DON'T STOP BELIEVING

Once upon a time, in September, 1967 a boy was born in Sampaloc, Manila in the Philippines. At an early age, it was evident that the youngster had a talent for singing. He was encouraged to sing along to songs of his favorite singers and his parents entered him in singing contests. His mother died when we was 13 after a long and costly illness. Her illness had left the family deeply in debt. The boy's father was no longer able to provide for the family and asked relatives to take in the children. To ease his father's burden, the boy quit school and volunteered to strike out on his own. He slept wherever he could: in parks and on benches outside friend's crowded houses. He earned meager money collecting scrap items for recycling. He also took odd jobs on Manila's waterfront. He barely had enough to eat, but he "didn't stop believing".

At the age of 15, the boy became the lead singer of the "Iyos" band. Sometimes they performed at Jolibee's. In 1986, some members of the band formed another band called "Amo". The band won the Rock Wars contest in the Philippines. Two years later they won the Philippines leg of the Yamaha World Band Explosion. They were disqualified in the finals in Hong Kong on a technicality. The boy was now a young man in his 20's. His band, "Amo" grew in popularity in the Philippines. They played at clubs in Quezon City, Makati City and Olongapo City.

During this time, I was stationed at Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines. Olongapo City was right outside the base. "Amo" was very popular at the "California Jams" Club which was frequented by U.S Military personnel and their naughty and sneaky teenage daughters. For more than 20 years, I had been unaware that my 2 oldest daughters were acquainted with this young man, Arnel Pineda. My next door neighbor's kid even dated one of the guitar players in "Amo". In 1989, "Amo" opened for Robert Palmer in Manila. That year we left the Philippines and Arnel Pineda behind.

In 1990, Arnel and some other members of "Amo" formed a band called "Intensity Five". They were first runner up in the Yamaha World Band Explosion. Arnel won Best Vocalist. Later that year "Amo" released an album in the Philippines. Just before the release, the band broke up and Arnel became the lead singer in a band called "New Age". For the next 16 years, Arnel Pineda performed in the Philippines and Hong Kong under several band names. He also recorded a solo album in the Philippines. In 2006, Arnel Pineda moved back to the Philippines from Hong Kong and formed a band called "The Zoo". They signed with Sundance Entertainment Corporation and released an album in 2007. The band performed 3 to 5 hour shows several nights a week in Olongapo and Manila in 2006 and 2007 performing cover songs by Journey, Survivor, Aerosmith, Led Zeppelin, Air Supply, The Eagles, and others. Some of the videos were uploaded on "You Tube".

In June of 2007, guitarist Neil Schon saw some of the videos on "You Tube", contacted Pineda and invited him to audition for lead singer of his band. The audition took place in August. In December, 40-year old Arnel Pineda was announced as the new lead singer. In February 2008, he made his debut. That band was "Journey". Just a small town boy, living in a lonely world, covering Journey songs in no-name bar bands, but he had a voice - and the hair - of a natural-born rock star. Now he's living a dream that goes on, and on, and on, and on....................

CAR REPAIR

My 1991 Camaro RS had been running fairly well. You might ask why anyone would drive a car that is 18 years old. Simple. It's paid for. It doesn't look so hot after 18 years of Florida sun. The polymer coating is peeling off (almost all gone by now). The vinyl on the dash is cracked and dried out. The upholstery is worn and has holes. But the engine is sound and except for the occasional hiccup, I only pay for routine maintenance (oil changes, fuel system cleaning, transmission flush, cooling system flush, those types of things). The latest hiccup was costly though.

Friday night I picked up wifey in Daytona Beach. The car seemed to be running a little funny; nothing I could put my finger on; just didn't feel right. All the gauges looked fine and the "check engine" light was off. We got home without incident. Saturday while taking wifey to the Deland bus stop, I noticed that the temperature gauge was all the way over to the right. The car didn't show any other signs of overheating. There was no steam coming from under the hood that would indicate a hose or radiator leak. The hoses and radiator didn't seem abnormally hot to the touch. At first I thought maybe the gauge was bad. Sometimes a resistor will burn out in a gauge and it will go all the way over past the red line. My tach has that problem; it red lines as soon as I start the car up. I didn't know if the temp gauge worked the same way, but the needle started to drop as the engine cooled so the gauge was working fine.

