A Life Wasted

The Y2K Bug

Just to be sure everyone knows what I mean when I say "Y2K," a little historical background. Unless you are thirty or older the odds are you have never heard of "The Y2K Bug." For us over forty, we all knew it well. Y2K stood for "Year 2000" and Bug as in a thing that made a computer not work right. I've explained earlier how the change from 1999 to 2000 was expected to cause computers everywhere to malfunction so I'll not go into detail again, but in essence it was this: because all programs before 1997 used a two-digit year code (as in "97" rather than "1997") the year 2000 with its' "00" was expected to cause serious computer problems. Some of those problems had catastrophic potential, like causing the world wide power grid to fail. Not everyone believed this was going to be a serious problem because there was a huge worldwide push to correct the computer code to avert the problem. But computer programmers like me understood just how much work was involved in correcting all of that old code. And not just a lot of work, but a lot of difficult work in old computer languages. Most of the "legacy code" that needed to be fixed was written in antiquated languages like FORTRAN and COBOL, languages that relatively few active programmers still used. For this reason, retired programmers were pulled into service, but still there were far too few to get the job done.

Every programmer I knew believed the year 2000 would start with a failed computer grid. Without power most societal standards would fail. Without power society would crumble. Most of us believed this would happen to one degree or another. I believed the year 2000 had catastrophic potential solely because the power grid would fail. I recognized that there could be degrees of failure and that it was possible the power grid could be repaired and brought back on line. But even the best estimates I had heard were that if the power grid went down, that it couldn't be repaired for four to six months.

The Y2K Bug was the reason we bought an Amish house deep in the woods and the reason we kept it off the power grid. My reasoning was that if we didn't use electricity in our normal daily lives, then we would be well prepared for the power grids failed. It is important that you understand that this was my mindset in August of 1999 when I returned to Pennsylvania. I believed the power grid would fail in four months and that when that happened my family would need me more than ever before. I also believed that when the power grid went down no one would be looking for me anymore. There is no question that at this point I wanted Y2K to be the catastrophic disaster everyone feared. If it was then I could stay with my family. And I could protect them.

I knew better than to go straight home, but I needed to be close. The SUV I had now was an olive green Chevy Tahoe, which was perfect for what I had in mind. For miles and miles around our home there are heavily wooded and sparsely populated hills that we on the east coast call mountains. Having lived in Alaska I wouldn't go that far, but they were rugged enough to make them a great place to hide. I found a place about twenty miles north of our home where I could drive the Tahoe deep into the woods. There I hid the SUV in a way that I could get it out when I needed to and set up camp five miles from it. I'd found a nice cool spot. There was a brisk stream of clean water. Water to drink, but also water to bathe in. The water was so cold that bathing in it was tricky, but it worked. The spot was hidden so well that I doubted anyone would find me if they were looking, nor was anyone likely to find my camp site by mistake. It was a great spot to settle in and wait for the world to change so I could go home.

I had carried in lots of food and supplies. So much supplies that it took me six days to haul it all from the hidden Tahoe to the camp site. I don't like tents, have always preferred to camp under an open tarp, so that is what I brought to keep the rain and morning dew off me. However, since my plan was to remain here until mid-December I would need a stouter shelter to survive the cold Pennsylvania winter. From the beginning my plan had been to take this time to establish a secondary shelter for my family. Sounds crazy now, but my thought was that if things got too bad to stay in the house, then we'd have this hidden spot deep in the woods. That was why I had selected a location twenty miles from home. I could get home through the woods, and if needed we could all get back here the same way.