We did it to everyone’s satisfaction and then some. Just want to report that our four visitors from Salt Lake are on their way back after having charmed us left, right and center. All in a day’s work for a bunch of scruffy pilgrims though, scruffy being a good thing. OK, bless you four for coming so far to be here with us. Buen Camino, Felipe.

Caminoheads from afar have descended on Raven Ranch bringing buckets and piles of their lovely energy. Just when we thought we had a lull between Thanksgiving and Christmas in come this gang, Tracy, Loretta, Erin and Erin’s husband Jeff. They are all friends of Annie’s, well who isn’t really. So we are walking and talking and partying hardy in between. Just alberguing down with cozy wood fires and tapas. Haven’t had this much fun since Mary Margaret came through maybe a year ago.

The weather is beautiful for Northwest late Fall. But do these guys care anyway? All of us sat out at the picnic table last evening with Catherine y Dana tapaing in the dark and the drizzle with candles and twinkle lights. Are there any conditions that Caminoheads can’t tapa?

They all rented a beach cabin on the harbor for two nights. Could see Orcas out the front window. There were some bunk beds and Tracy claimed one of those for old time sake. We will be there for dinner tonight. Maybe have a winter bonfire so can get them all smelling woodsmokey for the flight home.

It’s pretty much an alperfect situation here. Will be out hiking today working the the tapas off. There is a grove of giant cedars that we want to get to. Their giant roots go across the trail and you feel like a Hobbit scrambling over them. Feeling like a Hobbit, priceless.

OK, enough of this giddiness. Time for breakfast and getting ready for the Salt Lakers. They will be here at 0900. For my readers we will start our Advent celebration soon I promise. Thanks for being here readers, love you, Felipe.

Good friends of Annie’s are coming for a few days to grace us here and walk Phil’ls Camino. They are coming from Salt Lake and probably at the airport now. I find myself scurrying around trying to catch up on things to make these guests comfortable and welcome.

It is comforting to me, as I have my first coffee of the morning contempleting all the undone details of welcome ness on my “to do” list, when I think of something Annie said to me on her first visit here. Awaiting her my little mind was stuck in the “Annie is coming, Annie is coming!” mode as I scurried preparing.

One of the items on my long list was to find some big flat rocks to put down in Raven Creek so Annie could get across gracefully when she came to walk the next day. Yea, got it done and was pretty proud of it. So, the next day when we were making our way around the first time in the typical rain of early March we came up to the stepping stones setting above of the flowing water and Annie complimented the engineering by saying, “Oh, how Camino!”. I was flattered but followed by saying to be careful because I just placed the rocks and some of them may be a little shaky. And she quickly exclaimed, “Oh, how Camino!”.

That’s when I learned to relax and love Annie and better understand what being a Caminohead means. So, Caminoheads on the horizon, that’s the way it is with us. Ideally you will be reading this on the Wifi on the plane. Know that we will charm each other “just because” of who we have become and therefore “we can’t help ourselves” (another Annie) and my “to do” list will perhaps be little shakey. Welcome!

The ending to Monday Night Football was highly unlikely is how to describe it best. How in the heck could that have happened? But it did! Don’t ask me to explain it but know that you will see it thirty five times in the reruns coming this week.

But the point is that it is never too late. Four seconds can change everything. Just be present, right? Look for opportunities. Being present is equal to not giving up. The things you learn on Monday Night Football.

Boy, Our Catherine and Dana took a great trip east across the vast American Heartland. They decided to take the train back to Chicago and traveled on from there. Yea, none of those new fangled air machines for these Caminoheads. They did it the hard way, well with wine of course. Just wanted to pass on their pix before we all get swept up in the vast Christmas celebration coming up.

Well, the cheerful Catherine and Dana will be back here soon to liven up the neighborhood. Could use help tomorrow as folks are flying in from Salt Lake to walk Phil’s Camino. Action packed around here. Lovin you by the trainload, Felipe.

I was in town this morning after my bible class and what did I see but a beautiful black and white three legged dog. It was doing great motivating down the sidewalk with it’s human. The scene brought back all sorts of memories of three legged dog musings that I had during a period of my life after getting cancer diagnosis.

I’m so happy to have run across this class of critter. They are totally inspiring really. They don’t seem to spend too much time lamenting and seem to be perfectly happy. Can we be so lucky? Can we get over all the “used to be” thoughts and get on with it as it exists today, this happy day? Can we today be the best three legged dog ever?

Patches of blue sky out there, a nice day developing after serious morning fog. Best to you all, love, Felipe.

To start with it was a thing of beauty, so I don’t forget. Earlier in the week she was whining about it just being the two of us present but then we were present to each other and that’s the magic. Earlier in the week I was talking with my nurse buddies about Thanksgiving meal plans and it is amazing how non Norman Rockwell things have gotten. People are busy I suppose and things get short cutted.

