I fed the woodstove a load of firewood and the Hummingbirds got some new syrup. Got myself some peanut butter oatmeal to tide me over to the big meal. Yea, now I get to write to you, then off to the morning walk around the Camino.

We have had Thanksgiving greetings come in from different places, thank you. Ronaldo sent in this link to the original Alice’s Restaurant by Arlo Guthrie. Thank you.

Alice’s Restaurant

But that was the 1960’s and this is 2020. Maybe someone could rig up an updated version of that for our pandemic times. “You can get any thing you want, if they are still open, at Alice’s Restaurant excepting Alice.”

Speaking of the grip of the pandemic I am liking the news lately about the progress of the vaccines. This is really exciting. I have high hopes that the Veranda will be going deal for August! So that is the start of an encouraging rumor right there.

But for right here and right now on this specific day of thanksgiving let us concentrate on that. Let us put gratitude forward above everything else. We need to pray for all. It is time for a big heart as we await.

So, I will go find my boots and walking sticks and get ready for an hour of Phil’s Camino. Best wishes to you and yours on this day.

big heart loves, Felipé.

A day to clean the house and take a last minute run to town for Brussel sprouts. I was just thinking of holidays past. Happy ones stuffed with crazy family memories. And the old sad ones where we are far away with not a chance of getting there. I guess it takes all of that to make a lifetime.

This year is special though as we all share the common burden of the pandemic. Well, at least we are all in it together. That seems kind of a consolation prize I know. But maybe we can expand on that as it is about all we got to work with.

Somehow Alice’s Restaurant is coming to mind. A tale built on the dump being closed. “Who ever heard of a dump being closed on Thanksgiving?”. I don’t think that we are going to get into the kind of trouble that Arlo did but it is kind of making something out of nothing on Thanksgiving.

I have an account on Spotify that I pay for and can’t use. I got my password so gumboed up with them that it wouldn’t even let me get close. Felipé persona non grata. Maybe Henna could figure that out tomorrow while she is here since she is such a wiz. Then we could listen to Alice’s Restaurant at our own little gathering, maybe. Would they even have it? Probably too antiquated but will give it a shot.

And what about the old televised yule log? Maybe time to light that sucker off! My Rebecca says, “The yule log instead of football?” She has a point you have to admit.

Well whatever, we need to pray for nurses and doctors who are not getting the day off. This I know. And of course there are the folks with the Covid and we need to pray for them. OK, good.

giving thanks loves, Felipé.

I was gifted a most important item yesterday. It is a little piece of ground in a peaceful pretty place with neighborhood friends all around. Given to me by a kind friend was a plot at the Vashon Cemetery. I went and looked at it for the first time this morning. Couldn’t be happier about this development.

My Rebecca and I went and had an hour with the local Funeral Director, also a friend and total wonderful person yesterday. We hammered out some important details for the future. It was time for that or maybe way past time for that really. So, good for us!

And Thanksgiving on our doorstep. We have a turkey thawing. And the time now to gather ingredients for the meal. Wiley and Henna will be here. Henna to make mac and cheese as a side dish. That was to please me as I wanted to try it. So we will be small but mighty.

Last year we were at a large family gathering with Henna’s fam here locally. It was really fun and of course we are mourning the loss of such excitement but here we are. Well, we are all promising to be good this year and are keeping it small and local, right?

I heard some optimistic news on the radio this morning about how the States could have half of our population vaccinated by May coming up. This would put a major crimp in the plague. Is there hope for Veranda 2021? Do we have dates for that?

that’s all for now loves, Felipé.

Clear, clear and clear. There is a wind and the leaves are falling like snow. Soon, in days, they will be all down for the year. Overhead the clouds are scudding by. We hunker down by our fires thinking our thoughts.

Geez, by the sound of that we are living in a cave somewhere in the land before time. Well, we still remember all that I am sure. And in some ways we are reliving it with the darn hunkerdown pandemic shrouding the entire globe.

I thought that it would be a good idea if I made a few phone calls to check in on friends that I haven’t seen for a while. I have gotten some awfully nice emails from friends lately that mean a lot to me. Maybe it would be good to keep that going.

Just that simple thing on my mind today, to check in. Let’s make sure that we are all OK.

off to walk loves, Felipé.

It’s like living in a cloud, this fog. I suppose it is good for the complexion, how could a wrinkle survive? It is moist out to the nth degree. Visibility sort of comes and goes on a whim. Driving is hazardous. Your car could get wrinkles pretty easily.

So, we walk and say our rosary here in a minute. It will be eerie and mysterious like the Holy Spirit is. We will be walking inside the Holy Spirit and we will produce a glow which will be mysterious. We could become part of the mystery, hopefully.

I have to go and gear up, it’s time.

be where you are loves, Felipé.

Monday 0900-1000
Tuesday 1530-1630
Thursday 0900-1000
Sunday 1530-1630

Felipé.

A month to the solstice today. The sun though today out is behind the majestic fir trees. It’s that winter sun that never makes it far from the horizon. And yes the solstice, roughly December 21st, will be the seventh anniversary of the opening of Phil’s Camino. I wonder if I can get a few people that were here that day to come and walk this year. That seems like a worthy project.

