journal features

goodbye Zoë

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2001.06.11

What a day. My mum and I went up to Bobcaygeon today to get my things from Sara's parents' place. We had to cab it over to the rental outfit for 9, then spent 2.5 hours chugging up there. The traffic on the 401 on a Saturday morning is heavier that it ever gets on Sydney's streets.

On the way up, we had a special treat. We saw a bird eating some carrion on the side of the road. Something about it caught my eye, and as we neared I saw that it was no crow. It was too large, with odd colouring and feathers. It stopped eating as we neared, and walked in an awkward fashion. It was a turkey vulture. I knew they lived in Ontario, but this was my first sighting in the twenty years I've lived in the province.

When we arrived, Sara's mom greeted me with a hug, and said 'Ex-son-in-law!'. It was a warm welcome. Zoë was there. I'd mentioned in this journal that I hadn't expected to see her again. The kid's only young, but she's made quite a thing over the time I've known her about the comings and goings of the men in her mum's life. She really didn't want me to go, either – she even tried to interfere with my getting the things into the truck. And she had some success – she is getting big.

I lugged the stuff to the truck, then joined mom and Sara's mom, who were having a coffee. Tom joined us after showing some people the B & B. The folks had booked a room for two nights, so he was pleased. He told us some amazing things that had happened since he opened the B & B. I think my favourite was of the people who turned up one morning, just for breakfast!

Then it was back in the truck. We dumped the stuff off at my new 9'x12' storage unit, alongside the stuff I got from Oma's place yesterday.

Then up to the car rental place, where they were surprised I'd driven the cube for 400km...

On the way back from the car rental outfit, mom suggested that we pick up a flick. She wanted to see 'Run, Lola, Run'. We went into her local video joint, and by the time we were leaving, the three young (and evidently, from the faces, accents, and the selection of Anime, Japanese immigrants) kids behind the counter were repeatedly chanting the name, trying to get the pronunciation right.

rand()m quote

I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness... The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30 second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.

—Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World (1995)