Assignments will be due...

I looked over the NERC report for a general overview of the nations electric utility readiness. I also went to my local electricity provider's website, (Duke Power), for closer to home info. I also checked on natural gas locally, (Piedmont Natural Gas). I use electricity and natural gas all the time so naturally I want to know if they're going to be okay. (Alright, I'll tell the truth since that's what I want from them; What I really want is to know if I'M going to be okay... I don't really care about them. There! I said it. The dirty truth is out.) ;-)

When I looked past the lawer language and the PR smiley stuff in the reports and on the web I saw something that reminded me of my schoolboy days; homework. Lots and lots of homework.

Back in the day when I got a piles of homework from a bunch of different classes I'd do the easy stuff first. I'd feel like it was mostly done in very short order. Of course I was just kidding myself because the monster assignment from hell was waiting for me at the bottom of the pile.

Well, the utility industries are doing the same thing. They've fixed the billing systems, they've repaired personnel management systems, they've got the fax machines and copiers checked off the to do list, and the payroll program has been thoroughly gone over. Let's see...that leaves.... the monster assignment from hell. (we were quietly hoping it would go away.)

In my recollections of my past I even spotted my own personal PR department running on automatic; If my parents were to ask me, "How's the homework coming?", I could honestly answer; "I've got most of it done." I'd done maybe six out of seven assignments and I've only got one left! Of course I didn't promote the fact that the one left was a real doozie!

I think the lawyer speak I see today might parallel my own musings about what excuse might get me off the hook. "I got sick." A note from the doctor helped a lot with this one. "I forgot my books at school?" Nahh... I gotta do better than that. Sometimes I would think about this sort of thing in between moments of actually doing my assignment.

The trouble with long term assignments, those where you were given half a year or more to finish them, is it was nearly impossible to come up with a good excuse for not getting it right! Damn! The lawyer side of me would go into high gear as the deadline drew nigh.... What might work here? Let's see...

We'll blame it on the other utilities... Yeah, that's it... We couldn't perform because we couldn't communicate since the phones were down..... (But what if the phones do work? Better do more of my assignment..., but I'll hafta remember that one.)

We'll blame it on our suppliers.... Yeah, that might work... (But what if the suppliers can function after the big day? Better work on my own assignment...)

"It's just too hard" I seem to recall that thought bouncing around in my head on really tough assignments. Did you ever call one of your classmates to see how they were doing on the project? Did you ever secretly hope that on the due day no-one in class would be prepared so you wouldn't look so bad?

With this y2k thing I get the feeling it's going to be like those classes with monster assignments. Some will make it with flying colors, some will do so-so, some will fail.

It would be nice to wind this analogy up with a general feeling of everything working out okay and most all of us graduating into the next century, having passed Digital Technology 101, (with maybe a few of us doing a little summer school). But, there's another aspect to the analogy that could apply; let me relate a little about one other class I took;

A few years ago I took a class at a community college in a subject I wanted to learn something about. When exam time came I think two of us got passing grades. What a shocker!

What if it goes this way for electricity? What if the vast majority of them fail?

I think the analogy breaks down here because in this instance fail does not mean: "do not go on to the next level", it means: "stop working".

Failing in school may induce emotional devastation, but not heart attack. Those of us who really understand this will have much greater reason to celebrate graduating into the next century without catastrophic failure than those who simply like the number 2000 and the term "Millenium" or the phrase "a new century" as a cool reason to have the biggest party ever.

I know there will be many people holding their breath for prolonged moments as the clock ticks over into "graduation day". I'll be one of them, anxiously waiting to see if we made it.

-- Anonymous, January 24, 1999