Life Of Brian

1994/95 

Think back on your life.  In your lifetime, have you ever had an intuition of events about to unfold?  Maybe you had a feeling of excitement, or the opposite, dread.  Maybe you had a premonition of things to come based on events unfolding around the nation, or even just your own microcosm.  My brain works in this way.  Others call it anxiety maybe, or a "doomsday" thought process.  I think it's just my brain at work.  

As I write this blog about the years of 94 and 95, in the back of my mind, I cannot help but think of current events that are unfolding daily.  Mother Nature is the culprit for some of it.  Mother Russia the reason for the other.  I'll start with the latter.  For the past six or seven months, our planet has been seeing increasing activity in both fault line activity (earthquakes) and Volcanic activity.  In Ventura County alone we have had three or four mid-sized earthquakes.  Japan has had a major quake, as well as many other countries, some of which, quakes are a rarity.  There have also been a number of Volcano's either erupting or showing signs of waking back up after decades if not longer, of silence.  Of course this has happened for eons.  The difference now is the combination of the two.  I know about the 'Ring of Fire'.  I've read about past activity and how the tectonic plates are constantly moving etc.  Current activity, however, seems to be relating one to the other.  There are a number of Volcano's that have erupted.  Some spewing lava, others just steam and gases.  This, combined with all the earthquake activity makes me think there might be a large shift going on within our continents.  Are we about to see what Mother earth can really do?  Maybe we are in the beginnings of a major natural disaster.  Supposedly Volcanoes can alter global weather if they spew enough of their sediments and gasses into the atmosphere.  Another event that does not happen very often occurred in Yellowstone N.P.  One of the geysers completely blew up, spewing scalding water and earth sediments high into the sky and even destroying the surrounding boardwalk.  Thankfully no tourists were severely injured.  It could have been much worse. This type of explosion has happened before, so it's not "a sign" that doomsday is upon us.  However, this could mean that the Super Cauldron underneath Yellowstone, might be moving yet again.  This means it could also be getting ready to erupt.  Experts who study Yellowstone's geothermic activity think that there is evidence that the Super Cauldron that now lies under Yellowstone, was once under the state of Idaho where it last blew it's top.  Scientist found ash and the skeletons of White Rhinos in what is today Nebraska.  All results of this super explosion that occurred thousands of years ago.  One thing is for certain.  Our planet is processing, much like it has done for millions of years, and we could be in store for a major viewing of what Mother Earth is really capable of.

Russia has been at war with Ukraine since Feb 2014.  In 2022, Russia launched a full-scale attack of Ukraine, and this conflict is ongoing.  Without getting into the political side of this scenario, it is no surprise that the United States and other countries have come to Ukraine's aid. Ukraine wants to be its own sovereign country, and Russia feels as though the Ukranian territory is indeed part of Russia.  So, much like what happened in Kuwait, when Iraq decided Kuwait should become Iraq's territory, the United States stepped up to the bullying country and prevented this from happening.  This also was the case in the Vietnam War in which my father served our country to help prevent N. Vietnam from overtaking South Vietnam by force.  This time however, our country is providing aid by sending the Ukraine military armaments only.  No U.S. troops are on the ground fighting against Russian forces.  The problem that is becoming more and more heated, is that Russia does not like the fact that the U.S. is bolstering Ukraine's military capabilities.  Russia is a much bigger country than Ukraine and I've often thought it is very strange that this war between the juggernaut Russia and the much smaller Ukraine has been drawn out for so long.  Russia should have the capability of turning Ukraine into a parking lot overnight, yet their military has lost thousands of troops, even Naval battleships and yet the war slogs on for what soon will be its third year.   Russia just yesterday warned the U.S. that we are inching ever closer to a third world war.  The U.S. has given Ukraine long range missiles to "defend itself only".  Now the president of Ukraine wants to use those long-range missiles from inside Russia's territory to further advance into Russia and in one way or another, end this war.  If the United States allows this to happen, Russia insists it will not hesitate to include attacks on U.S. interests and bring into fruition the planets third major conflict.  Add on to that, Israel is defending itself from a brutal attack on its citizens from Hamas.  Israel claims that Iran has been supplying Hamas with weapons and or training.  Israel has killed high level officials of Iran which of course has put Iran on the defensive making threats to Israel.   And on top of all this, N Korea's leader who is known to be a fear monger and threatens the world with its nuclear capabilities, is also making threats against the U.S.  This brings me to my earlier thought.  Something tells me that our planet is going to see one of two things happen in the near future.  Maybe the next decade.  Either a major world war, or a major natural disaster that is going to reset the planet as we know it.  Stock up those larders!

