Perfectest, a totally new word that I thought of this AM.  I was inspired by one of my nurses here.  I am so lucky to have so many good friends here.

In Camino terms perfectest would mean what?  It would mean that one is moving forward, experiencing things so to speak.  Or if not moving forward at least healing up or regrouping so one could get going soon, just a temporary state.  Perfect is another word for whatever comes up on the trail next.  Deal with it gracefully and that’s it, we have bigger fish to fry down the road.

In terms of perfectest in the ordinary world, it would mean something else.  The ordinary world is the world governed by ordinary thinking.  It is full of right and wrong and them and us and super full of expectations.  We feel like all sorts of things are due us.  We expect things to happen in a certain way, in a certain perfect way.

Ironically (I know that’s not a real word either but it’s fun also), today I got the news from my scan that happened yesterday.  In layman’s terms it didn’t look great.  My little guys were rowdy and have grown more than the usual pace.  Yea, and the result of that is my oncologist, code named Nugget, put me on a stronger chemo that I am not looking forward to.  We have always known that I would probably need to do this and all of a sudden the time is now.  Yea, stronger chemo means stronger side effects and that is the worry.

So, do you see the ironical?  This is far from the perfectest news or this is not what I expected today.  But in terms of Caminothink (oh, is THAT a new word) I am supposed to deal with it gracefully and move on, right?  And that is what I am going to do to the best of my ability.  I’ve got bigger fish to fry down the road might be the key to the whole deal.

I am sure glad that you guys let me make up stuff as I go along.  I am blessed.  And you know that no matter what happens with my rowdy friends in my lungs the blog will go on.  This is a description of the trail this blog is.  So if the trail gets rougher it doesn’t mean that the blog will end.  There are more new words that need making so I’ll be here.

OK, time to order some lunch here at the treatment center.  Caminothinking about you, love, Felipe.

Off to Seattle and the hospital to get my scan.  Hopefully my tumors, my little friends, have been behaving themselves and not gotten too rowdy in the last four months.  It just  takes a few hours to get this completed today.  Then I am off to pick up my Father’s Day gift.  I am really excited about my new shop vac that Wiley has bought for me at Home Depot.   It is just sitting there waiting for me.

So when I get back here to the ranch later today I will be scurrying around trying to put on the finishing touches on our event happening this weekend.  This is our first Women’s Archery Retreat.  I’m so excited.  I have be working with kids and teens for years and now I get to work with the ladies.  There has been more of a call for it in the last few years so we are accommodating.  Not to many other things that are more fun than shooting arrows.

OK, I am going to do our daily Thomas Clark and get out of here, have to catch the nine o’clock.

“That something exists outside ourselves and our preoccupations, so near, so readily available, is our greatest blessing.”  Thomas Clark

Walk for me today as I won’t get a chance.  Love, Felipe.

Man, I am hunkered down under my Camino sleeping bag and on the red leather couch trying to stay warm.  It’s a couple of days from the solstice and it still feels like soggy spring around here.  Are you complaining Felipe?  Hmm, I suppose so.

Yes, I am going to walk in a few minutes.  I need to look around out ther for the summer mojo.  It must be huddled out there under a tree somewhere sheltering itself like I am.

“It is quite possible to refuse all coercion, violence, property, triviality, to simply walk away.”  Thomas Clark.

Yup, buen camino, love, Felipe.

We are marching on through the wind and the rain and Father’s Day.  And also through the first Women’s Archery Retreat next weekend.  Activities then are happening around our walking schedule.

Monday 0900-1000

Tuesday 1600-1700

Thursday 0900-1000

Sunday 1600-1700

Hope to see you soon. Felipe.x

A friend gave me a couple of printed pages of thoughts on walking from Thomas Clark.  I wanted to know more about him so I Googled his name.  Well, there have been a lot of guys with that name that have done all sorts of amazing things.  Seems like I will need a private detective to figure out which one of those guys wrote that.  So maybe it doesn’t matter.

His thoughts are so timeless and without flourish.  It makes it hard to place them in a specific century even.  But whatever, they stand on their own.   So I thought that I would include one a day with the blog posts for our enjoyment.  Well how about one right now to start things out Felipe?

“Early one morning, any morning, we can set out, with the least possible baggage, and discover the world.”  TC

Well, I am going to run off today.  Way too many irons in the fire, as they say.  Happy Father’s Day to Dads out there.  Thanks for everything, love, Felipe.

Just got back from Bible Guys and we covered Acts of the Apostles chapter 16.  This is where Paul and Timothy cross over into Greece to spread the Word.  Out of Asia and on into Europe.    Never a dull moment for these guys.

Not only never a dull moment but almost continually getting roughed up in the process of completing their mission but they were joyful the whole time.  Whether conditions were good or bad they put things to use.  Like there is no bad or good at a certain level just opportunity.

Can we get to a place like that?  Where we see everything as opportunity.  Where we walk our Camino and take things as they come at us, the good, the bad and the ugly and do something with it.  Something good that is.

Have to go to work and get Stephen and Anna’s roof fixed.  Roofs are important around here.  Yup and other stuff, keep up with the weeds in the corn, get ready to the Women’s Archery Retreat that we are having starting this Friday.  Busy busy.

