I've been a GI for over a year now. I've tried to get both my family friends and neighbors to take an interest in Y2K and make whatever preparations their comfortable with. I've had to drag my wife kicking and screaming into Y2K preparations because we have 4 and 6 year old sons. At one point she threatened to divorce me if I didn't give it up. Finally she just chose to ignore my preparations and write it off to being middle age crazy, I'm 42. I'm pretty well done these days and only continue to add small items here and there as I run across a good sale or something. As for my family and friends everyone has been more or less polite but quietly laughs behind my back.

Anyway, I live in the north Dallas area. My brother and sister-in-law are in the process of relocating here from Alabama. They've purchased a home about a mile away. Texas has several lotteries with the big one having a drawing every Wednesday and Saturday. My brother and I went to buy lottery tickets and fireworks this last Thursday on 7/1 and were told the lottery network was down and had been since the previous night (it's still down I think). Anyway this was the topic of conversation that evening. My wife, brother, and sister-in-law all decided that this was due to Y2K. I tried to point out that there was no evidence to support this conclusion. But for the first time everyone wanted to discuss what they could contribute. I've already planned for my brother and sister-in-law and their 3 kids. I knew they didn't believe in Y2K and wouldn't prepare. I spent the next 2 hours showing them the preparations I'd made for food storage, water purification, power generation, home defense and everything else. They wanted to know and discuss everything! Has anyone else experienced this? It was so strange to suddenly have my family take an interest and want to help. I mean I've developed a pretty thick skin and have gotten used to strange looks or smirks. Then this morning my wife talked to her mother and found our the she too was planning to stay with us because of Y2K. I didn't even think she knew what it was, even though I've to explain on several occasions.

When I first stumbled onto Y2K I felt I was in never never land and would wake up anytime. Then I got past the panic, got my preparations underway, and learned to look at my life and family with a new understanding and appreciation. Now with all this sudden support I suddenly feel I'm back in never never land!!

I just felt the need to share this with people who would understand.

Thanks for listenly,

Mitch

-- Mitch Callis (mcallis@waymark.net), July 05, 1999

Answers

thank you mr. mitch. i too plan on dropping by. please keep a candle lit.

.

-- corrine l (corrine@iwaynet.net), July 05, 1999.

Yes, the rollercoaster. Learn to adapt to the lone wolf GI prepare-anyway mentality, then suddenly the family GIs and tries to one-up and outdo your preps! LOL Happened to us last month; another never-never land but we're happy they have improved chance to survive.

Look for a possible lightening lightbulb going off in some blockheads next Fall, and the yuppie competitiveness re preps to kick in. The new GIs won't want to be left behind. After all, it's more than a fad; underlying is the possibility of life and death.

xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx xxx

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), July 05, 1999.

Mitch, I guess it takes a hit "close to home" such as the lottery failure to make some folks "get it". I know how you feel re: family laughing at your preparations. But some of them will come to your side of the fence. Maybe your mother-in-law will bring supplies with her when she moves in! Tell her to bring what SHE likes to eat.

My father is starting to maybe-sorta-kinda think about the problem now that my sister and I have openly discussed our preps for a month. One thing that started him thinking was the realization that we considered his house our "plan C". He also didn't realize just how clueless the gummint preps could be until he read Congressman Horn's latest report card. (And that one was graded as high as B-!) All of the "unknown" finish dates got to him. Now I think he is getting an inkling. Mom still thinks Y2K is a scam but she is more quiet about it.

Good luck and God bless to you and your family. Could be quite an adventure . . .

-- Margaret (janssm@aol.com), July 05, 1999.

Thanks for sharing with us Mitch.

My wife still doesn't want to really deal with Y2K.

I wonder if this is the explaation for the lack of preparations on the national and international scale.

Do people and nations not prepare because they are simply not prepared to prepare?

Also, am I the only one to notice that it seems like these days the GIs are the only ones making long posts giving extensive detail to support wat they are saying, then the DGIs always want to give realy srt abbrevaited answers. When was the last time you heard an argument from a DGI going into real detail on why we should be DGI? DGIs will perhaps refer to a study or an announcement somewhere, but the nitty gritty, it seems, is just never there.

