GiuseppePingitore

Thursday night was fun.  Seems a bit strange to say on a night that began with an ordination mass at the seminary in Catania.  Alessandro is becoming a deacon, and this was the first ceremony in the process.  It also included an ordination of a priest.  The next ceremony is first week of February when Alessandro becomes a deacon.  We joined the family for the ceremony. Two masses in the last 3 weeks. My mom would have been so happy. It was a bit lengthy with the archbishop droning on too long for his homily.  It may have helped if I could hear him.  Vincenzo was nodding off.  I spent my time trying to get in trouble with the kids who were bored and making a bit too much noise.  The archbishop did have redeeming qualities as he stepped out of the procession out of the church to fist bump the kids and say hi to baby Tea. We heard the whole story of Alessandro as we drove with his parents to the ceremony.  He was pretty successful as a frui...

 I went for my second shave today.  I walked about 5 minutes from our door to a place Vincenzo goes to,  Barbiera D'Agostino.  Salvatore D'Agostino greeted me as he was finishing up with another client.  He told me I  could wait, so I took a chair.  After about 10 minutes, he ushered me to the chair.  I believe he's a sole proprietor and it's a small shop.  He had his price list posted.  A shave is 5 euro, and for the works (haircut, shampoo, and shave), it will set you back 18 euro. (about $20). I hadn't shaved since Saturday, just to get my money's worth.  Actually I'd planned on going Monday, forgetting they were closed then.   I can easily get used to someone shaving me.  Those razors must be super sharp, as you really don't even feel them.  He even clipped out some stray nose hairs for no extra charge.  We talked in Italian, and once I said a few words in Italian, he assumed we were good conversing that...

 I've now been told I'm a bad blogger.  I completely agree.  I'm just not inspired to write much these days, and can't seem to find anything that I want to say.  My life here in Biancavilla is good, and I have no complaints.  But, I really don't have much purpose here.  That is really not any different than my life back in Minnesota, except I'll take the weather here over MN winters any day.  I have struggled with life post retirement.  Life was pretty easy while fully employed.  You got up, went to work and had a full day of things to keep you busy, and that gave you the illusion that you were serving some purpose.  With the opportunity at age 62 to take early retirement and having the luxury of being able to afford to do so, I opted out of the workforce.  I always enjoyed my job, and never had issues with wanting out and counting the days until I could retire.  I know that that is something special, and not all can say the sa...

  This morning I went to the macelleria (butcher shop) just so I could have something to write about.  Meats are popular in the Catania region.  You can walk down the main street here in town and pass by 5 shops within less than half a mile. They are all good and may vary as to what they specialize in.  One is the Macelleria Equine that specializes in horse meat.  We did have a good meal of horse and ass awhile ago.  Father Giuseppe, who works in Catania, returned one night with horse meet and donkey.  The horse meat was in the form of meatballs and they were excellent.  The donkey was in thin fillets that were grilled.  All was good.  I know, this can open up a whole discussion about whether it's right to eat horse and donkey.  But, if you eat cows, pigs and chickens, what's the difference. Anyway, I love good sausage, and both sides of my Italian families made their own sausage.  The Calabrian (Pingitore's) and the Sicilian (...

 Here's some real excitement.  I got a haircut.  It had been 10 weeks since last time and things were getting a bit shaggy.  Barbering in Sicily is a profession and a real art form going back hundreds of years.  I asked Vincenzo for a recommendation, and he steered me toward his parrucchiere (barber) right down the street, a guy who's been around forever.  I asked Vincenzo's son, Alessandro, and he said Vincenzo's barber was fine, but I'd walk out with not much hair left.  He steered me to his, Diolosà, (which I think might losely translate to "God only knows"), and gave me directions on how to get there.   I set out one morning last week, and found the shop, first walking into what turned out to be the women's side, and they directed me around the corner to the men's.  I wasn't sure if I needed an appointment, and walked in to ask.  There were about 6 empty chairs, and they said come on in.  I had practiced how I was going to expla...

 I suck at poker.  I hate to disclose all of this since it means I can never play poker with any of you as you will know how to take me to the cleaners.  Not that that will be difficult. Vincenzo belongs to a club here.  It seems that there is a club for many different groups of people.  One for white collar workers, one for blue collar.  One for soccer fans, one for union people.  But, all for men.  Vincenzo plays poker at his club probably 3 times a week.  As you walk into the club, there is a large room with many card games going on.  The most popular is the classic, traditional Sicilian card game of Briscola.  I remember my grandpa playing this all the time. Here it is played with a special deck of cards with different characters.  Still the same game, but it would take some study to get up to speed with the game.   My poker experience is with a small group of friends that would get together for a friendly game, maybe ...