NICE QUIET WEEKEND SO FAR

Yesterday went quite well. Uncle Frankie showed up for a while. There doesn't seem to be anything interesting going on with him lately. He & my father are supposed to go to a big game tonight. They got the tickets, & McDonald's coupons, from Fran a while ago. I made sure I spent even more time practicing my guitar & reading that book about Marxism yesterday. Last night, I ate a fudgesicle. It was the very first time, in quite a while, that I'd eaten one. It was most certainly no big deal, just plain average chocolate. I've tasted better in my lifetime. This morning, right after 7:30 Mass at O.L. Mt. Carmel I made sure I stopped for gas at the gas station right next door. The gas over there is about twenty cents less expensive than it was only around a week ago. For whatever reason, the price has been steadily dropping lately. Today at 5:00 I have to lector at Mass. I just got a surprise from Mark, from my old KofC council 794 over in Lindenhurst. The guy has never even so much as sent me a single e mail, even for the sake of a bad joke, since I left New York & now he wants us to be on each other's friends lists at the Reunion website. It sounds good by me. I'm just plum confused about it all. Mark's always been quite a confusing sort in general anyway though.

NICE, CLOUDY & COOL

Today's our first full day, so far, without rain. It's especially nice with a cool gentle breeze. Yesterday I got back to that book about Marxism. I'd neglected it for a while. If I don't get moving on it, considering how long it is, I shall never get to finish it. Some of it can be more than a little on the dry side. I've studied economics a bit so I recognized the names of David Ricardo & Adam Smith. I also did a whole lot of practicing guitar scales. It can get very annoying after a while but it's a necessary evil. Maybe it's just my imagination but the whole things seems so much easier now than ever before. Today is Friday, time for our official Friday dance. So far the weekend doesn't seem to have anything particularly interesting in store for anybody. I have to lector at 5:00 Mass tomorrow but that's most certainly not all that big of a jolt for me by now. My mother called Mary Anne last night. There doesn't seem to be anything particularly big going on with them these days. I didn't see Uncle Frankie yesterday but knowing him he may have shown up when I wasn't around.

RAINY WEEK

Last night & this morning there was yet another violent rainstorm. Now the weather is very nice, cool & breezy. I've been noticing lately that gas prices have gotten substantially less expensive than they've been in quite a long while around here. Let's just hope our lucky streak can be counted on to last. It seems entirely too good to be true. The reason I haven't been using this blog much lately is because it's usually difficult to get into. It's often blocked. Under those circumstances I go to either my Myspace blog, Wordpress, Blogster or one of my others. Oddly, I have entirely too many. Yesterday I went right back to my guitar & practiced all those scales & Beatle songs. I keep improving, I should most certainly hope. I spent a while reading a book about St. John of the Cross too. I read something a while ago that said that there's a Sanjuanist influence in Emily Dickinson's poetry. From what I know of Dickinson, she could really identify with the idea of the Dark Night of the Soul. The book I read yesterday said that there was a lot of his influence in T.S. Eliot's poetry too. Unfortunately, I've never read much of anything by Eliot. As usual I watched "I Love Lucy" & "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" yesterday & last night I even tried to call in & ask a question on that show with Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J. but they didn't put me on. A few days ago, Fran asked why I never bother with new shows. I really didn't even have the satisfaction of any kind of an answer for her. Modern pop culture just bugs the hell out of me.

CARMELITE MEETING

This morning's Carmelite meeting most certainly appeared to have gone quite well even though hardly anybody showed up. Sister Catherine, Rita, Rosemary, Barbara & I were there. Anne showed up just in time for Mass. Dana is moving to Florida to be with his parents. Surprising, at the home they were having the parking lot paved this morning so I was forced to park in the other lot. It only threw me off for around a minute or two. Sister Catherine got us looking through a bunch of old books to see if there were any available that we'd be able to take advantage of. While she was looking, she broke a chair. The woman I invited, I met her at O.L. Mt. Carmel's feast last weekend, never showed up. Last night my parents told me that Aunt Helen, Gino's mother, was supposed to visit them late this morning. Her birthday was early this month. This was the very first time she's ever visited them so I was surprised to hear about it. Last night there was yet another electrical storm. It didn't amount to much of anything but it was very loud & annoying. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. On top of everything else I won a basket of bath & shower gels & lotions from a chance I took over at O.L. Mt. Carmel last weekend. I most certainly don't usually win much of anything at those functions so it was quite a really nice surprise. Later today I have to lector at 5:00 Mass.

READ & PRACTICE

Yesterday since it was the Feast of O.L. Mt. Carmel, I made sure I took advantage by reading books about Sts. John of the Cross & Therese of Lisieux. On top of everything else, I'll be that much more prepared for Saturday morning's Carmelite meeting. Besides that, I also made sure I did quite a whole lot of practicing on my guitar. To my chagrin, I haven't taken a good long walk in somewhere around a week by now. Around here there's not a whole lot of anything else to do except exercise in a place like this. So far there haven't been any pictures sent out by the relatives from the Fourth of July by way of e mail but I see Cousin Danny, from Hilldale, has a bunch of them on his official site. I haven't managed to find any acceptable pictures of me though. Those candid shots can really work to a guy's major disadvantage, if you get my drift. I watched "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" & "I Love Lucy" yesterday. There's still nothing on that's good these days other than old stuff & a few game shows. Uncle Frankie didn't come over yesterday as far as I know. Maybe he showed up when I wasn't even around. Knowing him it's entirely possible. I'm thinking he's been entirely too busy lately. KrissyKrissyKrissy hasn't sent any e mails about the christening so far but we're awaiting the big news any time now.

