My final blog post should give everyone a break

 This is the final post of my blog, which I've been writing more than 11 years. Enough is enough -- for me and I'm sure for anyone still reading. I'm tired, and so's my prose. At my age, I need to focus entirely on our family and staying healthy enough on the doorstep of 68 to raise two remarkable children with my wife. My daughter will be starting school soon and will need my full support. My son gets more energetic and challenging each day. Doing anything well requires time and commitment, and I have neither for writing a blog at this point. So, here are some final thoughts:
* I want to use this space to apologize to anyone and everyone I've ever offended in person or in print, or in any way, really. I'm sorry, although I realize this means little now. But since I can't turn back the clock, I'll live with my offenses and try to be a better person as I play the end game. 
* Life in Vietnam has given me a remarkable wife and two fantastic children. I know I'm very fortunate and probably don't deserve what I've got now (but I'll take it). The amount of time I've been able to spend with my children, especially my daughter Joanna, has changed my outlook, perspective and attitude. My limited vocabulary prevents me from describing how amazing and life-altering Joanna, my son Elijah and wife Phuong have been for me. (My therapist has contributed as well.)
* I'm living in the land of hurry up. I'm not sure what the hurry is here and why people feel compelled to get ahead of someone else. A handful of cars have politely stopped when they see me crossing the road with one of my children in a white-striped "zebra", but motorbikes and other cars will race around the Good Samaritan and almost hit us. This kind of stuff happens in every country, I'm sure. It happened to me in Peru when I taught there, and in the U.S. when I lived there. Traffic and line-cutting can be real downers.
* Last week I took Joanna swimming and she insisted I take her to a fish shop about a mile away. I don't know the place well but the guy working there looked rough. He banged into me carrying buckets and glared. I stayed outside while Joanna went inside to look at fish, and I hear that guy SCREAMING, and it turns out he's SCREAMING at Joanna. Some woman who also works there starts to usher Joanna out the door. I ask "why?" in Vietnamese because I obviously want to know what happened. The woman just laughs, and Joanna insists she didn't touch anything. Joanna asked me "why did that man yell at me?"  The guy then starts SCREAMING at both of us, motioning aggressively for us get out. I tell him to F-off and take Joanna away. The man starts to charge toward me and the woman gets between him and me and my daughter. This guy looks like he may have spent much of his life incarcerated and I suspect he wouldn't think twice about severely injuring or perhaps killing someone like me in a fight. If my daughter was doing something awful in the store, normal protocol would be to ask her dad to take her out of the store. That doesn't happen here. Joanna has been barked at in a bakery, supermarket, at a pool, pharmacy, coffee shop and fish shop for being overly inquisitive or touching things she probably shouldn't have been touching. Easier to yell or bark at a child, I guess, even when her dad is present. This ignorant behavior from "grown-ups" creates conflict. It's lazy and not real bright, either.
* But for every bully there are so many more people in Vietnam who are friendly, kind and giving. I recently tried to help a young man with his English for a visa interview, and his parents gave me wonderful honey with exotic tea. Other students have given lobster, clothing, coffee mugs. Folks here love to give regardless of how much or how little they have. That's what's impressive. Neighbors share with each other constantly.  My daughter often says: "Sharing is about giving, not taking." (She got that from a video.) People here share. Many people smile at me and my children whenever we're out. They compliment my daughter or son when we go walking. (Sometimes they'll ask how old my "son" is when I'm with Joanna, but no worries. They mean well and that's what counts.) Good stuff all the way around. And more positve news: litter is down considerably here with the presence of more trash cans in parks and on the streets. Better restaurants are opening, meaning more food that I'm used to is available. Damn foreigners.
* There are too many people to mention who've been helpful and important to me. Some won't even speak to me, but they've been a positive influence nonetheless. ... I finish with a little more than 80,000 all-time hits on the blog. My Kindle reading streak is at 964 days in a row. I haven't had a drink in 32 months and a cigarette in over five years. I know .... those are just numbers. But for me they're important because I've learned that the past doesn't have to control the present or future. We can take control with what we do now. Thanks for reading, everyone. See you on the other side.  L8R

