2010 - "New" Year

Where in the world is this lifetime going??? Suddenly it is not only a "new" year, it is a "new" decade. Seems only yesterday everyone was all up in arms about Y2K, why is there no such concern about this transition? Computers have become such an integrated part of every day life that there is the mistaken assumption that there are no more issues that could have such a devastating effect on the world. The concern should be greater now because so much is dependent on computers.


I am really too much into the technology along with everyone else. I am on my laptop much of the day keeping up with all kinds of things, including Facebook, Huffington Post, email, etc. In addition, I am texting people on my phone instead of having "real" conversations. This in spite of the fact that I am a very private person and loath having masses of people knowing too much about me and my personal business. At the same time I feel very isolated because I have very little personal contact with the people I care about.


I have tried to think through the effects we would all suffer if something happened to the Internet, even for a short period of time. One of the things I am concerned about is that this country, and maybe the world, has changed to a "just in time" system for stocking the shelves of most businesses, but particularly grocery stores. This means that there are no large storage rooms attached to any business locations any more and they only have the stock you see on the shelves with perhaps a few boxes in a "back room" that are ready to replace what is on the shelves. My understanding is that most stores have, at most, about three days of stock available at any time. If the computers are not available to manage re-order of the stock, then within three days there would be no food available to buy.



For this and other reasons, there are many organizations now in place that are planning for such an occurrence. These groups have plans in place for bulk food storage in homes to carry them through at least a year if necessary. I am tracking a lot of this activity trying to determine what, if anything, to do about it.