The Ritzville Adams County Journal - Eastern Adams County's Only Independent Voice Since 1887

They say that time flies when you are having fun. I’m not sure who this they is and I’m not sure how that fun is actually measured. But if it is true I am having the time of my life.

It has been nearly 20 years since the world was going to come to an end with Y2K. Do you remember that? Computers were going to have problems changing from 1999 to 2000. And the fear was that computers were going to shut down and we would be without electricity and any form of communication. We would all go crazy and die. Or at least we were somewhat led to believe that.

Looking back on it now it seems like this was a scheme dreamed up by the people that made generators in order to sell their product line. Yes, we bought one too but it was used one so we didn’t need a loan to make our purchase. We still have it so I guess we are still prepared.

If you don’t remember all of the hype we were fortunate enough that at 12:00 midnight, January 1, 2000 the world did not crash and burn like it could have. It went on like nothing happened and people danced in the streets and life was good and so on.

If I remember right we didn’t do a lot of things differently beforehand. We celebrated Christmas just like we always did. It was just in the back of our minds that we were relying on a bunch of computer wizards to get us through and they succeeded. Thanks again computer wizards!

Kind of strange looking back on those days and wondering what could have taken place had the computer wizards not have been able to fix the issues at hand. I think there was fear that nuclear bombs could be launched and records wiped out in a matter of seconds.

I don’t know for sure if the media played these possible problems up on the news each night or if the latest mega-problem was brought up over morning coffee at work. You know, “Well last night I heard that there is a good chance that ____ could happen.” It was always followed up with, “Who told you that?” And usually when we heard who said it, you could hear someone say, “Don’t listen to him he’s a conspiracy theorist!” That is the nice version.

There had to be a fair amount of people that decided they were going to wait to make a payment on their outstanding bills hoping that the computers were going to crash and the records concerning their bills were going to vanish. Well that didn’t happen and now the poor schmucks had to pay interest on the late payment.

A lot has happened in the last 20 years. I don’t have enough space or time to list them all. I can say that we are a resilient group of people. The world has supposed to come to an end on numerous occasions and like a Timex watch we just keeping ticking away. I can remember some things from New Year’s Eve 2019 but really not a lot about New Year’s Day 2000 because it was just like any other day when the lights stayed on. Oh I watched a bunch of College Bowl games but I don’t remember who was playing without looking it up.

Life goes on as we know it. We still complain about the government either by saying they don’t do enough to help people out or do too much and keep people reliant upon it. This group hates that group and vice versa. I have a good solution but no one will listen to it and it won’t ever be different until everyone is fed up for the same reason.

As bad as people say it is though, we are still living in the best place on earth. I think it would be a much better place to live if instead of complaining about what’s wrong doing your best to make it better.

Here’s hoping your Christmas was merry and bright and wonderful hope for the new year. Be a positive motivator and good things are bound to happen.