journal features

new tire

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Tokyo, 2008.03.12

I've finally tired of the flat tires to the point of doing something about it. After having a flat on Sunday and then another on Tuesday, I decided to go back to the shop and get something that could better stand up to the glass on the streets. The shop was closed naturally, and I headed back midday on Wednesday after having taken the child into the hospital. Closed again. Then I called them twice in the evening but they weren't open. I wound up going to the rather expensive place here in my building.

Now I'm riding on a kevlar-sheathed tube.

It's only a bit harsher, so far, but the peace of mind is certainly worth it. I've lost count of the many flats, there were so many.

rand()m quote

Meaning is not something you stumble across, like the answer to a riddle or the prize in a treasure hunt. Meaning is something you build into your life. You build it out of your own past, out of your affections and loyalties, out of the experience of humankind as it is passed on to you, out of your own talent and understanding, out of the things you believe in, out of the things and people you love, out of the values for which you are willing to sacrifice something. The ingredients are there. You are the only one who can put them together into that unique pattern that will be your life. Let it be a life that has dignity and meaning for you. If it does, then the particular balance of success or failure is of less account.

—John Gardner