A Staff writer for our local Atlantic City Press wrote a Y2K article which just appeared on our front page.I would describe it as an honest description of the gulf between the 2 sides who are battling it out regarding the severity if the problem.The writer indicates that there are compelling arguments either way and gives you the impression that doing some planning would be wise. Embedded sytems are discussed but there is a frustrating admission that though probably only 1-2% will fail no one knows which ones and what the consequences will be.There is no mention of foreign countries but based on the view of the US having some problems a semi-educated Y2K reader would conclude that there will be serious problems overseas. Flame me from both sides because after a year of following the Y2K issue I must say I am skeptical of anyone who says he knows what will happen.It is uncomfortable to be in this position but I wonder how many of you lurkers are with me.I was a philosophy major so I have a thick skull so hit me as I sit on the fence.

-- Dennis Chornomaz (Dchorno@aol.com), May 10, 1999

Answers

Welcome, Dennis, to Y2K.

Been this way for years for me. At least the wait is almost up.

-- Jim the Window Washer (Rational@man.com), May 10, 1999.

There's a great line in "The Karate kid" that goes a long way towards describing the dangers of being in the "Middle of the Road".

Put grape on right side of road...safe.

Put grape on left side of road...safe.

Put grape on middle of road...sooner or later, truck come by and it get the squish.

Y2K same. Either you Y2K yes, or you Y2K no. You Y2K "Guess so, middle of the road"...will get the squish just like grape.

Or, as a scripture in Revelation reads: "I wish that you were either hot or cold, but because you are lukewarm I will spit you out of My mouth. This because you say I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing know that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." Rev. 3

I'd say the majority of Americans were woefully underdressed and pitifully blind.

-- INVAR (gundark@sw.net), May 10, 1999.

Like most I stockpiled - did the whole thing. Dates have come and gone and what really has happened? All that will happen is a bump in the road. Not armaggedon.

-- pauline jansen (paulinej@angliss.vic.edu.au), May 10, 1999.

Everyone hates uncertainty. It's driving me crazy too. It's so much easier when you "know."

-- Bill Byars (billbyars@softwaresmith.com), May 10, 1999.

Like everyone else, one day I am thinking we are going down the tube and the next day I read something and I think its going to be ok. But either way, my family is ready. And while there is doubt as to the seriousnes of y2k in the US, there doesn't seem to be much doubt about it being catastrophic in the rest of the world. And the US is like a giant army....its spelled supply line... and if its cut we are going to bleed....alot....for a long time.

I got plenty of beans....tonite I want ICE CREAM!!!!

Taz

-- Taz (Tassie @aol.com), May 10, 1999.

pauline -

Patience. The effects will not be dramatic, and they will appear over many months. The impacts will be local (as if any of us experience things in any other way!) We will move through these events, and we will really only see them clearly in the rear view mirror.

"...If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come -- the readiness is all. Since no man of aught he leaves knows, what is't to leave betimes? Let be."

--- Hamlet, Act V, scene ii.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 10, 1999.

Thanks for wondering about lurkers - we are legion. I hope nobody flames you - it's uncomfortable enough sitting on a fence, and not one of us can say we know with certainty what will happen. I know people who found the Big Trouble side of the road so scary, they cut prep short and hopped on that fence. I know people who found the Bump side so unsupportable they climbed that fence. You have lots of company and they are all on Overload. I've been on Overload several months- a late comer-and I'm about to disintegrate. I keep harping on prep for the near-worst, but there are so many people who believe the worst or near-worst will come and don't have the means to do much about it. Overwhelmed. They're nice folks now; they won't be so nice later. What if you're wrong? they ask. I only have one answer for anybody - What if I'm right? -Scat-

-- Sharon Goodman (sgcatique@webtv.net), May 10, 1999.

pauline,

January 1, 2000 hasn't come and gone yet. You might want to hold onto those supplies until it does.

-- Nabi Davidson (nabi7@yahoo.com), May 10, 1999.

I am too busy wondering just how many Year 2000's Pauline has had so far, to bother with thinking about the rest of the thread. OK. I'm done now.

Hey it could be worse. The Jehovah's Witnesses (not to begin on the Elizabeth Clare Prophet Group) have been waiting for "the end" for some time. Damn that must be disappointing. All bunkered up and no place to go! And repeatedly, no less. No wonder Liz needs a full time bodyguard -- I can see a few ex-followers really might want to off her now and then (especially those who gave up all their money).

There is some humor here, but it's worth considering (Pauline) that to my knowledge, nobody who is particularly legitimate as concerns Y2K has been worried about having stockpiles for use previously -- seems to me they're worried about having them now before potential large scale panic makes it illegal or impossible to acquire them -- so they can use them later (or at the end of the year if necessary). If you were bunkering down expecting apocalypse PRIOR to the actual event, that is not Y2K's fault. :-) (I am half teasing you here... don't be offended.)

On the bright side, seeing as how we have no ballistic defense system and China and Russia have ballistics and hate us, maybe we'll just get nuked prior to Y2K and then small things like the power being out will seem like the least of our problems.

Wait, wait. Was that the bright side? Where's INVAR and ANDY to cheer me up when I need them?

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), May 10, 1999.

What a great thread. I feel much worse now.

-- Nutcracker (sittin@duhfence.com), May 10, 1999.

I have become much more middle of the road in my outlook of what will happen. Electric seems in a much better position than it did when I first became "aware", and the 4-1-99 absence of big problems has bouyed my outlook too.

