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Y2K Compliance:
Earlier in the year, it seemed that everyone was concerned about the Y2K bug. People were predicting all sorts of debacles and disasters. Now that the dreaded event is at hand, most folks don't seem quite as concerned. I even suspect that some of the most vocal harbingers of doom have slunk off into the woods.
I have never been overly concerned about this millennium computer bug. While I know that there could be some disruptions, my main concern was that the electric power companies would drop the ball. Since everything else we do is highly dependant upon electric power, that could produce a real debacle. Other than that, what will it matter if some things don't work for a few days. In the case of banks, what if they didn't work for weeks? What would happen? Nothing! Eventually they would fix things and catch up. In the meantime, we would manage without them.
Also, it's possible that most of the major outfits are ready. For about the last three months, we, and everyone else who gets statements, have been barraged with assurances. Every invoice or statement we get has an extra page in it, assuring us of that organizations readiness. The paper manufacturing companies are probably very happy about this. I suspect that some of our organizations are fibbing. Some of them, I'm sure, don't have a clue as to how to find out if they have a problem. They are just hoping that there is none. In most cases, they will be lucky. As I said, the big one is the electric power utilities. I am fairly confident that they are as ready as possible. If there are power disruptions, they will be local and short lived.
Now, with all this talk about Y2K compliance, Mrs. gaffer and I decided we should take a look at our own situation. We thought, what does it matter if everyone else is ready, if we are not. Therefore we took an inventory and decided the things we needed to do.
The first thing we did was to put in a good store of Y2K compliant firewood. Mrs. Gaffer was somewhat concerned that the wood would not burn after January 1, 2000. I was able to assuage her concerns with a little experiment. One night, when no one was looking, I slipped in and set the calendar ahead to January 1, 2000. The next morning, we built a small fire and it burned just fine. Mrs. Gaffer was quite pleased.
We did not stop there. We also stocked up on Y2K compliant matches and candles. Then I went over and purchased several gallons of gasoline and kerosine. We have a small generator and some kerosine heaters. The Lady at the Marathon station assured me that the fuel would indeed work after January 1.
Mrs. Gaffer asked if we ought to put away a supply of Y2K compliant greenbacks. I deferred on that. I feel that having extra money lying around is just a good way to get killed. I referred her to the recent case in Holly Michigan where 4 people were bludgeoned to death with a hammer, simply because someone thought they had a stash of money.
Of course, we put in a goodly supply of Y2K compliant dried beans and Spam. We didn't forget about our friends, the cats and birds. Mrs. Gaffer purchased several bags of Y2K compliant bird feed and cat grits. I'm also putting in about 4 cases of Y2K compliant Heineken along with a case of Chianti. Chianti is, of course, always compliant with everything. We passed on the hard stuff. To tell you how much of that we use, we still have most of a fifth of Old Grandad that we bought 7 years ago. There is other stuff in that cabinet too, from the old days. We used to keep hard stuff in supply for our friends who used it. That is no longer necessary. All of our friends who drank hard stuff have long since died or reformed.
The most important thing we decided in getting Y2K compliant
was to make sure nothing would go to waste. Everything we acquired
and stored is stuff that we will eventually use. The truth is,
we already had most of it.
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