simulating for with foreach

Hi,
I would like to know if it is possible to iterate over a set of
elements (say node in this example) in a special way (not every
element, but 1, 3, 5, ... or any other sequence). (XSLT 1)
<nodes>
 <node />
 <node />
 <node />
 <node />
</nodes>
I know that one way is to <xsl:iterate> and use <xsl:if> and
position(), but there are situations in which you can not use
position() because it doesn't give you the exact node (for example
when you have #text elements randomly beside <node>.