ST JUDE NOVENA

I plum forgot all about the annual novena to St. Jude over in Pittston but I can still go for the last few days. This morning when I showed up at 7:30 Mass in Pittston, there was a priest laid out in his coffin for his funeral. The first time I ever noticed anything like that when I was a kid over in East Elmhurst, at St. Gabriel's, my first time as an altar boy. The only other thing I remember about that time was that Lisa Sollazzo's brother was there too. After Mass I made sure I stopped for gas, as usual &, as always, the Citizen's Voice. This morning it's damp & raining but it's much nicer than recent rainy mornings, that have been very bitter, foggy & cold. My father & Uncle Frankie, as usual went to their big high school game last night. Yesterday I finished "Hamlet" & started re_reading "Troilus & Cressida". I hope I can finish it this time. I keep playing my guitar. Yesterday I cracked open my Eric Clapton books again.

HAPPY FRIDAY

The week is winding down. It's time once again for our traditional Friday dance. A few days ago we got our new lector schedules for church. I have to lector again tomorrow at 5:00 Mass. Uncle Frankie came over for a while last night. He & my father are supposed to go to yet another game tonight. Recently I found out that the World Series this year is between Pa.'s very own Phillies & the Tampa Bay Rays. Never having even heard of the Rays before, I was a little confused at first. Because of my never having enjoyed sports I'm bound to get more than a little frustrated while the whole thing's going on. I made sure I sent my cousin Karen a Halloween card. Unfortunately she's in a hospice. My guitar playing has been still going reasonably well. Yesterday I tried playing Eric Clapton's "Let it Rain" from 1970. There's a part of it that Robert Cray used for "Smoking Gun" in 1985. A lot of musicians borrow. That's a very common practice in blues & folk music. I tried a bit of "Lay Down Sally" & "Knocking on Heaven's Door" too.

GETTING COLDER

The weather is colder than I like it these days. Every morning, including this morning, I have to scrape a lot of ice off all my windows. At least it wasn't raining this morning. As far as I know, Uncle Frankie didn't show up yesterday. Sometimes he comes over when I'm not around so it's very hard to tell. We're getting very close to the end of the month. Halloween beckons. I got a call from the American Red Cross last night. They asked me to give a double red cell donation again. This time it's back over at the Hanover Industrial Complex. My appointment is on Halloween, next Friday, so I should hope it will be easy to remember. I just hope I can have a much easier time getting there this time around. November has never struck me as an interesting time. I got gas today at Turkey Hill in Exeter. Local gas stations these days, even the Citgo on Wyoming Ave. which is usually the most expensive of all, are only charging around $3.79.9 a gallon. I have no idea why but when I first put it on this morning my watch was around ten minutes fast.

NICE PARTY

Last night's party at St. Joseph's worked out quite well. Father Walsh showed up & gave a short speech before it began. Unlike the ones I used to go to at St. John's & O.L.P.H., I hardly knew anybody at this one. It's technically not even really my parish but we have the same pastor. They served pizza, chicken, pasta & lots of other good food with strawberry cake with white icing for dessert. They had Pepsi & coffee to drink. After it was all over, I ended up getting drafted into helping them clean up the mess. Unfortunately the majority of the conversation revolved around the big shakedown in the Scranton Diocese. As with any other combination of groups, people from O.L.Sorrows & people from St. Joseph's have a very hard time getting along, especially under stressful circumstances. Alas, today's weather so far has been a repeat performance of yesterday's. I read more of "Hamlet" this morning. All those obscure references, as always, grate on my nerves. I'm just happy to have all the footnotes available.

BEATLE RINGO

Alas, Beatle Ringo, because of all sorts of aggravation with fans' requests for autographs, has flatly refused to sign any more autographs after October 20. In January, the Fab Four's drummer angered fellow Liverpudlians by saying he didn't miss his hometown. Even at sixty eight years old, a Beatle can still ruffle feathers. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. The weather so far today has been extremely bitter cold, cloudy & raining. I'm still reading "Hamlet". It gets easier as I keep going further & further through it. It's the one with the classic "To be or not to be..." soliloquy & Polonius' advice to Laertes. Everybody is at least somewhat familiar with both those passages. Tonight at St. Joseph's they'll be having their annual thank_you party for the Harvest Festival workers. I always used to enjoy those things over at O.L.P.H. & St. John the Baptist. I'm sure St. John's must have already had their homecoming game by now. It was really nice when I used to be able to get to show up every year. I've never liked sports but I used to enjoy the breakfast & picking on a few of my old teachers.

