I remember very clearly the day that I began to recognize the risks and stakes of Y2K. It was an intense existential moment; I had a thousand and one questions and the answers were hiding somewhere out there on the web... in a thousand and one hiding places. Did I have time to figure out a course of action?! I flung myself, my mind wholeheartedly at the daunting task of learning about something I had never imagined before. And, yes, there were very real tears: everything I had done up to then had seemed in vain; an illusion was shattered. 9 months after GIing, I think me and mine have a chance in the event that Y2K risks become real catastrophes. Maybe, others too.

Looking back, what lessons have you learned? How do you feel?

If you are just getting started on your preps or understanding the risks and stakes, do you feel like there's no chance for you and yours?

Sincerely,
Stan Faryna

Got 14 days of preps? If not, get started now. Click here.

Click here and check out the TB2000 preparation forum.

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), October 28, 1999

Answers

I think if I could start over again, I would change the approach I used with my family. My wife and daughter are DWGIs. And they have resisted my preparing. Actually, they usually mock what I'm doing. Maybe if I had eased into it with them, they would have reacted differently. It was so obvious to me that we needed to become more self sufficient, I assumed they would get it too. Wrong! It's been a struggle. I feel like I need to sneak stuff into the basement. Oh well. Such is life. It's time to quit whining and finish my preps.

-- (rcarver@inacom.com), October 28, 1999.

16 mo ago first heard about y2k. Said to myself, "where am I most vulnerable?" Decided it was meds and began to phone and question. The answers I recieved from the y2k rep from one pharmacuitical company (befor the lawyer thing was set in stone) boiled down to "off shore providers of raw materials cannot guarentee delivery---we are deciding amounts to stockpile, maybe a month or so---we have no control over the supply line to your pharmacy. This is when I GOTIT for Just In Time production and y2k. Every supplier of my needs fits to one degree on another, the same pattern. I am isolated in my preps and hear from the few that know, that they "know where to come if---" I tell them not to make me their back up plan--weak responce I know.

-- John Q (soveryquietly@home.com), October 28, 1999.

Nobody has truely "got it" due to the fact no one truely knows how bad "it" will be. I am ok with what I have done to prepare (I am way past 14 days), but should the effects last 10+ years... If getting it meant I felt there would be a strong chance of a nuclear disaster, then no I am not ready for that. I have covered the basics; water, food, heat, light, medical supplies and self defense, but we are not ready for radiation fallout, chemical disasters, etc... I am comfortable with my level of preparation based on what I think might happen, but Milne might say we are toast based on what he thinks will happen. "Getting it" for Y2K is a very subjective, individual process. Good luck everyone and thanks for your posts Stan.

-- Bill (y2khippo@yahoo.com), October 28, 1999.

I "got it" in April of 1998, & started preps immediately, feeling a sense of great urgency. I assumed that by now (Oct 99) everyone would be frantically scrambling for supplies & it would be impossible to purchase anything. It amazes me that it's still possible to buy almost anything you want from local stores. Everything seems so normal, everyone seems so oblivious. It's unreal.

-- so (wheres@the.panic), October 28, 1999.

Alot recently I have wondered if I have gone completely bats---alll this prep while the world keeps on keeping on---I come back to this site and check my perceptions, I read the senate reports and settle back down--but it is difficult to not feel duped at times--not by anyone else, but by some lack of research or perception on my part.

-- John Q (quietly@home.com), October 28, 1999.

The first GN newsletter detailing the problem hit me like a bucket of ice-cold water. Lessons learned? First, I feel far more comfortable knowing that I have a significant if not all-encompassing bedrock of preps. Secondly, it is good to know that there are others with similar concerns. Third, PREPARED Pollies have their place...maybe they think Y2K will be a BITR, but if they have their own plans to survive tough times they are a useful reality check. Fifth would be misc. common sense things- allocate $$$, discretion with who (whom?) you confide, self-responsibility. Sixth, soul-searching...if TSHTF, who do I feed? At what cost? Seventh, again in the soul-searching department...in my heart do I secretly WANT to see others suffer so I can be self-righteous?

