I've been at this Y2K preparation for about 18 months now, and I've been through all the different emotions of preparing for the unknown. And what frustrates me the most is the unknown. What frustrates you about Y2K?

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), January 11, 1999

Answers

The same thing; not knowing. One day I think I'm nuts for buying wheat berries, which I never bought in my life until now. The next day I think, maybe I should buy more wheat berries. I've put a few things on hold, and I wonder if I should have. Then I think, it's nothing that can't be taken up again. I' m quite sure I'm overlooking something very important. Sometimes I think, what an interesting time to be living in. Other times I think, what a drag. We'll see??????

-- gilda jessie (jess@listbot.com), January 11, 1999.

On a personal level: The idea that preparation never ends, and that I have friends and family members that are Forget its, or Dont wanna get its. It makes me nuts. If it has taken me this long to get as prepared as I am, how much will they be able to do when they finally Get it? Scary. Not knowing doesn't get to me too much, I know enough to prepare as best I can, which to me is the most important thing to know at this point. On a larger level, loss of the grid for more than a week or two I think is one of the scariest things.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), January 11, 1999.

Personally, I am overwhelmed by all of this. As a GI, single, home-owner in a very large city surrounded by DGI's, I feel absolutely alone. I fear for my safety and survival. I don't know whether to sell my house and flee, or stay here, fortify, and stock. I am a city-girl who until now could not even stand the thought of an overnight campout! I am frustrated that I need to make life saving decisions based on an unquantifiable unknown!!! I am willing to make changes, just don't know which, where, how and when.

-- shivermetimbers (zerodegrees@oh.com), January 11, 1999.

What frustrates me the most is that Y2K is about to start - maybe around March of 99 and there is no mention of this. Don't we realize that Japan and Canada roll over in April of 99. What does this mean for all of us. I would really appreciate feedback!

-- don (foo@hotmail.com), January 11, 1999.

What frustrates me the most is that I have to worry about Y2K at all. And that I'm not in Kansas anymore.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 11, 1999.

DWGIs, especially Christian DWGIs...

-- Arlin H. Adams (ahadams@ix.netcom.com), January 11, 1999.

What frustrates me the most is worry that my 2 sons will suffer if I can't prepare enough and in the correct way. I have to make decisions now on my own that will determine if we make it through. Yet no one else in my family gets it so I have to walk around trying to act normal. I have to find a job and buy everything since I only got it myself during my research in the month of December. There is so little time left in which to do so much and learn so much.

Lora

-- Lora Ereshan (artemis45@hotmail.com), January 11, 1999.

What frustrates me is not having enough hours in the day to search out what I want to find, and still be able to take time out to have a life.

The whole thing is "most unexpected." Feeling really off-balance today, too. And shaking my head.

Tres bizarre!!!

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 12, 1999.

The scarcity of facts and honesty by corporate and government bigwigs.

-- Steve Hartsman (hartsman@ticon.net), January 12, 1999.

I'm with you, Diane, frustrated by not enough hours in the day and all of the decisions decisions decisions .... Should I get this grain mill or that grain mill; pinto beans, black beans, garbanzo, adzuki, cowboy, soy ... white rice, brown rice, converted rice, instant rice ... flour, wheat berries, wheat flour, white flour ... AAAAAAAACK!!!

Haven't gotten eight hours sleep in months.

jeannie

-- jeannie (hollander@ij.net), January 12, 1999.

The lack of SOLID information from utilities, telcos, etc., frustrates me.

The inability to spark conversation on Y2K with 99% of the people I have dealings with in the course of a day frustrates me. The glassy- eyed look on the faces of these same people when I broach the subject of Y2K frustrates me.

Hearing folks making grand plans (starting a family especially) for next year frustrates me. Don't they know?

The realization that without the internet I would be lost in the ocean of ignorance eases the pain just a bit.

Smile from the Heart!

-- Bingo1 (howe9@pop.shentel.net), January 12, 1999.

What frustrates me the most is trying to juggle a full-time job, plus trying to find what I already have (we moved six months ago), plus trying to figure out what I need, plus the stress of trying to squeeze preparations into our budget, plus doing it all myself becaus DH is very laissez-fair about the whole thing, plus worrying about the rest of my family (the women are GIs and the men...aren't).

