December 31, 2009 7:51 p.m.

Remember the Y2K "crisis"? A lot of people made an awful lot of money over that fear- mongering. And that night came and went -- nearly without a hitch -- all over the world. The lights stayed on. Not just in places like the US where billions of dollars were spent to prevent a catastrophe, but even in countries on the other side of the world, countries that had no money to spend on the "issue". I shall never forget it. Y2K has forever changed the way I view the world, the mass media, and the "crisis of the day". It has taught me that, if you get old enough, and hold on to memories of times past, pretty soon you won't believe anything they tell you. Did you notice how, beginning with the very next day, nobody on television or in the papers had anything to say about it all? It was all simply forgotten and never talked about again.

Back in those days, Yours Truly (Breezy Point Mom) was a Senior Electrical Engineer with responsible charge over design projects throughout the high voltage transmission and distribution systems at the House of Mouse (remember that place we camped a few weeks ago?). The property containing the House of Mouse is approximately twice the size of Manh*ttan Island, and consumes electrical power equivalent to a medium-sized city.

For eighteen months, one of my responsibilities was to test equipment related to electrical power distribution across the property, all to reassure upper management that everything was "Y2K Compliant", that is, it would continue to function normally after crossing that momentous time threshold into the year 2000.


Of course, this task came in addition to all my other project responsibilities. It was a sort of... uh .... added blessing in my professional life.


Most of the work associated with testing all the equipment required me to work through the night. Company policy forbade us engineers from testing equipment during theme park opening hours, when a mistake could take down power for thousands of visitors. So Y2K required me to continue working regular days, interspersed with many nights, as needed, at various times, over the course of 18 months. I was never able to get into a routine of either days or nights. It was often two nights followed by two days, etc.


To top it all off, all of the salaried employees where I worked were required to spend the big Y2K night on the property "manning" all of the high voltage substations serving all of the visitor venues, including four theme parks, many hotels, and a shopping mecca. If the power system came crashing down over the crowds, we were supposed to come to the rescue and restore power manually.

Oh, and did I mention that over a million visitors were expected to be on the property that night?


For you see, even thought the world was waiting with bated breath to see if the world would come to a crashing anarchic end, the House of Mouse was not concerned. They were not planning to be "closed" that night due of concern for public safety. In fact, they were throwing a really big party to ring in the new year. They had such confidence in us ... in little old me... just imagine.


So as I was saying, we salaried folks manned the stations, not just engineers and electricians, but all professionals and the operations departments for all systems - solid waste, waste water, reclaimed water, mechanical systems, as well as electrical. Also, administrative assistants and all office and business support personnel who were salaried were required to be on site, driving around the property, supplying foodstuffs to all us more technically-oriented folks. This included two of my best friends, who were able to visit me briefly that night before moving on to another substation.


What about Self-Reliant Man, you may ask? Where was he throughout all this excitement? Unfortunately, he was not permitted, due to legal (and insurance) reasons, to share this wonderful night with me at the substation, and he stayed home (50 miles away) and went to bed.


So while the world was ringing in the new year (decade? century? millennium?) I was sitting in a swivel chair beside a Formica topped table with a two way radio sitting atop it, shooting the breeze with three electricians. Yup. I'll never forget it.


And when midnight struck, we heard all the fireworks outside, but had to stay inside and wait for orders in case the end of the world as we knew it happened.


And then we had to stay there until 7 a.m., per planned procedure, in case all the equipment took time to recognize that it was supposed to fail. Only it didn't. And at 2 a.m., I received a cell phone call from the manager of electrical operations. His voice over the phone sounded so relieved that I could almost envision tears in his eyes. He said since all was well, I was permitted to go home, and Happy New Year. Poor guy. He must have aged ten years during that last quarter of 1999. All for a hoax.

Fast forward to now. I sure am glad that I am now a stay at home homeschooling violin mom of two, spending my New Year's Eve playing Jenga and Pay Day and watching the movie "Scrooge". I wouldn't trade my new life for anything.

Happy New Year to all my dear bloggy friends! We made it ten years past the end of the world.