Yes, our new program of Bureau Chiefs to relieve Felipé of the Friday blogging is underway. And of course Pilgrim Farmer John answered the call. Well done PFJ! We are off to a flying start team!

Catherine said to me yesterday on our way to or from Mass that she sensed that it would be hard to integrate into the intensely personal world of Caminoheads blog. In other words it would be a challenge to get into the blog and do an offering because there is so much Felipé piled up in there. Well, OK.
We will just have to loosen that all up.

Farmer John for a period of his life was a Marine Corps Officer. In the Corps MC Officers are akin to the gods. I was so intimidated by farmer John and his band of officer friends when I first met them, a hold over. You just don’t hang out with officers. It’s more like, “Private Volker, there is an enemy machine gun that needs charging over there, do you see it?” “Aye aye sir! Sir, is that before or after breakfast sir?!

It is all jokes now but serious business once upon a time. And then Pilgrim Farmer talking about his basketball experience backing up the star. I got wrestling stories from the 1960’s in high school. I never played “ball” sports. I was to anxious about the darn thing. What if I passed it to the wrong guy or ran the wrong way with it or misplaced it, too much to worry about. I did cross country, wresting in the winter and then track in the spring, no balls anywhere around. Those three sports each had their own unique challenges. Cross country was such a mind game talking ourselves out of quitting forever. Track was similar but more competitive being part of a jostling crowd. But wrestling was the hardest for me.

I did after two years win a spot on the varsity team but even there was bounced around in a few weight classes because of the competition for those positions. Sometimes I would be wrestling JV again. Things were in flux. I earned the nickname “Kamikaze” because the coach might wrestle me up a few weight classes to fill a hole in our roster. That was the hardest job because there was little chance of winning and the object was not to get pinned which would be bad for our teams score. Taking one for the team had little glory.

As the Kamikaze I can appreciate being the backup guy. But the Bureau Chiefs are much more than that. They each have varied views different than mine. They bring what I can’t see or understand. They have interesting foibles as we all do. They will make the whole thing richer. Please welcome them.

Showers today. Glad that the Veranda was dry and folded away for now in our memories. Walk in fifteen minutes, yike!

Almost five hundred word loves, Felipé.