Having said that....

I am still preping like a doomer, but not to the extent of picking up and moving to the sticks. I can get through just about anything shy of Milnefomagic total collapse, and even then I've a better chance than 90odd% of the population.

Regards,

-- Mr Deedah (used2B@unkeeD.B4civility), May 10, 1999.

Pauline, you are absolutely correct: Don't listen to the Doomers. If "It" hasn't happened by now, it probably won't. Personally, I am going to cancel my medical and life insurance, and use the premiums to Party. Care to join me? Anyone?

-- A. Hambley (a.hambley@usa.net), May 10, 1999.

Pauline/Hambley,

Care to guess why its called a Y2K problem?? Bet your idea of fine food is a drive through......

-- RD. ->H (drherr@erols.com), May 10, 1999.

Guess I'll go to Sam's and buy another 50 lbs. of chocolate chips and all the fixin's. No matter which side of the fence I jump to, I'll be a winner. Everyone loves my cookies!

This weekend I'll be attending a workshop to learn how to build an outdoor oven. The seminar is in Colombia, California which is near Sonora. If anyone has any interest, a link follows. My fourteen year old grandson still hasn't taught me how to turn this into a hot link.

http://shell10.ba.best.com/~ovncraft/ovnlist.htm#Workshops

-- Sharon L (sharonl@volcano.net), May 10, 1999.

Taz,

Come on over with your ice cream. We can have a party with my cookies.

-- Sharon L (sharonl@volcano.net), May 10, 1999.

Y'know, this whole thing about "waiting...waiting...waiting...nothing's happening, so I'm going to stand down my preparations..." strikes me as a bit premature, and reflective of our society that demands (and rewards, to an extent) instant gratification.

So nothing has happened yet? Folks, the last time I looked at my calendar, January 1 was still a bit out in the future yet. The preparation advice that was prudent 6 months ago is still prudent. While the current ongoing PR blitz may have swung the doom-o-meter way in the non-event direction, there are still some very rough waters ahead to navigate.

Tim May discusses the current "lull" in this excerpt from a posting today from comp.software.year-2000:

What has changed? Certain perceptions have changed, but clearly the underlying reality is not much different than it was two months ago.

There are several aspects to this "lull":

• the government and industry groups, having gotten very panicked several months ago, are probably now giving artificially rosy pictures...I can't prove this, but various comments by Koskinen, Bennett, etc, suggest that "keeping the calm" is an important aspet of their efforts

  (And, by the way, I suspect that even they are worried that the mood is now becoming too optimistic. If too many people believe "it's been fixed," what happens to actual efforts? If China and Japan become complacent, for example, what happens to their seriously lagging efforts? I expect we'll see efforts to promote more of a sense of urgency, perhaps even coming from Koskinen himself.)

• we're hearing about the successes...the failures are likely either being buried or are still being worked on. If Company A has achieved a lot of progress, it's in their interest to publicize their success. If Company B has been foundering (and even floundering!), it's in their interest to merely mumble about working toward the goal of full compliance, blah blah.

So, the message is, keep your eye on the ball. There is, I think, a natural human tendency to be optomistic when the bloom is on the roses in the spring. But you don't want to get caught flat-footed in September and October when the days begin to shorten and the current optomistic tone of the public discourse begins to fade.

-- Dan Webster (cantsp@m.me), May 10, 1999.

This is just the thing I was talking about in my thread "The Brain Drain of Y2K Awareness." Of how it is getting so HARD to keep on keeping on in all this, when there has been such a long concerted effort by the media/gov't to convince us to relax, it's actually starting to get to ME even though I know better. Not to mention has gotten to many people who took it seriously but now are changing their minds, when just the opposite ought to be happening.

For those people above who prepared for Y2K, and then decided that since Y2K hadn't come yet and it was already May of 1999, please, just post a list of what you've got and what prices you'd like for it. I'm sure we'd all be happy to support your conclusion that everything will be just fine so why worry, and to prove you really mean it, just give it to us, come on, you don't really need food anyway.

PJ in TX

-- PJ Gaenir (fire@firedocs.com), May 10, 1999.

Sorry folks, but I STILL can't see much to encourage me in the view that this will be but a bump in the road. We in the US are far too dependent upon foreign buyers/suppliers.

Not prepare? I can't see that as an option. I've been through too many major storms, earthquakes, floods, etc. If there is Divine intervention and Y2K is a non-event, we're still prepared for other eventualities. And we on Kauai do have an entire hurricane season before the end of the year,

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), May 10, 1999.

This is only a grandma test to see if I passed grandson's lesson.

DeeCee Y2K Weather Reports

-- Sharon L (sharonl@volcano.net), May 10, 1999.

Welcome to you, Dennis. You have just wandered into the biggest collection of irritable, argumentive, iriscable hard headed.....oh well, they are also intelligent and for the most part fun to be around.

(Oh, by the way, make SURE anything you post is backed up by facts or itemized as your opinion...they'll eat you alive if not).

I didn't start preparing until about July 1998 but since my wife and mother in law also agree with the scale of 6 to 8 that I envision, they have done most of the work in canning and scrounging for food. I have spent most of my time looking for hand tools, preparing garden plots, building a chicken house, etc. I'm not about to stop but I am going to slow down for a while. I agree with you...anyone that says he/she knows what will happen is full of it. They probably have forecasted the stock market and made their millions too. 8<)

-- Lobo (atthelair@yahoo.com), May 10, 1999.