Happy Birthday Chris

We are coming to and end of the festival of Chris’s birthday. We have had lots of celebrating. It started last week in Renton with JonTon and Laura. We continued yesterday with a party at the Cathlamet Fergusons. Linda and Ruth and Larry also joined the fun. We of course enjoyed a fabulous dinner with everyone contributing something. The traditional gift giving included a neat little chest for Chris to put his stuff in by his chair in the living room. Chris also received some spending money which he spent this morning on a surround sound system from Wal-Mart for the living room. At this very moment Chris and Teresa are trying to hook it up. It is a much more complicated procedure since Chris can only use one arm and the entertainment unit is against the wall. Teresa is doing her best to follow directions and Chris is not so successfully trying not to use his right hand. I am hearing such things as “You said to do this…” and “I don’t care what I said put it in this one….” And “this is not gray it is white” “ no it is definitely not gray.” There are a lot of other colors being shouted too such as red, blue, and black. I am trying to say far away.

Today we went garage saling in the morning and then drove to Long Beach to see a quilt show and some interactive Lewis and Clark bicentennial exhibits. We saw people from the Corp that have traveled together reenacting the expedition since 2003. They have been sleeping in tents and riding in boats etc. We listened to a talk through a hand held radio while going through a large tent that had murals on the walls of the tents. And we saw lots of displays. Many were in tents, others were in an Elks building which was much warmer. They reenacted the men lining up for their daily ration of whiskey. They received apx. 4 ounces in order of their rank and number and had to show that they had drunk it all and prove they hadn’t saved any for later (to add to other rations thus getting more of a buzz from it.) It was very interesting. We ended the trip with a dinner at Doogers in Long Beach. It was delicious. Now we are home safe and sound.