There are 2 things I like to do on the weekends. I like to create a great meal that inknow I could not find in a restaurant. I also like it if I can accomplish something around the house from my insanely colossal list of things to fix, remodel, refurbish or rehabilitate. Sometimes this involves automotive tasks. Today I put a front end in Donna’s Jeep just about a year after putting a front end in Donna’s Jeep. Yes,I have been stung by Autozone. Lifetime warranty parts are only a deal if you are not the poor sucker that has to put them in twice! So, control arms, tie rod ends and stabilizer links done again with NOT Autozone parts. I have not only done crazy amounts of car repair over the years, but I have done it under fire. I have crawled under a 79 Plymouth to fix the muffler in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, (took a break from it there and threw it in the back of the car and drove across Arkansas without a muffler). Put it back on in Texarkanna. Just in time for a new charging system issue to crop up. I have lost brakes many times. Twice on cross county trips, both of which I had less than $60 on me. Jacksonville, Florida in 88 and Kilgore, Texas in 89. I was stuck for hours on the Will Rogers Turnpikein Oklahoma for hours in October 1986 and had to figure things out on my own. Triple A existed, but back then, for me, “that’s what old people have”. Point is, I have paid my dues, I could tell a thousand stories. Getting down on the bold floor under a car (with RA mind you) is not my idea of fun. Yes the dilemma is, this job would have been hundreds in labor, so I am stuck. So here I am, in serious pain, it’s 2:19 AM and I cannot sleep.
I did not let this stop us from having a great meal though. I have not done Asian Dumplings in a long time. I made sure before I went out to work on the car, I first prepped the evening meal.
Donna and Noah did the honors of wrapping and cooking class he potstickers. I showed up in time to make a potsticker sauce for dipping. So all in all, I got the 2 things done that I wanted to. But I realize that I wonder if I am doing something wrong. Half of the people I know we’re at Brewfest today, which I of course would not go to, only because I have not had any alcohol since September 9th 1989. But wouldn’t it be nice to find a “Foodfest” or something like that? Then I can enjoy something great like my friends. I would totally love Brewfest if not for this pesky little thing known as addiction. But I can’ t help but wonder, does my stuff break more than theirs? I work all weekend 16 times harder than I do during the week. I work pretty hard then too! Don’t get me wrong, I am not really complaining and I would not change my life. It’s more algebraic to me. I wonder if I am just doing the math wrong. I saw an example of that working on the car today. It took me 4 times longer to-do the right (first) side than the left. Why? Because I was SMARTER by the time I got to the left. I renamed this blog “We All Woke Up” for two reasons. There was a Yoko Ono song on the 1972 Sometime in new York City LP called “We’re All Water” that was about racial equality. 
The song points out there may not be a difference between Chairman Mao and Richard Nixon, if we strip them naked. A great song, but if you can’t do Yoko, better not go there. On a bootleg vinyl record I bought at Cheapskate Records in the early 80s, the song “We’re all Water” was printed on the label as “We All Woke Up”. I mostly beleive the person rweßposible WS probably one of the many notorious Yoko haters that blamed her for wrecking the Beatles. But the statement, we all woke up seemed so beautiful to me. That brings me to the Secord reason. I want to wake up. Mentally. I want to take all of my experience, my memories, my knowledge, connect those dots and guess what? I WANNA ROCK! I just want to do it all a little better. Be more thoughtful and caring. Just like the car, I want my missteps to make better steps. Let’s wake the heck up man!