-- Karen Cook (browsercat@yerf.net), January 12, 1999.

I ahve selected the incense sticks for my brothers and their familes.

I am doing WHAT I CAN as I can, here and now.

The frustration is the curtain in front of me. I want to look through the gaps.

I don't know if I'll be strong enough.

I don't know if I'll be healthy enough.

I don't know if I will miss the one thing my wife needs to survive.

Every time I look foreward, the smoke shifts a bit and I see Gettysburg, and Shiloh. . . . . . . . . .But there aren't any uniforms.

Not been a good day folks.

G'nite.

C

(0135 1-12-1999 353 to go) or is it 78)

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 12, 1999.

Trying to find a balance between work, time for quiet thinking and perspective recovery, and the increasing realisation that I can no longer put in a string of sixteen hour days without suffering for a week afterwards.

I also find reminders of age very frustrating, and may have to plan to seek younger help just to get everything done.

Y2K sure sharpens up perceptions of mortality.

-- Bob Barbour (r.barbour@waikato.ac.nz), January 12, 1999.

What frustrates me the most? The fact that my retirement plans are shot and instead of traveling and buying and selling antiques and collectibles(something people will no longer want to spend momey on even if it's just a depression)I will be doing gardening and hyroponics,etc.Was going to do them anyway, but not as a full time livelihood.

Another frustration is that I seem to be living in 2 different worlds. The world of the y2k internet and my plans and preparations and the land of Oz around me where no one seems to give a care,the building business is booming and if the subject is brought up as warning,I get the response,"What, are you crazy ? Things are going too good! Look at the stock market!

Starting to make me feel Skitzo!

-- Sue (deco100@aol.com), January 12, 1999.

. . .Been preparing for eleven months. There are "many" most frustrating things. . . The realization/reality that we don't have the where-with-all to move out of the city (San Antonio-- at least there are only two dozen days of cold here) and HAVE to "hunker down" right where we are. I would like to share with whom it might help-- like those who visit this forum who ARE stuck in the cities-- a short take from a 14 page posting (from garynorth.com) which I read last spring, and which helps me when I begin to dispare [again]. It's from a posting entitled "Tom's Take". . . ". . .Decide to survive. Survivors are everywhere. . . I'd like to have two years of stockpile in a city for a pair of squirrels [people]. A network of burrows to spread the risk. There will be some single squirrels. Stay inside until the dying have died. The population shrinks rapidly. Survivors cautiously emerge, and start to garden. Dennis Hopper is dead. Now is the time to share if you have extra. Ignore the carnage. I won't think about those problems but you have to face them. Think of the strategy and fill in the details. "Your plan is to salvage in the city. This is the way you are going to make your living in the new millennium. Plan to arrive in Paradise at harvest time. Better the second harvest. There will be both work and demand for your goods. Help with the harvest, barter your goods, and return to the burrow to wait out the winter. You can do it the first year, but I won't be able to buy much. The second is better. "Burrow, emerging as infrequently as possible in the early days. Not because it won't be safe in a month or two, but because it will be so unpleasant. Burrow. Burrow in networks. Think about the paradigm I am laying out. You can survive anywhere, if you can wait for the viable local economy. The city population will shrink with breathtaking speed. You will be able to garden that first year. With a good stockpile and the basic problems solved, you will survive. There will be survivors everywhere. "[It's] Not [about] faith. [It's about] Economics. Dennis Hopper is a movie. He dies in my tale, and he dies really early. Squirrels survive. My wife made me move to a Paradise even though it broke us. But I have no illusions. Paradise will be a terrible struggle. I won't bore you with our problems. Focus on yours. See the strategy, solve the problem. I am laying out a paradigm. A recovery that works. The Hamasaki Paradigm. "Burrow early because outside is unsafe. Burrow because it is so unpleasant outside. There is too much time to think in the city. Spend your time in the burrow hoping against hope for Paradise and wondering about. . . problems [you] are trying to solve. . . work very hard while you endure in your burrow. . . ". . .Buy the paradigm and the rest will fall into place for you. . . We accept the worst but wek know Hollywood Horror when we see it. We plan for recovery. "Decide on a new occupation. There are not many of them to choose from. For everybody it will be lots of little things at first. Stockpile enough to survive untill the new occupation pays. . . "Spread this paradigm. If you get the big picture, you can fill in the details. The local economies first, like tiny shoots of green that begin to sprout after the forest fire. The will spread and connect naturally, almost as fast as the fire. We do not plan for anything beyond local. No altruism. No faith in humanity. The rest will take care of itself. The more local economies we create the faster we come back. Act in your own best interests, try to make a living in a local economy, and the shoots of green will become a carpet of grass. Trees eventally. We do not have to try to build a tree. . . it will eventually grow without a gardner if we nurture the shoots. . . it is a plan for recovery. Pass it on. ". . .survive. Dennis Hopper is a movie. Hollywood horror. Survival depends on dealing with the real horror. "Good Luck. Tom" Hope this helps so of you out there. It's helped me cope with the many frustrations of preparing for Y2K/post-Y2K. It like the frustrations and the preparations will NOT get resolved nor remediated. It IS all about contingency planning. . . Best luck to all of you survivors out there.

