December 31, 1999, 8:00 pm...Reports of power and phone outages around the world pouring in...What will YOU do?

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Me, I'll be at home with my family watching my DGI neighbors scramble to the store in a vain attempt to purchase in a few hours, the type of preps that has taken me months to purchase.

-- GoldReal (GoldReal@aol.com), December 18, 1999

Answers

What will I do? Fill my dutch oven up with stew meat and set it in the fireplace to cook, then I'll fire up a radio or two and monitor the situation. There's no place like home... (:

-- (ladybuckeye_59@yahoo.com), December 18, 1999.

I'll be watching a rerun of the made for TV Y2K movie and laughing over the fact that it is not really happening.

It would almost be worth having all the bad stuff happen to see all of those who push the idea that it will bad pee on themselves in fright. Unfortunatly I think we will see a mass psycosis when the beliefs of doomers fail to materialize and they scramble for any thread of reality to hang on to. Although it will be a good thing that all does not fall apart, something inside of the true believers will be broken. They will probably have a new malady called "Post tramatic doomer stress syndrome" and form support groups and a new psyciatric field will be born to deal with all of those who will be suffering from it.

Or maybe they could all move to a commune in Oregon to "play out" scenerios of what could have been.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), December 18, 1999.


Everytime I read someone going on about how nothing is going to happen, I think, "Montreal!"

They weren't supposed to have a prolonged power outage because of an ice storm. Oh, no. Things like that just don't happen -- NOT!

I don't have the url to the article in "Wired" anymore, but there was a good one there about it.

-- (ladybuckeye_59@yahoo.com), December 18, 1999.


I'll wager the TV pictures of people trying to "stock up" will not show any lines of orderly, well behaved people like those we have all seen fron the Great Depression era.

-- JB (noway@jose.com), December 18, 1999.

Oh yes, i'll also be celebrating my 54th birthday that day.

-- JB (noway@jose.con), December 18, 1999.


Happy Birthday! (tuck this early greeting away for later)

(:

-- (ladybuckeye_59@yahoo.com), December 18, 1999.


I'll keep watching the T.V. until I fall asleep.

-- Anita (notgiving@anymore.com), December 18, 1999.

How are you going to watch TV if power is out? Does Baygen make wind-up TVs and wind-up TV transmitters?

-- (Igotit@Idon't.wantit), December 18, 1999.

Go to bed at 10:30PM


-- ko (Warm@home.net), December 18, 1999.


Disconnect all electrical devices powered by the utitily. Carry on with things as 1/3 of house is powered by my inverter. Genereator ready for backup. Go back to playing cards with family.

-- enough is (enough@enough.com), December 18, 1999.


Cherri, I never pick on you but that was a pretty lame and foolish answer. Re-read the question, it was about power and phones going out around the world.

Are you really so confident that all those ass-backward countries are really compliant ?

Do you think Americans, who have almost entirely blown-off Y2k as a hoax, wont react negatively when they suddenly start seeing smaller, less able countries going dark or having obvious failures ?. 95% of Americans dont have a clue as to what Y2K really is. If suddenly parts of Asia, the middle east and Europe start failing people here WILL react, many in a sudden "Oh sh-t, what do we do now???" panic.

Instead of keeping an open mind AND carefully reading the question, you decided to use the "you're all nuts" reply and totally dismissed the possibility that other countries are going to fail.

Keep your head in the sand if you want, you just dont get it, do you.

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), December 18, 1999.


Light an oil lamp, crank up the Baygen and load the Winchester.

-- Bubba Smith (duck&cover@tshtf.com), December 18, 1999.

If power and phones are going down all over the world, how are you going to know about it?

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), December 18, 1999.

Malcom,

Here in the "States" we have ways of knowing EVERYTHING

Besides, dont you think L.O.S (Loss of Signal) for any of the datacomm/telecomm would be a clue ?

-- hamster (hamster@mycage.com), December 18, 1999.


Wind-up TV Transmitters. Boy, I would hate to have to crank that sucker.

-- Bubba Smith (duck&cover@tshtf.com), December 18, 1999.


The news media, under cover of "don't panic the people" and "national security," will be under pressure to NOT report any failures. Happy Face faking it they will go ...

-- unless something changes (this@will.be), December 18, 1999.

No phone/power?

Play with the doggies. Drink hot chocolate.

-- Hokie (va@va.com), December 18, 1999.


If power and phones are going down all over the world, how are you going to know about it?

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), December 18, 1999.

I'll know about it, because I will be talking to people in other countries via my amateur radio station. I'll post summaries here as soon as I have news and as often as I can.

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), December 18, 1999.


Unfortunatly I think we will see a mass psycosis when the beliefs of doomers fail to materialize and they scramble for any thread of reality to hang on to.

They will be way ahead of you, Cherri; at least they will be trying to hold onto a thread of reality, whereas you have clearly abandoned that attempt long ago.

Assuming that Y2K isn't the trivial problem you think it is, (which I think is a pretty safe bet) I wish I could see the look on your face when you realize that you are doomed. I guess I'll have to settle for knowing that you will have that realization when it is too late to do you any good.

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), December 18, 1999.


Cherri, you come across in all your posts as being very stupid. When I read them I just say "Huh?" and scroll on down.

-- Carol (glear@usa.net), December 18, 1999.

Probably "Freak Out", for a few seconds, until I come to my senses and realize we were without power on a Christmas Day, a few years ago, for 18 hours. It was freezing cold, in FLORIDA! Then, I will slap my face, go light the candles, and fire off the propane heat in the travel trailer for the Grandchildren. The "Adults" can choose to put on extra clothing, and build a small bonfire. I, myself, will be inside with my Grandchildren. I have the basics of food for us all.

