THANKSGIVING AND ADVENT

Thanksgiving worked out reasonably well. Mary Anne & family couldn't come in but the relatives from West Wyoming were here. Fran got here for a little while. The food, as always, was entirely too fattening. The only disadvantage was that at the end of the night I went to bed with a very bad headache. I took an Excedrin migraine pill, though, & it soon went away. A lot of relatives called to say hello. Gary called. He & I spent quite a long time on the phone. The Ronald & Linda even showed up from Washington State to visit Hilldale. They showed up for a couple of hours a few nights ago. Recently I went to a Lay Carmelite meeting in Wilkes_Barre & a men's group meeting at St. Monica's. Those meetings really keep me busy. Recently I saw Alfred Hitchcock's "The Wrong Man" & the famous Humphrey Bogart movie, "The Maltese Falcon". Now that my father's home from the hospital he has to go to the V.A. hospital in Wilkes_Barre frequently. He can't drive for now so I have to drive him there. I also have to do the grocery shopping. That's a major advantage because I always use my Price Chopper card to make sure I get credit for gas for my car. This past Sunday the Church started using the new translation for the Mass. It's a little hard to handle at first because of such an old habit but it should be very easy after a while. It's the same translation as the one they used when I was a kid. I went to a meeting a while ago at St. Monica's where a visiting monsignor explained all about it for us. Advent has begun. Christmas will soon be upon us. Unfortunately today marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Beatle George.

BAD TIME FOR QUEENS KIDS

Lately it's been such a sad time for us kids from 92 Street & St. Gabriel's. Earl's mother died in October, two weeks before his birthday. He & his brother, Jr., were really good kids. Tommy, Jo Anne & Ruthie were also friends of mine from those days. Their mother died last week too. When Earl's mother died I made sure I talked to him on the phone. It was the very first time we'd spoken since we were twelve years old. We haven't seen each other in person since then. I also spoke to Jo Anne on the phone when her mother died. My father was recently rushed to the hospital a while ago too. First he went to the Veteran's Hospital. Then he went to the General Hospital. They're both in Wilkes_Barre. He gets lots of visitors & phone calls. He's been recovering slowly but it's a seriously strenuous time for all. Mary Anne, Steve & Bridget came in for a couple of days last weekend to see how everything's been working out so far. We've spent a lot of time going back & forth to the hospital but my mother & Uncle Frankie are getting a bit too old for this kind of aggravation.

NOVENA

During the first week of last month I went to Rose Chairge's in West Pittston to get a haircut. I was a little afraid to ask her because of the floods up there. Fortunately she didn't have any trouble. The lay Carmelite meeting, a few weeks ago, went quite well. The attendance was exceptionally good. A few people talked about the retreat in Middletown, N.Y. in September. Recently I went to the annual St. Jude novena at O.L. Eucharist Church on Main Street in Pittston Junction. I really like to go there every year. I only missed the first night. One night I went nuts because they put up orange cones to block the parking lot so outsiders couldn't steal spaces. The problem was they kept me out to. Sister Mary Ann explained the circumstances. This month I also needed an oil change. I made an appointment to have Frank Gubbiotti, from Plains, do it. He's on River Road. His place needs lots of repairs because River Road was hit so hard by the flood. I made sure I asked him to help with my odometer too. If I don't get another one by January I shall not pass my inspection. Recently my oldest friend, Earl from Puerto Rico, gave us all such very sad news. His mother recently died. She was always such a very good person when I knew them in Queens. When I went to a recent Guardian of the Redeemer meeting at the Oblate Seminary on 315, last Saturday, there was a bad blizzard that started early in the day. & drove us crazy all day. That's not a good place to have to deal with a snowstorm because the road back & forth to there is so steep.

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

September 16 was my birthday & the 25 was my father's. All went well. As always Uncle Frankie & kin came over from West Wyoming. They stayed for a few hours & we all had a really nice time. The only trouble was that Mary Anne & her family couldn't come in because they were all too sick. I got a surprise on my birthday from my old friend Jim. He said he was in Baghdad with the Air Force. Fr. McKernan's birthday was the 17 so he & I went to breakfast the morning of mine at the Colonial Pancake House on Wyoming Avenue in Wyoming. It was a really nice time. The week after that Walter & his wife, after 8:30 Mass at St. Joseph's, invited me to go to breakfast with them at the Avenue diner on Wyoming Avenue in West Wyoming. While we were there I noticed a lot of other people were there from St. Monica's too. Unfortunately Fr. McKernan got into a very bad accident on Rte. 309 in Wilkes_Barre last Thursday. His car was totalled & he was slightly hurt when an old woman ran a stop sign & hit him. Unfortunately because of the recent flood there have been all sorts of troubles around here. I went to the St. Therese novena for five of the nine days over this past week. Her feast day was this past Saturday. It was insanely hard to get home though because the northbound lane of River Road is closed down. It was severly damaged in the flood. One day I made the very definite mistake of trying to go home by way of the detour. It didn't work out well. I was afraid that Rose wouldn't be available to cut my hair because West Pittston was especially badly hit. I asked Michelle about her though & she told me to go to her Facebook site. When I sent her a message there she said that nothing bad had happened to her. I can make an appointment to go to her barber shop now. Today is the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi. We wish a happy day to all Franciscans.

