No Man, I'm Dave

This is what happens when you get a bunch of boys together: nonsense.
In the house were Keith, brothers Kenny and Kam, Kaleb (all known only as Dave), and a couple of other young ones who were hanging on the kid's floor, and a new girl to the program (and her Mum). Dinner started of with a bang. Somehow Kenny (the older brother) managed to spill on himself and the floor a full pitcher of apple juice. The dining room was full tonight and there was a lot of chatter. I met Kam for the first time and he was asking Joan and I "how do you spell it?". Not knowing what word he was talking about we kind of left it hanging! Kenny and Kam both speak in a very slow and drawn out manner which makes for great 'No Maaaaaannnnnnnn, I'mmmmmmm Daaaaavvvvvve' s. Keith is 17 or 18 and when he speaks it is a real challenge to understand. He also speaks very slow and it is a real neuromuscular challenge for him to get words out. With Keith if you can get the 'yes or no' questions handy he communicates well. Kam is Kam. He has a new name for this post. Kam is a kid who is often at the house on my shifts. Sometimes he is a bit grumpy but tonight he is in a great frame of mind.

Tonight was game 7 of the stanley cup playoffs. For some reason we all agreed that the game started at 7pm local time. Some of us are not very smart (and I had been in playoff denial since the Canucks were out). So we had a good hour and a half to play outside. Keith only had eyes on the computer. After a bit of stalling and miscommunicating, and having to go pee I brokered a deal with him to go outside until hockey. I often imagine what it is like being in a chair your whole waking day and think of the number of times you think you have to go pee. For most of us sometimes you actually do and sometimes you really don't need to, but we can run to the can and figure that out. It is really different if you need somebody to help you go pee if you can't get out of your chair and you don't use a bag. Anyways...Keith didn't actually need to go pee.

When we got outside the boys (and Santos and Joan) were playing hide and seek. Keith and I jumped into the game. Found a great spot: I drove Keith into a big rhodoendrun bush. It took a while to be found. When we came out we were covered in tons of dead flower stuff. As Santos said, "hey, you are all covered with stamen". Interpreted as a highly innappropriate comment by someone (me). Now we are ready to watch the game!
We get inside and get up to the school room to find the game 5 minutes into the third. What a great third period!!

Keith and I are surfing, going to his facebook and other sites. He wants to show us a video that he and his classmates had made on homelessness in the city. There is a link for a local website and when we click on it it takes us to www.dave.ca . Who's Dave? I kept asking. Kam is a bit of a parrot and he started saying Dave in his long drawn out voice. Then I started the 'No man....I'm Dave' routine. Soon enough everybody in the room is yelling "No maaaaannnnn, Iiiiiii'mmmmm Daaaaaave", and then laughing hysterically at ourselves. That is what boys do.

At 2000 it is time for Kenny to go have his bath. A little later the PCA who gave him his bath comes back upstairs and makes directly for me (the nurses and PCA's always think it is me):

"Who is Dave and why is Kenny repeating over and over and over (throughout his whole bath), "no maaaannnn, I'mmmmmmm Daaaavvvvve", and then laugh hysterically at himself?

I like nights like that. If I see Keith, Kenny, Kam, or Kaleb in the future I hope to hear them yell out "Noooo mannnnn....I'mmmmmmmm Daaaaavvvve"