Chapters

We all have chapters in our lives, points where it seems one part of our story ends and another begins.   One chapter of my life ended on Dec 31, 1999.  I was downtown Cincy trying to enjoy being single, looking for someone to hook up with and bouncing between two bars on Vine St; both alternative dives. One for the younger crowd and the other for us getting longer in tooth (that time in my life where I thought 30 was OLD.  I was 32 and lost in life ) (and yes, this was in my ‘liberal’ years, so the tats, piercings and odd colored hair were predominate in those around me then.)

It was about time for the year to roll over and I decided to head to the Warehouse to hook up with some friends that were there, instead of nursing a shot and a beer by myself when the time came.

My watch was off.   I was midway between both bars when the Millennium Bell in Covington started tolling.   I stood there, all by myself on a street empty of life save my lone self, hearing that bell ringing a Deep F# tone across 3 miles of a pair of rotten crappy cities.  12 ominous tones,,,,(the tone is actually A, but with the fog and distance, sounded F)

That particular Chapter started that day and took several plot and character changes over the next eight and a half years.   While the ominous tones of that bell rang my bones, they also rang my soul, and that soul was not having any of that ‘morbid bullshit’.   The next eight years would see me touring the US as a sound guy, involved in a solid (are they? that one sure didn’t hold together, but I digress) and a Home Owner.

Eight years.   Lessons at every turn, some easy, most hard, but lessons never to be forgotten.   (and that was the turning point into another chapter.)

That was 21 years ago.  

I never thought I would see the crap that we have been witness to over just the last two years, and look back and realize just how “FOR GRANTED” we took, well, Literally EVERYTHING of that time.   It was a joy-ride compared to the shit storm we ride in now.  We were on the cusp of Technology Revolution, the computers were still, for the most part, running MS or Unix or were Apples that didn’t have as many ‘business’ options, but did have a die-hard following. (my computer at my job then was all Unix, with that creepy green text and no visuals or ‘windows’.). The Net was really taking off and the DOT.com bubble was in full swing.   The Best Cell-phone was still made by Nokia, with Blackberry coming up fast, and smart?  Naw, our phones smartest feature then was ‘Snake’ and that it might hold 100 names and numbers.  

Even with the regulations of the day, our freedoms were 10 fold (or more) what we have now.  There was no Ominous mass Surveillance state, YET, but that was soon to change, if you consider less than 2 years SOON.   (looking back on it, it’s been two years since the ‘Rona invaded our world, and all of the hyperTyranny that brought along with it.). 

Its been 21 years, and I have watched the world turn upside-down and twisted inside out.  I have seen a world where those just now legally able to drink have no clue what it means when we talk about the world without your phone spying on you and providing advertisers with information to ‘customize’  their  pitches ‘just for you’.   It’s been 21 years and when I hear “Better than Ezra”  playing on the Classic rock station,,,  I FEEL OLD,,,  

If you were granted the wish to go back to that ‘turning point’ with the knowledge you have: what would you do?  Would you try to change the future?  Would you target certain persons for elimination BEFORE they could cause the turmoils they do/did/will do (depending on where you are in that loop)? Would you try to improve your efforts between the lines to create a better position for yourself in this time?  Or would you rant and rave, hoping that others will listen and turn the tides BEFORE they become what they have?  

As for that last, if that were your choice: I would offer the expedient advice of “save your breath”, because for the last 13 years, I have been ranting and raving and no one seemingly listens even as the world is ripped asunder around them.   The Pedo’s are at the top rungs, but 98% of the population doesn’t seem to give a rats ass.   The FRAUD continues its foray into over-reach (keep on eye on what bills are up before the Christmas break, could be some ugly coming down the pike) and that 62% that feel the election was stolen AREN’T storming D.C. to decorate the lamp-posts with the guilty.

21 years and we only got fatter, lazier, and dumber.   Yes, I say dumber, and point three fingers at myself as I say it.  I know that I could remember easily those 100 numbers that were also kept in my phone at the time.   Now,,,,, I Have to ask or look up other people phone numbers.   And it’s not a memory problem, but a programing problem.  We used to program ourselves to hold that information, and now we have something that will do it for us so see no need: that creates an issue where parts of our brain grow weak (the brain is like any system in your body, exercise makes it stronger.  Be it muscle, an immune system or your brain, USE IT OR LOSE IT is the rule.). And those that grew up with those tools/toys, are weaker for it.   I was shocked when I found out that it was MANDATORY for students to use a calculator DURING A TEST:  In my time in school, if you had been caught using a calculator, you would have been failed, right then and there, and that was even in the higher maths with Graphs and Plotting needed.   

But then, Oregons Governator just made it so that Reading, Writing and Math are NOT required essentials to graduate,,,,

TWENTY ONE YEARS,,,,

Inside out backwards and upside down.

But we keep moving forward in time, and while we see the travesty of a Gooberment Gone Wild, we are still here, thinking, watching, learning, and reasoning, BUT WE NEVER DO ANYTHING about it.

21 years.    

If my time line is anything like my dads, I have at least another 30 years on this rock.   with the last 21 behind me, I can’t even contemplate what those next thirty will look like.   I would LIKE to think that the last 21 will start seeing a reversal of trend into some form of sanity, but I am a rational human being, and the last 21 have not been: No precedent for a retrograde improvement. (is that a thing?). I won’t be holding my breath over it.   And I don’t base my efforts using HOPE as a foundation.  

Oh,I hope that things don’t get completely out of hand, but I PLAN and PREP as if things are going to get way worse.   You aren’t scared of having a fire in your kitchen, but you keep an extinguisher on hand anyway.   I don’t worry about all hell breaking loose in my hollar, but I keep a long gun and ammo on hand anyways.   

21 years.    Can this country handle another 21 years like the last 21?   Or was the last 21 the LAST with what we are in being the endarkenment?

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