The island

Remember all the fun way back during Y2K? You know, the world was going to end, and didn't?
I wasn't too worried about it on a personal level. When you live way out in the woods, have your own water, solar electric, and a your average hunter's gun selection, there's a lot less to panic about. In deference to Y2K I bought 100 pounds of rice. I like rice and figured I'd eat it anyway. It rounded out my food storage.

While trying not to get too caught up in the hype, there were a few things that gave me pause. There was the government consultant computer guy who bought a place next to me. He wanted to be up here rather in Washington D.C where he worked and lived.

Then there was the guy with the island. He and his son had a computer business, part of the IT army hired to fix the Y2K problem. The guy had his doubts that things could be fixed in time. So if he had doubts, what were the rest of us to think? This guy and his family owned a private island at the end of a long causeway. The house on the island had been well stocked with all manner of emergency supplies. On the island he parked a very large bulldozer. Had everything gone to hell, the bulldozer would tear up part of the roadway and then be used as a massive roadblock.

Only found out about this plan from a friend of mine. A select few people with special skill sets had Y2K invitations. He'd been invited due to his skill with firearms and background in weapons engineering. The instructions stated to not turn up at the door empty handed. If your vehicle wasn't stuffed to the gills with food and supplies, you'd be turned away. My buddy took the precaution of picking up a lot of cheap food, most of which ended up at food banks later on. Nobody in his right mind would have eaten all those cases of Ramen noodles unless they had to.
A couple years later the family moved away. Sometimes I do wonder whatever happened to that survival retreat on the island.

As a side note, I was actually affected by some minor Y2K glitches. My laptop computer insisted it was 1981, no matter what I did. My wife was working in a medical laboratory at the time. Some of her equipment acted squirrelly. The equipment people figured out some kludges that worked around the problems. Not long after they traded the equipment in for upgraded models.

-Sixbears