-- Mr. Mike (mikeabn@aol.com), October 28, 1999.

It took me a full three months to really let the hopelessness of Y2K sink in, from the time that I first became aware of the magnitude of the problem to the time that I committed to personally preparing. There was no specific day as such, just a lot of thinking about it and weighing the of facts.

64 days.

Y2K CANNOT BE FIXED!

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.~net), October 28, 1999.

I Got It in April or May of 1998, thanks to Gary North. I was already concerned, but his analysis solidified my fears and explained to me exactly WHY I was justified in my concerns. I had a little trouble convincing my husband, but he definitely Gets It now and has helped me prepare. (Those of you with uncooperative spouses have my sympathy.) We tried to convince friends and relatives, with very few successes. We've made some mistakes, but basically have prepped for a three-month breakdown. If it gets worse than that... I finally decided that if all of my friends and family are dead, I'd just as soon join them. Now, as the big day approaches, I'm having a harder and harder time believing anything horrible really will happen. I guess this is my way of dealing with the Approaching Unknown. (I am, however, keeping my preps and adding to them!) What will I be doing this time next year?

-- Pearlie Sweetcake (storestuff@home.now), October 28, 1999.

I heard Gary North in January of 98 at about 2:00 a.m. I layed there not believing my ears. I had been around computers since 1968 and realized immediately what he was talking about. I researched and devoured everything I could on the subject. I started preparing and thought same thing as "so," that something would have happened by now, such as runs on stored and banks. We still have a couple of months for that to happen because people are procrastinators in nature. My feelings right now are, it doesn't matter whether your a polly or a doomer because it's too late for many to prepare on a scale that many of us have. I'm ready no matter which way it goes, and if it goes bad there's going to be many who will suffer.

-- bardou (bardou@baloney.com), October 28, 1999.

rcarver,

I have given a lot of thought to how I have talked about the merits of self-reliance and the prudence of preparing for Y2K. I have tried many different approaches over the months; I tried to meet people where they are at. Looking back to my first attempts to communicate my concerns, I see clearly that my "commands" to people to prep were all poorly received: emphasizing preps in the same way one would emphasize stopping a car before another car plows into you... was ineffective. On the other hand, overwhelming people with data points and facts and highlighting personal vulnerabilities, dependencies, and erroneous assumptions was too much for most people to deal with in their minds. A fatalistic response typically followed such unfortunate attempts. Critical thinking is a lot to ask of people-- especially if it is about something frightening.

Bill,

Who knows what kind of preps are adequate in light of uncertain risks. People can only make the best of what they can do to prepare. For some, that may only be a few days (especially those who start to worry in December). There seems to be no adequate consolation to express to them. Even 14 days seems meager compared to those prepped for months. And preps for 3 months also may seem inadequate compared to the kind of premium insurance plan that will get you to the fall harvest of 2000. Then, there are the places like Dragon Ranch. Wow! Wouldn't it be nice if we could all afford such luxurious insurance?! Of course, prepping is not just about money. And I think that money shouldn't be the deciding factor in feeling good about your Y2K preps or evaluating your chances of meeting whatever challenges come at you in the next year.

So,

I'll admit to getting feelings of surreality. It is a beautiful day, today. The sky is blue. The sun is shining brightly. No contrails to be seen by me (grin) and the squirrels are gathering fallen chesnuts in a neighbor's yard (down the street). I took one of my puppies for a walk and the fresh air did me good. In front of me now, there's work to do: mostly proposals to write and contracts to study (proposals and contracts for work to begin or continue into next year too). All the while, I'm feeling a little (grin) anxious about how to get my preps done and organized before December 1. I want to be at Hechingers and pick up some more things at store-closing discount prices: a few more mouse and rat traps, pest sprays, plywood, and a whole lot more. The fact is that I can't afford another trip to Hechinger's this week.