And what other seasonal goodies have we. Cris wanted me to make a Advent calendar to December 16th when my biopsy results will be revealed. That seems like a worthy project.

I need to post a walking schedule here at the blog soon. We are still open with the inclusion of Covid precautions. People seem to have the time but not the inclination to get out and get over here these days. So, if you are staying away because you think a lot of folks will be here that is defiantly not the story. 95% percent of the time I am alone.

Last evening Annie and I were Zooming with a cancer support group out of LA. We watched the Phil’s Camino documentary and had a QandA session. They are always fun and rewarding for me. If you belong to a group and want to have something like that we can rig it up.

Thanksgiving (US) is coming our way quickly. We have the turkey corralled in our freezer. Looking forward to cornbread dressing once again. This is our chance to proclaim our thankfulness even in these sparse times!

So, that was kind of a newsy post, have to have one now and again here.

Zooming loves, Felipé.

Last evening a comment can through channels to me here at headquarters, it was Becky. I was so happy to know that I hadn’t dreamed the whole thing up. But it was her and her story matched mine so I am happy.

Here are her words:

“Phil! I am here and sorry for the delayed response! Meeting you Wednesday was such a treasured moment! I sent our selfie to my family text thread knowing they would freak out. And they sure did. I recounted our encounter and my shock when you answered my surprised holler ‘Phil’s Camino?!’ With ‘yes, I’m Phil’. I told them I had a speechless moment with so many questions and topics to cover, as anyone who has walked the Camino can relate to. Alas, our respective 8am appointments saved me from embarrassing myself too much, but am thankful you obliged me with a selfie!

My folks have walked the camino a number of times, I was privileged to join them for 2 weeks in October 2016. It is an experience like no other, to say the least.
My folks were staying with me after a recent surgery and they brought your video to watch during their visit. What an honor and encouragement to know your story! Thank you for sharing and continuing your Camino with such grace.
We had contemplated going to Vashon for a ‘get out of the city’ drive. It is still on our list!

That Wednesday morning, I’m thankful I followed by dad’s rule/encouragement to talk to strangers.“

And I’m happy to announce the the whole coincidence/synchronicity phenomenon is alive and well in this world! Here I was pushing open my most feared door and who should arrive to go through with me. I don’t know, one can’t make this stuff up apparently. Thank you Becky for tweaking me there at that exact instant.

The phrase, “we can’t help ourselves”, thank you Annie, goes a long way to explain this. And it all seems to have a mind of it’s own, this synchronicity, just ambulating down the boulevard like it’s reality is all the norm. Hmm. It sort of lives in us now but it has it’s own agenda.

Yea, speaking of Annie I have a zoom this evening with a group that has recently watched Phil’s Camino. It is a QandA. They are always fun. Annie rigs up these deals and I tag along.

Alperfect loves all the time, Felipé.

(our moon is a waxing crescent, 33% illumination)

Something very synchronistic happened yesterday that made my day only it was early and it got lost in the shuffle of all the drama. I need to recount it because it was at least as important as all the hospital junk, no more.

I got up yesterday at 0430 to make the trip to the Hospital for my 0800 appointment for the biopsy. All very important. And the Hospital is not just the Hospital anymore since the Covid and even more so just now because of the Governor’s latest tightening. The facility is all compartmentalized like a ship ready for battle. There are locked doors and blocked hallways and you can only get places by going through the right checkpoints for screening. At one point I set off any alarm and then I got busted for not being screened, geez!

Anyway that is on top of my own years of fears of the whole situation. I know that I have written about how it is the hardest thing in the world is just to go through the door from the parking lot to the Treatment Center. One second you are independent and free and you go through a door and next you are willingly getting poisoned.

And that is where I was yesterday poised to open that door when I caught a glimpse of a woman coming up behind me. So, I pushed the door open extra wide so she would have room to pass behind me at a good distance. And as she goes by she reads the patch on my daypack. She yells, “Phil’s Camino!”.

And she had seen the documentary and her parents had walked the Camino five times. And she wanted to take a selfie with me. And I said go to my blog Caminoheads and comment and I will pick up your email address and we can communicate. And we both ran on, she into an elevator and me around a corner and I yelled back, “You are making my morning!”.

so sometimes you get lucky loves, Felipé.

Breaking my fast with a Starbucks Americano. No food or drink forever before my biopsy procedure and now I am celebrating. That wasn’t so bad just time consuming. Now I am waiting on Nugget to collect the vital info and give me his interpretation of the situation.

I am thinking a lot about the film we watched Netflix last evening. It is brand new and free of charge, how can that be? It feature’s Sonia Loren at 86 years old. Entitled The Life Ahead it is directed by her son Edoardo Ponti. All I can say is that she still has it! And it will probably be an award winner. This is your hot tip for the week.

Well, it is something to distract me from this anxiety producing wait for my results. I don’t know what is worse waiting for biopsy results or scan results? And then there are all new Covid restrictions here at the Hospital and Institute. I set off an alarm trying to get to where I was going early this morning. Gee wiz anyway. Adventures in health care.

Well, I guess I miss understood the time required for the biopsy to be processed and it will take a month. So I am going back in four weeks to see Nugget, a vacation!

Listing to port loves, Felipé.