Gifts, Walks, Balls, Smoothies, and Red Faces

Gifts: shortly after waking up this morning I gave Ralph his (belated) birthday present.  See picture below.  As usual - and this is what I love about the new Ralph - he got quite emotional.  There is something really appealing and refreshing, even humbling, about his way of being after the accident.  He's always genuine, always transparent: if he's happy, tears of joy stream down his face; if he's sad, tears of sadness flow.

If only we lived in a world where it would be ok to bear our souls before one another....

Walks: Ralph wanted to go to Walmart.  I didn't.  But I did want to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner.  So we made a deal: we walk together to Walmart and to the liquor store.  The walk there was good - no complaints.  Even Walmart was ok, although signs of fatigue were become evident.  But picking up a bottle of wine on the way back proved to be a challenge.  He complained of pain in his legs.  The woman at the checkout noticed his agitation, so while I went and picked up a bottle, she entertained him.  Here are roughly the first few sentences that were exchanged between the two:

Ralph: Do you speak Spanish?  

Her response: No.

Ralph: Do you speak any other language?

Woman: Nope.  Just English.

Ralph: Really?  Just English?

Woman: Yes.

Ralph: I speak 3 languages: Español, alemán, e inglés.

Woman: (confused) What?

Ralph: (laughs) Sorry.  Spanish, German, and English.

Woman: Are you trying to show me up here?
Ralph: What?
Woman: Are you trying to make me feel bad?

Ralph: (uncontrollable laughter) No.

From across the room, I smiled at them both.  I was thankful that this woman was gracious to "play along" with Ralph's power game.  It seems to me that so much has been taken away from Ralph in the past 3 years, that he feels that one of the only things he still has left in terms of "competing" with others is the language game: many Canadians don't speak more than one language, and this is an area he can "show someone up" in.  Bravo Ralph.

After I picked out a bottle of wine, we began our 10-minute walk back to the hotel.  It was a painful journey, literally.  Evidently he has a lot of pain in his legs still, because he used just about every Spanish swearword that I know of - and some that I didn't - to express his displeasure at the length of our walk.

Balls: early in the afternoon we went to the Skaha Lake beach.  Our aim was to play beach volleyball, but it was way too windy.  As an alternative (in my view, a better one anyways), we played fútbol instead, in a grassy area protected from the wind by some big shaded trees.

Man I'm out of shape...  But it was great fun.

Smoothies: I took my nephews and nieces out to a local farm that makes to-die-for berry smoothies.

 And the Sun: yes, I did have about 45-60 minutes of time to squeeze in a few minutes pool-side.

After taking the picture below I felt pretty good about myself, and sent the pitcture to my friend Tati in Brasil.  I thought .. you know .. sun, warmth, sunglasses, relaxing, all that good stuff.  Surely she'd come back with a comment like "Nice .. enjoy the hot weather" or "Wish I could take time off work too", but no, instead, I got: "How come your face and neck is so red, and your chest so white?"

Nice.

Thanks.

Next time I'm thinking of tanning I'll just keep my shirt on.