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.

On FaceBook last week I saw this post. I can’t vouch for it’s strict accuracy but it sounds pretty good to me. And it said, “The average three year old laughs 300 times a day while it takes the average forty year old 2 1/2 months.” What do you think? It really doesn’t bode well for us old timers does it?

I started out an important Zoom on Thursday with this factoid and I am going to use it again on this morning’s Zoom with Catalina’s class. It points to something important I think. There is a lot more room for humor in our lives than we know, don’t you think?

Yesterday Catherine and I had our first after church tailgate party. There we were hanging out in the sun with our Monk’s Blend Coffee and our sugary doughnuts talking to passerby’s. What could be better?

Still waiting for my treatment schedule to come in. This is the key to figuring out the timing in the rest of my month. There are a lot of moving parts on my calendar. And time moves on. It is almost May with corn planting time around the 12th. Geez!

OK, let’s get this week saddled up and moving!

sugary doughnut loves, Felipé.

Well, here I am after a pretty harrowing week. It seems like a month but no it was just a week. Thanks for all the comments of support. And thank you for all the thoughts and prayers on my behalf and our family’s behalf. It was a rough stretch in the trail but it seems better now having a plan and “road map” of the treatment.

I have two Zoom meetings with groups in the rest of the month of April. Hoping and praying that these will come to fruition on the dates scheduled. One is with Catalina’s pilgrimage class and one with a cancer support group. The problem is the Cyberknife doctors at the hospital are going to hand me a pretty iron clad schedule for treatment for these two weeks coming up and things could possibly conflict. But it will be what it will be I guess.

So life goes on over and in spite of the bumps and potholes on the trail. We know how to support each other the way we did on the old Camino. No one should feel alone.

Planning is going on for the Oasis. People are making plane reservations. The corn field is fertilized and tilled and warming in the ever increasing sunshine. A stack of bandanas in here. We so hope that each and everyone that wants to make it will be able to. That’s August 20-23rd.

It is a beautiful morning here with a semi cloudy day in store. Catherine will be here momentarily to do our Rosary walk. Then we probably will kick off the season by tailgating at the supermarket parking lot just like old times!

back in the saddle loves, Felipé.

On this solemn day of the funeral of our world’s Prince Philip we have our William remembering.

Royal Memories.

The passing of His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh, on April 9th has brought to mind many Royal memories for yours truly.

On March 24th, 1953, as a 7 year old boy, I listened on the wireless as the announcer describe the funeral procession for Queen Mary.

When the young Princess Elizabeth announced the upcoming date of her coronation of Tuesday June 2nd, 1953 I was thrilled as this date would be my 8th Birthday.

In 1957 I was chosen to be one of the representatives from my Boy Scout Troop who would attend a major exhibition at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall. Our task was to work in a cook shelter making pancakes. Princess Margaret ( The Queens elder sister ) was in attendance. Much to my delight she came by so I was able to serve her a sample of our efforts.

29th May, 1953 Edmund Hillary with sherpa Tenzing Norgay completed the first summit of Mount Everest.

On 16th, July that year the young Queen Elizabeth knighted him Sir Edmund Hillary.

July 2nd, 1965 was the day that I received my Gold Duke of Edinburgh Award from his Royal Highness.

Considering the number of youth who were present I was taken aback when the Duke came over to me.

During our conversation he mentioned that he recognized the tie I was wearing which came for an outdoor facility in Englands Lake District which I had attended.

He explained that his Son Charles had also attended there………….Small world……

I still have the tie…….

56 years later I am challenged to clearly recall the rest of our conversation.

I do remember that he was genuinely interested in what I had to say.

March 19th 1966 I emigrated from Scotland to Canada.

When the the Duke of Edinburgh could not attend a presentation of his awards in 1966 in Toronto he sent Sir Edmund Hillary in his place.

I was invited to join Sir Edmond for this gathering at the then brand new Toronto City Hall.

My conversation with the late Queen Mother in the north of Scotland in 1968 is another contact with Royalty that I will not forget.

Here we stood in this old village churchyard after the morning service which I had attended with the Queen Mother and a few locals………….

The Queen Mother was so easy to converse with.

It was like talking to an old friend…………

William Hayes, Caminoheads Canada Bureau Chief

It has been a busy and interesting and harrowing couple of weeks. And I have been largely absent because it took a while to sort things out. I thank Cris for so gracefully taking up the slack for the last few days. And there is a way forward and let me explain.

Well, first this all started with these headaches and hearing problem that I started having starting two months ago. At first I thought it was an infection and I obtained some antibiotics to try and deal with that but the symptoms continued and I went to a chiropractor that Wiley uses and he actually gave me a lot of relief because my neck was so kinked up that it was contributing. But ultimately the symptoms continued and My Rebecca got me to mention it to Nugget (Dr Gold my oncologist). He immediately ordered a MRI brain scan.

That scan was accomplished last Monday and within hours I was hearing that I had a tumor under my right ear. It is inside my skull, in the skull bone and outside the skull. This all sounded pretty darn scary as you can imagine. I shared that with My Rebecca and our son and daughter without knowing any more. Then Wednesday My Rebecca and I went into the hospital to talk with the Cyberknife department people. This is targeted radiation. We were much comforted after this meeting with the professionals.

It comes down to me showing up for five sessions between this Monday and the end of the month to get treated. It is a routine procedure these days and I was left with one “maybe”. That is whether the hearing in my right ear would survive all this. So there is that.

