Here we are balanced between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, two polar opposites.  This Saturday that is in between looks like something empty sometimes, like a blank spot.  Does it have a purpose?  It never did really for me until I stumbled on a notion.  I’m calling it a notion because as far as I know it isn’t exactly spelled out anywhere offically.  It is an idea.  And that starts with as it says in the Apostles’ Creed, Jesus “descended to the dead.”

Yes, and what did he do there?  The notion that I love is that He preached to the multitudes of past eras and offered them His Covenant.  I like to think that is what happened so that no one is left behind for not hearing about it.  It seems a perfect fit in my mind and a sort of puzzle piece that I enjoy putting in place even if I don’t have proof of it’s existence.

And how about Notre Dame’s win yesterday in women basketball.  Catherine and Dana were over yesterday to watch as Catherine is a huge fan of ND.  So they are in the finals tomorrow against Mississippi State.  The finals!  So we have more basketball thrills and chills tomorrow.  Easter and Catholic basketball, that seems a fit.

OK, on my way to do some tilling with the tractor.  Beautiful day here.  Love abounds, Felipe.

Yup, we are all ready to blast into Good Friday.  Sunny here is Seattle.  It doesn’t have to be dark and gloomy does it?  At the hospital till early afternoon and planning on meeting Catherine for afternoon Mass on Vashon.

Just trying to keep it simple as possible today.  No tricky moves, no power tools.  Just cruise along and take care of the important stuff.  I don’t think I can go much further with this blog right now with the mood that I am in.  So, talk with you tomorrow, yes?

Love, Felipe.

Yup, Catherine and I got an appointment with Father David to do the sacrament of Reconciliation which is the new word for Confession.  I’m not totally switched over yet and maybe that is part of my problem.  I struggle with this and the longer time I wait in between the harder that becomes.

The heavyduty portion of Lent has arrived.  We are hopefully in our introverted mode and are thinking how to make our connections to God and our fellow man better.  That’s Reconciliation there.  Oh, I am so glad that I am writing about this as it is getting it in better focus for me.

If God wanted robots He would have created them but he didn’t, He created us so we could wrestle with it all.  He wants us to choose Him and His Way everyday.  We screw up, we get distracted, we….  It is the challenge for us this choosing.  Lent is the time to get that process back in shape, back in good working order, oiled up.

Yea, so a walk here at Raven Ranch at 9:00 this morning.  I hear that I have a crowd coming.  Great, I’ll get my tour guide hat on.  The trail is looking pretty darn dry these days and we are getting it cleaned up after the winter storms.  Come down when you get a chance and we will “figure it out”.  A little private joke, sorry.

Reconciling love, Felipe.

OK, here we are, all cozied in with my chemicals in the comfy chair.  Time to say hi.  Just had a great visit with Dr Gold where we agreed that we are on top of the situation.  Finally we have a workable configuration of agents that agree with me.  And my weight was back up to 170 pounds.  So royally happy that we turned that weight loss around, was scary.  So, all good news coming at you from here at the moment.

I can feel my energies being freed up from all that.  It has been three months now when most of my attention has been on treatment and it’s side effects.  What a relief to have a smoother trail for a while.  Time to find ways to build my strength again.

Just a bit of Springtime news, Seattle Mariners Baseball opens tomorrow here at Safco Field.  What do they call baseball players sometimes, “The boys of summer”?  Yea, I like that.  And the temperatures here have gone from 40’s during the day and 30’s at night to a balmy 50’s during the day and then 40’s at night.  This looks like spring to me and it is going to bring on the blooms that will fill the air with fragrance here soon.  So you had better come and help me walk the trail here one of these days soon.

Here is a book title for you also: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande.  It is subtitled, Medicine and What Matters in the End.   If you liked God’s Hotel, maybe you will like this one too.

OK, out of steam for now.  Hope that things are going smoothly for you.

Of course when I was mentioning components to my wellbeing yesterday I left out whole bunches, whole segments, whole quadrants.  It is impossible to untangle and to state truthfully that “X” was the reason something happened or that “Y” was the main component to my success.  I am seeing so much love and support from so many places and people that every time I mention one I forget three.  We are accustomed to do the old cause and effect thing or I am.  But with complex situations is it possible or recommended?

Thank you Sherie for the holy water from Lourdes.  I have my little mustard jar that is half full and I administer it every morning to my body.  This is so powerful in my mind.

People like Sui coming into our lives like unchained energy.  She would make a good Marauder.  The Marauders being the Catholic group from Southern California.  I named them that for their endless energy and enthusiasm.  They all sparkle.