Camera shy rat; purrfect 'catfish;' swim progress

 My daughter spotted a rat at one of our outdoor coffee shops while we drank bac xiu, a very mild coffee with lots of condensed milk; it's called white coffee. I let Joanna have one with me.  Coffee, not rat. I wanted to get a picture of the rat as it ran across a little bridge, but my cell phone logs me out constantly for security reasons, so I only got the tail end of rat in the photo. We got up and began a rat hunt, and my hawk-eyed daughter saw the rat under a stone step near the bridge. This rat looked like it was on its last legs. And that's usually the case when a rat exposes itself in an area with people. Joanna tried to warn the fish about the rat. So cute. Rats are excellent swimmers and can tread and go under water for extended periods of time. I got a poor quality photo of the runaway rat with my phone, and Joanna recorded the incident the next morning with help from Art for Kids Hub on YouTube. Kim Koi 2, the coffee shop near our house that had a lot of fish, closed again, meaning all the little canals are being dug out. The constant tearing down and building up of failed businesses and construction of new businesses in Bien Hoa creates so much construction dust and grit. No wonder my porous skin is a mess and I have to sweep out the kids bedrooms every day. I end the job with sizeable piles of dust and grit. My wife never wears shoes in the house, but with back, foot and leg issues, sometimes I'll keep my shoes on -- because I forget (ha ha). I never go near the kids beds with my shoes on, so the dust and grit just seem to appear.
* * *
We had a lovely meal at Hong Kong Seafood near our house. A "catfish" my daughter has been insisting on for a little while was the star of the show. The reason for the quote marks around catfish is that I'm not totally sure it was a catfish (Vietnamese name for the fish is ca lang vang.). The white meat was quite good and my daughter enjoyed every bite. So did I, for that matter. The fish was deep-fried and gently seasoned, making the crunchy exterior a savory heart attack on a plate. My daughter and I ate the whole dang fish. My son Elijah, after wandering and breaking some dishes at another table, settled down and really got into his crab and noodle dish. We've had good luck at this restaurant since my wife started coming with me and Joanna. No one speaks acceptable English there, but the service is decent in any language. Along with the Bay Leaf Indian Restaurant, our eating out needs are being met very well.
* * *
My daughter and I took a week off from swimming since I wasn't well, but when we returned my daughter decided she could put her head under water for longer periods of time. That's a big improvement from just a week ago, when a fall into the water at a coffee shop a while back made her skittish about going under ... My Kindle book Ancient Greece From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times doesn't scrimp on facts and details, but it is holding my interest at the midway point. Interesting to note the book says Aristotle stated that slavery was natural because there were people who lacked the capacity to be free agents, and that a slave was "sort of a living possession."  ... Prices are rising here, but apparently not as fast as in the U.S. 

Communication breakdown; new age for my daughter

 The complexities and subtleties of the Vietnamese language can create many misunderstandings. Even among the Vietnamese. My wife went to a pharmacy to get stomach medicine for her very ill husband (that would be me) and she took our daughter with her. My wife explained my difficulties to the pharmacist. The pharmacist seemed unsure who was getting the medicine, my daughter or me. My wife said she assured the pharmacist that her husband was the one who was ill. The pharmacist gave my wife a packet of three doses of five pills -- 15 pills in all -- for about $1 U.S. (20,000 Vietnamese dong).  Medicine is often doled out by pharmacists here in large quantities, even for kids. Apparently, the pharmacist thought the medicine was for my daughter, meaning the strength of the medicine wasn't up to snuff for my problems. My wife went to another pharmacy, where the pharmacist chuckled and told her the previous medicine was kids' stuff. I survived after three days of being pretty ill with the help of the new medicine, and I can't imagine what would have happened if I had gone to the pharmacy instead of my wife, who made multiple trips. I've had similar but less serious misunderstandings in the past: a bra instead of shoelaces; vitamins instead of band aids; I'm told no rice in a store with sacks of rice; hot drinks instead of cold drinks and vice-versa. I accept when people don't understand my Vietnamese; I don't speak it well at all and there's not a lot of effort and leeway in comprehension. It's all part of being a stranger and strange in a foreign land. I've been fortunate to find good eye and dental care here, especially the eye care.
* * *
Saturday was a wonderful day for our family because we celebrated our daughter Joanna's 6th birthday. She was excited, happy and had a great day. Joanna and I walked to Linh Da to get a cake, and we had a hot dog at the Japanese Bakery next door to Linh Da. I took my walking stick for health reasons and to ensure safe travel on the sidewalk and across the streets, and the stick worked its magic: an incident-free walk. My daughter is enjoying her extended homeschool break, and she's anxiously waiting to start class at a private school here in the middle of August. We're leveraging the new school and turning 6 to improve our daughter's behavior and listening skills. So far so good. Joanna and her brother Elijah, 2, are beginning to develop something of a bond, especially when it comes to jumping off and climbing up furniture. Like his sister, Elijah loves books, and I can read 25 stories a day to him sometimes, with some books getting multiple reads, of course. Joanna and I are reading Charlotte's Web together (again), but this time she's doing a lot of the reading. 
* * *
Currently reading Ancient Greece From Prehistoric to Hellenistic Times by Thomas R. Martin. I don't read this to Joanna or Elijah, but it's pretty good stuff and I haven't even hit the juicy parts yet.  I'm at 945 days in a row of Kindle reading. Addiction can be wonderful if channeled in the proper direction. ... I'm good for maybe a few more blogs before halting these posts after 11-plus years. I need a break to focus entirely on taking care of a girl, 6, and boy, 2.