Karen,
I can't imagine anyone who has put even a little bit of energy into following this issue will not have so much as a twinge of anxiety that
something gruesome will happen somewhere in the world. If not anxiety, then at least rubbernecking curiosity. I'll bet that everyone who has been hanging around this thread, regardless of how polly, will check the news accounts on New Years Eve to see how things are doing in New Zealand. I know I will. It's human nature. At a minimum this is like reading a whodunit--there's anticipation about how it will end.
Karen, you're absolutely right. Last spring, Ontario Hydro here in Canada set their date to 31Dec99 at 23:55PM one evening. They had the subway cars stay in the station during the test, and all fire trucks were parked outside the firehall in case the garage doors would not open if the electricity failed.
They had a countdown on CFTO one of the Canadian TV networks, and had remote cameras on downtown Toronto as they did the countdown 10-9-8-7... just like on new years eve. I've got to tell you, I was a bit anxious to see if everything went black.
Of course, nothing did, and it was a non-event, but your point is correct.
I will be at the new Paris Casino in Las Vegas new years eve, so I won't have a chance to see what is happening in New Zealand. I wonder if all the gambling will stop at midnight in case the lights all go out?
The head of the British telephone company said they are not worried that their phone systems will not work, but whether their capacity can handle millions of people picking up their phones at 30 seconds past midnight to see if there is still a dial tone. <gg>
With regard to your second point about the level of anxiety increasing closer to next January, don't you feel that there was much more "anxiety" earlier in the year? Why do you feel the this anxiety was there then, has dropped off, and will ramp up again before January. I think it is a straight line except for the "curiousity" on New Years Eve.
Nice talking with you.
Jim |
