Knock, knock, knock, that is what I woke up to this morning at 0620.  It’s dark out, who is knocking at our door?  “Mike hi.”  “Hey we got a deer last evening and here is the liver and heart.  Didn’t know what time you ate breakfast.”  That’s how I woke up this morning.  Abundance comes in strange ways sometimes.

This abundant thing started yesterday.  My Rebecca and I went out to Gravy for her birthday dinner.  OK, just an aside, this is a semi fancy eatery named Gravy where nothing comes with gravy, only on Vashon.  Anyway we had our nice meal, and we were pulling out the card and discovered that an anonymous donor had already paid for our dinner.   Well OK then!

We got home after that and Matt, one of my Marine Corps buddies stopped by to hunt the last light and brought fresh caught King Salmon.  Some were filets and some was chunks smoked.  Well OK then.  This is getting hard to handle, right?

So yes, did have fresh liver for breakfast with Catherine y Dana’s raspberry jam and will prepare the heart for dinner tonight.  Sounds a little primitive perhaps but good eating and super nutritious none the less.  I could make some gravy to have with that tonight, yea that would bring things full circle around here.

I don’t think you can have all this kind of fun in the city really.  Just pickin and a grinnin here in the outback.  Miss you, love you, Felipe.

Early morning here before our walk.  The sky is gray and uninspiring.  Most of the leaves are still green but tints of fall color here and there.  The deer are frantically eating trying to put on a little more fat for the winter.  They appreciate the cougar being gone I think.  What was once a going concern, the corn field sits tired and lonely missing my touch.

We are in transition with summer rapidly disappearing and winter looming on the horizon.  Going from salad days to turnip days,  going from carefree to careful,  going from sun screen to rain jackets.  But it is all part of the natural rhythm that ultimately is comforting; you can count on it.

It is fun thinking of our Caminoheads in Australia and Argentina starting to experience spring.  They did the hard work of winter and now it is their turn to relax and stretch the kinks out.  Angela and her new husband Dave were here recently from Sidney, Australia visiting and walking Phil’s Camino.  And another Caminohead, Cris from Buenos Aires is slated to come in October.  So we keep in touch with our Southern neighbors.

Global R Us so to speak.  Fun to be a stop on the international circuit.  Thank you all for keeping in touch with Caminoheads and our effort here in the NW corner of North America.

Off to walk.  Need my boots this morning.  Miss you, love you, Felipe.

Way back when in 2014 Kelly and I trained to walk the Camino.  This was once it looked to us like the trip would be possible.  Not all the pieces were in place but we proceeded like it was all going to come together.  And in the end we did go and had a grand marvelous life changing experience.  And Kelly took his job seriously about being my walking companion and well handler during all that.

One of the things we would do each day was have a review of things that I needed to remember, practical things to make the day go right.  This was good because sometimes we would get separated and I’d be on my own which sometimes was a little dicey.  But what is important here now is the concept of review.  Kelly helped me because he would prioritize and emphasize.

So, here we are today and I am going to review for us what is the basic idea that is the foundation of this blog.  Because one problem with blogs is that they move along and a newcomer has to put in some effort to get in the flow and understand the ideas, the texture, the movement of the story.  It is great for the author to charge along but it is easy to get ahead of the readers because it is a bore to explain things all the time.  A longtime follower would know and be acquainted with the bloggers style and train of thought and would consider all the explainations a bore.  So there is a balance to strike between catering to the newcomers and the veterans.

So, let me say because I feel the need to explain that this blog rests on the saying that, “When you get to Santiago your Camino actually begins.”  just to make things clear.   Three years now since Kelly and I got back home the blog has basically been exploring this idea.  What does this mean?  What does it mean to me, to us.  So, this is the review.

I have an archery lesson to give in twenty minutes.  I can see this coming up on my Camino.  Always remember that you are a completely unique child of God and today was made for you.  Miss you, love you, Felipe.

Just got in from Bible Guys class.  What a great session.  An old friend of ours is traveling over for four weeks to do four classes on the Psalms.  That’s a total of six hours on that book.  Not that that is a lot of time on that beautiful long work but the purpose isn’t that.  The purpose is to use it as a picture frame to view the New Testament through.  It is a way to enrich the New and to connect the New and Old Testaments.  I appreciate that being brought to us so conveniently.