-- Albert E. Potts (Potts5116@aol.com), January 12, 1999.

The thing that frustrates me the most is being out there in society and having everyone and everything go on as though nothing unusual is happening. I GI last year and started with serious preparation planning. I visit this site at least once every day. After I come home from work, errands, ect. I have to come here to be sure Y2K is still going down, because outside of the internet I see no signs of it. Thanks to the Eds, Rob M, Leska, and everyone else for helping me prepare. On the up side, my life style is changing for the better. I go along with BigDog, I'm turning back into an American citizen.

-- monique (me@home.here), January 12, 1999.

Yes, I am frustrated by the unknown. After more than 2 years of preparing, I am tired of this and ready to go on to something else. I am frustrated that I am preparing for something that no one knows how bad it will be and I can't plan a future. Why start a business now that may not be able to be there in less than 12 months? Our self-sufficiency plans were for a 5 year period and were crammed into 2 years. We still aren't where we want to be and probably won't be. There is no time to do things well or the best way - just get as much done as possible in the few remaining months. My idea of self-sufficiency was to be free of the utilities and be able to handle whatever Mother Nature threw at us - not a manmade mess like Y2k. I thought once we achieved self-sufficiency or clost to it, I would be free to explore other options in the future - like learning all those things I had no time for when I had a full time career and raising kids.

Angry - you bet. I am a computer consultant and I am very angry with management that has refused to listen over the years to me and many other computer people that wanted the time to fix the century problem while we were upgrading/re-writing a system. I plan on this being my last year at consulting - I don't think I want to try and work on crashed systems even if systems stay up enough for that to happen.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), January 12, 1999.

I am frustrated- what a statement! To verbalize, to acknowledge, to say what I feel deep inside, to admit that I AM FRUSTRATED! This is supposed to help (give words to your feelings). But it doesn't. The pain inside is real. That I am frustrated is a feeling that my decisions and actions may prove to be not good enough for my 3 month old daughter and my almost 5 year old son. Some warned me and advised me to leave the city and move rural...I believed them but I have not moved (yet). Hard to give up what you have worked so hard to have. Will I be too late? The frustration is a feeling that will not go away, but also seems to immobolize me at times so that I feel paralyzed. Please wake me, and tell me Y2K is NOT.

-- Joseph (jbabinsky@theriver.com), January 12, 1999.

Frustrates me the most?

After having lived in TEOTWAWKI for 2 dozen years I started life.

Just when I am about finished with my memoir about same and want to get it published, my fellow humans are stuffing me back into TEOTWAWKI. I might not be able to get it published.

P. S.: You think you are frustrated with the DGI's? Hallelujah!

-- TTF (seenit@ww2.com), January 12, 1999.

To me the most frustrating thing has nothing to do with information or disinformation, it has nothing to do with politics or computers.

The biggest problem is the possible breakdown in civil order and the extreme vulnerability of all but the most highly fortified compound to violent outlaws. Unless you are a prisoner in your own windowless bunker made of cement (not wood) your home can be easily violated, broken into, burned down, or sniped at, whether you're there or not. Stepping out in your SUV with bulletproof glass? a single bullet (or shotgun blast) can ignite the tank and you will be toast.