Sui sent a signed copy of The Dance of Christian Life by Scott Connolly.  He is a Catholic priest and the last time I heard he was up in Bellingham, WA.  Anyway lovely gift, lovely man.  I am very familiar with this beautiful book.  Way back when in the spring of 2014 Sister Joyce lent me her signed copy.  Kelly and I read it and we actually got a lot of our thinking out of it on how to walk the Camino.  For sure we copied his pace of 12 1/2 miles per day.  We were able to put together an itinerary, well a rough one, so the film crew would know approximately where we were going to be.  Anyway it is a lovely big format book.  Thank you Sui.  Looking forward to rereading it and savoring memories of the places along the Way.

So yea, Spring time along Phil’s Camino here at Raven Ranch.  We have an afternoon walk today at 4.  I think that we may have picked up some new walkers from our shindig at the Eagles Club.  I handed out a bunch of my business cards with the walking schedule on the back.  Nothing like new people, new ideas, new ways, new walks.

Tomorrow back at the hospital in Seattle.  Back to start a new cycle.  This will be number six of the new chemical treatment.  I am so much more confident now than ever before.  I can handle this!  Thanks for all your thoughts, prayers, support.  I know that I was asking for it and receiving it by the truckload.  Gracias amigos.

Time to go, have a big day.  Glad that you are here to share some of it with me.  Big tangled loves, Felipe.

Seems like I am out of the tall grass, out of the bad side effects, with this particular chemo cycle that I am in.  So happy!  Man, this last three months has been hard but it looks like we are making progress to find a way to coexist with this particular chemical treatment.  This last cycle was way easier on me.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

So, I can’t just put out one good reason why this progress is occurring but so many of you have supported me and contributed.  Doctor Gold our dear Nugget played with the treatment to make it more tolerable.  Catherine gave me a wonderful cranial sacral treatment that was extra special.  Sui and family were praying up a storm for my benefit.    My four grade class continues to pray for Mr Phil at 0815 each and every school day.  I ‘m getting high voltage these days.  Thank you, gracias, thank you!

God continues to keep me alive for his own reasons.  We are all participating in this project obviously.  And we continue to blow on our little flame the Camino spirit.  It is such a deserving entity.  We are obviously in love with it and we continue to be.  That is the story here early on a Monday morning in the Holy Week of 2018.  Easter awaits at the end of the trail.

Walking in a moment.  Where are my boots?  Where is the logbook?  Gray gray skies with lots of rain and snow in the territory surrounding Puget Sound but dry here so far.  Thank you loves, Felipe.

Monday 0900-1000

Tuesday 1600-1700

Thursday 0900-1000

Sunday 1600-1700

Alperfect out on the trail, Felipe.x

Yea, did we have a good time last night or what!  The local Eagles Club held a fund raiser for Phil’s Camino, So Far So Good, the new almost hatched hour long version.  Spaghetti with meatballs and a salad bar and pastry dessert has served buffet style.  The bar was open for wine and drinks.  Ann kinds of friends and neighbors showed up to be with us.  There was an auction for bottles of wine and a silent auction for all kinds of goods and services.  Yea, then we showed Phil’s Camino, the short version.  They cried, I cried, yea we all cried.  Had a long Qand A which I always enjoy.  And ultimately we made some money after the expenses.

So, things are good there and in other places.   I feel  like I am part of the original Passover because my side effects are so far so mild this cycle, the Angel of Chemicals has passed me over.    I can live with this level of toxicity.  Finally some light at the end of the tunnel here with this problem.  And maybe there is more improvement possible.

Then the blog is back up.  I am holding my fingers in their crossed position.  It seemed so very odd to have it non functional,  yikes.  But here we are broadcasting loud and clear.

So walk this afternoon at 1600, 4 PM.  The weather should be good.  Maybe some new folks will show up from last night’s affair.  Come if you can, things looking up loves, Felipe.

That was Catherine’s advice last evening when I said that my bad side effects hadn’t appeared yet. And I said that maybe they will pass me over and she said hold on to that thought. And I did for as long as I could but things started acting up this morning. But it is Friday and that I way better than it showing up on Tuesday days ago. So we will see how things go in the next few days. Hold on to that thought Felipe.

As you can see from our the pic today that William our Canadian Bureau Chief has received his red Felipe Camino hat. Pretty darn nice. That is the look there, don’t you think?

I am writing this on my Notes on my iPad because my blogsite is somehow doing something weird. And my passwords don’t seem to work anymore for goDaddy and WordPress. You know the passwords that I have religiously squirreled away in a super secret place now all of a sudden don’t work. Why is that?

Wondering loves, Felipe.

The caminoheads blog has been down for a couple of days and now, right now, as I look at it in my jammies, it is up.  Well, glory be.  Just thought that I would send a quick post to let you know what is going on and to let you know all is well dispite communication cooties.

I am getting ready for Mass so can’t dilly dally but all is well for the monent.  Thanks, love, Felipe.