RAGING BLIZZARD!

Yesterday it snowed for most of the day, starting very early in the morning. There was ice too. I made sure I called Barbara last night, to avoid taking any chances about this morning's Carmelite meeting. It's a big trip in bad weather. At first she said she'd expected it not to be cancelled. At around 9:15 last night, though, she called & said it would be cancelled. The library closed at noon yesterday & opened an hour late today. Yesterday I had an extremely hard time plowing through the traffic & the visibility absolutely stunk, but today things, so far, have been much better. My mother & Fran were supposed to spend this weekend making cookies for Christmas but their plans were postponed because of the weather. Lately I've been eating entirely too many peanuts. They're entirely too enjoyable for my own good & quite addictive if I don't wise up & watch my step. I just found out from Sam that Mary Anne's famous annual Hanukkah party was a real success last night. According to him, all went quite well.

YET ANOTHER ST. GABRIEL'S FRIEND

I recently tracked down yet another connection from my days in Queens. Dennis & I were in the same class & I found him on Facebook yesterday. Having always been more than a little befuddled about whether the old neighborhood's in East Elmhurst or Jackson Heights, I made sure I asked Earl & Frank yesterday about it. Earl reminded me that we're somewhere in the middle & either name's allowed. It's sort of like a Lindenhurst & Copiague kind of thing, I should suppose. This morning I went for a total change of my usual habit. I ate an English muffin yesterday in the afternoon. That's most certainly no big deal because I always eat in the afternoon anyway. The surprise was that I even ate one for breakfast this morning too at around 6:30. Grace, Daren's mother, sent me a Christmas card. I got it yesterday. Daren died over three years ago. There's supposed to be a lot more snow coming tomorrow night. I just hope it doesn't affect the Carmelite meeting on Saturday.

SNOW!

It snowed yet again last night. It wasn't as bad as what we were threatened with. We expected to get up to four inches of snow. Once again, my handy dandy vinyl windshield cover comes to the rescue. It's not even winter yet & already the winter weather is getting nightmarishly boring. Yesterday & last night, unfortunately, I ate quite a whole lot of candy. It was from Aunt Lauren. People have been coming out of the woodwork over at Facebook. It's nice to see that Earl & Frank are on each other's friends lists. Christmas is now only eight days away. So far people have been taking it all quite well. The extreme aggravation hasn't quite sunk in just yet. Lately I've been awfully seriously cold even when I'm inside. I seem to lack the ability to get warmed up. It's quite an extremely annoying feeling.

MISERABLE WEATHER

It snowed last night & there's a miserable rain this morning. At least yesterday's rain wasn't so cold. Christmas very fast approaches. Santa Claus already made his rounds through the neighborhood on his big fire truck here recently. Aunt Lauren came over yesterday when my parents were shopping at Wegmann's. She left a present for them. I made sure I got Karen's exact address straightened out so we can send her a nice card. I've just read in the "San Francisco Chronicle" that Beatle Paul has recently stated that he, not John Lennon, was the political Beatle. McCartney claims that a mid_1960's meeting with fruitcake philosopher Bertrand Russell got him interested in protesting the Viet Nam War. This, says he, led to the Fabs' now notorious political & social activism. This Saturday morning I shall have to go to another Carmelite meeting in Wilkes_Barre.

MARIA CALLED

The weekend went well. I lectored at 5:00 Mass on Saturday. I bought another oplatki after Mass. So far I've gotten one of those things each weekend. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday & ate supper with us. As usual he came fully equipped with candy, this time chocolate. Unfortunately I've been eating entirely too much junk food lately. The Holy Name Society meeting was last night. There was wine, soda & beer after the meeting along with chili & potato chips. One of the main things going on was the election for the new year. Father Walsh didn't show up. KrissyKrissyKrissy sent a Christmas picture of her kids recently. Mary Anne called yesterday. She's been ill lately. Maria called last night too. She told my mother all the latest New York gossip. My Facebook account has most certainly been getting much more mileage lately than ever. All my connections have really been taking advantage.

FOUND EARL!

