NE Georgia News from a Lurker

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

I'm lurking in the country, about 45 miles east of Athens. First, a HUGE thanks to all of you who've posted useful information. I really appreciate it......

This area is relatively quiet. Power's stayed up, gas pricess have been stable around 1.15-1.18/gal, shelves in all the stores are full. This week I shipped fresh venison via UPS to my brother in Tampa, and it arrived ok and on time. I was able to track the shipment via the ups website w/o problems. I'm a military retiree, and I got my Jan retirement pay on time. BTW, my pay originates in Cleveland, is dropped into the Fed system by tape, and then disbursed via FEDLINK to my local bank (direct deposit). What I don't know is if the tape was transmitted electronically to the Fed or handcarried.....I'll let the board know if February is a problem.

People around here don't talk much about y2k; since this is a very rural area, there's not a large technology-based industry. People work in the granite industry, drive trucks, work logging, or are tractor mechanics, crop farmers and chicken raisers, general construction, and folks in various service occupations (store clerks, insurance, admin, etc). Surprisingly, there are a lot of PC users, just not a lot of what Cory would call "big iron" systems.

Went to Athens yesterday to the regional hospital to visit an aunt. Athens RMC appeared well-staffed and fully functional with no apparent hits from bugs. In fact, nothing was unusual anywhere in town. WalMart and Michael's had the usual crowd, all registers were working, and our mastercard charges went through w/o a hitch. At Sam's, the crowd was buying usual stuff, and there were plenty of batteries, beans, beer, and rice. (is that "b-cubed-r"??) All in all, I've noted absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in this area of the country. And that worries me.

I've done my preps and sincerely hope I don't have to use them. BTW, for those who are interested, please check out www.foxfire.com. The Foxfire books are an oral history of mountain folk, their culture, skills, and crafts. LOTS of good info for those who would improve their self-sufficiency. The books can be ordered from the website.

I've said my piece and I'll go back to lurking. If any bugs bite, I'll let ya'll know. Warm regards to all, and thanks again for the timely info I know this board will continue to provide.

-- Craig (sofpj@netscape.net), January 15, 2000

Answers

Crain,

Thank you for the nice post. Best wishes to you! =)

-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), January 15, 2000.


Crain [sic]:

I live in a rural area [a little closer, 17 miles] to a major University town. You have described what I have seen. There is one exception. The shelves holding Thera Flu are continuously empty. They can't keep them stocked [I wonder why]. We have a lot of "big iron". A lot of problems, but not directly Y2k related. It appears to be just bad software choices. Good to hear that Athens is in one piece.

Best wishes,

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), January 15, 2000.


Craig, "All in all, I've noted absolutely nothing out of the ordinary in this area of the country. And that worries me." Why does absolutely nothing out of the ordinary worry you? Just curious.

-- Paranoia Will (Destroy_Y@BlackCopters.com), January 15, 2000.

craig......did you ever notice any contrails in the sky above athens? :-)

-- tt (cuddluppy@aol.com), January 15, 2000.

No chemtrails, and no more flu than usual. Just your ordinary contrails from commercial air.

Why am I worried by the utter ordinariness of it all? When the experts (yourdon, Hamasaki, Frautschi, the Gartner Group, et al) are puzzled, it gives me cause to think. Moreover, I think we can all agree TPTB have every reason to hide the truth from "joe sixpack", if for no other reason than to retain their grip on power. When was the last time you heard the truth from a politician?

Here's a new acronym for the board....it originated with the Son Tay raiders: KITD-FOHS. Kept in the dark - fed on horse shit. That's us, the public, in a nutshell. If we really wanna know, we gotta go dig it out. Thank God for the Internet!

-- Craig (sofpj@netscape.net), January 15, 2000.



We knew there would be a near-total news blackout. We thought there would be other blackouts too! We always said, if they can maintain the appearance of normalcy, that would be great! However it is happening, we're grateful. (hey the matrix has its good points ;^)

-- Ashton & Leska in Cascadia (allaha@earthlink.net), January 15, 2000.

Hi Craig, My father lives there in Clayton, Ga. Beautiful country! I used to spend all my summers there growing up. I've read the Foxfire books. They have a lot of good info in them. That's a great area to be in.

-- sharon (halyman@bellsouth.net), January 16, 2000.

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