Nineteen Ninety-Four and Five were two years that could have been one or the other.  So, I will combine them together in this blog.  These were good years for my family whereas no one was sick, everyone had money, and a roof over their heads.  My job as a Metal Bond Blade Fabricator was going strong.  I would excel at my job and eventually move out of the metal bond lab.  This did not occur until late 95 early 96.  In 95 I would promote to the lapping machines.  It was a nice change of pace, and I got to learn how to operate a few different machines.  The lapping machines used two big steel plates with grooves in them to carry slurry throughout.  A big press really, it had spinning plates that would slowly grind down the rough diamond blades from the fabrication lab.  The machine would run for twenty minutes sometimes which left the operator free to do other things.  Those things included grinding out the i.d.'s and o.d.'s of the blades.  Two very different machines.  I still to this day have scars on my knuckles from the i.d. machine.  When your skin comes into contact with a very high-speed synthetic diamond resin grinding wheel, your skin will always lose.  But at least it was more like a burn rather than a laceration.  Sarah and I were still dating.  She was attending Nordhoff, it would be her senior year.  My oldest sister Angela graduated from Cal Poly in 1995.  I remember going to her graduation.  She lived in a rental house out near Moro Bay her final years of school.  I can recall a few trips up there with my dad and sister Vicki.  One of those trips I was recovering from an ear infection and had cotton balls shoved into my ear holes to keep the wind out.  The only time I'd been further north than SLO was when my dad and I went to a Nordhoff football game up in Paso Robles.  I was the ripe young age of twenty in 1995.

1995 was a notable year around the world.  In the U.S.  Republicans took control of Congress for the first time in forty years.  Windows 95 was introduced and made operating computers much simpler for the average user.  Remember all those commands you'd have to enter into DOS!  DVD's were invented.  Pixar released its first film.  A singer by the name of Coolio would release a song titled "Gangsta's Paradise".  Other popular songs included "Waterfalls", "Creep", and a song by a singer by the name of Seal who sang, " Kiss From a Rose".  An all-female team competed in the America's Cup.  The Bosnian war ended in 95.  Oklahoma was hit by the deadliest terrorist attack prior to 911.  One hundred and sixty-eight people were killed by a homemade explosive device planted in a rental truck and parked outside of a federal building in Oklahoma City.  Japan experienced a massive earthquake that killed between 5502 and 6434 people.

The median home sales price in the U.S. was $114,000.00.  Americans needed an income of a minimum of $32,000.00 to purchase a home.  1995 would be the final year where minimum wages remained at $4.25 an hour.  My wages at iti hovered around $7.25 per hour.  I was easily making all my payments associated with owning a car.  Gas remained fairly cheap at $1.21 per gallon.  

Times were good indeed in the mid-nineties.  Actually, minus the events of Covid in 2020, we've had it really good and that's bound to change at some point.  History tends to repeat itself.  Humans are very good at forgetting which inevitably brings problems back around.

"I was very disappointed with judge Ito, the fact that he was so concerned with his status as a celebrity, his willingness to entertain personalities in chambers, to show the lawyers little videotapes of skits on television."

- Simpson defense attorney Peter Neufeld after the verdict (Oct 16).

 Life Of Brian

1993

Un mil nueve cien noventa y tres

  