Then My Rebecca and I have a luncheon date because, drum roll please, it’s our anniversary.  It is our thirty ninth anniversary.  It sounds like a long time but it went by in a flash,  The world has changed a lot in the meantime though.  So we are off to somewhere; I’m letting her pick.  Sunday night we are going to dinner to a little restaurant named Gravy, although they never have anything with gravy on it which is a little weird to me.   So Sunday is her birthday, I forget which year, thirty nine I think.   Anyway way too much partying.

This early evening I am going to slip away to the city to meet with my physical therapist and her church group.  I don’t know if I am showing Phil’s Camino or not.  I had better take a copy along.  I had scheduled this a long time ago and didn’t remember it was our anniversary.

So just a report on the washer, remember the repair the washer project.  Yea, so I am happy to tell you that it is running smoothly, just needs a little more duct tape and it will be perfect.  That was a bear but we got her done.

What else can I tell you about?  Oh, I Know.  Well the big news is that God loves us all and there is nothing we can do about it.  Yea, that’s it.  Uberperfect it is.  Love, Felipe.

Before we get too carried away I still have the washer to fix. But I have a new theory, a new approach to the problem that only seems to develop when one steps away for a time. So that is one corner of my life right now that I am trying to keep contained.

That being said, some more good news rolled in yesterday. This was after the deal about the trip to Lourdes, sort of a dessert. I was FaceTiming with Cris our Caminohead in Buenos Aires yesterday and she will be up here for a visit in late October. She has a business trip to Chicago and will take a few days afterwards to come to Phil’s Camino. That’s the plan anyway. Yea, alperfect.

Wait if we can have alperfect. I see that my spell check likes that now. OK, but if we can have alperfect it is not to much of a jump to “uberperfect”.  Ha!  I like it!  We have to have new words to cover new ideas or visions.

But back to the washer a second. Sorry. I think there is a lesson here and that is you have to pay your dues. There are certain things in life that we want to take for granted like a washer for instance. All we really want is clean shorts, real simple. But when we don’t have clean shorts and it happens to be our job to fix the situation we have to focus closely on the problem no matter how hard that may be. The more we want to take it for granted the harder it is to focus. Because ultimately we have to figure out how something works to fix it and that takes real work, real concentration. We seem to have better things to do than to hunker down the proper amount.

But wait this post is supposed to be about good news and I am really excited about Cris coming.  As far as I know she is the lone Caminohead on that continent and her take on things is good and unique.  It will be super to spend some quality time with her in person.

Gosh we covered the good, the bad and the ugly on this post.  Better leave it at that.  Off to wrestle with the washer.  Uberperfect love, Felipe.

I made a great batch of that winter favorite, oatmeal, just now.  The secret ingredient?  It was My Rebecca saying, “No FaceBook!”  This was my third attempt in as many weeks.  I was off oatmeal for the summer but was trying to get back with the trigger of cool mornings here.  My first two attempts ended in disaster with two of the gnarlist burnt saucepans ever.  You already know the story, right?  I suppose this never happened to you to get all the right ingredients in the pan and turn the gas on high and forget about it.  Geez, sort of the opposite of waste not want not.

So, I am off to a good start to my day with a full tummy.    Now to make sense of the world.  I got two hours of the Vietnam War (Ken Burns) in the evening and then Nonviolence each morning with Richard Rohr’s blog.  Did those guys get together on this?

Have a walk in a few minutes.  Not raining at the moment but the grass is wet.  Time for winter boots at at Phil’s Camino.  I’ll get some time with the rosary in if no one shows up.  That reminded me, September 17 was Hildegard von Bingen feast day and we let it get past us.  Maybe we can get something together.

Ah 8:50 time to jump up and get ready to walk.  See you tomorrow for more fun.  Love, Felipe.

It was tough but he did it!  We are having some days of rain in a row so it seems summer is over but I expect some sort of indian summer situation.  Official autumn starts this friday.

The autumnal equinox is the proper name for the first moment of autumn and the last moment of summer.  Pilgrim Farmer John from eastern Iowa always celebrates by standing out at the end of his driveway with his family and watching the sunset.  On that day the sun sets directly in line with his  east/west road.  It is a gravel road, no pavement nearby.  Isn’t that elegant in a Pilgrim Farmer John way.  It ties so many loose things together.

