of our lectors. Unlike O.L.P.H., we don't seem to be able to get a significant number of people to do that kind of thing. I made sure I put away her name & phone number so they'll be available when I have to get in touch with her. Recently in the mail I got my new insurance cards for my car. They're good until April. They only last for six months. I'm still reading "As You Like It". That's the one with Jaques' famous "All the world's a stage..." speech. Thanksgiving is next Thursday. It's Michelle's birthday this year. That's Noreen's sister, not Gino's wife.

REMEMBER REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER

This month in history: How could I possibly have forgotten that the Fifth of November was Guy Fawkes Day, the commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot in England in 1605? This morning we saw the first snowfall, in the area, of the season. So far it's been very mild & even kind of nice. Last night I finished "Troilus & Cressida" & started "As You Like It". Uncle Frankie came over for a while last night. As always he & my parents spent quite a while rambling on about things that are of interest to them. "ALF" was on twice last night. I'm so happy to see it's back in reruns. It's on Chicago's WGN America, a channel that appears to have quite a lot of especially good old shows. Gas prices, surprisingly, are still getting consistently lower each time I pass by a gas station. Thanksgiving's right around the corner & Christmas is getting closer & closer.

ZITI PARTY YESTERDAY

All most certainly went quite well at the Holy Name Society's annual party yesterday at O.L. Sorrows. Besides my parents & me, Uncle Frankie & Fran showed up too. As with the O.L.P.H. crowd, all the hard core regulars made their predictable appearance. Everyone left quite full. Along with the pasta, they served salad, bread, cake, beer, wine & soda. Father Walsh was there. I arrived early at 10:15 & found out the hard way just exactly what an absolute nightmare parking is in their lot during Mass. At the Carmelite meeting on Saturday I forgot to take my breviary when I left so I went back to get it yesterday before the party. There was a very slight drizzle in the morning as I was on my way home from Wilkes_Barre yesterday but other than that the weather was nice. Saturday afternoon, though, when I went over to lector at 5:00 Mass, there was an absolutely unbearable torrential downpour. It was especially bad at around 4:00. I'm in the Hoyt Library in Kingston now because it was too crowded over at Wyoming.