I'm pretty sure that's not correct, but I don't feel like looking it up.  Think back to 1993.  Were you lucky enough to have an internet connection?  93 is the year the CERN made the web open and free.  The first internet browser for the general public was released, it was called Mosaic.  I know one thing.  I wasn't even aware of this little tidbit of knowledge until I just looked it up on you guessed it, the internet!  Nineteen Ninety-Three was my first summer of freedom.  Thankfully I had a good job, and with a good job came the ability to get into real debt.  Nothing like that first time you really get into debt knowing that you need to continuously work your boo tay off for the next five years.  Heck, If I would have achieved more than a 2.23 gpa, I prolly would've foreseen the likelihood I'd have to work for the rest of my life. At 18 though, no one is thinking about working for the rest of their lives.  Thank goodness for that too!  What a downer right. Ignorance is bliss. Who doesn't fall into that category anyway.  If not for personal loans and credit card debt, a large percentage of the population wouldn't make it.  kind of sad really.  Do we really live just to earn money?  That's a good one to bring up at the dinner table of people you've just met!  Deep conversations like that didn't exist for me in 93.  I was working, playing, paying, and living!  Still located across from WheelersGorge Campground, my house was really an awesome place to be.  The drive to work at iti inc in Ojai off of Bryant Street took me about twelve minutes.  In my awesome Nissan truck, I'd listen to my favorite tapes, including but not limited to Pearl Jam's "Ten", and R.E.M.  I did not have to pay my parents any rent, but I did have to pay my truck payment as well as my insurance.  Which, at my young age of 18 was pretty darn expensive.  I had plenty of money to pay for all my gas as well, iti was paying me fairly good money for that era.  Sarah and I had many a nice dinner out with my machine shop wages.  While I lived at home, a few of my close friends would rent their own apartments.  One of my friends would introduce me to cigars.  I did not form a habit of smoking cigars mind you, but he and I would enjoy one or two a year.  That would last until just recently.  Now I have a humidor and a small collection of the cancer sticks.  The number of cigars consumed each year is still less than ten.  Why am I telling you this you might be wondering?  Couldn't tell you, lol.  That's the fun part about this blog.  I really don't care whether what I'm writing down is entertaining or not.  It's just fun to remember things from the past.

The company I worked for, iti incorporated, was a machine shop in Ojai.  Located on Bryant Street, it was a quiet area.  I began working for them a summer prior.  I was just hired for the summer, to drill out metal machine castings.  This was fairly labor-intensive work.  Someone would have to get the forklift and bring the big castings outside and then tip them over so I could drill out the holes in the bottom for foot pegs to be inserted.  I would use a half inch drill bit and reem out an existing hole that was not big enough for the foot pads iti wanted to use on their machines.  It was usually hot outside, and I had to lean my entire body weight into the drill to achieve any progress drilling through that steel.  At four holes per casting, I'd only get three or four castings done in a day.  Sometimes the drill bit would become dull, and it would catch, or stall in the hole.  That was always fun.  If you weren't paying attention, and didn't let off of the trigger soon enough, this event could possibly break your wrist.  I must have done a good job, because summer of 93, I was hired back.  This time I'd be working for Dept. 600.  Dept. 600 manufactured diamond cutting blades among other things.  Companies in China and Japan would buy up the blades we made like candy.  They would use them to cut computer chip pucks.  The cuts had to be very precise and our synthetic diamond blades were very good at the task.  We were one of two companies I believe that knew how to make these blades.  There was an entire process that our department carried out.  first the blades had to be handmade and 'cooked'.  Then they were lapped down to many different thicknesses.  These tolerances were +/- .00005 on some of these blades!  It took many skilled employees to make the final product.  The blades were then placed on an arbor and put into a machine; a CNC machine made by iti as well (these were the castings I drilled out.)  These arbors would slice through a big puck of computer chip material at very precise measurements and produce computer chips.  Once we tested the arbors and found they were cutting within the purchasing companies' parameters, we'd ship them off to the customer.  I think our company sold each arbor for 8 to 10 thousand dollars.  The CNC machines that carried out the cutting of the computer chip pucks would sell for 60 grand and up, some upwards to $130,000.00.  This is in 1993 mind you. My job of fabrication was done in the metal bond lab.  We'd mix different metallic powders with different microns of synthetic diamond.  Then, we'd pour the powder into a graphite mold.  The powder had to be meticulously leveled out nice and even to make as flat a cutting disc as possible.  This saved the lappers time on the lapping machines.  Once leveled, we'd stick the entire graphite mold into an inductron press that cooked the molds up to 40,000 degrees.  They'd come out of this microwave of sorts glowing bright red.  Special gloves had to be used to remove the molds, then, the insides would be placed on a cooling table.  I found the process very interesting and never got bored fabricating blades.  In a day, I could produce one hundred to one hundred and fifty blades.  Do the math, this was very good money for the company.  We earned more than minimum wages, but the pay was a toss in a bucket compared to what the company made off of the product.  All of my co-workers were great people to work with.  I would rank iti as number two of my top three jobs ever worked.