O.L. MT CARMEL FEAST DAY

Today is the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel. Yesterday & last night were somewhat busy for us. My father needed help with getting some paperwork done. Michelle (Gino's wife, not the blood cousin) & her mother showed up. So did Uncle Frankie. Mary Anne even called, though I don't think there was any connection. KrissyKrissyKrissy called. She wanted to make sure she told us about the plans for Natalie's christening. It's supposed to be very early next month. Unfortunately, I got some really bad news from Dave, the neighborhood handyman, this morning, when I first left to go to Mass. He told me that someone had stolen his gas can, which was full. My parents reminded me later on that it wasn't such a particularly bright idea of him to have left it out in the wide open in the first place. That's a whole nother story of its own though. Dave's more than a bit hard to explain. There's most certainly no shortage of neighborhood characters around here, shall we say? I sent a card out this morning to Grace, Daren's mother. Daren died in 2005 & Monday, the 21st, would have been her birthday. Yesterday I made sure I practiced my guitar & read some more of a book I have about St. Therese of Lisieux. We haven't seen hide or hair of Fran in quite a while. I assume she's been very busy lately. There hasn't been any rain or otherwise bad weather lately so I'm quite happy with it all these days.

QUIET DAY

Lately nothing much has been happening to me, which is good news. Yesterday I arranged very many books of mine into a reasonably decentish kind of order on some shelves. I have more books than I can be expected to handle easily so it pays to keep after them & avoid too much of a mess. I read more of that book about Marxism yesterday too. It gets more interesting for me as I keep going through it. For certain extremely obvious reasons, I've never been able to see what could possibly possess people to be so smitten with this kind of worldview but it most certainly has quite a fan club. I read some more from those Carmelite books too. Yesterday I also did quite a bit more practicing on my guitar. My lazy musical period seems to have ended a little while ago. I've gotten into the habit of going back & forth between scales & Beatle songs. It gets a bit stale after a while but it gets the job done. Once again yesterday there was still no sign of Uncle Frankie. Maybe he's been entirely too busy for us lately. Although it's hay fever season, so far my allergy troubles seem to be restricted to the occasional sneezing & runny nose & eyes. For that I am quite happy.

O.L. MT. CARMEL ANNUAL FEAST

O.L. Mt. Carmel's annual family feast was this weekend. I didn't remember until Saturday morning. It was pouring out last night so I never botherd to go but I showed up for a while on Saturday night. It was really nice. Besides entering a few contests, I also ate French fries & drank a cup of Pepsi. My father asked me to get him some funnel cake so I got him the next best available thing, a pizza frita. When I went over to the statue of O.L. Mt. Carmel, I ran into a young woman who's one of the regulars in the parish. Her name's Jean & she said she'd be interested in showing up at our lay Carmelite meeting next Saturday morning. We need new people. On Saturday I got a call from Laura. She said she wouldn't be available at 5:00 so I'd have to do the lectoring alone. There was another visitin priest like last weekend. This one was a really familiar face but I can't remember his name. Last weekend we got Fr. Jim Price from the Passionists in Scranton. I first met him when he was their vocation director. Danny came over with the big picture from the Fourth of July yesterday. I wasn't even in it because they kept postponing it. They only decided they were good & ready to take it when I wasn't available. Without me, what in Sam Hill good is it? Of course, as always, I made sure I put in a lot of time reading & playing my guitar over the weekend. Uncle Frankie didn't show up yesterday. That happens every once in a while.

COOLER THAN AVERAGE

Today's weather is slightly cooler than it's been lately but I still worked up quite a sweat on my walk this morning. At least it wasn't raining. Once again I walked practically all the way to the Midway. I need all the exercise I can get. Uncle Frankie never showed up yesterday but he called fairly late last night. Fran got them some tickets to see the Yankees. Mary Anne also called. All has been going well so far with them. I've been reading more of those Carmelite books lately. I've also been reading that book about Marxism. I just noticed that the drum that was used on the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper" album cover picture was recently sold for $1.1 million. People never seem to outgrow the Fab Four & they never become an anachronism. Speaking of them, I've been regularly plowing my way through their songs on my guitar lately. Today it's time for yet another Friday dance. I haven't gotten any headaches lately & that's always a major advantage. For the past few days I've been eating coffee yogurt. It's weird but believe it or not there really is at least one company out there that's just plum weird enough to make yogurt that's flavored like coffee. It's bitter but oddly, it tastes somehow just like the real thing. Amazingly I've eaten very many even weirder things over the course of my lifetime by now.

BOOK ABOUT MARXISM

Because I've always been quite seriously interested in the intellectual movements that have influenced the world, I started reading, yesterday, Lezsek Kolakowski's "Main Currents of Marxism". It's three volumes compiled into one. Mary Anne, a few years ago, complained about my having presumed to complain about Marxism even though I've never been even the least bit knowledgeable about it. From now on I shall have something to say from an informed point of view. Last night I watched a special about St. Teresa of Jesus of the Andes, a Carmelite from Chile. Her feast day is on July 13 which is also her birthday. July 9 was the feast of Bl. Jane Scopelli, also a Carmelite. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. Later on he & my father went over to visit Gino, Michelle & Jamie. I got kicked out of the library early yesterday so I took advantage by going to Barnes & Noble for a while. It rained a little but it was just a slight spring shower. It rained a while one day in Hilldale last week too, just long enough to get my guitars all wet. This time no damage was done. This morning I took a nice long walk over to the monument on Wyoming Avenue, past Susquehanna Avenue, on the way to the levee. I worked up quite a sweat but I need the exercise.