journal features

lousy drivers

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2005.02.22

Yesterday I helped a driver out of a snowbank. I couldn't make out the driver, but I could see that they weren't going anywhere because the only thing they were trying was 'faster, make the wheels spin on the snow faster'.

I pushed the Dodge POS out of the snow while the driver gunned the engine, splattering me and getting nowhere. I gestured to her (I could now see that it was a woman) on how to use the steering wheel to actually make the most of the differential and turn in the direction she needed to go, and she got free. Then she drove off without so much as a wave.

I have helped countless people out of snowbanks. The only ones who don't express any appreciation are Torontonians.

rand()m quote

If I had my life to live over, I'd try to make more mistakes next time. I would relax, I would limber up, I would be crazier than I've been on this trip. I know very few things I'd take seriously any more. I'd certainly be less hygenic... I would take more chances, I would take more trips, I would scale more mountains, I would swim more rivers, and I would watch more sunsets. I would eat more ice cream and fewer beans. I would have more actual troubles and fewer imaginary ones. Oh, I've had my moments, and if I had to do it all over again, I'd have many more of them, in fact I'd try not to have anything else, just moments, one after another, instead of living so many years ahead of my day. If I had it to do all over again, I'd travel lighter, much lighter than I have. I would start barefoot earlier in the spring, and I'd stay that way later in the fall. And I would ride more merry-go-rounds, and catch more gold rings, and greet more people and pick more flowers and dance more often. If I had it to do all over again - but you see, I don't.

—Jorge Luis Borges