After six days of being outside of internet, cell phone or newspapers. I return to find that NOLA is about to receive another hurricane with the rest of the Gulf Coast. My prayers are with you all, especially St. Casserole, her family and dog and cats. It's just not fair. Not fair at all.

And I'm in Alaska, two blocks from the governor's mansion. I can actually see it if I were to walk outside. And, of course, she's not here. It's interesting being here and reading the Juneau paper.

Focus on the Family asked for rain for Obama's speech in Mile High Stadium. Rain is coming to disrupt the Republican Convention. If one believed in divine intervention. what would one say? (OK I've had a bit of wine).

I walked for one hour and forty seven minutes today, up a few steep inclines.

Juneau is wet, but when the sun does poke through it is among the most beautiful places in the world. The mountains are steep, dropping straight down into the channels. Just across the way is Douglas (Douglas Island?). So on one side are high mountains dropping down into the sea and across the channel are more high mountains.

Wonderful fish-- salmon and halibut and dungeness crab. What more could anyone want? And good friends, wonderful friends.

I exercised for the last five days, running two days, hiking three days. I've done more exercise than I have since sometime more than a year ago, May 2007 when I was hiking. It is wonderful. I hope that I am well.

Friends I haven't seen in a while asked me what it is like to have cancer. What can I say? It's like being in a car accident. At least I've never remembered what happened. It's a blank in my life. Cancer is like that. But, I'm waiting. Will the next CT scan be clear? And the next? What about the one after that? And when I reach five years? What about eight years?

On the other hand, cancer hangs over everyone. It's just that most people don't know it. Half of all men and one third of all women come down with cancer. It is no longer a death sentence.

My eyebrows are coming back. I think I have whole eyebrows.

Praise God. I am alive, I am eating really good food with really good friends.

Tomorrow I return home and begin my life again. Working full time. Listening to where God may be calling the congregation I am called to lead. Amen.