I have been off work since November of 99 when I came down with a bad upper respiratory infection. I was working for a local road and bridge contractor as a blade man and straw boss running a pretty good sized loop job. Prior to getting sick I had been employed with this company for about two months, and not being the secretive type my Y2K views were common knowledge on the job. It was nearly Christmas before I finally found an antibiotic which got the repiratory infection under control, and being as I had already been off for six weeks and rollover was only a week or so away I said the hell with it, just kick back and wait to see what happens.

Fast forward to January 15th, my phone rings and it is my old boss. He wants to know if I am ready to come back to work. I couldn't believe it. I been off now for 2 and a half months, haven't been calling in or anything, just assumed I was fired for not coming in, which is exactly what I told him. He replied that a lot of people had taken Y2K too seriously, and he respected me for having the intelligence to recognize the threat and the courage to follow my convictions. I told him I had already agreed to run a job for another company which was starting in a week or two, depending on the weather, and he gave me a four hundred dollar a month raise and an open ended fuel card to come back.

So I made my apologies to the second company and with a feeling of dread returned to my old employer, fully excpecting merciless ribbing from the other employees. Every single one of them had to ask about y2k. And every single one of them accepted my admission that I was wrong, with the comment that I just as easily have been right, and let the matter drop completely. Even the state inspector who I had come to pretty harsh words with over Y2K was thrilled to see me back and understanding of my views and actions. After two weeks of watching the pollies and trolls on this forum cavort and gloat, I was amazed at the reception I recieved from my fellow workers. Has anyone else had similar experiences?

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), January 23, 2000

Answers

"And every single one of them accepted my admission that I was wrong..."

And that is what makes you different from most of the doomers found here. You admitted you were wrong.

-- Butt Nugget (catsbutt@umailme.com), January 23, 2000.

Nikolai, first of all, I'm sorry you were sick. You must be darn good at what you do for them to court you back like that. Congratulations. Most of the pollies I've spoken to act as if they'd forgotten the entire matter the minute I mention it again. They themselves recount a few glitches and that's it. Gloating? Why would they? Y2K has not been their focus at all.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), January 23, 2000.

I've had somewhat similar experiences, although not even as much reaction as you had at your job. Here are some observations that might be of interest to other forum members:

1. Everyone at my job knows about my Y2K opinions. None of them even asked me about it when I went into work after rollover.

2. One of my brothers called me up to ask me what happened, as he was puzzled at the apparent total lack of problems at rollover. We had a fairly lengthy discussion about it, in more or less our normal conversational mode (which may sound like arguing to others).

3. I must say that I did expect some ribbing at my amateur radio club meeting in January, as I had made somewhat of a nuisance of myself in attempting to get our local repeater some solar powered backup. Therefore, I was somewhat surprised to find myself nominated as president of the club for the year 2000! I gave an impromptu campaign speech and was elected unanimously (except for Susan, who abstained).

4. As for other friends and family, I haven't received any grief. One of them went out of her way to thank me for my concern about her well-being. I suppose several of the others shrugged it off as another one of my many eccentricities.

Considering that my expectations about the severity of rollover were very high and quite well known to all of these people, I can only conclude that the "terrible damage" the attack Pollys claim was done to the population by "doomers" amounted to just about nothing. On the other hand, I'm sure the attack Pollys will be able to come up with an explanation for this; perhaps my friends are so deluded by my "meme" that they don't realize how terribly they've been injured by my (so far) incorrect predictions?

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), January 23, 2000.

Nikoli-- It was -18F yesterday morning. No one, NO ONE, thinks extra food or a generator is foolish. We have two young men working for us right now who came home over New Year's to be with their families. I think they now feel y2k is a dead issue and will be leaving in the next month. However, we had our first y2k glitch this past week. We manufacture programmable feeder systems for industry. We purchase the vibratory feeders and bulk feeders from a large company. On Dec. 30th we recieved a feeder and drive. OK, we figured they were getting it delivered before rollover. Last week we called about the hopper. Talked to the usual person--a guy who is really on top of everything. Except last week he didn't know for sure we had recieved our bowl and drive, didn't know anything about the hopper, couldn't access the info on the computer, and physically went to shipping to find out. He called back and said it would be shipped that day. 15 min later Ward trucking pulled up with our hopper. We are at leat 4 hrs. from their plant. This large company is in total disarray. It will be interesting to see what happens later in the year.

I think enough stuff has happened that very few people are laughing-- we're still waiting, just hoping nothing goes seriously wrong.

-- Pam (jpjgood@penn.com), January 23, 2000.

This weekend I spoke with a retired Air Force intelligence officer friend of mine. He said, nothing is at it seems, never has been, never will be. He also said that others he knows who didn't expect the rollover to amount to much, are expressing reservations about the apparent ease with which it took place.

Seems like many people are relieved by the initially smooth transition, but still believe some level of watchful prudence is a good idea.

-- snooze button (alarmclock_2000@yahoo.com), January 23, 2000.

Nikoli says-

--"And every single one of them accepted my admission that I was wrong, with the comment that I just as easily have been right"--

Butt Nugget-

As usual, something that should be covered with dirt to quench the stench, would fail to accept the whole picture. I'm really glad it didn't turn out to be as bad as it might have, but the purpose of the 1 - 10 scale was a gage of potentials, not certainties. You really are a piece of crap aren't you?

Nik - I am truly happy to hear about your job. Thanks also for coming by to say hi and update us on your prospects. The polly cretins that post here are not worthy of joust or debate, but...

Anyone that would crucify us, or gloat about outcome caused by the hard work of so many excellent programmers, is a prig and needs to spout venim to cover their immaturity and lack of cohesive thought.

