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).