Speaking of loose things, that was probably some loose talk on my part to talk about the possibility of a Lourdes trip here at the blog.  Everyone has been asking.  But it is an idea, well a little more than an idea.  So, I have been chosen to be a candidate for next year’s trip that the Order of  Malta puts together from the West Coast to Lourdes, a candidate.  I am getting the offical brochure soon so I will fill you in on the details.  But you get the picture.

This would be such an amazing opportunity for me personally and an opportunity  to report on it for all our benefit.    I am taking it very seriously in a Felipe sort of way.  Right now I feel the need to start thinking about preparing.  What does one do?

Well, that is what’s new here.  Time to pray for the people in the areas affected by new hurricanes and earthquakes.  The eye of Maria is going over Puerto Rico at this moment.  Man what a bad time for all this.

Off to the wood shop.  Building another bench in there.  It is slowly getting organized.  Time to get stuff done that has been waiting all summer during the nice weather.

Hugs and squeezes and all that.  Love, Felipe in a rain jacket.

I know I write a good blog post when I weep during the process.  I could blame it on the chemotherapy if I am in manly company but not here today.  But here today I started before writing.  Something is developing that is extremely important for me and it really isn’t rock solid but sort of an idea at the moment.

So this is the teaser that I may get a chance to go to Lourdes as in France as in THE Lourdes.  I just can’t hold it back, it is way too exciting to think about.  I am taking it as a given but it isn’t all figured out yet.  It’s in the half baked category.  So stay tuned.

Boy, what do I follow that with?  Oh, I know a little wordology for our education.  We are never done learning, that’s what they say.   Oh, and this is one more chance to get corn in the conversation.  Here at Raven Ranch half our corn production was in the variety “Bodacious”.   Everyone had so much fun with the word that it has been sticking with me and not to mention that the variety was outrageous eating and big outrageous eating.

A minute ago I looked it up in the big old paper dictionary.  There is was, a real word.  But the origin of the word is SW cowboy.  It is a combination of the words “bold” and “audacious” giving us “bodacious”!   Lovin it!

OK, there you go for today, off to fix the washer, sounds like the drive belt broke.  As always, love you, miss you,  Felipe.

“For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.  If we live , we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.  So,whether we live or die, we. belong to the Lord.  For this reason, Christ died and returned to life so he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.”  Romans 14: 7-9 from the NIV.

This was one of the scripture readings yesterday at Mass.  It resonated with me and I have been thinking about it since.   There is something very comforting about what it says for me.   Having the diagnosis means that dying within months is always a possibility, always.  This never goes away.  It is possible to forget about it for short times but it clings well.

To have this vision of life and death being united in this continuum is important.  Putting things in a perspective that is true and workable is always golden.  And this does it for me.  The veil between life and death is getting thinner day by day.

So, as we live our lives we are also assaulted by the diagnosis’s of those around us too.  It gets to be too much unless we have some way, some healthy perspective to view it from.  How do we deal with it all can be a problem.  How do we respond can be a problem.  But this is what makes it easier for me now.  This notion that  the veil is so thin and Christ is here for us wherever we find ourselves.

Thanks for being here with Phil.   Love you, Felipe.

Yesterday we had gleaning, today we’ve got blanching.  I had to read up in the Joy of Cooking to get the procedure right for some corn freezing.  Blanching is boiling or steaming to stop the action of enzymes that are detrimental to freshness.  So I am going to blanch, cool, cut off the kernels, bag and freeze.  Need to have some of that product for those winter dinners.

There is a little hint of autumn in the air.  It is still pretty smoky because of  the wildfires but rain is on the way, maybe a week of rain off and on.  We tailgated this morning after church, Catherine and I but maybe one of the last.  But it is fun, people stop by to chat, people maybe that you don’t normally see or talk to.   I think they call it outreach.

Oh, more corn to process,  be back.  OK, that’s it for today.  Now I am off to deliver some corn to a special person.  She is a woman that is a checker at the supermarket.  Her father had a sweet corn operation back in the day.   He had three acres.  I had a chance to use his mechanical seed planter this year back in May.  So I try and get her some product now and then although bringing food to the supermarket seems weird.

Walking today at 4 PM.  Hope to see you.  Love, Felipe.