BIRTHDAY EARTHQUAKE

Two weeks ago I went to the annual Bazaar at St. John the Evangelist Church in Pittston.   It was a really nice time even though it was violently hot & crowded.  The traffic was so bad that even though I got there fifteen minutes after it started I was still forced to park around a quarter of a mile away.  I gave them my usual five dollars to buy some contest tickets.   I won a twenty five dollar gift certificate to a nice Italian restaurant in Forty Fort.   Last week was Pittston's annual Tomato Festival.  I went there for a little while one day too.  The guy whow was in charge of the San Cataldo Society's basket of cheer reminded me that he recognized me from last year.  We see each other over there every year.   A couple of days later my mother, Fran & I went there to check it out.  I got a falafel at the middle eastern food stand.  Fran got something too.  We took something home for my father.  We also got t~shirts as souvenirs.   Unfortunately for two nights in a row I got extremely violent headaches a while ago.   I'm still supposed to water those really nice flowers whenever it doesn't rain.  Lately, though, it seems to rain so frequently that I hardly ever bother even to think twice about them.   Yesterday was my nephew (& godson) Michael's twenty~third birthday.   Amazingly it was also, for most people I know, our very first ever experience with an earthquake.  Although it occurred somewhere over in Virginia, because it registered at 5.8 on the Richter scale it affected the entire eastern seaboard.   I happened to have been looking at my Facebook account at the time so I was able to get  reactions & comments from friends, relatives & former classmates & teachers of mine in many different parts of the country.   When it first happened the woman sitting right next to me made a comment about how maybe it was from the truck that was passing by.  We then realized, though, that that couldn't have been it because the building shook violently & it lasted for about ten seconds.   There are very many birthdays in August so happy day to all who qualify. 

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OIL CHANGE

Lately I've been watering the flowers in the front yard every day that it doesn't rain.   That most certainly didn't include yesterday.   There were two absolutely torrential downpours, each one fairly brief, with lots of thunder & lightning.  This year has been quite a record breaker for extreme temperatures.  I have absolutely no idea whatsoever of what the names of most of the flowers are, except the buttercups.  They're the big yellow ones.   The flowers appear to go through phases somehow.  There are times when they're all out either in full bloom or on their way, with exceptionally nice buds.   Then they go through periods of total absolute death.  They all get stark & horrible looking.   Each stage seems to last for only a fairly short time.  Recently I went to Di Leo's Garage on Wyoming Avenue & Ninth Street in town to get an oil change.  It's only right down the street.  It went fairly well except for the price.  It got a little steep because I needed a new oil filter & a rim for my tire.  The guy who's in charge is named Joe.   Another guy gave me a ride each way so I could stay home while it was getting fixed.    Fortunately it only took a few hours.   Sometimes those things can last for an unbearably long time.  Daren's birthday was July 21.  I made sure I sent her mother, Grace, a card.  She sent me one too.  She included some very nice pictures of Daren & her(Daren's)two sisters.  Daren died in 2005.   Fr. McKernan has been doing a really good job so far of keeping our men's group running.  We meet on the second & fourth Saturday mornings of each month in O.L. Sorrows rectory.  The last Carmelite meeting, a couple of weeks ago, went really well too.   Attendance wasn't so good but we got a lot done there.  Our meetings are every third Saturday of the month at 9:00 a.m. at the Little Flower Manor on South Meade Street in Wilkes_Barre.  We always welcome new members.

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FOURTH OF JULY SHINDIG

This past weekend, starting pretty much on Friday morning, my father's relatives got together for their fifty~first annual overcrowded feeding frenzy in Hilldale.   They call it a family reunion.  Richie's, Sean's & Jamie's families were all missing.  Michael, Tony Sr. & Junior & Scott from Buffalo weren't there either,  but most of the others managed to make it.   Michael even took Erin with him.   I made sure I wore a hat most days & didn't a headache or sunburn.   Yesterday I forgot though, & I woke up very early this morning with a headache.  Because I always made sure I stayed only until around 8:00 each night I never got too worn out.    As always it was a mixture of sports, gossip, intellectual debate, religion & politics,  & picture taking.   My camera & video camera got a lot of mileage.  The food was entirely too fattening so I shall have to spend the next few weeks toning my appetite down.   Mary Anne, Robin & a few others even went shopping for hooch.  I put in a share of the price & got a few swigs to show for it over the course of the weekend.  Most probably I shall not have another drop until the next especially big occasion.   Unfortunately the only thing missing this year was music.  Most years lately we always seem to have an ad~hoc band made up of anyone who can play his way out of a brown paper bag.    There was some bad news on Saturday since the insanely violent electrical storm, that started at about 4:00 a.m., lasted all day & drove us all plum crazy.  It's been raining like crazy for quite a while this past spring & summer.   A few weeks ago Vinnie, Steve & I got the idea to go to Jitty Joe's  for ice cream but somehow we didn't end up going.    Several people only stayed for a day or two so it was hard to keep track of everyone.