I took the car to the nearest repair shop which happened to be Xpress Lube. No, they don't just do oil changes. I had my radiator replaced by them before. The guy told me that it just might need a coolant change. In a few minutes he gave me the bad news. After replacing the coolant, he had checked the system and was getting no suction from the water pump. I asked if he would put in a new one. They didn't do that kind of job. He suggested I take it down the street to Goodyear. At least he didn't charge me anything. I got to Goodyear around 2:45pm. It looked very unbusy. They had closed at 2pm. So now what? I checked the temp gauge. It was okay. The coolant refill had cooled down the engine; but for how long? I knew there was a GM dealer with a service shop not too far away. I got there at 3pm. The sign said they closed at 4pm. The tech said it was a 3 hour job and it wouldn't be finished that day. I couldn't leave the car because I had to pick up wifey at 11pm. I didn't want to have the additional expense of renting a car. By this time, the water pump had started to leak.

I checked the temp gauge. It was okay. I wondered if I could make it to Firestone in Daytona (where I usually take the car for maintenance). I knew they were open until 6pm but it was 20 miles away. I kept my eye on the temp gauge the whole way. Miraculously it was only half way over when I got to Firestone. We are all on a first name basis at Firestone. I've been taking my car(s) there for 15 years. I told Robert I needed a water pump, but I had to have the car back that day. No problem. He called his supplier. They didn't have the pump and would have to get it from another store. My heart sank. 3:45pm. 3 hour job. 6:45 pm. They close at 6pm. Robert must have noticed my unease. "Don't worry, we'll have your car fixed today...even if we have to stay late." I signed off on the estimate and they got to work on the car.

Once they started taking the car apart they started finding other problems. The car is 18 years old. Stuff corrodes and breaks. The first thing they showed me was the throttle cable. It was nothing immediate but down the road it may need to be replaced. The hoses on something they call the "throttle block" were all frayed and brittle so they sent out for new ones. The serpentine belt needed replacing but I said I would take care of that (that's something I know how to do and they charge $59.99 to change it). The auto parts guy showed up with the throttle block hoses. They were the wrong size. The correct ones would have to be ordered. Uh oh. "We'll make our own." said Ken (the tech). (why didn't they just do that in the first place?) "Because the manufactured ones come already bent." (I see. Grabs the hose; bends it. Here.) They requested that I go back to the customer lounge. Well, this was taking forever. They had to take all kinds of things off the car to get to the water pump. Chevy must have designed it this way to prevent backyard mechanics from doing the work themselves. It was well past 6pm when they found another problem. There was a pin hole in the thermostat housing. (So duct tape it. Nope, won't hold up under pressure. Anyways, they don't have any duct tape. What? What kind of mechanic are you?). Well, the auto parts places were all closed by now so they can't get the part. It's not leaking now, but it's only a matter of time so it has to be replaced. They put the car back together so I could drive it.

It was now 7:30 pm and I'm out the door. Robert is going to call around today to find a thermostat housing. It's just an aluminum thingie that the thermostat sits in. It was corroded by the anti-freeze (why would they use a metal in the cooling system that can be corroded by anti-freeze?). Anyways, he said if he found one he would only charge me the price of the part, no labor. They only have to take the top half of the engine apart to put it in. He just called. He wasn't able to find the part. But it's Sunday. He will try again tomorrow and give me a call. It's not an emergency type deal. If they can't find one, maybe they can repair it (I'll bring them my roll of duct tape). The car is running fine again and the temp gauge is back where it should be. All in all I'm out $723 not including the housing. As I was leaving, Ken took a parting shot at me. "I love how well your car runs (you mean for a dinosaur?)." "Wanna buy it?" "Ah........no. By the way, that humming noise is your front left wheel. Bearings." "You mean the front right? They said there was a little bit of play in that wheel." "Uh uh. It's the front left." "Great!"

CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

Since we had the only house in the neighborhood without Christmas decorations and fearing that someone would take percussive action against us I decided it would be best to put up some decorations. I went through my Mom's Christmas boxes. The lights we had used last year were a mess. Most of the light strings were short (and obviously cheap) and I wasn't so sure they were even designed for outside use. Some had melted plastic. I'm sure my Mom had bought this crap at the dollar store. And to top it off, we had just thrown them in the box after last year and they were a tangled mess which I didn't feel like sorting through and testing. So I went off to Walmart to buy some new decorations.

