First, don't freak out! Unless the Rapture occurs at the same time I wouldn't be too worried. (And if it does you'd have nothing to worry about anyway - at least I hope so, for your sake!) It's not the end of the world. Planes will not be falling out of the sky (but I wouldn't fly on January 1st, 2000 if I had a choice), and trains won't be crashing (too much). Those signal switches can be pretty tricky! Traffic lights may be screwed up for a while, so use caution when on the roads, whether walking, biking or driving. Basically it should be like riding out some severe weather. No worse.
I think by the time 7 to 10 days go by you should be OK as most places should have their shit back together: rebooted necessary machines, etc.. If worst comes to wost, alot of places will reset the time/date on their machines to 1/1/80 and let them run...
Oh yea, the new millenium doesn't start until January 1st, 2001, so don't flip out over that. (Do the math. We didn't start in year 0, we started in year 1.)
Here's my (in)comprehensive list.
- save up a couple of weeks pay in cash (do this by Sept., 99 to avoid the run on the banks!)
- save about a week of bottled water (1 gallon/person/day)
- save about a week of pasta and jarred pasta sauce - I like Prego myself
- canned veggies are precooked - no heating necessary get lots...
- same goes for stuff like spaghetti-o's and ravioli-o's and lots of other pre-processed crap - it may not taste great, but it'll keep you alive
- manual can opener! duh.
- get about a weeks worth of that Parmalat milk - no refrig needed to store, finish each carton by end of day - 1 half gal/day - 1 gal if have kids
- instant coffee or tea
- two quart bottles of tequilla! (essential)
- get a couple of cases of beer - you should be able to keep it cold outside - watch out for looters!
- a Louisville Slugger baseball bat for looters (I hate guns, but I own several bat's and a couple of nice "Be Cool" sticks!)
- charge up the ol' electric razor 1 hour before y2k and have plenty of blades and shaving cream for your regular razor
- get a shovel
- get ready to dig a poopie hole in the back yard (with shovel)
- stock up on deoderant and favorite cologne/perfume (you'll thank me)
- get a baseball hat - your hair will look pretty ratty if the water goes off for a week.
- lots of batteries of all sizes - start saving now
- flashlights - at least one for every room in the house
- lots and lots of candles
- get a couple or 5 "bic" lighters
- get a small generator if you can
- it's gonna be cold in January (in most places) wash all your blankets a couple weeks before the New Year and have all your winter coats ready.
- gas up all automobiles
- get all autos tuned up and in good working condition before December, 99
- check on bicycle readyness if you own one - consider buying one if not (optional)
- have plenty of medicaments on hand. Tylenol, asprin, cough medicine, cold and flu stuff, vitamins, etc.
- refill any prescriptions as close to y2k as possible
- see a doctor in December for a checkup if possible
- get two spare 5-gallon cans of gasoline
- get a propane lamp or 2 with x-tra propane bottles for each
- get a propane grill w/2 FULL propane tanks (for boiling water for pasta! yummy)
- deck of cards (or the game "Risk" or "Dungeons and Dragons")
- dry pet food if necessary
- a good book or three.
- a Nintendo Gameboy with lots of batteries and a couple new games for the kids so they don't go nuts from "technology withdrawl"
- bleach (for water purification - couple of drops/gallon) if you have to melt snow or take from a stream.