-- Michael (mikeymac@uswest.net), January 23, 2000.

My preps were know to several folks in our community and nothing negative was thrown at me. In fact on of my preps have turned into some part time extra money. I put together a inverter system, which I've had 3 orders for so far. It has enough bang to run a fuel oil heater and refer for about 5 days without recharging. So I guess y2k opened alot of eyes to being prepared. Not a bad thing at all.

-- Capt Dennis (capden@hotmail.com), January 23, 2000.

Nikoli,

Great thread. I, too, took no crap from anyone because the people who would even listen to me about Y2k were also the people who knew that there was at least a threat. Everyone was suprised at rollover, including the State Dep't, the CIA, FEMA, and even the diehard pollies on this board, although I have yet to hear them admit it.

I had some friends staying for the weekend recently, and one of them set out to make coffee in the morning. She popped off the lid of the coffee can, only to find a nearly empty can. She was in near-panic mode, but I said "not to worry." I climbed into the back of a closet and produced a fresh can. She acted like I just solved all the world problems with a single act.

Over coffee, we talked about preparedness, and I realized that I love living like this. I love not being dependent on the outside world for my immediate needs. And my friends vowed to begin building a pantry and to consider back-up temporary heat sources. They loved my Aladdin Lamp (as do I) and were amazed at the heat output.

I have tried to focus on the big picture, and I consider my experience tracking and preparing for Y2k to be extremely valuable. I feel secure knowing I am ready for just about anything.

I am glad you are feeling better--it must feel good to be valued by your employer. Now get your ass back to work.

-- semper paratus (still_here_with@my.pals), January 23, 2000.

A followup on my previous post:

I just spoke with one of my sisters in law (the wife of the brother that I had that spirited conversation with). She said she'd been to the Michael Hyatt site and had seen the list of glitches. She also mentioned that they had a power outage in the past few days, and the kerosene heaters that they had bought at my recommendation had kept them "toasty warm". Apparently Y2K preparation has positive side effects!

-- Steve Heller (stheller@koyote.com), January 23, 2000.

Nikoli, you have a most extraordinary boss! You are very fortunate indeed and I am pleased to see you are getting your job back. Glad you are feeling better too.

As to Y2K criticism, I was always open about the possibility (the hope?) that the rollover would be a non-event. Oh, I was afraid and terribly uncertain, but at ALWAYS prepared to be wrong. Skirting redundancy, I was prepped for a 7, afraid of a 10 and hoping for a ZERO. With respect to the actual rollover, it does appear to have been a non-event.

Now, we all have to remain vigilant while this latest round of problems develops. Rash, uninformed judgements will do no good. We must observe, study and then attempt to reach a conclusion. While there are many outstanding opinions, commentaries and news articles in this forum, I would suggest that none of us has the clear and total answer...yet.

The watch continues.

-- Irving (irvingf@myremarq.com), January 23, 2000.

Nikoli, I'm glad you're feeling better. I can't buy into that premise that we were "wrong", though.

-- Charli (claypool@belatlantic.net), January 23, 2000.

I told quite a few people that I thought Y2K could cause serious problems, but no one has commented about my views since the first of the year. The pollies on this board are different. They have become obsessed with Y2K, even though they don't believe in it.

-- Dave (dannco@hotmail.com), January 23, 2000.

Thanks for all the responses. Mara. I am pretty good at what I do, but not exceptional. The ups and downs of the oilfields here in East Texas over the last twenty years have produced a situation where you have a lot of operators that got into other lines of work to make a living, and caused a shortage of people with twenty plus years experience in dirt work, now the sharp increase in the price of oil is causing the demand for operators to skyrocket and we are finally getting the respect we deserve, for as long as the situation last anyway. I do really appreciate this boss in particular, as literally dozens of times I have made hundreds of thousands of dollars for a contractor and then been discarded like used toilet paper while useless relatives were kept on the payroll when the work slowed down. I had gotten so bitter and disillusioned after twenty five years of this treatment that I got out of this line of work myself last year, so this has really been an ointment for my soul.

Semper- I agree , I like this mode of living and will continue it. My wife thinks it is great that she can just reach in the closet and grab something we run out of, and the generator has run twice already since the first of the year to get us through short power outages. I filled her car up with gasoline today that I bought at 89 cents a gallon, haha, and I have enough of it to run it for the next six months, double haha

-- Nikoli Krushev (doomsday@y2000.com), January 23, 2000.

Nik, Congratulations on finding a good boss. Its too early to say you were "wrong". INFOMAGIC (THAT MAJOR DOOMER to Pollies) said that Y2K is the trigger and the economy is the target. The trigger's been pulled but the bullet hasn't left the gun. We'll have some idea after the end of month financials, but it may take a couple more months for problems to be recognized.

-- JOHN (LITTMANNJ@AOL.COM), January 23, 2000.

Nikoli,

Glad you're heathier and you have such an open-minded boss. (Had that upper respiratory flu and resulting cough before Christmas... it was nasty and tenatious and finally the last traces disappered this past week).

I also, have received no flack from friends I urged to prepare. Living on shakey California ground lends us an appreciation for... "the unexpected." Our Y2K preps, are now our earthquake insurance. Our perhaps... a tangible form of "changing life insurance."

I too, love the full pantry (created for the first time in my life) and will never again live from JIT can-to-bottle grocery purchasing. (Love all the new camping supplies too!)

*Grin*

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), January 23, 2000.

I walked in to work on the third, one comment was made about my being on time and my generator must have worked, and that was that.

(My being on time was surprise enough:-) )

Chuck

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), January 23, 2000.