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Just woke up from the strangest dream. As often happens with dreams, I remember too little of it to provide context for the part that I do remember: for whatever reason, I was standing under a car which was on a hydraulic lift. Someone else had apparently been working on it, but had been unable to find the problem.
I'd been using a solvent-soaked rag to clean a few surfaces of the differential, transmission, and engine, and, in the process, had discovered obvious leaks from all three. But then, at the very last, I also discovered that the exhaust and intake manifolds were so loose that they were about to fall off of the engine.
Now, in real life, if that had been the case, the engine would never have started, much less been able to run long enough to get the car into the shop and into position on the lift. But somehow it had, because its owner was standing off to the side of the service bay, apparently discussing the problems he'd been having with it with the service manager and a couple of others associated with the dealership.
But, you know, this IS an effing dream, lol.
But--and I know there have been a lot of "buts" here, as is the nature of dreams and our attempts to place their events in the context of reality--none of those present gave any more than a passing acknowledgement to what should have been my remarkable discovery.
(Wonder what THAT might be taken to mean, in terms of the interpretation of dreams and their relationship to my own mental and emotional reality.)
But my biggest discovery, surprise, whatever, came AFTER I woke up and realized that this year, 2023, would mark the 50th anniversary of the start of my employment at University Toyota, my first job after leaving the rural commune where my ex- and I had spent 2-3 years following my decision to refuse induction into the military at the approaching height of the Vietnam War.
50 years! And with that realization came a flood of memories about those I had known and worked with, some of whom I had loved--albeit poorly--and eventually lost, in the chaotic drift of my own life and the shared turmoil of those times.
I thought about Bert and Adisak, Roger, Riblet and Rocky (the "3 Rs" in my life back then, I guess), and also about Chuck and Walt and John Choguil--the latter being one of the few car salesmen that any of us in the shop talked to or trusted, lol.
I also thought about the dissolution of my first marriage, after I met up with Helen and we had our hiatus in Houston where I continued in the automotive service trade at Palm Center Toyota before we came back north to start our family and I resumed my career at UT (University Toyota).
And there were so many others, people, events, successes, failures, all in the vast panorama (to me, anyway) of a life now mostly lived.
And I can only sit here, as I type on my humble tablet, and feel grateful for all of it, for all of them, and that I'm still here, alive and conscious and able to remember. ( BT, my good friend and mentor--in things automotive and in life--sadly succumbed, a few years ago, to the effects of Alzheimer's.)
Hope everyone has a great day...
LPK
Dreamwidth
1. 22.2023
I'd been using a solvent-soaked rag to clean a few surfaces of the differential, transmission, and engine, and, in the process, had discovered obvious leaks from all three. But then, at the very last, I also discovered that the exhaust and intake manifolds were so loose that they were about to fall off of the engine.
Now, in real life, if that had been the case, the engine would never have started, much less been able to run long enough to get the car into the shop and into position on the lift. But somehow it had, because its owner was standing off to the side of the service bay, apparently discussing the problems he'd been having with it with the service manager and a couple of others associated with the dealership.
But, you know, this IS an effing dream, lol.
But--and I know there have been a lot of "buts" here, as is the nature of dreams and our attempts to place their events in the context of reality--none of those present gave any more than a passing acknowledgement to what should have been my remarkable discovery.
(Wonder what THAT might be taken to mean, in terms of the interpretation of dreams and their relationship to my own mental and emotional reality.)
But my biggest discovery, surprise, whatever, came AFTER I woke up and realized that this year, 2023, would mark the 50th anniversary of the start of my employment at University Toyota, my first job after leaving the rural commune where my ex- and I had spent 2-3 years following my decision to refuse induction into the military at the approaching height of the Vietnam War.
50 years! And with that realization came a flood of memories about those I had known and worked with, some of whom I had loved--albeit poorly--and eventually lost, in the chaotic drift of my own life and the shared turmoil of those times.
I thought about Bert and Adisak, Roger, Riblet and Rocky (the "3 Rs" in my life back then, I guess), and also about Chuck and Walt and John Choguil--the latter being one of the few car salesmen that any of us in the shop talked to or trusted, lol.
I also thought about the dissolution of my first marriage, after I met up with Helen and we had our hiatus in Houston where I continued in the automotive service trade at Palm Center Toyota before we came back north to start our family and I resumed my career at UT (University Toyota).
And there were so many others, people, events, successes, failures, all in the vast panorama (to me, anyway) of a life now mostly lived.
And I can only sit here, as I type on my humble tablet, and feel grateful for all of it, for all of them, and that I'm still here, alive and conscious and able to remember. ( BT, my good friend and mentor--in things automotive and in life--sadly succumbed, a few years ago, to the effects of Alzheimer's.)
Hope everyone has a great day...
LPK
Dreamwidth
1. 22.2023