John Q,

Yes, the days have become somewhat eerie (ms?). I'm reminded of death, where the world has stopped for those who have lost a loved one but the world goes on around them as if nothing has happened. Y2K has made the world stop for me and the world keeps on keeping on. And though it is not particularly comforting to be stopped when the world keeps on turning, I try to make the best of this opportunity to re-collect myself, discover myself more fully, and attempt to be me more truly. We don't need the shit to hit the fan to make changes in our life and in the way we do things. We don't need world stopping disasters to be changed for the better. That's one of the lessons that I have learned from Y2K. And it one of the things I'd like to share with my new found friends that deeply yearn for positive change and imagine the worst will bring it.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), October 28, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California
Here's a snip from a piece I wrote a couple weeks ago about when I first got it: I GId in January, a few moments after starting to read The Utne Reader Y2K Citizens Action Guide. It came like the panic that happens in a horror show when the violin music screeches and the thing jumps out of a shadow. But then the panic doesnt go away. I hardly slept during the week that followed.
Since that time I have learned that:
- There are people in my country with a serious following who are working to bring about a government whose first act would probably be to have people like me stoned
- Pencils are hard to make (somebody link to "I, Pencil" please)
- There are plans for martial law
- The media will not warn us of a date certain catastrophe
- People are dreadfully afraid of being wrong (October 28th)
- Ed Yourdon should run for the white house with Jesse "The Brain" Ventura
- Without a vacuum cleaner, carpeting would really suck
- In times of calamity, lots of people are real jerks
- People are so much more gullible than I realized
- Granulated Superchlorinator is some powerful stuff
- I use a lot of water!
- hundreds of millions of people can view a chemtrail without pause
- Mason Jars rule!
How do I feel now? More than anything else, like a patsy.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), October 28, 1999.

Stan, You have just been wonderful here and on the preps forum. Thanks.

I was freaked when I GIed. I'm not so freaked now because you can't stay at that level for too long. On 1/1, we'll have food and water-- enough for a few months. What then? If there's food and water available at that time, will we have money to buy it? Think we ought to get fishing poles this week. I saw a book on saltwater fly fishing...

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), October 28, 1999.

I GI'd just this past August. Sure, I'd heard about Y2K, but thought it was a nuisance. This past December, my brother and mom had discussed it and even had started setting aside a little food, but I laughed at the idea. I thought it was a minor issue and the Bill Gates would sell a fix for it soon...

This past August though, I'd heard the I.S. guy for my department tell another person that Windows 95 & 98 weren't compliant. THEN I PAID ATTENTION, because I've got a family business that depends on two home PCs. I started spending lunches doing research on the web (quickly found out that CNN was useless!) and the more I read (especially the Senate's Y2K Committee reports) the more concerned I became.

I now have "a fire under my duff" to make sure that my family and I have at least 2 weeks preps (hopefully much, much more than that) and I've tried spreading the word to the rest of my family (not much luck :-( ) and some of my friends. When I go to some of the chat rooms, I become frustrated with the Pollies - it's so difficult to explain to them that somethings I've observed about others and their reactions ISN'T in print, a look or a certain action tells you what others might be thinking. Pollies don't seem to "get it" that human nature (people doing their best, but still liable to make mistakes) is what the whole issue is about! Sure, so many billions have been spent on the fixes, sure there are a lot of high-ranking officials giving assurances that everything will be ok, but the truth is NO ONE KNOWS WHAT WILL REALLY HAPPEN, all there is are guesses. Perhaps there will only be small, insignificant errors, but we won't know for sure until it has already happened.

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), October 28, 1999.

First I'd like to define "it".

Massive disruptions to our way of life in North America, a financial disaster and a return of the luddites.

By the summer of 1997, I had spent three years part time and two years full time proving the problem existed and trying to get customers to fund fixing it. Met with most of the CIOs in the federal government, briefed 4 star generals. I had just finished a 5 month assignment with our most advanced customer (fortune 500 aerospace company). I was pretty depressed with their unwillingness to fund fixing things they KNEW would break and break their businesses. Was sent to Wall Street to discuss lessons learned with one of the biggest banks in the world. They were moving out full steam ahead (I think they are going to survive). Got off the elevator on the wrong floor. Risk Management floor. Big sign looks me in the face. "Y2K the Number One Priority!"

