Freedom Isn't Free

Yesterday, I picked my brother Phil and his wife Becky up at the Portland airport. They flew all the way from Kalispell, MT for $13 each, since Becky's sister works for an airline. They were on standby, but managed to get a connecting flight leaving Seattle at 7 am. I was supposed to pick them up at 7:45, but I was 30 minutes late. My brother Gary has a set of the "Little House" books right outside his bathroom, and I got hung up in there reading "On the Banks of Plum Creek." The Ingalls family are distant cousins of ours, by the way. I took my brother and sister-in-law out to our parents' house. Later, we went shopping at the new Goodwill in Battle Ground, and I bought a bookcase for $7.99. In the evening, we went out for a free dinner at the Oak Tree Restaurant in Woodland. We had all been invited by a friend of my mother's. I had a sirloin steak with a baked potato, even though I don't usually eat beef. It turned out that in exchange for the meal we had to listen to a lecture and sales pitch on fire safety equipment. It was somewhat of a hoot. I thought it would be funny to make a documentary film of all the so-called "free" experiences you could have in a month.