TORRENTIAL DOWNPOUR

Uncle Frankie & Fran showed up for a while yesterday. It was his real birthday. She has to get a new car so she was in town to do some shopping around. Today's cousin Maelene's birthday. Her real name's Mary Ellen. Maelene is just a nickname I gave her because it's the Irish version of her name. St. John's annual feast in Pittston is starting tonight. A couple of years ago I was on a winning streak at those church feasts. I won a bunch of horror movies at St. John's. It was somewhat hard to park there this morning. I hope their weather will be much better than it was last night. It was pouring out. In the Carolinas they got eight inches in eight hours. At least the construction work by the bridge seems to be less intense today than it's been lately. There was no road block, unlike the past few days. I have a slight headache today. I got one a few days ago too. It must be from the weather. Maybe it's because I've been doing too much reading. I've been trying to read a lot of "Don Quijote" each day. I continue to practice my guitar each day too.

HAPPY IT'S OVER!

Barbara from the Carmelite meetings called yesterday with more information & questions. Our next meeting is this Saturday morning. Bob from St. Joseph's called last night too. He spent a lot of time talking about the lates developments at the churches. I also ran into him outside the church this morning. Fran's old friend, Linda, with her mother, was at Mass this morning. I haven't seen Linda in a few decades. She still looks about the same. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while yesterday. It's his birthday today although the party was on Sunday. Java's & Nunziata's thirty sixth wedding anniversary is also today. Another milestone today is Marie's birthday. She & I were in the same class from the eighth grade through high school. She's a little red haired girl but I've always liked her anyway. Lately the weather's been exceptionally hot & it rained for a while yesterday. I'm quite happy that there was no road block this morning on my way home. That was so annoying having to go through Wilkes_Barre just to get to my neighborhood from Sixth Street. Unfortunately I just overheard someone say that they've started working again. They must have gotten a late start today. I'm still reading "Don Quijote". Much of it is coming back to me because of my having already read it before.

DETOUR CONTINUES

It was pouring out last night. There was a threat, all day, of a very violent rainstorm. The TV reception was even temporarily lost on most channels. It started pouring late at night. Mary Anne called last night from Mark's house. Larry called over the weekend. The phone gets a lot of mileage. After I finished "Mansfield Park" I started re_reading Cervantes' "Don Quijote". It's overwelmingly long but quite interesting. It's classified as a picaresque novel. I don't know of anything else Cervantes ever wrote so I'm a bit surprised that his reputation is pert near as good as Shakespeare's. They both died on the same day. Yesterday QVC had a really nice special on about the Beatles. I didn't end up buying anything but it was especially interesting to watch because of all the good souvenirs. There was yet another detour today because of the bridge. It was easy for me though because I'm quite used to it by now. Yesterday I played more of my guitar. The guitar solo for "And I Love Her" still drives me plum loco but it gets a little bit easier each time.

MANY BIRTHDAYS

The weekend was very nice in spite of yesterday's major thunderstorms. There was even a jolt of lightning that knocked out one of the TV's. Danny came over yesterday to give my parents, Mary Anne & family, & Gino & Michelle the official picture from the Fourth of July. He was wearing his maroon shirt & showed up in his maroon truck. It was all so fabulously color_coordinated. Leonard called to ask my father about some kind of a recipe he wanted. This morning the doors at St. Joseph's were locked because no one wanted to be bothered with opening them. We got in really late. I asked Father Marchetti, after Mass, if he'd be willing to let the Carmelites use one of the churches for meetings from now on. He says our chances are pretty good so far. Uncle Frankie's birthday party was yesterday even though his birthday's not until Wednesday. All went quite well. Mary Anne's birthday is today. August is a busy birthday month. As Uncle Frankie warned me over the weekend, there was yet another detour today because of construction on the bridge. Once again I was forced to go home by way of Wilkes_Barre at the courthouse. I listened to classical music, a lot of Mozart, & jazz over the weekend. I'm starting to learn to play the lead guitar to the Beatles' "And I Love Her". It's fairly easy but extremely annoying.

OPERATION & RESIGNATION

The weather's been very nice lately although it was a little too cool & foggy very early this morning. I don't have to lector this weekend which is a nice change of pace. I'm still reading "Mansfield Park" & by now I'm down to the last few dozen pages. I should be finished in only a very short time. Today we must wish an especially happy birthday to Bunny. Her real name's Bernadette & her real birthday's tomorrow. I'm not available on Sundays though. She lives in Derry, Pa. We've never met in person. We're just net friends. She's on my Facebook list. It just occurred to me that Richard M. Nixon resigned the presidency on this day in 1974, thus bringing about the end of the cultural 1960's. I remember that day because it was the day of my eye operation over in Brunswick Hospital in Amityville, N.Y. It seems as if it were only yesterday. I was between the ninth & tenth grades over at St. John the Baptist in West Islip. I've been playing my guitar quite a lot lately. Unfortunately I only have songs by the Beatles & very few other bands to work with but it's still enjoyable.