Any DGIs out there want to prove me wrong?

-- Rick (rick7@postmark.net), July 05, 1999.

Mitch,

I think you have to develop a thick skin to stay focused on the objective to be prepared. The risk of being the butt of jokes if y2k is a bump in the road doesn't bother me in the least these days. Hell, I'm only able to plan for 6months supplies (living in a suburban area) and I feel like a pollywog compared to others here who are able to prepare for a longer term. At least having imagined the chaos that could take place has made emotionally prepared which is something I think isn't stressed enough for preparations. When my wife and ma and pa's jaws are still agape at what's happening around them, I need to be strong to help them focus on survival. Glad to see your relatives "wake up" before 1/1/00 but I can't count on that happening for me unless some traumatic news event occurs before then.

ratt

-- ratt (at@ta.tat), July 05, 1999.

thanks for the post, Mitch!

my wife didn't get it until I told her the single best line about y2k that I've ever heard, which is:

"It's not the odds, it's the stakes."

That single line has also resonated with others that I've discussed y2k with. This generation is one of the very few in recent history that hasn't tried to be "prepared" for the dangerous, the unknown and the unexpected.

Regardless of what does or doesn't happen, my thinking about my life and world has changed -- and changed for the better, I think. And, as I tell my wife, it's comforting to know that we'll never never never have to buy rice again !

-- doug (dclapp@uswest.net), July 05, 1999.

Hi Mitch,

Thanks for the post. I understand the thick skin developmental aspect of life!:> Your post is an encouragement for all of us. Keep us posted on how things are going with the new GI's! I've learned to accept all the teasing with a smile on my face! :>

-- Moore Dinty moore (not@thistime.com), July 05, 1999.

Thanks Mitch for your post. But I have one question? Why 9 times out of 10 you have one spouse that GI and the other DGI. How could some thing like y2k bring some couples close to the table of divorce. How could the GI's be put down or made fun of in there own family. That same GI is the same person you respect their thoughts on other subjects and matters in the DGI's life. But when it comes to y2k then that same GI is looked as a kook or crazy person by friends and family. What is up with this? Please ex-DGI, could you tell me why you were so hard on the GI's before you became a GI your self. What was motivating you or shall I say not motivating you? Now that you are a GI, if you had to do it all over would you do it different? Do you think that you lost a lot of time giving the GI in your family a hard time. I am glad you are a GI now. I am going to thank you for your honesty a head of time.

-- Missy2k (timeisup@Webtv.net), July 05, 1999.

Mitch - thanks for sharing your story. It gives me hope that the DGI's surrounding me will also wake up one day soon. It would be a pleasant surprise. I also am married to a DGI. One day when he was helping me pile up supplies from a recent trip to Costco (and muttering, grumbling under his breath), I said that I felt bad for him because I understood that from his position there were only two options, and the Best Case Scenario was that his wife was crazy. -vbg- [of course the worst case scenario is that I'm right].

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), July 05, 1999.

Mitch:

That is an amazing account of how showing your preparations to DGIs initiated consensus to begin similar preparations. I wish my family was on your level. At present only a real catastrophe would make them consider making preparations. A few say they will plan something at the end of the year.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), July 05, 1999.

My family just humors me about y2k. I don't pay them any attention. They know better than to say anything negative and my DH would never tell me to stop or else. If mama is happy, then everyone is happy.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), July 05, 1999.

I have a sense that there is a kind of latency period to GI. For some it is short, and for others long... but the changes in mentality are going on underneath. As trigger events happen, and they may be of many kinds including 'normal' blackouts, storms, political stuff, tech events and so forth, some of those latent GIs will become fullblown GIs. The panic, if it happens as many have made a good case it will, will be a result of a whole lot of folks going from latency to GI at once. Every small disruption gives us a chance to help some folks with preps before the mass demand happens. Glad to hear your family is on board, take care of yourselves.

-- seraphima (seraphima@aol.com), July 05, 1999.