The first thing that caught my eye at Walmart was a huge inflatable Santa. It would make the perfect centerpiece for my outdoor display. It was on sale for $44.99 so I got it. I bought six 60-foot strings of lights for nearly $100. At 150 lights per string that was 900 lights. I planned to weave them all through the bushes in front of the house. That should light up the whole front of the house in Christmas cheer.

I started putting up the Santa first. I plugged it in. There was a sucking sound and I was horrified to see the Santa being sucked into the motor. The switch was set on deflate. Crap! I managed to get Santa untangled from the motor. He had a small tear on his leg. I fixed it with duct tape. (Why not? It holds my car together, too.) I put the switch on inflate and plugged it back it. Santa began to rise up. Then to my chagrin I noticed that one of the guy lines was wrapped around his neck. Santa's face was turning blue and his gloved hands went up to his neck. I turned it off but it was too late. I had killed Santa. I put the rest of the guy lines in place so he would stand straight up and wouldn't blow around in the wind. Maybe no one would notice that I had a strangled Santa on my lawn, well, after nightfall anyway.

Now on to the lights. I got the ones that are wired in series. That means if one bulb goes out, they all do. I was considering getting parallel wired strings in which the other bulbs stay on when one goes out; but they have a tendency to overheat after you have several bulbs out. I didn't want to burn down the bushes (or the house). I tested all the strings. They all worked. I spent the next two hours carefully weaving the strings through the bushes. This was gonna look beautiful at night. I plugged everything in and it worked. I couldn't wait to see it at night.

I used an electric eye so everything would light up as soon as it was dark. I used an adapter in the porch light socket and the light socket over the screen room door so we had no outside lighting except for the Christmas lights. At last night came. I hurried outside. The lights were great. They lit up the bushes and gave the whole front of the house a warm glow. With the lights all on in the background, you couldn't tell that Santa was dead in front. From the street it looked fantastic but there was one spot where the spacing of the lights was a little off. I tugged on the string to adjust it. Everything went out. I must have loosened a bulb. But where? Which one (or more) of the 900 bulbs? I started checking bulb by bulb. Yeah right! For about the first hundred maybe. Then I said to myself, screw this. I went to the dollar store and bought a 2-foot Christmas tree that lights up. I put it on the table at the front of the screen room. It could be seen from the street and looked quite nice. All bright and cheery Christmas reds, yellows, and blues.

So that was that. Inside the house we scattered stuff about the living room and dining room: a candle set that spelled "NOEL", a manger scene, some angels, some elves and some gold foil and tinsel. The next night I went outside to look at our display. The lights in the bushes were still out. The Florida sun had changed the colors on the little Christmas tree. No more reds, yellows and blues. I viewed everything from the street. My house was all dark, there was a garroted Santa on the front lawn and a ghostly bluish light coming from the screen room. "Happy Frigging Halloween Everyone!!!"

STILL SMOKING

Still smoking. I'm lingering at about half a pack (10 cigarettes) a day. I thought I would be able to cut it down right away, but I couldn't. I laid out 5 cigarettes for the day but after I finished them I couldn't make it through the rest of the day smokeless. Well, I could have but no one would want to be around me. So I guess I'll go with half a pack a day for a while longer; let some more nicotine get out of my system, and then try cutting down some more.

The fun part has been the dreams (nightmares). Dancing cigarettes, Santa smoking, the Marlboro man........basically all your old cigarette ads coming to life and tormenting me. "More doctors smoke Camel cigarettes than any other brand." (I'd love to see the lung cancer statistics on that). "L.S.M.F.T.: Lucky Strike means fine tobacco" (and C.O.P.D.).

I'm not trying to quit because of health reasons. It's a matter of finances. I just can't afford $300 a month for cigarettes. Likewise, I can't afford to pay $50+ for a quit smoking aid. All they do is provide the nicotine that you don't get when you cut down or quit smoking. I don't want to change the source of the nicotine. I want to purge it from my body. It's like eating a marijuana brownie instead of smoking a joint. (Is it? I wouldn't know. I'm guessing. I never had a marijuana brownie; at least I don't think I did. I don't remember........hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm).

My brother says that cigarettes are nearly $90 a carton in Massachusetts. He drives 45 minutes to New Hampshire and gets them for about $20 bucks less. Good deal if you buy about 10 cartons at a time. He buys one. Hardly worth the gas. Go figure. Maybe if you cross the state line with more than what is considered "for personal use" they can charge you with trafficking. Smuggling between states? I suppose you could make a good living doing that. I wonder how much cigarettes cost in Georgia.