It’s the unofficial end of summer here in Canada and time for Blog Post # 37. Yesterday was a holiday Monday here called Labour Day, celebrating the achievements of workers. I celebrated by getting off work at 7:00 am and thinking about my next 12 days off.

I had a nice moment recently when a co-worker, that I don’t know all that well, said to me, “I like your blog. It’s good.” I have ‘good’ friends that don’t read my blog so to find out that there are strangers that read this and like it is encouraging. My jokes about only 19 people reading this may not be true.

My recent efforts to be published have been fruitless unfortunately. I have completed two pieces on health (Iyengar Yoga and Tension Myositis Syndrome) but have yet to find a site interested in these topics. I guess all anyone wants to hear about is beer and travel. I’ll try to find a way to make that happen. Over the next month and a half, my wife and I will be travelling to five different countries and we may hit up a brewery or two that I can then write about.

I took this photo in August on a camping trip to Hornby Island. I figured that I would post one more ‘close to home’ photo as I’m expecting a lot of Scotland and Ireland over the rest of the year.

Border Patrol

This week, my wife and I will be driving down to Seattle to see one of my favorite bands, The War on Drugs. I can’t get enough of their music. Have a listen to one of my favorite running songs here: Red Eyes.

I must say that I’m not looking forward to crossing the US border. First of all, if the border guards read my blog, they’ll know about my jokes (and non-jokes) about Donald Trump. My political agenda is exposed here. Secondly, when I’m asked what I’m doing in Seattle, I’ll need to say, “I’m going to see ‘The War on Drugs’.”

“Pardon? Did you say ‘drugs’?” And I won’t be heard from again.

I think I’ll just tell them I’m going to see “WOD” in concert.

“The Who?”

“No. The WOD.”

“What?”

“No. WOD.”

I’ll just say I’m going to see Nirvana……too soon?

Laws in Translation

I enjoy language. It’s one of the reasons I write this blog. I’m also a big believer in doing difficult things, challenging the self, and reaching for goals that can seem unattainable. Even if they’re not completely reached, there is growth, learning, and strength to be gained.

In January of this year, I challenged myself to learn Spanish. My strategy started with 10 minutes a day of Spanish phrases. That turned into 20 minutes a day around April. It’s now a passion and an obsession. My goal is to speak Spanish fluently by the end of 2019. It’s going well so far. I was at a party with Spanish speaking people and instead of saying “don’t worry about it”, I said “I don’t know busy”. Recently, I asked a Spanish speaking co-worker, “Are you a book now?” With this kind of progress I’ll be doing a Spanish Podcast about correctly doing the Macarena and managing a hospital in Tijuana before you know it.

One of my strategies has been to watch tv shows and movies in Spanish with English subtitles. I’ve now seen Shrek 239 times. The unfortunate part is anytime I use Spanish, I keep calling everyone “Donkey.” ….whereas in English, I only do that occasionally.

Inspiration

My wife has been inspired by my Spanish efforts. She decided to work on learning Norwegian. She was well on her way in 2005 when we lived in Norway but we returned to Canada before she could really solidify it. Now, she’s using an app and Youtube to practice every day. She recently learned the very useful phrase, “The spider is ugly”.

Oh, good. Use that when someone asks, “Can you speak Norwegian?”

”The spider is ugly.”

Words of Wisdom

1. Stand up straight. Have you noticed everyone has their head forward and down? It’s often due to the phone. Put the phone down sometimes! Walk upright with your head held high because “Hey, look at me. I can put myself-phone down and enjoy life.” ….but no one will notice.

2. Stop wasting time. One of the main reasons I started Spanish was realizing that there was so much time wasted on the phone with Facebook, Twitter, Words with Friends, Chess, Cat Videos, and general trash. I thought I could use that time to become better and achieve something worthwhile. Fulfillment doesn’t come from comfort or entertainment, it comes from purpose and achievement.

It’s time for the ending jokes. It’s also time to stop making fun of my wife and go back to nursing jokes. These are my jokes. Soy Roy. Enjoy.

In 2016, my wife and I went to China on a three week trip. It was amazing. I learned a few words in Mandarin which I still remember. They’re actually quite useful now as many of my patients in the hospital speak Mandarin. I can say useful Mandarin phrases to my patients like, “How are you?” “Thank you” “Bathroom?” “Pain?” and “Beer?”. 

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A lot of nurses have cold hands. My patients are fortunate that I have very warm hands. I was helping an elderly female patient when she grabbed my hand and said, “Oh, you have such warm hands.”

I said, “You know what they say….cold hands, warm heart.”