FROZEN

Happy fiftieth birthday to Tim, an old St. Gabe's classmate of mine. He's the first of my classmates, of the ones I know of, to hit the big one. Nunziata's birthday was this month to. She's married to cousin Java. Today's temperature was absolutely bitter at about two degrees. Schools are closed & everything's slowed down. Upon first getting up to get dressed today I couldn't put the cold water on in the kitchen sink, although the hot worked quite well. I should most certainly hope tomorrow's Carmelite meeting won't have to be cancelled because of the weather. Last month it was cancelled because of a big blizzard. I now have fewer than a hundred pages left in "Sense & Sensibility". Of course now that Uncle Frankie's back in circulation he's regularly showing up with his candy, cookies & pasta fagioli.

INSPECTION

To my undying chagrin, my inspection took all day yesterday but at least it is now over with. I got there at 7:00 a.m. They got started on my car at around 11:00. My father, having been a little ill, wasn't available to drive me home. Somehow I ended up getting stranded there until after noon before I ended up getting a ride home from an employee who's in charge of that. There was less trouble with the car than I'd expected so I was quite happy. I spent my time there reading "Sense & Sensibility" & watching Ellen De Generes, whom I don't like, Regis Philbin, & "The View". At least Beatle Paul was on "The View". Although I've never been even the least bit impressed with most of the hostesses of "The View", Elisabeth Hasselbeck has always struck me as quite an interesting character because she shares my obsession with torturing the liberals quite mercilessly. Beatle Sir Paul was on yesterday's show. Does Regis Philbin really say "incidentally" entirely too frequently? I have no idea because I normally only see him on reruns of my favorite game show. A woman from Copiague, N.Y. even sent him a comment about it. Last night I watched Mel Gibson's "Apocalypto" in which he uses the sixteenth century Mayan Indian culture for a metaphor for today's world. He's always been quite a favorite of mine too. There was even more snow last night & this morning. This morning, after Mass at St. Joseph's, a guy I know from the Holy Name Society reminded me of the bus ride to the March For Life over in Washington, D.C. next Thursday. Tomorrow is Tim's fiftieth birthday. He & I were in the same class at St. Gabriel's.

QUIET DAY SO FAR

Nothing much is going on these days. Happy birthday to Vic over in Lindenhurst. I never get to see any of that crowd in person anymore but the internet lets me keep in touch. Tomorrow is my big day. My inspection at Jack Williams is very early in the morning & will most probably take pert near all day to get over with. I have to get up insanely early for it but I haven't slept for a significant length of time since the JFK/Nixon debates anyway. Unfortunately Mistletoe, over in Finland, has a headache right now. She's one of my Facebook connections. I can't stand headaches. So far this year, I haven't gotten one. Uncle Frankie is still out of commission. He must be really run down these days. Yesterday I read a lot more of "Sense & Sensibility". I just found out on the site, 4marks, that there's a new board game out, Vatican the Board Game, that is all based upon how men become Pope.

SNOWY WEEKEND

The blizzard lasted all day & all night Saturday. Sunday turned out not to be so bad. I got through the local roads quite well. Shoveling & scraping the snow off the cars wasn't as hard as I'd expected because it didn't end up amounting to as much as we were threatened with. There was a major accident on the Cross Valley Expressway recently though so not everybody got a break. Unfortunately Fr. Richard John Neuhaus died recently. He was a very big name in Catholic intellectual circles. Among other things, he founded "First Things", a favorite magazine of mine. Yesterday I finished reading "Cymbeline" & started re_reading Jane Austen's "Sense & Sensibility". I saw the movie a while ago too. Unfortunately I have to make sure I'm up & out insanely early on Wednesday for my much dreaded car inspection. At least those things are only once a year. Happy birthday to Vic from Lindenhurst. His birthday is tomorrow.

RAGING BLIZZARD

Yesterday I made sure I parked my car in the driveway because of threats of a blizzard that was supposed to start around midnight. It started around 7:00 a.m. today. I was at O.L. Mt. Carmel for 7:30 Mass. I made quite sure I stopped at the gas station next door for the paper instead of bothering to go someplace else on the way. We're supposed to get around ten inches over the course of the weekend. Fran won't be coming home this weekend. Uncle Frankie's still ill so he's stuck home too. To make it even more annoying my old friend Earl just sent out an e mail telling us all about his enchantingly warm sunny weather over in Puerto Rico. The library is closing at one o'clock today. Vic, from my old KofC council- he's now in Copiague's council- & I are now on each other's Facebook friend's lists.

