journal features

the day I came to work without pants

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

Toronto, 2013.10.23

Today I had to face the fact that I might have a bit too much on my mind. When packing my cycling bag this morning I had everything (spare tubes, spare blinkers, socks, tie, snack). Except my pants.

I spent the morning wearing the dark, full-length track pants I cycled in, and as it happens was due to hang around with the IT people all morning. Then I ran to the Moores for a pair of pants that in all honesty I needed anyway. It was two-for-one day, and I had a $50 coupon so the timing was not bad at all. And I certainly got my money's worth out of my bike; between the emergency clothes shopping and taking my 35mm manual-focus Minolta lens in to have the aperture blades cleaned up, I had five substantial rides hither and yon.

Still, kind of embarrassing. Then again, one VP told me that he once cycled to work only to find that he'd left all of his clothes behind. It was summer, he was wearing shorts and a t-shirt and soaked in sweat. He spent the morning milling around Tip-Top Tailors 'til it opened.

rand()m quote

One day you will take a fork in the road, and you're going to have to make a decision about which direction you want to go. If you go one way, you can be somebody. You will have to make compromises and you will have to turn your back on your friends. But you will be a member of the club and you will get promoted and get good assignments. Or you can go the other way and you can do something [...] for yourself. If you decide to do something, you may not get promoted and get good assignments and you certainly will not be a favorite of your superiors. But you won't have to compromise yourself. To be somebody or to do something. In life there is often a roll call. That's when you have to make a decision. To be or to do.

—John Boyd, US Air Force