So, that is where we are for now. I just wanted to jump in and be with you and tell you that things have calmed down and that we have a way forward. Your prayers would be appreciated.

We are taking a “daycation” today and driving up to Port Hadlock to visit Terry Hershey and Nancy. It is a beautiful sunny day. I have a job to do my annual springtime ritual of finding my sunglasses. They seem to disappear permanently each October.

OK, enough of this loves, Felipé.

These blogging injuries are taking their toll on me. But we will get things sorted out eventually. Wasn’t that lovely how we were hijacked by the lovely Cris. If you have to be Shanghaied it is not a bad way to go.

Catherine will be here in a few minutes for our cherished Rosary session. I think that I will just have a short post today and not try to continue this later in the day. Blogging is an early morning activity for me.

And thank you Cris. Thank you Carol. Thank you Ronaldo. And thank you everyone, you make this happen.

yellow flowers, green leaves, blue sky loves, Felipé.

Life is just a Cheese Danish. Just a Danish away. Some Enchanted Danish. I Left My Cheesey Heart in San Francisco. Life is like that some days.

Dave from Austin was here this morning with his son Jon and grandson Parker. Parker came for an archery lesson which he does when Dave is in town and brings him over. Dave was at the original film festival party in Austin at S by SW Festival way back in the Spring of 16. So he is turning into an old friend. He will be here for the Oasis!

Then Wiley and I had some work in the shop making sawdust. It is nice and challenging to work with one of your kid’s or one of your parents, don’t you think. I’ve heard horror stories but we seem pretty compatible and we want to keep it that way.

There was too much going on today to get the blogpost done early so now I am all tired so this is what you get, Cheese Danish poetry.

tomorrow’s coming loves, Felipé.

We had a great walk yesterday morning. The weather was gorgeous and two couples showed up to do it. Richard and Susan were here after a year’s sabbatical, great to see them. And also Jim and Jen who are more or less regulars. And Jen is so excited because she has had a dream over night and both Richard and I were in it. And of course she couldn’t wait to tell us. That was amazing that we were both there randomly. Coincidence?

But on the way out of the house earlier I was hurrying because I was late and had pulled on my boots without tying them. And I got about half way out to the rock pile and felt something unusual about my right boot. It was like there was a crease in my sock where it wasn’t flat or something. Oh bother. Should I just lace up and tie up and go on or should I take the time to check it out? So, I decide to look and what is in there but my favorite, my red glass bead rosary. Oh.

This flashed me back to the Camino where I walked for a while on my glasses til I figured that out. Geez! But the rosary showed up unexpectedly as a reminder to us I guess that Mother Mary remains close by.

The whole walk was pleasant break from from my wrestling with my maladies. The present good news is that I am receiving some welcome relief from the visit to the chiropractor. He has begun to loosen things up in my back and neck and my muscles are much relaxed and I have more movement. Progress is welcome! I have an appoint next week to continue.

Hopefully the brain scan on Monday will, prove to be clear of problems. We might be racking up this headache episode to being a blogging injury. Funny huh, well sort of? Just like the rosary had a precursor with the glasses in the Crocs on the Camino these headaches have an earlier relative. Let me explain. Several years ago I found myself in the Emergency Room at Swedish Hospital thinking that I was having a stroke. And of course that turned into a big deal as those things do. But really after all the root problem was found to be my habitually crossing of my legs while blogging for hours everyday, pinching a nerve behind my knee. And now it looks like my current problem may have it’s roots in the way I have habitually propped my head up while blogging on the red leather couch. Yike, blogging injuries, who would have thought?

So, life goes on, through thick and thin and it appears that Mother Mary wants us to know that she is close by always.

Friday loves, Felipé.

I was off to the Institute yesterday for my three week visit. Two major things happened. But before that I got to see some of my old buddies there which is always a great check in. We have grown so close over all these years. We trade thoughts and inspiration.

So My Rebecca has been concerned about my headaches as of late and wanted me to ask Dr Gold about it. He ordered up a brain scan and I go in on Monday to get that done. We have to check out what’s happening in the brain bucket. Hopefully maybe nothing.

Related I do have a chiropractor appointment this afternoon to work on my neck and back. I have a sneaking suspicion that I have something out of place and that is giving me these headaches. So we are working the problem although I would rather be fishing.

Speaking of fishing the Hemingway documentary finished up last evening and we dutifully watched although it was hard to watch. I’m glad we made it through and I have new energy to read some more of his work.
I still want Ryck’s take on that doc as I am sure that he watched it.

And then while I was at Dr Gold’s he showed me the images from my last scan of my lungs and it is looking pretty wild in there. Things have progressed a lot further than I would have thought in other words the tumors have grown. And they are taking up a lot of space. It was a little depressing I have to admit. But we continue to hang on.

where is the sunshine loves, Felipé.

At the ranch we have a set of wine glasses, six to be exact. Five of them are beautiful and totally functional and you can’t tell one from another. And then there is the sixth one that is cracked but not dangerously damaged. Pilgrims get that one and get to the last swallow and exclaim, “It’s cracked!” And grant it it looks terminal.

But it is my favorite of the bunch and I love it when I get it. It’s got character and it teaches me things. I can’t feel the crack inside or out and it doesn’t leak so what’s the problem? It reminds me of me and folks in similar situations. We seem to go on and get the job done despite obstacles.

And I guess that is the lesson, to figure out how to get the job done with what we got. I’m happy with that.

The third and final part of the Hemingway documentary is on in a few minutes so I’m going to bail out.

miss you loves, Felipé.