OK, blessed be your blistered feet.  Love you, miss you, Felipe.

As if an even inch wasn’t enough she had to throw in the .05.  The wettest June day ever in Seattle, a record.  But we survived, that’s really what we are best at around here.  Now it is going to gradually warm up and we can get back to growing corn.  No need for the ark I guess.

Roni, our friend from OK put up a really cool Camino video on FB.  Four minutes of nice pics set to music.  And if you aren’t friends with Roni you should be.

Roni’s video sparked my thinking about going back and do the Camino again or maybe another route.  Here at home we are just about done with our walk to the coast and back so we have to come up with what to do next.  I will have to do some research.  Wondering if it is possible to do something like Canterbury to Rome?

Well, I am going around in circles here today.  I really need to get out and do my auto maintance.  Got four oil changes done yesterday, five to go.  How did I ever wind up with a fleet?

See you tomorrow gang.  Alperfect as usual.  Love you and your blistered feet,  Felipe.

Yup, we are continuing with our Junuary weather here.  This month is not ready for prime time for sure.  So I made a good old winter breakfast for My Rebecca and me.  You can’t really face this kind of day armed with just rice chex.

At the ranch here we are redoing the landline phone system.  Bought  some new equipment yesterday and it is all charging now.  Will have it programmed later today and everything groovy soon.

There was a great FB video that I shared yesterday.  It was all about this black bear that had it’s head stuck in a bucket and this guy that tries to free him.   Fortunately this scene winds up on the highway and three other good ole boys join in.  Some one comes up with a hacksaw and a pair of pliers and two guys are holding the exhausted bear down and two guys are hacking away on the bucket.  This is all happening in the mud, of course.  A lifetime memory happening there as the totally freaked out bear freed from the torture heads off to shouts of joy from the guys.  Maybe you have to be a guy to really appreciate this kind of fun.

OK, I am off to walk in a moment here.  Have to find my boots to be comfortable out there.  We are supposed to get almost an inch of rain today.  This is good since I got the corn fertilized yesterday and the goodies will be traveling into the soil and to the plants today.  Eat up boys!

Yup, time to go.  Have a heck of a day where you are.  May Camino thoughts trickle down to you like the fertilizer to my little hungry corns.  We are hungry aren’t we?  Like the world’s most interesting man but with, “Stay hungry my friends!”  Hehe.   Love you some more, Felipe.

Thanks for being in our tangle.  What is that Felipe?  Well,  first just want to thank folks that sent in comments of support for me over the last few days and to folks who were thinking of me.  I’ve been a little shaky lately but on the mend with your help, thank you.  But you see we are in each other’s tangle. We respond to each other because we care about each other.  That’s what I mean.   You are willing to be open to my story, me, my tangle.  It’s not always pretty but you know that and are willing to put up with that.

And you are a tangle, not that I know everything about your personal story but if you are alive I am guessing that you are a tangle, an unfinished, incomplete, unpolished, slightly dented individual.  Me too, me too.  But we reach out to touch, that’s what is important.

A tangle I thought was a good analogy.  If you reach out to me you are likely to get some on you.  Hehe, that sounds funny.  And if I in turn reach out to you I am likely to do likewise.  But hey as long as we know the rules of the game what could go wrong?  Well, a lot of things can go wrong but we risk it none the less.

Does this ever remotely make sense?  I hope so.  That is all I have in my tank today.  I have to run off.  Bless you, love you, Felipe.

I am in a little slump with the blog.  My readership numbers were down last month after being super for six months.  And my energy is low.  I think I can attribute both of these things to the fact the Spring got here and we are outside away from their computers.  At least that is what I keep telling myself.  But still I complain.

This morning in my usual perusal of FB I came across this birthday announcement for Anne Frank.  She would be 85 today if she had lived.  The pic is very moving but the quote under the pic really got me.  I love her sense of purpose and really that is what I need to get me off my butt.

Sunday another instance of this kind of enthusiasm touched me.  A friend invited me along to go to a Mariner’s game in Seattle.  It was a nice outing for us even though the Mariner’s got shutout.  Anyway, directly in the seats in front of us were a couple from Canada.  There were a lot of Canadians in the stands since we were playing Toronto.  The man was majorly unstandard in his build.  He obviously had some big issues with birth defects that were impacting him.  But he was motivated and functioning in the normal world.  The wife was beautiful and she had the big diamond on her hand and they traveled with a sweet service dog.  But they didn’t choose to sit in the handicapped area, they made it up and down the concrete steps and sat in the stadium seats like us folks that take our capabilities for granted.  When I think of this it makes me want to never complain again ever.

So here I am whittling away at the blog and my body and mind are functioning mostly.  There are no snow storms  storms or hurricanes outside.  I have a lovely wife and family.  I have wonderful friends and Caminoheads that check in with me.  Not to mention living on an island in Puget Sound USA, no shooting war going on.  No Nazis are patrolling the road and woods.

It is time to dig down deep and find that inner go juice.  OK, off to work.  See you soon, Love, Felipe.