Twenty five years ago…

Jul 29, 2021

Our backyard - Brandon Manitoba - July 1996

Where has the time gone!  I can’t believe we’re celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary this month (26 years together).  It all began in Equimalt, BC on Vancouver Island at the base hospital in April 1995.  That’s when we first met.  I had just started working as a clerk at the base hospital where Dan was stationed as a member of the Canadian Armed Forces (Army) working as a dental technician.  In May 1996 when Dan left the forces we moved to the middle of the country - to the small rural city of Brandon, Manitoba. He had found a job in Brandon where his parents had retired and we were able to purchase our first home for only $70k!  That was amazing considering that in Victoria at the time a studio condo was selling for $99k. At the time of our move, I had started working with Human Resources Development Canada as a clerk and thankfully was able to transfer to the same position in Brandon.  From there my career in government continued to where I am now, bringing us all the way back to the west coast in 2008 when I accepted a position working for the provincial government.

Some interesting tidbits about us; we’re both Virgo’s, we both have a recording our parents took of us as toddlers singing “Puff the Magic Dragon” and if you thought that is an odd co-incidence….wait for it….we were born in the same hospital in London, Ontario by, you got it…the SAME doctor!  Admittedly, there were a few years in between those deliveries.  But how freaky is that? The only thing that would have made it more unique would be if the recording we each had of us singing as toddlers was to the song “It’s a Small World”. [A tip: The different coloured text are links to audio or video clips]

A tip:  to see any of the pictures throughout the blog larger, just click on the picture

And, some interesting tidbits about what life was like in 1996:

• We met before the internet as we know it now was widely used.  I read an article that said in 1996 those with internet access spent fewer than 30 minutes a MONTH surfing the web.  I’m pretty sure that I spend more than that on a daily basis now.
• We had a computer in 1995, the first one either of us had ever owned.  I think we got it primarily for gaming - Dan had discovered the game “Doom” from a friend of ours.  I remember that our computer came with 8 MB of RAM and we upgraded it to a whole 64 MB.  We really wanted to upgrade it to 128 MB but that would cost us another $125 which was a huge amount of money back then.  Today, the iPad Pro I’m writing this blog on has 256 GB.  For perspective for anyone reading this that doesn’t know, one GB is 1000x bigger than one MB - mind blowing!  It may seem odd to spell that out, but I bet it won’t be too long in the future before the younger generation won’t even recognize what GB stands for, it’ll be such obsolete tech.  I can’t even imagine where we’ll be at tech wise in another 25 years.  Will we be any closer to a reality as depicted in “The Jetson’s” Lord knows, Amazon ALMOST has us able to put an order in and get it momentarily!
• Speaking of Amazon, in an article ranking the best websites of 1996 Time magazine expressed excitement that Amazon.com would let you search for books “by author, subject or title”.  We all know how far Amazon has grown now.  Heck, I think if I had a week without a delivery they might even reach out to see if I was ok!
• In 1996 most people used dial-up internet, a sound all of us who experienced dial up will never forget.  And at that time, internet speeds ranged from 28.8 Kbps to 33.6 Kbps - compared to today where “good” download speeds are at least 50 Mbps (1 Mbps is 1000x faster than 1 Kbps)
• Cell phones were around, but nobody we knew had one.  We got our first cell phone, a Motorola Startac flip phone in 1998 when we moved to our rural acreage in Beresford, MB
• The first webmail site, Hotmail was launched. There was no instant messaging software.  And of course, there was no Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.  Likewise Camera phones, digital cameras, iPods, Blue Ray, Skype, Gmail, Wikipedia and iTunes did not yet exist.  It is hard to even imagine not having these platforms or technologies now.
• The top song of the year was “Don’t Speak”by No Doubt followed by “Macarena” by Los Del Rio
• The big movies of the year included:  Independence Day, Twister and Mission Impossible
• Dolly the sheep, the first mammal to be successfully cloned was born at Roslin Institute in Midlothian, Scotland.  She was named after Dolly Parton because the  DNA used to clone her came from a mammary gland cell
• Tickle Me Elmo dominated Christmas toy sales.  Every time I heard his laughter it made me smile and laugh out loud.  I even owned one myself just for that very reason!
• “The Unabomber” Theodore (Ted) Kaczynski was arrested, turned in by his brother
• On Christmas day in 1996, six year old child beauty queen JonBenet Ramsey was found murdered in her basement.  The case remains unsolved
• The world population was approx 5,738,000,000.  Today in 2021 it is estimated at 7,875,000,000
• Popular quotes of the time “You had me at hello” and “Show me the Money” - from the movie Jerry Maguire
• In Canada there was “Outrage over 63 cents per litre for gas”. In Nanaimo right now, the price on the pump is 165.9 cents per litre.  Ouch!
• Bill Clinton was re-elected for a second term as U.S. President
• Jean Chretien was our Prime Minister in Canada (from 1993 to 2003)
• The “New” blue M&M was all the rage.  In 1995 after a vote for what colour to replace the light brown M&M (so there weren’t two shades of brown), blue came out the winner.  I forgot M&M’s haven’t always had blue ones!

Some earlier pics of us. The top two were in 1995, the year we met.  
The bottom two we were living in Brandon.
 I’d estimate they’re from between 1997 and 2000

We’ve been very fortunate in our many years together, fortunate for many things including good health, good jobs and an ever deepening relationship.  We are each other’s best friend, finishing each others sentences or sometimes even predicting what the other is thinking.  We’ve had some beautiful experiences, having the opportunity to live in various different settings (urban apartments, city homes, rural properties and even a gorgeous log home on 40 private acres just outside of Brandon).  We’ve had some wonderful full of personality furry kids over the years - even up to 7 at once!  Today we’ve got a happy four felines, two or three of whom will join us on our RV adventure later this year while Lou hangs back and keeps mom (Dan’s mom Carol) company.

Our furry kids over the past 26 years:
Buddy, Spooky, Lucy
 Lucy’s kittens, Bart & Maggie,
 L’il Dude, Monkey, Sweety, Hank, Lou & Tweety

Our current furry kids:
Sweety (16 yo) HoseHey (23 mos)
HeyZeus (22 mos) & Lou (11 yo)

These pics span from between 2009 and 2016

Throughout the years we’ve enjoyed many different activities together - we do everything together  including: camping, fishing, hunting (rifle and bow), ATV’g, snowmobiling, kayaking, boating and travelling.  

We fell in love with Mexico after our first trip to the Mayan Riviera back in 1999.  Returning more than a dozen times since then, we are SUPER excited for the next adventure that will take us into Mexico this fall. That is when we’ll take our home on wheels, our Super C RV AKA “the beautiful beast” into Mexico to live and experience the magnificent country for a glorious six month stay!  We’re just three months away from embarking on our journey (so long as the US opens the land border to us “non-essential” travellers - fingers crossed).

Today 💞

Here’s looking forward to many more years ahead, full of love, loads of laughter and new adventures!

Until next time / Hasta la proxima vez!