My oldest sister was at Cal Poly.  I think she may have been completing her last year in 93.  Vicki, my other sister, was working.  I cannot remember what her job was at the time.  I do remember spending a lot of time by myself.   If I wasn't hanging out with Sarah, you would have found me hiking or fishing, on my days off.  Sarah would graduate in 94.  Thanks to my mom and dad, we have some videos of these years.  Some include Christmas, and Thanksgiving.  Others include the sheer boredom of living up the canyon.  I'm not complaining mind you, but there were some boring days living up there.  Little did I know, life was about to get ever busy in the next few years.

Around the Nation and Country, these were some of the issues in the headlines.  June of 93, the Unabomber struck sending an explosive device to a Yale Scientist named David Gelernter.  Bill Clinton would become our 42nd POTUS.  The infamous Al Gore was his Vice Pres.  January 5th, the state of Washington carried out the first legal hanging since 1965.  Seven million dollars was stolen from a Brinks armored car in Rochester, NY.  I have some knowledge of how Brinks operated their trucks in the late nineties.  We always wondered why Brinks trucks weren't hit more often as all three members would exit the truck to service a stop.  The company I worked for would do no such thing.  Even so, our trucks in other states would be robbed a couple of times.  More about that in a later Blog.  The seven-million-dollar Brinks heist was the 5th largest robbery in U.S. history.  Four men were accused, one of which was a former Rochester police officer.  All had ties to the Provisional Irish Republican Army.  IBM would announce a loss of just under five billion dollars the year prior, ranking as the largest single year corporate loss in United States history.  The United States Military would send forty Tomahawk cruise missiles into Bagdad striking factories linked to Iraq's illegal nuclear weapons program.  Iraq had stopped the UNSCOM from flying aircraft into their country and began military operations in the demilitarized zone.  The Tomahawk missiles quickly changed their minds and planes were once more allowed to fly in the Iraq zones.

At the box office, titles such as Jurassic Park, Falling Down, Gettysburg, Rudy, and What's Eating Gilbert Grape could be seen at your local movie theater.  Robin Williams would star in the comedy Mrs. Doubtfire.  T.V. shows included The X Files, Frasier, The Nanny, Boy Meets World, and Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.  Of those, I loved watching Frasier.  

Hit songs for the year according to Billboard magazine included Whitney Houston's song "I Will Always Love You".  I believe Dolly Parton wrote this song.  Janet Jackson sang "That's the Way Love Goes".  One of my dad's favorites by Tag Team," Whoomp!" (There It Is).  UB40's "Can't Help Falling In Love".  Mariah Carey's " Dreamlover".  I was more of an alternative rock guy.  But I mostly listened to the local radio station which would have played most of these songs.  "Run Away Train" by Soul Asylum was one of my favorites.

The average price of a house sold in the United States in 93 was $147,000.00.  Southern California prices ranged from $99,777.00 and $237,221.00 in Santa Barbara County.  The Federal minimum wage was $4.25/hr.  Making $6.00 an hour at iti was very good money!  At $4.25 an hour you were bringing home $8,840.00 a year!!  That's assuming you worked five days a week, forty hours total.  The average cost of a car was around $16,000.00.  The Ford Taurus, Toyota Camry, and Honda Accord were some of the more famous and popular models.  We owned a Nissan Sentra, Mazda Miata, Ford LTD, and two Nissan P/U trucks. I think Sarah drove a Honda.  Cannot remember the model.

Another year on the books, a very important one at that with my completion of Highschool.  New freedoms would be acquired, also many new responsibilities as well.  Life was bliss for the most part.  As I mentioned earlier our family events kind of began to dwindle at this point in time.  My sister being up in SLO, my other sister working full time and doing things with her friends.  My mom and dad still working full time and then some to support each other in an ever-expensive world.  Car payments to be made.  Thoughts of the future beginning to take shape.  I remember thinking that my parents, in their mid to late forties were getting old!  I worried about the possibility of them passing away. lol.  Now, at the age of 49 I realize how absolutely silly that was.  Time began to start whizzing by, and it would only get worse.

"God creates dinosaurs, God kills dinosaurs, God creates man, man kills God, man brings back dinosaurs."

- Jurassic Park June 1993