Man, you know times have changed when I end up posting a pic of me holding Benny's piss bag...

Photo was taken in the hallway of St. Vincent Hospital in Portland the day after Benny's successful surgery to remove a cancerous prostate. Terry & I flew up for a week to be with Benny, much mahalo to Sheri & Lee Garboden for putting us up at their beautiful home in Beaverton. Pictured from L>R is Benny's good friend Brad Durham (grandson of the legendary football coach & AD Paul Durham), Lee, Benny & myself the piss bag boy. Something really funny (well, funny to everyone but Benny) happened moments after this photo was snapped. I was distracted for a moment and started to walk away from Benny while holding on to the bag. Of course the tube at the other end is firmly planted up his urethra and my actions produced a very audible "WO-WO-WO!" from Benny. I stopped in time, but it's been awhile since I laughed so hard. Sunday night we had a great dinner at Sheri & Lee's home and were joined by classmates Mason Honda & Sheri Cockett. A great trip, but mostly we were relieved by the results of his surgery. a hui hou! >Peter

NOTE FROM BENNY: I want to thank the many classmates (Bimo, Riley, Mike Kapuniai, Sue, Debbie, Duane,Diane Ling, Betty Lau, John Leong, George Costa, and others) who contacted me to convey well-wishes and support during my brief bout with prostate cancer. I was diagnosed in early September and took the advice of our classmate, Dr. Clayton Chong and my doctors here in Portland to have my prostate and several lymph nodes removed surgically. After a difficult 5 hour surgery on Wednesday, October 29th, they found no cancer outside my prostate or in my lymph nodes (they saw an undefined mass in one of my pelvic lymph nodes that was suspicious for cancer). Once again, I am humbled by the power, strength and faith of my classmates when the chips are down. Especially the ones who live in the Portland area (Sheri Awai Garboden, Mason Honda, Chubby Kea Ringer, Sheridan Cockett) and to Peter and Terry Gonsalves who made the trip from Hawai'i to be there by my side. I'm recovering in Portland right now, but will be back in Hawai'i permanently on November 26th. Mahalo Everyone!!