ST. JOSEPH'S FEAST DAY

Oddly, it doesn't get, at least in this country, anywhere near the attention as St. Patrick's Day, but today really is the Feast of St. Joseph. Once again Uncle Frankie showed up for only a little while yesterday. Yesterday I finished "Vanity Fair" & started re_reading Evelyn Waugh's "Vile Bodies". The weather, when I first left this morning, was very damp & raining. We most certainly need the rain, but it's still a rotten feeling. Everyone was quite surprised yesterday to hear of Natasha Richardson's death. It could have been much worse. She could have lived indefinitely like Terri Schiavo, Eluana Englaro or Karen Anne Quinlan. At least it's all over for her. Recently, on Facebook, I took a test to see how much of a New Yorker I am. It was mostly for the hard core city slickers. I lived in Queens when I was a kid but the test was geared toward people who've really been significantly engrossed in it all. Somehow I must have guessed all the right answers. Yesterday I got gas at the Unimart in Exeter on Wyoming Avenue.

SPRINGTIME BECKONS

Nothing much has been happening lately. As of yesterday I'm down to the very last four pages of "Vanity Fair". As soon as I'm finished with it, I shall start yet another book. St. Patrick's Day went by without any trouble. The only thing I absolutely couldn't stand was that the phone, as always, rang absolutely constantly. Mary Anne, Fran, Rose & a constant non_stop barrage of others called. Uncle Frankie came over for a while. For some reason he didn't end up sticking around very long. The weather has been awfully nice lately. I've seen some St. Patrick's Days with a lot of snow. Somehow, even though this past winter was overwhelmingly brutal compared to others, it ended a little bit early. Unfortunately my parents won't be going to New York this weekend. They haven't been feeling well enough for the trip lately.

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

St. Patrick's Day has been working out quite well so far. It's been a nice quiet day with no major trouble. I'm wearing all my official green clothes, though not the right shade. I even have my shamrock socks on. Yesterday, as usual, Noreen called from St. Joseph's to make sure I'd be available for St. Joseph's Feast day on Thursday. This morning after Mass I went to the rectory to pick up the papers I'll need. Uncle Frankie came over yesterday when I wasn't around. As always he made sure he left a souvenir. This time it was donuts. I'm old enough to remember when McDonald's used to sell a shamrock shake every year for St. Patrick's Day. It was only a vanilla shake with green food coloring anyway but we'd all enjoyed it. Now it's just a bunch of nostalgia running around in my head. I'm still reading "Vanity Fair" & now have only a few dozen pages yet to go.

FATTENING WEEKEND

Saturday worked out well. Uncle Frankie, Fran & Lisa came over for St. Patrick's Day. Of course Cheryl called & I ended up having to cover for her at 5:00 Mass so I couldn't eat until after 6:00. There were corned beef, cabbage & all the usual other things. To my chagrin, the pie tasted a bit on the weird side but everything else was really good. From what I heard of it, the parade over in Scranton was pretty big & went really well. Tomorrow will be the real St. Patrick's Day. As always, though, the celebrating was over the nearest weekend. Last night, unfortunately, the phone rang off the hook. First it was Bill, then Maria, then Mary Anne. I've never been able to stand the phone. Now we are at the final countdown for the official start of spring. Last night, for some strange reason, I watched some of "Larry the Cable Guy". That is one supremely tacky show. It's quite an absolutely bottomless pit of tacky & tasteless.

VERY CLOSE TO SPRING

We're no suffering through the very last weekend of winter for this past year. It's hard to believe that spring is only a week away. St. Patrick's Day is coming up & we shall be doing our partying later today. This particular holiday has always been quite a nice time for me. It's full of good food & partying. I've been to a few parades over the course of my lifetime, most of them in Manhattan. I even got a chance to meet RFK at the last parade right before his death. There was, unfortunately, one parade over in Mineola which I never should have attended. I was extremely violently sick all day but somehow I ended up going anyway. Yesterday I read quite a bit more of "Vanity Fair". Considering that it's so long I've been getting very close to the end lately. Katie, one of the Buffalo kin, has just reminded us that today is Pi Day. I've always stunk at math. It's never been good at anything that's the least bit logically consistent.

