Night Shift Ramblings

OTD 1999:?

As the world prepared to leave the 1990s behind and usher in the 2000s, I reported to work early for night shift at PJM (the power grid operator for the mid-Atlantic area) to provide overlapping coverage.? I remember a CNN satellite truck in the parking lot near the control center.? Why?? The power grid might collapse, of course!? It didn’t.? Computers couldn’t handle the transition from 19XX to 20XX.? They did.? Utilities would fail.? Banking would fail.? Communications would fail.? None of that happened either.? The world thought the sky was falling, but come the morning of January 1st, 2000, the sky was above, the sun rose in the east, and life continued moving forward as it always has and continues doing so today.?

Here we are twenty five years later. ?What’s new? ?Not much really.? I’m a quarter century older and still paying taxes.? We’ve (the world collectively) solved some problems, are still vexed by many problems, and continue creating new problems.? People have died, people have been born, and peace seems to remain elusive despite the incredible collective brain power of the inhabitants of this planet.? Just as in the 90s (and for decades, years, centuries and millennia prior) we continue to observe war, power struggle and human rights violations. ??

But we also see shining examples of humanity at its best- they just get buried under the sensational headlines calling attention to that which is bad.? Science and medicine continue making great strides toward creating a brighter and healthier future for all of us.? The arts continue to entertain us and create masterful works to be enjoyed and contemplated for centuries or longer.? Technology (a double-edged sword for sure) is advancing so fast that last week’s product was obsolete yesterday and there is growing concern about how artificial intelligence will change the course of everything, for better and for worse.? And so far Skynet hasn’t nuked Los Angeles.? Win!? And just to mention one of my favorite pieces of technology: the James Webb Space Telescope.? The JWST is allowing us to see the universe in ways never before possible and is providing incredibly increased detail of things we already know and can see.?

Change and worry are ever-present in our lives.? They were then and they are now.? We must deal with one and we can change the other.? As Heraclitus of Ephesus wrote (according to at least one interpretation), “Everything changes and nothing remains still; and you cannot step twice into the same stream.”? By being adaptive we can cope with change.? Fighting change is a losing prospect.? Accept it, deal with it and use it to your advantage.? And almost everything I have worried about over the past 25 years has been far worse in my mind that it has been in reality.? But we are not all that lucky.? Some of us live in relative freedom while others are in fear of their lives every day.? We must remember how blessed we are to be living freely.??

That is probably enough rambling for tonight.? Twenty five years after watching 2000 come in without issue from a control room in Valley Forge, PA, I am once again on night shift monitoring a portfolio of power plants churn out megawatts that contribute to making all the great things mentioned above possible.? Different company, different location, different job title, and another new year coming in fast.? But now I’m wiser (at times) and far more experienced.? And I hope everybody reading this is as well.?

May this find you and your loved ones well and I hope you have a Happy New Year!? ???????