Katy the nurse who I was with the most was amazed that Rebecca was making the cornbread to make the cornbread stuffing. Then I said that we had grown the corn and ground the meal and that is when Rebecca received the “Little House on the Praire” chef award, right? She also cooked the real pumpkins, that Catherine and Dana had grown (neighborhood farming), to make the pie. But she did buy the real whip cream in a spray can but we let her go on that one as we don’t have a cow to milk.

So, we always learn something new and the directions on this family farm grown turkey said to bast the bird with wine. Yea OK, how about the gravy that makes?! That’s what she is pouring in the pic. The turkey was a gift from Colin, a friend of Our Wiley’s by the way.

So yea, kudos to Rebecca on this one. Just like we learned on The Camino, be present, work hard, improvise, pay attention and smile. Oh, and give thanks!
Bless you dear friends, Felipe.

That was Our Jeniffer’s Thanksgiving prayer in an email that I just opened. We both had a hard day at the hospital yesterday. But like her prayer says we had lots of good souls hovering around us to make things easier. Beside treatment we had our intpretation of our scans. Things could have been better with both of them. Doc Gold put us on heavier chemo drugs, Jennifer starting yesterday and I will start in the Spring. I wanted to wait for her to recover from her series before I started. Anyway, that’s what it looks like in a very general way.

It’s all dicey, yes? But Cancer Commandos hang tough. Stuff happens and pretty soon we’re making lemonade, one way or another. I was up in the early hours with the nervous energy from the steroids in my cocktail. Did an hour and a half of writing. Started to develop a list of “Findings”, important things that I found in 2015. I can’t take credit for thinking up anything much originally but can pick up things off the “spiritual ground” and fit them into the Cancer Commando Code. I’m good at that.

So, that is coming up and so is Advent, the leadin to Christmas. We will have to weave that into the blog. Yup, we are following the trail and we will maybe take some side trips to enliven things for you.

Well, have a great Thanksgiving, and live that gratitude tomorrow and the next day. Love you all immensely, Felipe.

I’m thinking that the presence of Yogi Berra quotes in one’s proximity is a good thing, the more the better really. I’ve always loved the things that dear man says. Annie had a quote in her book, I remember. But one can pass days and weeks without any sign of one.

But I actually produced one recently, I think, well you make the call. I was talking with Josh, one of our son’s buddies yesterday morning and he was asking about our hunting trip. I was saying that the weather was a challenge with the cold and especially the wind but, “It was beautiful when it was beautiful.” Right? I’m happy with that, my first!

Then I remembered that Josh came up with a Berra, that really I think is immensely better, back a year ago. It was November when the film crew was here and the sun had gone down on the last day of filming and we were partying outside around a bonfire. Right in the middle of that celebration our beloved dog Sture (pronounced Stura) collapsed and died before he hit the ground. It was really so elegant for he was suffering with his cancer and we were medicating him to give him a few more weeks and then… We laughed and cried at the same time. Josh was comforting My Rebecca when he said to her, “Sometimes life is so sudden.” What a Berra! A guy would give his left arm to come up with something like that!

Yea. Today Our Jennifer and I are at the hospital for the interpretation of our scans which we had yesterday and then our treatment. Big day. I got my interpretation and things are basically OK, some of the tumors are slightly larger. Jennifer’s is coming up momentarily and I am praying for her.

My Rebecca is home at the ranch baking cornbread for the dressing and baking pumpkin for the pie. I just mentioned that to the nurses here and they were totally impressed. Lots of them were going out to eat at restaurants on Thanksgiving much less cook much less fix the fixings. No one knew of anyone who was cooking an actual pumpkin for sure. OK then, way to go Rebecca! Kind of “Little House on the Prairie” stuff for sure.

Well, that’s the way it is gang. The sun is out here, clear and cold. See you on Turkey Day, love, Felipe.

I’m a lucky man. Sister Joyce was here on Vashon and I got an hour with her. I plead my case so to speak. I told her what has been occurring since last we saw each other. She had not been reading Caminoheads the last few weeks so I got her back on track with that. The last few weeks on this blog have been interesting. Somehow a gear has been shifted in my walk.

Sister Joyce is good at fitting anyone’s story into the broad bigger picture. She is good at clarifying the muddy. That’s what I need as I drag my “stuff” in to her as it’s tangled and caked with road grime and so close to me that I can’t see it properly. “Well, what have you been up to?” she will ask.

Yea, what have I been doing? Somehow old Felipe has gone a little woo woo could be the story. Somehow getting outside the bounds of my traditional understanding of things. Somehow in unknown territory for me anyway. And I’m not bragging or complaining but just reporting as the blog has always done. Bless Sister Joyce for keeping her ear open to me and letting me know that things are alright. We are all a little further down the trail today in places that we haven’t been before and things look different than they did yesterday, that’s all.

Well, on with my day. Thanks for lending me your ear. Love, Felipe.