I thought these guys understood, they were expending vast resources, dpwnsizing businesses that wouldn't make it, were barely going to make it. It's their #1 priority. We can't get anyone to put the money into fixing things. Large numbers of IT projects fail anyway. We aren't going to make it.

Decided to figure out what I wanted to do with my retirement money, how to protect my family, what to do about employment, how to watch constantly for the changing nature of reality to to react rapidly.

Spent the next year studying economics (geek by training never took it in college), disaster preparations, complexity theory, embeddded systems, investments, etc. Spent the last two year working with another country. Feel more successful there.

-- ng (cantprovideemial@none.com), October 28, 1999.

Stan, do you think deathbed conversions will count?

-- Spidey (in@jam.StanLee), October 28, 1999.

I first "got it" when my wife and I went to Indiana to see some Amish communities there. I brought along a copy of Wired magazine to read while relaxing. Some relaxing. I haven't been the same since reading it.(I don't recall which issue, but it had lots of Y2K articles with web links) I think one was titled "head for the hills...Y2K is coming" Anyone know which issue that wouldv'e been? I always took it as some kind of omen that I discovered this issue of how dependent we are on technology on a trip where we went to see how people live without these things...

I didn't sleep good back then. Since then I've got a new Vermont Castings fireplace insert, lots of wood, storage for 400 gallons of H2O, medical supplies, close to a year's worth of food, lots of hand tools for gardening, seeds, and a few nice "pieces", etc.

Now I sleep well but my relatives will make it tough to live down if its a fizzler.

-- EyesOn (eyesontheroad@dontgotosleepyet.com), October 28, 1999.

I was working in Silicon Valley spring of 1998 and saw an internal notice of a Y2K project office being set up to provide software/ hardware updates for installed base customers. A month or so later I saw Ed's book in a store, purchased it and stayed up all night reading. From there, I found Gary North's site and read everything there. Most of my friends, family and the man who was in my life thought I had gone around the bend. Some still do.

After not seeing the news get better and finding other sites to balance Scarey Gary's rhetoric, I decided I needed to prepare for more than a minor inconvenience. Coincidentally, I had also let my company know that I wanted a leave of absence bridging to retirement.

Net, net I started haunting hiking/camping stores, using my Safeway loyalty card for specials, and developing a fondness for catalogs like Plow and Hearth. I also stocked up on books to help me manage vegetable gardens, fruit trees and berries. I made a choice to leverage myself out there financially to play some .com stocks for a few months to make some extra cash. I also took on some consulting work. I have since pulled back big time in terms of conservatism on investments.

Now, I wait along with you all doing last minute stuff. What is clear here is that I have morphed into another way of life. Y2K has been a catalyst for preparation as a way of life on a far simpler scale. I am in the 4-6 level of problems group and hope I am right.

Keep those good ideas coming!

-- Nancy (wellsnl@hotmail.com), October 28, 1999.

EyesOn,

Was it the Wired w/ the all-black cover from this year, or the one from Spring 1997? I GI'd "intellectually" about 5 minutes after picking up the latter of these. But I vividly remember first looking at the image of the guy sitting on his couch surrounded by bleach bottles and bags of dog food, and thinking--he's lost it.

Actually, I have Gary N. to thank for driving the point home real hard (took about two wks of non-stop research, and then the inevitability of massive, disruptive change hit me "emotionally" on a Saturday morning as I was loading the washing machine. How glamorous.). I was a Kubler- Ross 5-stages-of-loss special for quite awhile.

I feel for all the unprepared folks who won't have the luxury of having chewed this over at their leisure, while hot showers and takeout were available to ease the learing curve. I figure, if it's a 10 at least I won't be in shock. People who will be in shock will also be totally helpless.

In my best-of-all-y2ks fantasy, I get to spend the winter knitting, walking the dogs, and cooking on my new dutch oven. Maybe we should start a 'y2k happy fantasy' thread.

