Day +100; How tiime flies when you're having fun!

I hadn’t realized how long it’s been since I visited with you… been busy getting acclimated to my “new” surroundings.

But today is a special day… it is Day +100… the day I should have left the confines of that little space in Tampa. I have to go to the Doc here in Orlando tomorrow… he’s not around so I’ll see the PA. I need to go for some blood work before I get there.

I’ve been pretty mobile and trying to work out as much as my body will let me. I overdid it on the bowflex the other day and I paid for it on Friday. My legs were just burning with pain from the lower body stuff I did. They’re feeling good now.  Ruth Ann and I went out earlier and I was able to navigate around OK. Back to the treadmill tomorrow.

We fed the Posse last night… grilled pizzas. They have been telling us that the first meal back has to be the pizzas. I think they’re spoiled. It took me most of the day (with a lot of breaks) to get everything done… making the pizza shells, sautéing all the veggies, etc. Thankfully I didn’t have to make my own dough… there was a moment of panic when we couldn’t find the brand we usually use. But the brand that the store replaced it with was really nice and easy to work with. Lots of wine was drunk and also some Molson’s Golden… for me, iced tea!

Yesterday was the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel…July 16^th. This is the church where Ruth Ann and I grew up; where I was an altar boy, where she went to grade school.  The celebration goes back about 70+ years, to the early days of the new parish, an offshoot of another church. My cousin Ginny (NOT my cousin Vinnie!!!) has been working at the church hall for the past week… also Ruth Ann’s cousin Patty. They’re stepping in for the folks who worked the festival in the past… Uncle Pat and Zizi, my folks, and before them there was my Grandmother and Ruth Ann’s too.

With the neighborhood virtually all Italian and working class, the beginning of the parish in the 1920’s and 30’s must have been very difficult.  The first part of the church was just the basement, dedicated in 1924, and for quite a few years was the only part of the church completed. It wasn’t until 1940 that the main part of the church was completed. Funny, the first pastor was Irish, and the pastor that I grew up with was Irish also… Monsignor Flynn. He said the 7AM mass on Sunday’s and it was all in Latin and Italian… he learned very quickly!

So today was the procession around the neighborhoods of Town Plot (so named because this is the place of the original settlement of Waterbury, in 1674 ), then a special service (the Bishop usually shows for the food), then it all winds down later this evening… four days of food, music and a little reflection on roots.