In 2019 we had the Veranda party in August at sweet corn eating time. It was supposed to be a wake for me, a celebration of sorts. It was so fun and well received by all the goers. We had something like 50-60 folks stop by to visit, camp and party over the four days. To my surprise everyone wanted to do it again in 2020.

Then 2020 rolled around with it’s buddy Covid. What to do? I still wanted to do something just to keep the spirit alive. We had an extremely small gathering and named it the Corntine. Matter of fact, it was so small I can’t remember it at all. I do remember the corn harvest being dismal which was completely in character with the year.

OK, so now here we are 2021. At this moment we are still in the grips of this pandemic but we see some light from the end of the tunnel. It is four months to Oasis time. I named it the Oasis because the Veranda idea wasn’t strong enough. It didn’t convey the death, suffering and isolation of this the Covid journey and the relief of getting beyond it to finally camel into the shade of the Oasis. The Oasis is supposed to be a place of new beginning.

We hope and trust that we can make this event truly a new beginning with some of the closeness and the fun and meaningfulness of life at the Veranda in 2019. You remember, the old days. And the only way that I can foresee that happening is if we can get 100% percent compliance with vaccinations for entry into the event. I have thought long and hard on this and I don’t see anyway around it. I know some folks have their own personal reasons for not getting vaccinated and I want to honor that but here in this case I have to draw this line. There is four months to go and there is now availability of vaccine for all 16 year olds and older in all states. No more can be done.

My Rebecca wants me to put a personal face on this. I will volunteer to be this personal face and put forth that I am now very vulnerable and four months from now who can say. Please honor this for Felipé.

Just to inject (nice pun Felipé) some fun at this point let me go thorough the list of folks who have said they are coming. Annie, Esther and Janet from CA. Kathy from Iowa and Farmer John. Catalina and whole family from Berkeley. Henriette from here in WA. Of course folks from the Island here, Catherine and Dana, Wiley and Henna. Maybe I left some out, sorry but you get the idea.

Love you, miss you loves, Felipé.