There is very little fail-safe defense against the criminal element.

-- Jon (jonmiles@pacbell.net), January 12, 1999.

The other thing that frustrates me is the occasional moments of self doubt and gloom. But they are transitory.

Chuck

-- Chuck, night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 12, 1999.

Wow. That's a load of frustration. Reading this thread can get anyone down!

I'm not trying to be a contrarian, but there is a glass-half-full side to this situation. Seldom in our lives do we get *any* warning of what may happen to us a year in advance. Especially on such a grand scale. IMHO, we have good reason to be thankful that, even though the details are fuzzy, even though we have had to make radical changes in plans and dreams, we have been given advance warning in order to make preparations for this discontinuity. Within that context, sure, there are frustrations, but this is true of any project one undertakes. We shouldn't let our preparations frustrate us. It seems ironic that this glimpse into the future is harder to bear than not knowing anything at all of what is to come.

-- Elbow Grease (Elbow_Grease@AutoShop.com), January 12, 1999.

I appreciate the reminder about the half full part of the glass Elbow Grease. We need to remind ourselves of that on bad days like I had today.

"It seems ironic that this glimpse into the future is harder to bear than not knowing anything at all of what is to come. "

Well, to me, that's not irony at all, afterall, ignorance is bliss right? The frustration, pain and anger we feel now is real, those who are completely ignorant of Y2K aren't feeling it, and probably will die never knowing that pain.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), January 12, 1999.

What frustrates me most is that people are preparing for Y2K (which I applaud!), but they are neglecting the most important issue....where they will spend eternity after death. See John 3:16 in the bible.

The greatest of all disasters is eternity spent in hell.

-- Saved (heaven@for.me), January 13, 1999.

Have you ever wondered why this frustrates you so much? Y2K affects civilization here and now. A non-believer going to hell doesn't affect him, since to him there is no hell. Faith and facts should be carefully and clearly understood.

-- Non-Christian (.@...), January 13, 1999.

DITTO! to all the above posts. :(

And: my top 10 frustrations.....

1. I am frustrated that just when hubby and I arrive at the time of life when we should be planning the "fun" we expected after finishing with raising kids and career etc, we are instead planning "survival".

2. "Survival" is not looking very "enjoyable"

3. Do I *really* want to survive?

4. YES!!! .......... and, NOOOOOOOOOOoooooooo!!!

5. What if my grown kids don't survive???? What if they can't get to our *safe* place because of travel restrictions....riots..etc?? Do I want to survive without them????

6. How do I keep a *happy* face and be an encouraging mother while listening to my son's wedding plans, another son's career goals, my daughter's college planning for next year, while *inside*, I'm having discouraging thoughts like: why bother?? by next year, you'll be busy weeding the vegetable garden, chopping wood, etc. etc.....

7. Will I survive this ordeal, only to face old age and perhaps disease without the benefit of our modern pain medications?

8. I don't know what to do about money......do I hide cash away and perhaps have a stack of worthless "paper" in a few years? or do I spend it now on things we will need later? WHAT will we need???? (other than the obvious, food, etc...)

9. Is my soul *really* ready to face God? Am I repenting of all my failings because I LOVE God, or because I am afraid? What does He want of me? Am I going to be strong enough to face it?

10. Finally, the FRUSTRATION of watching the calendar count down so quickly, and yet so SLOWLY! Can I take another 11 months of this???

Sheila :(

-- Sheila (sross@bconnex.net), January 13, 1999.

Excellent post, Sheila. It frustrates me to fall into bed at night exhausted, realizing that I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I wanted to. (I need more HOURS in the day!!) Then it frustrates me to wake up in the morning, and within the first five minutes of "consciousness," Y2K has already crossed my mind.

-- Gayla Dunbar (privacy@please.com), January 13, 1999.

Amen Gayla

I too have become burnt out, and am even more grumpy than ever (pity Mrs. D, and pray for her) from this whole thing. But I shall, somehow, find the strength to carry on.

Even if it is just to prove to TTF that I can take it as well as dish it out. ;) Hee Hee

I WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE HELL IS GOING TO HAPPEN! MY LIFE IS ON HOLD AND IT SUCKS!

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), January 13, 1999.