As kids over in East Elmhurst, Earl & I had always been such very good friends. I ended up moving to Lindenhurst a long time ago, & now live here. He moved to Puerto Rico decades ago & is still there. Yesterday I sent him an e mail on Facebook & now we're finally back together. I made sure I asked him to say hello to both his parents for me too. Today's weather is much nicer, so far, than yesterday's, though this morning the roads were very slippery & visibility absolutely stunk because of all the fog on my windows. Not much is on the weekend's schedule except that I have to lector at 5:00 Mass today. Christmas is now less than two weeks away. I got Carole & Bob's inevitable Christmas card yesterday. Carole was my very first supervisor when I worked at Citicorp. My arm is still in pain. It's driving me crazy but I'll just have to handle it somehow.

WINDSHIELD WIPER TROUBLES

This morning, as I was about to leave, I couldn't help grumbling because of all the snow & bad visibility. As if that wasn't stupid enough, when I pulled away from the curb at the post office, my windshield wipers got tangled & I went straight home to fix them. My father reminded me that I should have broken the extra ice around them before I left. All it took was a little turn of a wrench to fix the trouble. Uncle Frankie came over for a while yesterday. This time, instead of candy, he showed up with a pie. Tomorrow I have to lector at 5:00 Mass. I most certainly hope the weather's much better by then. Because of all the ice, today's Friday dance shall have to be done very slowly. Lots of people are still busily getting things together on Facebook. Terry just uploaded some of her daughters' pictures. Other people are filling in profiles.

SCRAMBLED EGGS & FACEBOOK

Lately all my kin have been going plum loco over Facebook, joining each other's friends' lists. I have very many pictures on other sites so I suppose I shall have to transfer a lot of them to this one. My father went to the V.A. for a doctor's appointment early this morning. The weather's been miserable with ice & rain so it must not have been a fun trip. Last night I watched "Everybody Loves Raymond" again. It's an interesting show. I never bothered with it when it was on originally but it's nice to see the reruns. They're as dysfunctional a bunch of characters as any I've ever seen. Believe it or not, this morning turned out to be one of those rare occasions when I ate breakfast. I ate scrambled eggs with ketchup. Since when, may I ask, are "embiggen" & "biggify" legitimate words? I keep noticing that on Facebook, those are their words for "enlarge".

IT'S RAINING AGAIN

When I got up this morning it was absolutely pouring out. That's most probably why I have such an annoying headache right now. My mother spoke to Fran on the phone last night. Fran seems to be feeling much better lately. Uncle Frankie hasn't shown up in the past couple of days. Nothing much is happening these days so far. I'd be afraid to go Christmas shopping in all this traffic. I just read a blog on Xanga that talks about organ donation. I've always specified on my driver's license that I want my organs donated when I die. I don't expect them to do me any good from then on. A lot of people, for some reason, object to this practice but I happen to think it's quite a really good idea. Yesterday I watched "Everybody Loves Raymond" again. I've been starting to get used to it by now. Interestingly, I just found out on the Adweek site that 67% of people in this country would rather see "Merry Christmas" in stores Christmas ads than the nauseatingly leftist "Happy Holidays", that only got 27% of the vote. This is yet more proof that liberals aren't even the least bit interested in what people really want, but only in cramming their agenda down our throats whether anybody likes it or not.

VERY COLD

The weather's still cold. Mary Anne called last night. Nothing seems to be new with them lately. My shoulder still hurts quite a whole lot. Combined with my seemingly perpetual itch, it's extremely annoying. As a general rule I absolutely can't stand Oprah Winfrey & avoid her show at all costs. Yesterday was different though. The surviving members of the cast of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" were on it. That was always one of the most interesting shows on TV when I was a kid. Those people are all as old as the hills now. Yesterday was Tina's birthday so we shall all have to wish quite a rousing happy birthday to her. Yesterday I got my latest issue of the Carmelite Digest. It's a quarterly journal. It's very cold today but at least it's not raining or snowing. That's what really gets me crazy. The librarian just pointed out a while ago that Christmas is now only sixteen days away.