I really value the contributions to this forum. It's the strangest community i've ever belonged to, and it it's great.

-- silver ion (ag3@interlog.com), October 28, 1999.

Silver Ion,

I remember seeing the black on black Wired cover later on, so it must have been the '97 issue that first opened my eyes. I also remember much of the article was interviewing Scott Olmstead. I figured if the programmers are scared, maybe the rest of us should pay attention. I ran out and bought about 6 copies of that issue and passed 'em out to friends and relatives. Funny thing happened. About half got scared, the other half yawned. The relatives that didn't get it then are still a source of constant stress for me, 'cause I know who'll come knockin on my door if things get crappy. And, I know there's no way I can provide for all of 'em. Geez, I just keep thinkin' about their kids, but I've taken so much abuse from them on my beliefs, I cannot bring myself to bring it up to them again. They get downright hostile! I have not been able to get 'em to do a damn thing, even after I have shown them STACKS of articles I've printed from the net. Our local paper, The Chicago Tribune, keeps telling people its all fixed. Nothing to worry about, so I look like the wacko.

Good luck! See you on the other side!

-- EyesOn (eyesontheroad@dontgotosleepyet.com), October 28, 1999.

Late February 1998, I was casually doing Y2K company investment research on the web and I came upon Gary North's site. Immediately I GI'ed, being a former programmer/analyst, and my life changed forever. I read the ensuing documentation for hours afterward and have devoured Y2K info. from every source imaginable ever since. This is one topic where the more I read, the more convinced I am of my original fears. Normally the more I read on a volatile topic, the less alarmed I get.

The original fears of the systemic nature and general late start in remediation are being validated daily now.

What amazes me is the amount of people that are just clueless with 64 days to go! This problem is SOOOOO BIG that most can't fathom it. They don't know what the problem really is. It's easier to deny it. Also even when people do GI they are swayed by the avalanche of PR like the 99.9% of banks have earned a satisfactory rating or we're 99% ready. That's good enough to satisfy most, but satisfactory is not done. They never complete the economic loop because it doesn't matter if all the banks are complain if the customers that they've loaned money to aren't. Never does this get even mentioned. Great the electric company is READY, but what about the post office to deliver the bill payments. Does everyone make a trip to the post office to bill pay? Ditto this situation for every other industry. Industry assurances have always been PR lies to me. No industry operates in a vacuum.

-- PJC (paulchri@msn.com), October 28, 1999.

Don't you think us GI's just keep getting it a little more every week or every month ---- just a little more all the time. [terrible sentence structure] For example, those who live in large cites have a huge chance of having to deal with rampent disease, maybe even plague, because of the potential problems with sewage and contaminated water. Plague,--- disease----- now who am I ever going to deal with that, even if you don't live in one of the large cities of the world.

-- thinkIcan (thinkIcan@make.it), October 28, 1999.

I was working as a Research and Development scientist for the Fed when a fellow programmer mentioned it. I laughed, then this young fellow with a masters from William and Mary explained to me why he was worried. Now he was probably as good a 'C' programmer as Ritchie, Kernigan, or Aho (and I have read code from all of them). I got it and promptly decided that the scope of "it" was more than I could plan for. I have been waiting for "it" for three years now. It won't be what we expect. It is not going to happen in 60 some days. It is going to take nine months to mature into the full blown thing that "it" will become. You have to go to work and deal with "it" till you deem it "the best time to go to the ground" at that point, and only then will you truly get "it".

-- (...@.......), October 28, 1999.

This thread has a lot of quality. Thank you, all. I have yet to read all the responses and make replies, but from my glance-over, I am reminded of previous months when I would read the threads twice. Lately, it seems we all don't have much time to communicate our minds and hearts to each other. Anyway, we might make some effort and not just for ourselves. It was this kind of good stuff that kept me going when I GIed. I think the newbies could prolly benefit from the same.

Sincerely, Stan Faryna

-- Stan Faryna (faryna@groupmail.com), October 29, 1999.