Where were we in 1994? Oh yes, I was working for 3Com.  That gig was 12 years long, so may be a recurring theme. Technology was so different, but we were seeing the shape of things to come. There was no World Wide Web. I was working to bring Lotus Notes out to the entire company of over 10,000 people.

In the “Ten Years” post, I mentioned that I was beginning my term as Master of my Masonic Lodge. Fifteen years ago, I had been a Mason for one year. Masonry had and would lead me to many valued friendships, and would teach me a lot.

In 1994, I was actively riding motorcycles. I had a Yamaha Venture Royale motorcycle that I rode to work every day. My main vacationing activity was motorcycle touring. I had taken one sabbatical and crossed the country, and several more long motorcycle rides were in my future.

I’m struck by the fact that so much of life is lived by just “plugging along.”

Ten years ago today, I was living in San Jose, working at 3Com Corporation. I was the technical lead for the web site group. The web was two years old. 3Com’s web site ran on one Sun server. It was all static HTML, except for some dynamic page generation that ran on a perl script that I had written. I didn’t know that the whole method of web delivery would change in the next year and that I’d find myself looking for other work. (Fortunately, I found it.)

Ten years ago today, I was just beginning my term as Master of my Masonic Lodge.  I had become a Mason six years before, and had worked my way through the officer positions. Now I was leading the Lodge. This is a bit more dramatic than being president of most societies and boards. In the tradition of the old trade guilds, the Master has lots of power — on paper. In fact, although the Master can say, “it is my will and pleasure that…”, he’d better be careful of what “that” is, or his will and pleasure will not be very forthcoming. Nonetheless, I had a full year of lodge programs and problems to deal with, and I was much excited about it.

Ten years ago today, we were just looking at buying our first RV. This decision would lead to major lifestyle changes for us, though we had no clue that we were doing anything other than changing our vacation plans.

Ten years ago, last summer, I took a week’s motorcycle trip on the Oregon coast. I rode from San Jose, up 101 through Northern California, and all the way up 101 to Astoria. I came home on I-5. I had many interesting days, though no “adventures.” It would be the last motorcycle trip before I sold the Gold Wing.

Funny how so few paragraphs can encapsulate so many beginnings, and so many endings. Clearly I’ve given my readers a very tiny overview, but the events mentioned above meant a lot to me, and even as they were shaped by what had gone before, they shaped what came afterward.