Mom was at the Opthamologist's office today. His clientele are primarily senior citizens. We are talking a Colorado town of approx. 100k.

She explained why she wanted her surgeries completed no later than mid 1999...thinks Y2K will cause major disruptions of infrastructure and wants her eyesight fixed long before the chaos begins. The Dr. said that most of his patients have been commenting on y2k as well, and her assessment was the mildest of all. Most of these folks were telling the doctor they thought y2k was going to be an economic and social ARMAGEDDON (Dr's words).

-- Goldi (goldilucks@yahoo.com), December 08, 1998

Answers

Goldi: Thanks for the post. Many of us have been waiting to see some signs such as these as the general trend of growing awareness steadily increases. The largest lobby group in the U.S. is the American Association of Retired People (AARP) and once they begin turning from Don't get its, Forget its, and Don't wanna get its into Get its then things will get interesting very quickly.

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), December 08, 1998.

Awakening here too.... I spearhead an 11-county Y2K task force that's a part of our state's Dept of Emergency Services. At a meeting in a small town last Sunday evening, one of the retired attendees handed me a copy of a small local publication called the "Senior Review". It resembles a small town newspaper. The headline story:   The Year 2000 And YOU!!"   "A friend and I were discussing the Year 2000 Problem (y2k) and the effects it may have on people, regardless of whether or not we own a personal computer....   As we talked about this and other potential problems, it became clear that we should all take some precautions..."   ... whereupon the author listed a series of very simple steps for seniors and the elderly, especially those living alone. Simple .. do-able .. effective .. and affordable for seniors on a fixed income.   Perhaps some of the younger "pups" can take a lesson or three from these seasoned citizens? ... (I can dream .. can't I?)...

Dan

-- Dan (DanTCC@Yahoo.com), December 09, 1998.

Awakening here too.... I spearhead an 11-county Y2K task force that's a part of our state's Dept of Emergency Services. At a meeting in a small town last Sunday evening, one of the retired attendees handed me a copy of a small local publication called the "Senior Review". It resembles a small town newspaper. The headline story:   The Year 2000 And YOU!!" by Charlene Oftedahl, Director, Office on Aging   "A friend and I were discussing the Year 2000 Problem (y2k) and the effects it may have on people, regardless of whether or not we own a personal computer....   As we talked about this and other potential problems, it became clear that we should all take some precautions..."   ... whereupon the author listed a series of very simple steps for seniors and the elderly, especially those living alone. Simple .. do-able .. effective .. and affordable for seniors on a fixed income.   Perhaps some of the younger "pups" can take a lesson or three from these seasoned citizens? ... (I can dream .. can't I?)...

Dan

-- Dan (DanTCC@Yahoo.com), December 09, 1998.

.. sorry for duplicate post gang .. a 'net glitch caused the browser to fail and it didn't appear the first time.. when I rechecked .. it was there twice ...

.. oh well.. :)

-- Dan (DanTCC@Yahoo.com), December 09, 1998.

I sure hope the elderly start to get it.

I had one patient who is a 'retirement consultant'. I asked her what she told her clientele to do to prepare for 2000.

'What do you mean?' she responded.

'Well, about the confusion that may come from computers that don't work' I replied, then continued to explain that computers are pervasive in our society and that no one knows what will fail and what will work. She said that she was sure that everything would be fine, that They would fix it. I said that They were trying but that it has come down to too much to do with too little time. I remarked that I plan to have extra food for my family and an alternate heat source. She became somewhat irate and requested that I change the subject, which I did. She must have continued to think about it, though, because a few days later, she called my supervisor and complained vigorously about me getting her so upset that she couldn't sleep. A more determined DWGI than I've met before or since! I take it that she is not advising clientele to hold off on retirement in case TSHTF. Oh, well win some, lose some (and buy more rice). sigh

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), December 09, 1998.

Tricia, good lord! This woman actually complained about you telling her the truth? She needs to have a superior tell her in so many words to put one hand on each ear and then pull vigorously, to remove her head from her rear orifice.

Actually the gracious thing to do is have pity on her, which I am sure you do.

-- (mass@delusions.com), December 09, 1998.

Tricia, after thinking more about this, may I suggest you tell this woman she needs to grow up and take some responsibility for herself and her life and stop trying to point fingers when she doesn't like what she feels. That is the problem with so much of what is going wrong with life in this world today. No one wants to take responsibility for anything.

-- (mass@delusions.com), December 09, 1998.

Please recall, many of the elderly, usually little old ladies, were brought up believing and experiencing that others would fix it for them. Especially "them" in years gone by. Back then, "they" usually did fix it. But this is now. Some of the elderly don't get it because it was how they were brought up. With time and help and patience they can be helped to see how they personnaly are impacted by Y2K. The rest of us need to be ready to help the elders around us.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 09, 1998.

How "old" are we talking about here? Senior citizen, is that me? (64ish)

At a recent public Y2K meeting here in Tucson, two of the best questions asked (IMHO) were by 70+ people. One was a woman and her poignant question had to do with food and the transportation issues (viz., trucks delivering food to the grocery stores. The other (a man)(how nice the genders were represented) senior citizen kept pressing the power company rep for answers. His answers never came.

Both very spunky, aware seniors. But I do agree, until groups like AARP get it and get involved most seniors will be in serious trouble come Y2K time.

-- Joe (jba@there.com), December 09, 1998.

I would like to know if there are any y2k community meetings going on in and around Sun City West, Arizona. These are senior citizens who need to be informed through others. Thank you.

-- Bingo (bingoti@yahoo.com), December 09, 1998.

Bingo: One place to check would be the Cassandra site. The URL is http://www.millennia-bcs.com. On the site there is a link in the index for Community Info that has community preparedness groups.

Cassandra Project

-- Rob Michaels (sonofdust@net.com), December 09, 1998.

Not to worry, friends, we seniors ARE becoming more and more aware--and even preparing, along with praying! Last October AARP's monthly newsletter had a front-page article re Y2K. I had Emailed Modern Maturity and was informed, via return Email, the magazine has contracted for a Y2K article early next year. In October, also, I gave a Y2K preparedness talk to some 60 seniors at this city/county's AARP Chapter. Next March, I will be part of a 4-person panel for a Y2K preparedness presentation, 2 separate, 2-hour sessions on a Saturday at a large Bible and Book store in this city. (The owner asked me to coordinate this, and Pastor Chris has consented to be part of the panel!) I'm hoping to get someone from the Red Cross, and the County Emergency Management Administration. In addition, I'm going to look into doing a presentation at one of our libraries next summer. I find no great joy in doing all this, but I couldn't live with my conscience if I didn't try to do what I can. A number of posters on these threads seem to be doing similar things. How about you? Granny Holly

-- Holly Allen (Holly3325@juno.com), December 09, 1998.