Gratitude

Hi,
This weekend we walked, we shopped and we stuck our toes in the water but couldn't go in. I made a new friend from the other side of the world and we hung more of Lisa's paintings.
The weekend song, that many of you knew but didn't bother to tell me was "I'll Try Something New" by Smokey Robinson and The Miracles. We'll start the week with another one of those songs that you know, but probably don't realize from lyrics.
"See the curtains hanging in the window, in the evening on a Friday night. A little light a-shining through the window lets me know everythings alright." Clues: It's by a duo made up of two last names singing about the state of the weather, sort of.
Saturday evening we went to the 'Walking Street' here in town. Two blocks of a street were blocked off and venders of all kinds were set up on either side and down the middle. Walking traffic went down one side and then made a 'U Turn' and continued on the opposite side. The crowd was huge. We had no idea it would be like that. We saw things we'd never seen before. Stuff we'd never seen at the Night Bazaar. There were lots of wonderful gift ideas as well as things for daily life. And of course, there was food everywhere. We ran into an old neighbor from the rental house days and that was nice. BamBam got a new sweater and I bought a waffle from the man who was our overnight security guard during the building of the house. I'm sure we'll be going back since we only covered one of the two blocks.
Late Saturday night we turned on Thai TV and watched a bit of one of the performances that was being held as part of the cremation ceremony for Princess Galyani, sister of the King. One of the performances lasted seven hours. It began at 11 pm and ended at 6 am. Earlier in the day we watched the various processions that were part of the ceremony. Literally, a cast of thousands were involved in this final tribute to the much loved Princess. People began gathering at 4 in the morning to witness the proceedings.
Sunday evening I spent some time with a young man from Dublin, Ireland who got my number from a friend in Chiang Mai. He was here to do some volunteer work at an Akha village north of Chiang Rai. It was interesting to get a travelers perspective of northern Thailand.
Today we went to Mae Sai for our 90 day check in with the immigration office. It takes almost an hour to get up there and the check in is a matter of filling out a form with our current address and when we entered the country. After about 20 minutes we were back on the highway headed for home. We stopped at Tesco-Lotus, a very nice department/grocery type store, and did some shopping for items we can't usually find in Chiang Rai. We made it home for a late lunch and a little relaxation.
The afternoon was spent hanging paintings in various places and planning for more. I suspect that over time we'll have to do some rotating in order to display all of the beautiful art that Lisa has produced. Just not enough wall space.
Have a Wonderful Week.

Peace,
Danny

"Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity:
it must be produced and discharged and used up
in order to exist at all."
~William Faulkner

Gettin' Funky, Thai Style

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