SERIOUSLY WEIRD DETOUR

My father's car battery died yesterday. Oddly, he just got an inspection on Wednesday & everything worked out. At 10:00 a.m. yesterday he tried to start the car & it was dead. He called AAA & they got him in touch with a garage in West Pittston. They promised they'd show up within a half hour but never bothered to get there until after 2:00. When they got there they towed the car down to the Saturn dealership in Hanover & he got a new battery. Uncle Frankie came over with one of his very favorite pasta recipes & hung around for a while. I went to Wendy's over in Edwardsville yesterday & got a free chocolate milk shake with an old coupon I got from a blood drive a while ago. Today I was forced into the weirdest of detours. After I got out of Mass at O.L. Sorrows I went to the post office on Sixth Street to mail something. On the way back I was forced by the local policemen to go over the bridge, through Hilldale, into Wilkes_Barre. I ended up having to come home by way of the courthouse. Today we wish a very happy birthday to Autilia. She's married to my cousin Lanfranco. Tomorrow's the ninetieth birthday of one of the parishioners at O.L. Sorrows & St. Joseph's. Last night I saw the season finale of "Burn Notice". Barbara from the Carmelites called yesterday. She spent about ten minutes explaining a lot of details to me.

GARY'S & MARIA'S ANNIVERSARY

I got a call from Lynn from O.L. Mt. Carmel's meeting yesterday. She wasn't available so the meeting was cancelled. I watched the show about Shakespeare as is my usual Wednesday habit. It was a rerun but it's always interesting. Around the end of my night I listened to some of my Thelonius Monk CD. I played the guitar too for a while. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while yesterday. For some strange reason there was even more disgustingly sloppy chicken, this time from KFC, yesterday. after a while it gets nauseatingly boring. Today is Gary's & Maria's anniversary. They were married in 1983. He's my slightly older cousin in Massapequa. I can still remember their wedding as if it were only yesterday. I was in the party.

THERE'S A MEETING HERE TONIGHT

Lately the big murder, last week over in Exeter is still the conversation piece all over town. I listened to some of my Ramsey Lewis CD last night. I have his "Finest Hour" CD. I ended up getting through around half of it. There are a lot of classics on it including "The In Crowd" & a couple of Beatle songs, "Day Tripper" & "A Hard Day's Night". Yesterday I ate chicken for supper. It ws reasonably good but entirely too sticky. That always gets on my nerves when I have to spend more time cleaning up from the mess than eating in the first place. I'm still reading "Mansfield Park". Today at 6:30 that show about Shakespeare will be on again. I hope I shall be able to remember to watch it. Tonight I shall be attending the next meeting over at O.L. Mt. Carmel in Pittston.

DAVE'S NAME TROUBLES

For a change of pace this morning I ended up going to the Unimart on Shoemaker Avenue for the paper. Gas prices have been consistently going up lately. Uncle Frankie showed up yesterday, zucchini in hand. He only stuck around for a little while. My parents spent a few hours food shopping. Dave said hello to me this morning as I first left. For some odd reason he's always called me Leonard. I read a lot more of "Mansfield Park" yesterday. Since I've already read it a few times before, it's been coming back to me. I recognize a lot of it from the last times. My guitar playing has been coming along quite well lately. I practiced a few songs yesterday, especially the inevitable "Do You Want to Know A Secret?". Jim, in California, recently put a bunch of nice pictures about Cathy's high school class reunion. Everybody from their crowd went. The bad news is that she now has to spend three weeks on jury duty.

WEIRD LITTLE RAINSTORM

The weekend went by quite nicely. Of course Cheryl called, as always, to see if I'd be willing to cover for her. I wasn't home at the time. I didn't end up covering for her. I lectored yesterday at 10:00 Mass. There was a big murder in Exeter on Saturday afternoon. Everyone heard a bunch of sirens on Wyoming Avenue for quite a while. It turns out that some guy burned down a house over around the neighborhood of Gubbiotti's funeral home. On Saturday night I saw the old 1960's Swedish movie "I Am Curious Yellow". Amazingly I can still remember having heard of it when it first came out. It was exactly what I fully expected, all left.wing socialism & smut. Martin Luther King, Jr. & Yevgeny Yevtuschenko both appeared in it. Franco was still in charge over in Spain. Last night I saw "Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid". It included Robert Redford, Paul Newman & very many other familiar names & faces from the 1960's. Saturday I finished "The Possessed" & started re_reading Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park". The oddest thing happened yesterday. There was a very violent little rainstorm only in Wyoming. Uncle Frankie, in West Wyoming, didn't get a drop. He & my father went to the game with no trouble. Over the weekend I played my guitar conscientiously, practicing for a while each day.