-- Never Wanted to be there again (Beencold@oncebefore.com), December 18, 1999.

Let's see. 8:00 PM, I should be in Chesterland, on my way to Huntburg, in the wilds of Geauga County, dodging buggies and horses on the way to the party.

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 18, 1999.


Tell my boss to kiss my ass...I'm going home. Gotta work the rollover :(

-- Billy Boy (Rakkasn@yahoo.com), December 18, 1999.

Listening to the scanner, shortwave, CB radio, whatever we can get info from. Maybe drinking some hot chocolate. Trying to take deep breaths. Praying a LOT. Looking in on our just-getting-to-sleep young daughter. Deciding who is going to take the first watch that night. Praying some more. Taking one last L-O-N-G hot shower???

-- preparing (preparing@home.com), December 18, 1999.

...The news media, under cover of "don't panic the people" and "national security," will be under pressure to NOT report any failures. Happy Face faking it they will go ... (totally agree)

Or, better yet, this little excerpt from JQP

...Its just all those other countries that were not prepared, couldn't happen here in the good 'ole US of A, everythings fine here. Just look at all that money/time we spent making sure all our systems are o.k. Clintoon even said there will not be any National Problems....

Totally agree!!!

Billy Boy> Bummer Dude!!

-- (karlacalif@aol.com), December 18, 1999.


Starting at about 5 am PST, I'll be watching a real-time sat feed of Australia and New Zealand. If I don't see lights on, I'll be off on a 1000+ mile round trip to get my WNGI sis and her family in Seattle and bring them to "the compound", at gun point if necessary... Got duct tape? :-)

-- CT (ct@no.yr), December 19, 1999.

I don't remember who said it first, but the idea of a long hot shower sounds best to me. Oh, and loading the Rem. 870 on the 27th.

Merry Christmas,

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.com), December 19, 1999.


Closing the steel shutters on the windows....moving my frozen dehydrates into my tactical bags...bring in the dog. Ready the heat/power sources...recheck everything. Got some time maybe trip to the store for whatever I might be able to get extra...put on the combat tactical vest and lock and load.

-- Satanta (EventHoriz@n.com), December 19, 1999.

Finish all laundry before power goes out.

-- Betty Alice (Barn266@aol.com), December 19, 1999.

Watch one last episode of Gilligan's Island. Great prep tips.

-- Rider (Wake@Dawn's.smile), December 19, 1999.

I'll be at my Fathers house, where he has his Ham equipment, that he has used since I can remember (40 years at least) and can "read" and write" morse code, so he will have the ability to comunicate at a much higher level that those who have "suddenly" discovered ham radios. If for some unforseen reason we loose power (the water stops flowing downhill through the dams I will be Watching TV on one of our battery operated TV's and /or using a battery operated or hand crank radios. Having plenty of sources of heating food will cause no problems, we have different lighting sources, some as old as the hills, but still just as reliable as when we used them decades ago. The family will sleep in a central room, in their couch potatoes and sleeping bags and quilts just as we did at the grandparents country place years ago. There are plenty of things to do, we have always been able to entertain ourselfs without electronicly operated "toys". There will be no shortage of food, but then that is how we have lived for decades, my parents having gone through the depression. The food will not be in a form where we have to make it from scratch.

Providing of course we have a loss of power, which is very unlikely due to ours being generated by water running through damns. We even have an exercise bike that we can hook up to a generator to provide enough electricity to power the oil heater and a light or two. Discussing the possibilities has been a past time with us lately Whatever I bring up as needed, Dad has an answer, Forget the the pot to pee in being in the house, Dad said that is one he never wants to have to put up with, the smell just isn't worth it.One thing about talking over the possibilities was realising that we have "always" been prepared anyway.

Dad is 79 years old and isn't scared about could happen, he's already gone through more then anyone will even if it does turn out that we get power failures for any amount of time. Dad grew up in a house in Grants Pass in Oregon without electricity. In his teens he rode the rails around Oregon picking potatoes to help suppliment the family income. He also spend 3 1/2 years in a Japanese POW camp in Manchurea, and survived that. He just smiles when people complain that they may not get electricity for a few days or won't be able to pick up "fast food" to eat. He doens't understand how somwone would not have at least 3 days worth of food in their house in the first place! We'll probably be playing scrabble using a dictionary made out of paper in case the power goes out.

-- Cherri (sams@brigadoon.com), December 19, 1999.


Ah, now we see why Cherri isn't concerned about Y2K. If only she had bothered to mention this before, then all forum participants could have figured that out for themselves. "Prepared pollies" really can have it both ways. Tough luck for anyone she talked out of preparing, though.

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), December 19, 1999.

You need a dictionary to play Scrabble?

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), December 19, 1999.

If I'm playing against the guy who is hosting the party and my wife, I GOTTA have the dictionary to stay even (when they used to play at lunch when my wife worked with him the usu game was 30 min and 700 total points between the two of them)

C

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 20, 1999.


Me? I'm gonna call my best buddy, Nick Cromwell.

287 1/2 hours, 281 1/2 hours until Zulu (GMT) rollover...

-- counting down (the@hours.now), December 20, 1999.


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

It would almost be worth having all the bad stuff happen to see all of those who push the idea that it will bad pee on themselves in fright.

Who are the Real Unstable People?

-- Dancr (addy.available@my.webpage), December 20, 1999.


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