The Only Resolution I've Kept
Posted: Thursday, December 29, 2011
by Jack H. Schick
For various reasons, I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. First, until relatively recently I was always severely drunk by the time the ‘ball dropped,’ and made resolutions I never planned on keeping (including to not get so plastered the next New Year’s Eve). Second, it makes no sense. There’s nothing special about the new year. If I can’t do it in July (quit drinking, for example), I won’t be able to just because I’ve resolved to try again on some mystical date. Third, if I did make a resolution, I got depressed and felt inadequate when I soon broke it. So, I figure, why bother at all?
I can only guess how much money the company spent getting ready for Y2K. We backed up all our computer data. We restocked safety supplies. We fueled up all our vehicles and topped off all of our storage tanks. We filled the fuel tanks on all our portable pumps and power tools. We filled every gas can and kerosene can we had and bought a bunch more. We scheduled extra manpower at all the facilities and every supervisor was required to be on site by 10 p.m. New Year’s Eve.
My boss had no friends or family, so his New Year’s Eve’s were always spent sitting at home alone watching Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. He liked to make rude comments about the throng in Times Square, watch the ball drop, then quick switch over to the channel that had the fireworks. This was going to be a special holiday for him. He was going to spend it with people, for a change. Actually, he considered us his friends--because we took orders from him. He didn’t realize we were nice to him just to avoid getting yelled at.
We didn’t know what to expect when the clocks rolled over to the year 2,000. I figured it would be like all the rest of the end-of-the-world scares and nothing would happen at all. They’d been planning for it for a few years already and should be ready. My boss figured all the computers in the world would crash and we’d be without power for a couple days or weeks. We’d have to run everything on batteries and generators. He thought there was a possibility it would cause riots and revolutions and we’d be knocked back into the Stone Age. I figured he’d be more comfortable there, anyway.
So, at ten o’clock I was sitting in my office when I should have been sitting at home getting drunk. Beside the boss, the only guy who didn’t seem out of sorts was the third shift supervisor. He was going to be there anyway. It was his regular shift. The boss had scratched out a to-do list on a napkin and made photo copies to pass around. I made a plant round like I normally ould do at 7:30 in the morning, then went back to the administration building to unplug my computer, as per the napkin plans.
The only action in the first hour and a half was when one of the supervisors showed up late and seriously drunk. The boss gave him hell and made him drive home. That’s when I realize I’d screwed up. If I knew that’s all it took I’d have done it myself. Like I said, that was my plan for the night in the first place.
At ten till midnight we all gathered in the main control room. We synchronized our watches. We had a portable television tuned to Dick Clark. It wasn’t the atomic clock in Greenwich, but the ball in Times Square that was official, as far as the boss was concerned. I don’t know what would have happened if it was a little slow and the computers and TV went out before it dropped.
Nobody said a word as the last minute ticked down. We were probably the only gathering in the world that just stood there when the fireworks went off. The boss looked down at his watch then up at the lights, expecting them to go out any second. They didn’t. He got a sad look on his face at about the same time the rest of us started grinning. I quick slipped out and headed for the lunch room. The boss had sprung for hoagies. Since the one guy went home, I wanted to grab the extra one before someone else did.
We had to hang around till one o’clock. He was afraid that maybe they had really meant Daylight Savings Time. There was still a chance the disaster would come. It didn’t. As I finally drove out the gate at ten after one, hoping the bars were still open. I made the only resolution I’m sure I’ll always keep. “I’m not going through this b.s. ever again. I’ll get drunk and get sent home instead.” I muttered to myself.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)The Mayan Calendar for Dec 21, 2012 never predicted the Apocalypse the media is hyping like Y2K. There was only a prediction for a change at end of the calendar on that date. So I think it will be like Y2K a lot of "to do about nothing."Thanks for reading and commenting
Good article Jack, and I suspect you won't have much trouble of avoiding the next 'new millennium’ scare. If you do, you'll be too old to give a hoot. Have a happy new 2012Thanks for reading and commenting
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