EVEN MORE SNOW

Nothing much of note has been happening lately except for annoying weather. Uncle Frankie's still sick. The weather for this weekend is supposed to be really bad again. I've even heard predictions of around six inches of snow starting after midnight tonight. I just heard from the couple sitting next to me that Congress has been considering extending the deadline for people to change over to the new TV system because it would be too hard for everyone to be ready by the beginning of February. As far as I'm concerned, since I don't even especially like to watch a significant amount of TV anyway, it's really not exactly my idea of all that big of a deal one way or the other. Yesterday was Elvis Presley's seventy fourth birthday. Never having been much of a fan of the early rocker, I just don't even bother to think twice about the celebrations in his memory.

BETTER WEATHER

Yesterday's weather was an absolute nightmare with bitter cold rain & puddles of slush. My shoes & socks got soaked straight through when I was forced to step in a puddle. Today's still cold & there's entirely too much ice on the ground, but at least the freezing rain & other annoyances have all stopped for now. Unfortunately Uncle Frankie is still too sick to get around very much. Nothing much is on TV these days so last night I spent a while reading that Shakespeare play. It's been tough on me because I'm not even the least bit familiar with it. Every couple of days I try to read a little more of it at a time. So far I've been doing a fairly good job of keeping my New Year's resolution not to eat so much anymore. As always these days, my Facebook account has been getting lots of mileage. I get to see a lot of big news about what everybody's been up to lately. This morning I made an appointment to get an inspection & oil change for my car on Wednesday morning.

MERRY RUSSIAN CHRISTMAS

The snow started fairly early yesterday afternoon. It stopped after a short time but must have started again somewhere over the course of the night. When I got up to go to 8:00 Mass at St. John's it was raining & everything was icy. I still don't have such a whole lot of experience with driving around here in bad weather unfortunately so it really bothered me, especially because it was so dark at that time & the roads are steep. I heard on the radio this morning that today is Russian Orthodox Christmas. Lately I've been taking advantage of the lulls among my Facebook connections to join some of the many groups they have, especially for us fans of classic literature & sixties music. My parents called Uncle Frankie. He hasn't come over in the past week. He's still feeling ill. That really stinks at times like this.

GAS PRICES UP AGAIN

This morning, on my way home from 8:00 Mass at St. John the Evangelist in Pittston, I couldn't help noticing that all the local gas prices have been going up again. It's the first time this has happened in the past many months. Mary Anne called yesterday with all the latest news from New York. Steve, Sam, Mike & I are on each other's Facebook friends lists anyway so I can always keep up with them that way too. Uncle Frankie has been ill lately so we haven't seen him but my parents have been in touch with him on the phone. Amazingly, the W era will very soon be over. As of right now, we are only two weeks away from a new administration in the White House. I've been trying to cut down on junk food now that the Christmas & New Year's pig out time is over with. It's kind of a bit of a New Year's resolution. Usually I can be counted on to do quite a reasonably good job of avoiding going out of my way to get any food that isn't readily available. It's only when it's always there & I can't possibly avoid it, that I'm in big trouble. According to cousin Gary's daughter, Tina, today is La Befana, the very last day of the Christmas season. That's the name of the Italian celebration.

COLD BUT NICE

The weekend worked out well. I lectored at 10:00 Mass yesterday & went to the Holy Hour at 4:00. Amazingly I just got my second hit, on Wheresgeorge, from California. Usually I get stuck with only nearby states. My Facebook account has really been getting quite seriously hyperactive these days. Cousin Mark just joined. So far it's still full of mostly kin & St. Gabriel's people. This month, unfortunately, I shall have to get my car inspected. I made sure, over the weekend, that I opened my glove compartment to see if my registration & insurance cards are both still there. Without them I'd be in extremely seriously big trouble because they're both mandatory. Car troubles have always gotten me crazy. They make you stay in those places all day long surrounded by boring TV shows & periodicals, all about sports, which I've never enjoyed. Yesterday I made sure I read more of Shakespeare's "Cymbeline". It's extremely hard to figure out.