Days Off

Yesterday we made a decision… we are going to take a few days vacation. We are going back to Val-des-Bois, about an hour east of Ottawa, to our “summer castle”.

Our life during those days will almost be like going back to nature; there will not be 150 + channels on TV, no Internet (no blog, sigh!), no full fridge, no water (no toilet), no telephone, no way of driving the car all the way to our home, and when we first get there – no heat.

However, we will have electricity, propane, fire, books, and a view of the frozen lake and the mountain.  I’ll bring the camera to share it all with our blogging friends, if you are curious, you can go to the following post I wrote in 2012: camping-lac-vert  

We don’t know if we’ll be gone for 2, 3 or 4 days, so if you don’t hear from us for a while, don’t worry; we just stepped out of the office!  

It’s not you, it’s you!

Yesterday 2 unrelated occurrences happened… I was chatting via Facebook with someone. Martha from (Plowing Through Life) posted a comment and joined our blog. To me both are connected.

Even though I am French Canadian, I am much more comfortable writing in English.  However, yesterday I was writing to a friend on Facebook and I made a mistake.

I wrote: “I don't know how to be depress... maybe you don't know how to be happy!”. Usually I write something and then I review it before sending to make sure it reflects my thoughts. Unfortunately I forgot that with Facebook chat, if you press ‘enter’ it sends your statement… ahhhhh

I am not kidding, I felt bad all day…  If I had reviewed my statement it would have been something like: “I don't know how to be depressed... maybe there are people who don't know how to be happy!” I just don’t have the skills and insights for telling people how they are feeling and why. I am really sorry.

‘You’ is a pronoun I have problem with in English. In French, there is 2 “you”, the first one –tu- is when you address one particular person, the second one –vous- is when you address 2 or more persons (there is something else but it’s irrelevant for this French lesson :)). So when I write, I always review the ‘You’ and its context!

Time to bring back Martha! She is living in Kingston, this is an awesome town about 100 miles south of Ottawa. To my wife and I, it’s the last place where we lived in 2 different barracks, while we were singles! We got married right after we left Kingston. My English abilities were limited to a few words.

Cases in point: Once in a while, I would order pizza, to be delivered to the women’s barrack where men were allowed to be present in the basement.  There were tables, a shuffle board and a tv room.  I was not allowed to go to her room… (I’m NOT saying I didn’t go ha ha ha). We never knew if we would get the pizza or not, I could place the order but I couldn’t understand what the answer was. I couldn’t confirm if they understood where I wanted it delivered or even if they understood my thickly-French-accent order.

Even going to McDonald was a challenge! In French, glace means ice… I would forget about this and order a coke without glass… I was so proud of myself to be able to order in a foreign language until I looked at my wife-to-be who was laughing at me… I was just not getting any sympathy from that girl!

I was not the only one having trouble in English… once, a few of us from class went to McDonald (at the time there was only 1 McDo in Kingston) and one of the guy didn’t know what  “Anything else?”, means so after he ordered: “One Big Mac, One fry and a coke”, the cashier asked: “Anything else?”, “One Big Mac, One fry and a coke” he repeated, and again for 4 or 5 more times, the cashier was starting to look at him with question marks!  Finally, someone else from our class told him what she mean “Anything else?” meant. We all had a good laugh!   

The worst thing when learning a new language is when you are so proud of using the right word in a sentence and to find out you were way off…

One of our first English speaking friend couple were Keith and Pam.  One night we were at home and it was only the 2 of us and we had nothing to do… there was a knock at our door, it was Keith asking us if we had anything planned, they had leased a movie (on Beta) and they invited us to watch it with them. “YES!” was our instant answer.

At the end of the evening, as we were leaving and I told them: “Thank you very much, it was a really boring evening!”. They just looked at me.  Christiane who was standing behind me came to my help (I think), said: “WHAT?”. I didn’t know there was any thing wrong. I was so proud of having said exactly what I meant! I repeated: “Thank you very much, it was a really boring evening!” Now my dear wife is laughing and I’m thinking that MAYBE I did a small mistake here, I reviewed it in my head… “boring” that’s the right word – Check, “Thank you very much”  that’s a polite sentence to use in social context – Check, “was” it’s the past tense of “is” – Check – but wrong past tense! It should have been… “Thank you very much, it would have been a really boring evening!” Darn!

One more example no one asked? Well yes I do have another one… Years later we were shopping at a computer store and I was buying an inexpensive item. The cashier asked me: “Would you like our membership card?”. I was starting to be pretty confident in my ability by then… so I answered quickly: “No I’m not a frigging customer!”. My dear wife who was beside me, turned around and said: “WHAT?”.  “No I’m not a frigging customer!” annoyed me answered… and now she is laughing, the poor cashier does not understand what is happening, and to tell you the truth, neither do I… “What is wrong?” I’m trying to ask. When Christiane was finally able to stop laughing, she explained to me that it’s not “frigging” but “frequent” that I wanted to say… Who would have guessed there is a difference between “frigging” and “frequent”? Not that I hold a grudge, but I think it’s the last time I shopped with my wife and the last time I went shopping to that frequent store :)!