FRIDAY THE 13

Yet another Friday the 13 beckons. Once again no major catastrophes appear to be awaiting anyone I know of. I read even more of "Vanity Fair" yesterday. The small print, combined with the book's length, gets me crazy. The afterword, on top of everything else, is awfully atrociously left_wing. Last week was the end of this part of the season for "Burn Notice" so I didn't bother to stay up late last night. I see Cathleen's back in circulation. Today is the first time I've heard from her in the past few weeks. Now that the weather's been getting better each day, I shall soon have no more excuse not to get out & start walking again. Sometimes it can be very annoying & boring but at least it keeps me reasonably thin & healthy. St. Patrick's Day is coming up. I don't know of any big festivities around here but they always seem to have a few little local things.

WEIRD WEATHER

A rousing happy birthday goes out today to Leonard, the very oldest of all us first cousins. He lives in Michigan. I read quite a lot of "Vanity Fair" yesterday. I've been going through it at a fairly steady pace. Once again today I tried to carry on a conversation with my Italian cousin Doriana. It's not so easy since neither of us speaks the other's language well. Although my father fell in the kitchen a few days ago, his leg troubles have been getting progressively better each day since then. Tomorrow is yet another Friday the 13th. So far I don't expect anything especially evil to happen. It's all quite a crock anyway. Yesterday's weather started out too cold but after a while ended up getting very nice. This morning, as I left St. Joseph's I noticed that there were light snow flurries, for a few minutes, but they didn't amount to anything.

SCALIA BIRTHDAY

Happy seventy third birthday to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. I know this because he & I are on each other's Facebook friends lists. Yesterday I read quite a lot more of "Vanity Fair". That's one advantage to their being nothing worthwhile on TV. I watched "Wheel Of Fortune" & "Jeopardy" but that's about all. Yesterday a councilman, Michael Baloga, came to the door trying to get me to vote for him. Oddly, even though he's the incumbent around here, I'd never even heard of him before. I promised to make sure I'd try to track him down on the internet. Unfortunately I've never been terribly hep about politics, especially on the local level. Yesterday was the fiftieth anniversary of the introduction of the Barbie doll. Barbie's last name is Roberts. Not every inanimate object gets to have its own life story. Maybe somebody's already written her biography by now. I took a Benadryl last night & my scratch throat seems to be doing a little bit better by now.

COUGH

My persistent cough has yet to go away. Most probably I just have some extremely annoying allergy. I get something like this just about every year anyway. Uncle Frankie recommended that I take Benadryl. Java, in Buffalo, recommended Nyquil. I've been most certainly progressing quite well through "Vanity Fair" lately. At the rate I've been going I should be finished in about another nine days. Last night was a busy time for the phone. For some strange reason Uncle Frankie, Fran & Leonard all called rather late at night. I absolutely can't stand the phone & have never been able to understand what could possibly have so many people so smitten with it. The weather's a little bit nicer today than it's been recently. At least it's not raining though I so desperately want the spring to come.

DISGUSTING WEATHER

All has been going fairly well lately. My cough is persistent but not entirely beyong control. Last night's Holy Name Society meeting went well. Fr. Walsh didn't show up but most of the others were there. Jerry, whose seventieth birthday was a little over a month ago, didn't make any kind of a prepared meal this time. There were beer & soda, cookies & those little fish crackers. Besides that, Tom's brother showed up with some Old Forge pizza for us, both red & white. I've yet to go to Luzerne for the one I'm supposed to get. I still have the coupon. The weather's been absolutely disgusting lately. Although yesterday, after a morning full of rain clouds, showed signs, at first of being a nice spring day, it started raining later in the day. The rain, bitter & icy, has yet to stop. Yesterday I read quite a lot of "Vanity Fair".