Hello on Friday

Dear Friends,

I woke up early and couldn't fall back to sleep. Maybe it was my body telling me that I should visit Retro Fitness more often. I will be heading out the door to be with the 4:30 AM crowd in less than an hour.

Thursday went as planned. I am so happy that the snow blower and my ice-fishing gear have been moved from our garage to the storage shed. I also decided that my bird feeder on the deck should be taken down. The bears in the Berkshires on the move looking for an easy meal, and they are familiar with the Curley's bird feeders. There are a lot of children in our neighborhood, and I don't want to be responsible for bringing any harm to them. I might put out bird feeders during the day, but I will have to take them down at night time. The only problem with that is that we often have evening activities to attend. The day I forget to put away the bird feeders will be the day the bears will be in our back yard.

Speaking of evening activities, the UNICO Celebrity Bartending function went well last evening. We will soon get a report of how much the event took in at our next meeting.

Several of us left the Heritage Tavern, and went off to Patrick's Pub to listen to the local Irish Band called Rakish Paddy. A friend reserved a small table of 8. Last night was one of those nights where he could have reserved a larger table. Linda and I were the first ones to leave around 10 PM, but our seats were taken by an Irish Sister City couple who came from the Colonial Theater. They attended and Irish Comedy night that Linda and I would have gone to if we didn't have the celebrity bartending fundraiser.

While at the Heritage Tavern, I did get a chance to say "Hello" to my Castronova cousin from Lee and his lady friend. The brother of his lady friend was the guest musician for the evening. This local born Musician has made it to the big time.

While Linda was at her Knitting Group gathering at Dottie's Coffee shop from 3 to 5 PM, I went off to visit dad at my sister's home. My dad was in bed dealing with a cold. My sister was coming down with a sore throat. I felt like I was in the sick ward of a hospital. I did drop off a loaf of my Irish Soda Bread. Even if you have a loss of appetite when you are sick, you can still eat a couple slices of the soda bread.

Speaking of Irish Soda Bread, I whipped up four loaves of the epicurean delight before I did my outdoor projects on Thursday. I am trying to figure out how to give all of our friends who we will be with over the next few days a sample of the bread. Some of our friends want more than a sample of my Irish Soda Bread, but I will have to make another batch in order to give each of them a whole loaf.

Social Calendar -- We are off to a corned beef and cabbage dinner at the Elks' Club this evening. This is an Irish American Club function where the Club honors the Irish Person of the year. The dinner will be served at 5:15 PM because after this dinner, many of us are going off to the Colonial Theater for a concert performed by an Irish Band called DANU. I am not sure if we are going directly home after the concert. I am also wondering if I should bring a loaf of Irish Soda bread for the table which we are sitting at. In the past, I was asked to make a couple of loaves for this event for the dessert table.

The police have been out in force these past few evenings. Drinking and driving will not be tolerated at all. There are Police road blocks all over the Berkshires so make sure that all of you have a designated driver during this St. Patrick's Day weekend (actually all the time). There has been a rash of DUI incidents including some deaths in the Berkshires over the past month. The police are working very hard to get the drunks off of the road.

Well, I am going to skip any political discussions, or any of the not so good news which is happening in the United States, and the world in general.

I want to think only happy thoughts for the whole weekend. Linda and I can't wait to see the Tewksbury grandchildren who will be arriving at our house on Monday.

Life is Good!

For us mature people, waking up each morning is a major joy in our lives.

Have a great St. Patrick's Day weekend. Everyone is Irish this weekend!

Talk to you soon. The Curley Lad