Today my wife is getting blood work done and tomorrow we are back in cancer land for the first chemo “threat-ment”… I don’t know when will be the next post as I might be losing my proof reading gal and I will be back in my nurse uniform! :(  (comment from Christiane: the uniform fits him real nice :).  I’ll add one more sample of “Lost in Translation”; in his very last sentence, Richard had written: “I might be loosing my read-proofing-gal” WHAT! :) )

Memory fast lane in military

It’s a slow day in CancerLand, so I thought of going to MemoryLane with this post…

I joined the Canadian Armed Forces in March 1977, I was 17 years old. It wasn’t for a noble reason like serving my country; it was to keep peace… inner peace that is! I was not going anywhere, I was a high school dropout and I was not happy in my family.  

My wife also joined in 1977, she was camouflaged so it took me all the way till 1978 to find her and parade her to church…

The army is a great place to learn a trade while earning a salary. I was making $500 a month, it sure was more money that I ever dreamed of (honestly) making!

Once we completed all the training, we were posted to Valcartier (Quebec). I went to an army unit and my wife to a Communication squadron.

Usually, in June, my unit would go on manoeuvre in Gagetown (New Brusnwick) –Julia you might know where that is ;)-. I heard it is a nice area however all I got to see were pine trees. I was living in a tent sleeping on a cot, I didn’t enjoy that kind of life much but what I enjoyed or not didn’t seem to be of concern for my superiors LOL.

My wife on the other hand was going on trips to do maintenance on equipments. She would write to me on hotel stationary… after a good meal in a nice restaurant… life can be sooooo unfair!  (Comment from Christiane: come on Richard it happened once!)

We left Valcartier in 1982 and were transfered to Ramstein (American Air force Base), Germany. We were working in a bunker in Kindsbach a small site a few miles away from the base.  The bunker was inside a mountain. It used to be an ammunition depot.  It was built during World War II for Hitler’s war machine.

Needless to say, we were having the time of our life… it ended in 1985 when we received our marching order to go to Carp (Ontario). My wife was stationed with the Communication Squadron, in another bunker; I was posted down the hill from her to something called NICS (CC).

After 2 kids, my wife removed her uniform for good in 1989!

Missing bratwurst and German beer, we took a plane to Lahr Germany in 1991 for another posting. We returned back home in 1994 when the Canadian military base closed.  We were among the last 35 families to leave the base!  But before you can leave, you need your transfer paper.  First I was transferred back to Carp (Ontario) but at the Communication Squadron this time. By then I must have had a bad reputation because Carp was closed and my transfer was cancelled.

I was re-assigned to NICS (CC) Foley Lake. This is in Nova Scotia. I was really happy with that, I already knew the equipment and was looking forward to live in a small town (Truro). In February 1994, my wife and I went on a hunting trip… house hunting! We found and bought a nice house.

Upon our return, we got bad news… Foley Lake was closing, our transfer was cancelled!!! However, since we already had bought a house, it was decided to send me to the communication Squadron in Debert, it was even closer to the house.  

In the previous post on my blog I made a comment to Julia about how much we love the maritime, would you believe it but this whole blog post now is about that one statement.

Germany was wonderful but the pace was, at time, as fast as the no speed limit on the autobahn… there were no slow lane, it seems that I rushed and was being rushed every where. I’m out of breath just writing about it:)…

Then we arrived in Nova Scotia (NS)! I remember the first time I went to the grocery store to buy some necessities; it was around 9:00 PM, there was almost no one in the store, I got a couple of things and went to the express register. There was only one client in front of me being served, in a few seconds I was going to be out of there fast and easy! Not so!

When you are in the maritime in a small town, people know each other and there is nowhere to rush to, so they take the time to smell the Mayflowers (official flower of NS of course!). Being clueless about this way of life… I was waiting for the customer to pay and leave. The clerk had a can in her hand and she was about to scan it, I was waiting for the beep that is not coming… I started to focus a little more about what was happening.

The teller was talking to the customer and asking: “So is your father going to Florida this year?”

I’m in the back probably rolling my eyes and thinking “scan the darn can already…” but it took a while before it was done! -I would say in our previous life “a while” was defined as forever. Meanwhile the cashier and the client kept talking like it was NORMAL to do so. Didn’t they know they were delaying ME… then I smiled, I took a deep breath and was thinking: “Richard slow down, you are in NS, no one is pushing me, and I don’t have to push either…” When in Rome do as the Roman does, right?  

We were not even a month in when rumours started spreading like wild fire… Debert was closing the very next year… 6 months later (January 1995) the military was offering the possibility for early retirement.  I realized that I was a dinosaur; my military trade was being phased out.

We stayed only one year in the Maritime, but, it does change a person forever. We were always close to the sea; we had a life rhythm that was slow and meaningful. The landscapes were breathtaking. The people were the best! Just to show you, when we moved to our house, all the neighbours came by to greet us and introduce themselves … we have never seen this before and haven’t seen it since either!