NICE WEEKEND

I didn't end up lectoring this weekend. We went over to Uncle Frankie's yesterday to eat. Fran was home until last night. She works over an hour away from here so it's very hard for her to get back to this area a lot. Everything was really good but it was so fattening & spicy. I had an interesting time catching up with all their gossip. When I finished "King Lear" yesterday, I started "Hamlet". I haven't read it in quite a while but I can still remember a lot about it. The weather is getting colder lately. For all the nice scenery, the ice on my car in the mornings still gets me nuts. Lately I've been watching other TV shows besides the ones I'm used to. A couple of days ago I watched an episode of "Everybody Loves Raymond" & yesterday I watched "Third Rock From the Sun". I know they were both cancelled a few years ago & are in reruns now but that entirely in keeping with my approach to things anyway.

CARMELITE MEETING

The meeting went very well this morning even though only very few people showed up. Sister Catherine & a few of the other ladies were there. We're still trying to finalize plans for the sale that Jim Lancelotti is supposed to have. We've been thinking of maybe trying for Easter time. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. As usual he & my father went to the football game. They left earlier than most weeks because it was over in Wyoming County. On the way they picked up their friend Tony & stopped for something to eat. Mary Anne called last night. Michael has strep throat. He's been sick lately anyway. For the first time in the past few weeks, I'm not on the schedule to lector this weekend but who knows what may happen? Yesterday I started reading "King Lear" again. This time I shall have to pay more attention to references to comparisons of Lear's eyesight with Albany's & Gloucester's.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

It's time once again for our weekly Friday dance. Yesterday turned out to be much colder than it's been lately. After the rain calmed down it was still very cold. Uncle Frankie came over for a while. He & my father are supposed to go to yet another game tonight. This time it's way over in Tunkhannock. I just noticed that it's in Wyoming County. Aunt Lauren called my mother yesterday. I don't suppose anything interesting has been going on with her family lately. This morning I finished "MacBeth" & later today I intend to get started on "King Lear" again. It pays to read these plays over & over until it all gradually manages to set in. Later on I shall move on to a few others. I woke up yesterday with an annoying headache that lingered all through the night. Fortunately I took some headache pills & it went away. Today there's still no trouble. Tomorrow is our monthly Carmelite meeting. They've been thinking of starting a half hour earlier from now on because of new rules from Middletown. That's most certainly no big problem for me since I've always been compulsively early for everything anyway.

RAINING

When I first went out this morning the weather was miserable. It was damp & raining. Last night I watched C.span from 7:30_9:00 up until right before the beginning of the debate. There was a call_in segment for people to suggest questions to ask the candidates. I considered calling but didn't bother. Every time I've ever tried to get through to something like that the lines have always been nightmarishly busy. Uncle Frankie came over for a while to see it. Mary Anne said, on the phone this morning, that she had a good time at it. Michael especially must have appreciated it. I just don't ever stay up late if I can possibly avoid it. I found out from on of my Myspace connections that some states even allow early voting. In Tennessee it was Election Day today. Yesterday I practiced my guitar & read more of "MacBeth". It takes a while for that Elizabethan English to set into my head so I have to read it extremely slowly & extremely carefully. The footnotes have always aggravated me. My next Carmelite meeting will be on Saturday morning. I should most hope the attendance will be at least a little better than it was last month. Hardly anybody showed up.

THE BIG HOFSTRA DEBATE

Mary Anne, my sister, will be moderating a pre-debate panel at 7:30 tonight (Wednesday) that will be live on C-Span television and Sirius radio. Hope you will be able to watch/listen. Yesterday I finished "King Lear" & started "MacBeth" again. I hope I shall be able to finish it this time. The last time I never got beyond the middle. As always nothing much worth bothering with is on TV lately so I read quite a whole lot. I found out that my father got a call on Monday night inviting him to go see Sarah Palin in Scranton. He wasn't willing to go. Nobody bothered to tell me about it until it was too late. If I should have known, I should have been happy to go. This will be one of the most significant elections of our time. I just noticed that there's a new movie out about Bush 43. It's called "W". Since nobody likes W, whose approval rating is even worse than Nixon's, most probably nobody will be willing to bother with "W" either. Bush has certain things in common with Nixon. Nobody wants this war any more than Viet Nam & nobody likes Cheney any more than Agnew. The death toll in this war is insanely higher than Nixon's war.