1984

Hey Kids,

1984.

That’s the year I graduated from high school. To most others it’s the title of a book.

The term Big Brother? That’s where that term came from. Check it out it’s a good book.

I remember learning about 1984 sometime around 1980. A teacher explained to us all how close the book was to how it was and within the next four years, she feared we would be living in that world.

Not exactly. The 1980’s turned out to be nothing like 1984. I know some people are going to say different; but no, the world of Winston Smith was nothing like the world I knew leaving High School. Or even today.4c61d4a15e78164dc9ce5fe53750e28f6d4c9ec6

1984 is also the name of a Van Halen album. The last one with David Lee Roth as the lead singer or band member. Personally, I liked Sammy Hagar a little better anyway, but “1984” is an incredible album, one that changed the direction of Van Halen and rock music really. The song “Hot for Teacher” alone is worth the listen.

The 1984 Olympics. Remember that runaway? With the Eastern Bloc countries boycotting, the USA, In LA, won a lot of medals. McDonald’s nearly went broke with just the free stuff I won from the promotion they ran. Big Mac for a Gold, fries for a Silver and a drink for a Bronze. I spent an entire weekend at Santa Cruz feeding off the winnings of Team USA. I still feel sorry, however, for Mary Decker. But how about that Michael Jordan kid!

1984 was a big year. The launch of Apple Macintosh for one. But it was only a year. It came and went. No Party take over. No new world order. No Walter Mondale. And no societal crash.

2015 is another year. What will be historic about it? Only history in the future(?) will tell. The trick is just to live it. Take things as they come and know that one day there will be something of today we will look back with fond memories.

Nobody really knows what’s coming. No body.

So, Relax. (Don’t do it).

 

Day 84

A Ticket By Any Other Name

Hey Kids,

I saw today that Nevada is considering a speed limit change on some of their more remote highways. They are proposing an increase to a posted 85MPH.

I like Nevada and don’t find the landscape as god-awful as many others will decry, but I do think the faster one can move from one point to another in the long stretches of the high mountain desert, the better. It’s always best to leave people wanting more. However, I do feel slighted by this change.

Back in 1984, I received a ticket for going 68 in the posted 55 outside of Elko. There are some who still feel that 55 is the right speed limit, but those people have never traveled I-80 form Salt Lake to Reno. The fact that I could contain my speed to 68 is actually amazing. I say ticket, but in reality it was a citation. A non-moving citation. Let me explain.

The state of Nevada knew that 55MPH was a mistake, maybe borderline cruel. Everyone knew it. Unfortunately, Nevada also knew that if they did not adhere and enforce the Federal mandated inane speed limit, they would cease to receive highway money. So someone, either the Nevada Highway Patrol or maybe state elected officials, created another option.

Instead of issuing tickets for every offender, tickets that could be costly and added points onto the driver’s record, NHP officers could, under certain guidelines, issue a Waste of Fuel Citation. It meant that they were enforcing the speed limit as mandated but without the heavy handed penalties. If one really wanted to, you could rack a few of these up and go a little faster. My citation cost me $15. Had I been going 70, I would’ve got a ticket.

It still irks me that on a stretch of highway now posted for 80 and possibly 85 soon, I had to pay $15 for speeding. I was making a teenager wage of $4.25; it was not chump change for me at the time. Afterwards, I kept the speedometer in the 1977 Camaro 64 or under and avoided any additional legal entanglements.

Maybe I was safer for it. Maybe I saved fuel. Maybe I wrecked the planet a little less that day. But it made for a long drive back to California.

 

I Can't Drive 55

I Can’t Drive 55

Day 15