Jim Seymour, tech columnist on TheStreet.com, has stated at length that he doesn't think that there will be any serious market disruptions due to Y2K.

However:

On other Y2K preparations:

The list is not long, nor, I think, alarmist or disruptive.

My family has socked away a modest quantity of dry food, which doesn't require heating or refrigeration, plus a cache of bottled water.

We bought extra supplies of the short list of drugs upon which we rely. We checked our first-aid kits and restocked -- overstocked, probably -- critical supplies for do-it-yourself medicine.

We have bigger-than-usual stacks of books we've been wanting to read. We got a few extra board games and puzzles.

We stocked up on extra batteries, a few more flashlights and a wind-up radio -- a great idea anyway in areas like ours, which suffer frequent brief power outages in the best of times.

We decided we already had plenty of blankets and warm clothes in the event of a power outage.

We laid in a supply of heavy-duty trash bags, in which we can stuff and maybe store trash for an extended period, as well as any food that goes off in the refrigerator or freezer if we're without power for long.

We bought an ugly, but functional, camping potty.

Our faithful, old two-burner Coleman camping stove is ready, in case there's no power and our craving for a hot cuppa becomes overwhelming.

We don't expect serious civil disturbances in our area, and we haven't picked up assault rifles or bazookas or laid in extra supplies of ammunition, though we're probably pretty well prepared for problems of that sort anyway, Y2K or no.

We spoke with the police and fire chiefs in our small, semirural area, so we're plugged into their emergency plans. We've talked with almost all our neighbors about ways we can help one another if there are interruptions and shortages.

I made doubly sure I have trade-by-phone backup arrangements in place with the brokers I usually use online, in case my PCs, Web connections and ordinary phone lines are out, and I have my usual, several extra charged-up cell-phone batteries. (Of course, if things go haywire, I'm going to have higher priorities than getting some trades done.)

We've gotten all the paper printouts of our bank and securities accounts we can dredge up. (A couple of days before the end of the year, I'll download another, last-minute round of that paperwork to make sure it's current as of Dec. 31.)

We have our usual modest cash stash locked up, though to tell the truth, I don't think a handful of currency is going to be all that helpful if things do go blooey.

We're keeping our cars' gas tanks closer to full than usual these days and will fill up again as close to the end of the year as practical. We've also got enough antifreeze in their radiators to see us through an Ice Age. (I do suspect to see a lot of last-minute shortages, including service stations with no gas or antifreeze to sell.)

That's about it for us. And truth to tell, that's stuff we should have done anyway, should have on hand anyway, whether we're facing a millennium or a locked-in ice storm (this week's big threat in our area) or a hurricane. It didn't cost much in dollars or effort, and we've all agreed that whether we touch any of that stuff or not on Jan. 1, Jan. 2 or Jan. 3, it feels good to have it around.

And to have gone through this exercise together.

Our 8-year-old has been an integral part of our Y2K-readiness planning, and we've been immensely proud of how seriously he's taken it, and how the process has drawn out of him a maturity and a sense of responsibility we didn't know he'd developed.

Now: On to Christmas! The heck with this Why Too Que? stuff!

Quick poll: how many of y'all think that Mr. Seymour is a "doomsayer"?

I ask because this list seems very prudent to me, yet it (nor anything like it) has not been a major part of the communications campaign from TPTB. I would be willing to bet that Mr. Seymour gets a whole mess of e-mail telling him that he's a nutter, simply because that's been a fairly strong theme in most major media sources: "Preparations equals crazy, alarmist doomer."

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), December 21, 1999

Answers

veeeerrrrrryyyy interesting...

I think he's being very prudent :-)

Mike

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-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), December 21, 1999.

Didnt he used to blow-off Y2k as mostly hype ?

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), December 21, 1999.

What does Jim Cramer say? WRONG!

-- (streetmeat@heat.treat), December 21, 1999.

hamster -

Actually, Jim Seymour was on record late last year as saying that Y2K could be a very nasty problem. He was one of the few writers in the "PC press" (PC Magazine, PC Week, PC you-name-it) who WASN'T saying "it's all a bunch of hype."

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), December 21, 1999.

From: Y2K, ` la Carte by Dancr (pic), near Monterey, California

how many of y'all think that Mr. Seymour is a "doomsayer"?

I wouldn't call him a doomsayer, but as to whether he's a doomer or not, I guess that would depend on how much food he means by a 'modest' supply.

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), December 21, 1999.