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I just heard Big Ben ring in the new millennium in London. Yes, I know, the next millennium doesn't really start until next year because there's no Roman numeral zero; the thing that we're really celebrating on this last day of 1999 is that we can finally hear the last of this Y2K bug, anyway. I've been looking forward to the end of this year since it began and, at last, it's over.

Being on Greenwich Mean Time, the power grid has already successfully passed into the Year 2 Thousand. I'm sitting here listening to ABC's New Year's Eve coverage, and there's no reports of power outages or terrorist bombs -- although the bomb squad was called to downtown Wausau this afternoon to defuse what appeared to be a pipe bomb, which ultimately turned out to be bogus.

A few people who actually read my columns have written to ask why I haven't been writing on a regular basis lately. Well, a lot has been going on in my life and I'm keeping myself busy, and I haven't really had the time to sit down and figure out how to write it to the world in this forum. I've been spending more time writing email to individuals and to various email lists -- including one for my family -- than I ever did writing these missives. Also, my band, Kontra, has been practicing 2 to 3 times per week; I've been spending a whole lot of time reading Steven King books in Braille; and I've been developing a software package using Visual BASIC for my friend, Audy -- and spending a lot of time on the phone with him. I bought a new computer in April and learned to use Windows 98, as well as the various application software packages that run under it. I don't plan to return to my weekly schedule in the immediate future, although I still hope to write the occasional edition of "Thoughts."

This has been a pretty good year for me, if unpredictable; overall things have worked out well. I'm feeling good and far more relaxed than when I began writing about my life and publishing it to the world. Audy has offered me a job and wants me to move down to New Orleans. I'll be spending a month with him and his wife, Tab, early in the new century. Call it a trial period. I've got a very good support system established here in Wausau, and I'm reluctant to pick up and move.

I plan to tempt fate -- and Murphy's Law -- tonight by letting my computer's clock roll over to the year 2000 while I am online. If you're reading this, it survived, as did my Internet provider and web site. I've been working on this piece for five hours now, and the ball is about to drop in Time Square; in another hour it is our turn here in the Central Time zone.

I hope that all of you have had a safe and happy New Year's Eve, and wish you a pleasant and profitable 2000.