journal features

Kids' sports day

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Toronto, 2016.09.25

The Boy had his first tennis lesson of the Autumn, today. He'd taken a week of classes during the summer, but today was a 90 minute session under a pressurized dome on Danforth Road.

While he was doing that, I took Mari to the subway so she could go downtown for some drinks with friends in a delayed celebration of her fortieth birthday.

Then it was just The Girl and I, so we practiced The Girl's riding in the parking lot of the tennis (and soccer) dome-bubble. The Girl's only had two brief lessons, but at the end of the second one she was able to ride freely on her own for all of two meters.

When The Boy's lesson was done, we went home, and then gathered up everything to go fishing (the kids' idea). It was The Girl's turn to catch the fish today, as we'd gone to the (not so old) fishing hole that The Boy had recommended for that very reason. She caught two little sunfish, and I caught a bass that had a bit of meat on it.

We cycled home with a cool Autumn wind in our faces, The Boy on his bike way out in the lead, The Girl singing incessantly in her trailer.

It was a fine day.

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