It is 0900 on New Year's Day in my time zone, and so far, nothing major seems to have fallen apart. At this time, the news seems almost entirely good, and for this I, along with almost everyone else, am grateful. God is indeed merciful.

I am also grateful to the participants on this forum who shared information and experiences. You have undoubtedly saved many of us from unwise purchases, and sometimes dangerous procedures.

Now that the initial rollover is past and nothing catastrophic has happened, what becomes of your preps? Some of us will probably stop going to the grocery, and eat everything except the K1. I hope others will consider a permanent change of lifestyle, from one of ease, to one of preparedness and simplicity.

I do not suggest that we move to the wilderness and cut ourselves off from society and electricity. Rather, this whole experience of prepping for possible breakdowns in service has made me more aware of the complex interdependency of persons and communities. And while I want to participate in society, I don't want to be dependent on it for my survival.

This last summer, I lost my job. Because we had paid off debts, and had provisions set aside, it was a minor change in routine, but hardly a crisis. If we had made no preps, taken no steps to reduce indebtedness, it would have been much more stressful.

So I intend to continue to live as a prepared person. We have already shared food with some others. There will always be folks around who, through no fault of their own, are in need.

So I feel foolish for putting effort into preps? No more than for saving money, or buying insurance, or fastening my seat belt, or putting a ground fault interrupter in the bathroom (when was the last time a member of your family was electrocuted? but I put it in anyway.)

Will my family laugh? Maybe, a little. We laugh at everything. But they know that we care enough about them to inconvenience ourselves and change the way we live and spend money in order to provide for them. Foolish? When I see other families where the members hate each other, hey, I wouldn't do anything different.

blessings and best wishes for the coming year(s),

gene

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), January 01, 2000

Answers

Gene, well into my Y2K awareness, I developed diabetes. Now I know what it's like to depend on a medication and how fragile the pharmacy supply chain is.

I've been ill a couple of times in the last year, enough that I couldn't go shopping. I went into my supplies and pulled out all sorts of groceries to make a good meal. (We didn't buy anything we don't normally eat--pretty easy for vegetarians.) And I could add fresh tomatoes, lettuce and strawberries from my garden. It was bliss not to have to rely on Sweetie's absent-minded shopping or drag myself to teh supermarket!

When the power went out briefly due to Floyd, we were very comfortable. We shall be even more comfortable for any ice storm this winter because we now have some solar to run the water bed heaters and a few other things. (Oh I remember being SO cold as a child, and developing chillblains every winter--look up the term on the web, it's not pleasant! Sometimes my poor nose got so cold and cracked from colds--well, best not to think about it.) Being "Y2K prepared" is freedom from a lot of worries, even if we have no Y2K problems.

You've bean a good friend to us all, Gene, and I for one appreciate your many contributions, both on the forums and in chat--and your sense of humor is lovely!

PS--yes, I know I misspelled "been" but thought I'd leave it--it's such a delightful Freudian slip.

-- Old Git (anon@spamproblems.com), January 01, 2000.

Chillblains were a part of life in England. I even had to put the alarm clock under the pillow to keep it from freezing. We went short of many things during the war. I didn't want that to happen to my family, so I prepared. If my preps are not needed now it will save me going shopping. I hate shopping, so that is a wonderful bonus.

-- Kath (wingy@sprint.ca), January 01, 2000.

Isn't it wonderful?!

I really agree with the sentiments here - and am so thankful for the shared information and good wishes enjoyed here. It feels really good to have plenty of preps for whatever hard times may hit - here in earthquake and flood country (northern Calif., top of the central valley). Just a couple of years ago my neighbor (we lived elsewhere at the time) had an extra 15+ people at their house due to mandatory evacuations (flood) in the nearby areas - she said she ran out of tp and other stuff. Now she stays prepared.

When I look at my 3 y.o. son I can smile because I know that in addition to the ordinary (?!) daily care, we should be able to feed him and keep him warm in a crisis. Unexpectedly my hubby and I both had severe job instability this last year and into this and when we started to stress I just thought about our preps and knew we would be ok. So...... HAPPY NEW YEAR!

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), January 01, 2000.

I, for one, will try to continue to be prepared for natural disaster (they happen, if at irregular intervals) and pursue my new amateur radio hobby. Debts are slightly down (VERY good thing), and we can better assist neighbors who are in need. The chickens are fun...my wife is enjoying them! The preparations will also enable me to pursue some hobbies that I might not otherwise be able to enjoy...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), January 02, 2000.