So, how is your New Year going so far?  I have no major complaints—although I seem to complain a lot.  Yes, always about the weather.  It’s too hot/too cold, too wet/too dry.  And Mother Nature is always up to trickery!  Remember our 79-degree temperature on Christmas Day quickly followed by some very chilly weather?  And the mixed bag since.  Trickery.

We have become eager to usher out the “old” year hoping that the “new” year will be better.  And by better, I mean less Covid and a return to normalcy—however you might define normal these days.  I read with interest that leaving the doors and windows open at midnight would ensure that the old year left, clearing the way for the new year to enter with a fresh beginning.  

Obviously, I didn’t follow through by opening the windows and doors at midnight.  And I know this because when I hopped into my 2008 Honda CRV on January 3 to take our dog Carly for her 11:30 grooming appointment, the clock on the dash read 12-something o’clock.  And when I looked at it again, the date read Sunday, January 1, 2002!  

It took me a minute to realize that the clock was wrong.  The last time the clock was wrong on my CRV was when the car battery had to be replaced.  When that happens, I must punch in my car’s code to reset the system.  And it was a wild search to find that code in what is a small library (no less than 7 books) that comprises the owner’s manual.  I thought it would be a matter of re-setting the time and all would be well.  Not so.  

Remember Y2K?  You know when we were leaving 1999 behind to welcome 2000.  There was a lot of concern whether all the computers would make the turn.  Whether the hardware and software would fail in things like elevators, gas pumps, medical devices, financial systems.  The list was endless.   There were concerns about nearly all systems that had computer chips.  I remember it was recommended that every household should have cash on hand, gas tanks filled, and every conceivable preparation just in case. 

Well, someone should have mentioned this to the engineers at Honda because this navigation clock problem sure snuck up on them.  After I spent a lot of time trying to re-set the clock in the Honda, I decided to search for a remedy online.  There wasn’t much information about it, only more YouTube videos on how to re-set the clock.  

And then after a couple of days, I was determined to find the solution to re-set the clock.  It only bothered me when I was driving and would glance down at the clock.  So, the next on-line search yielded an explanation.  Voila!  This problem will self-correct in August 2022.  It affects Honda and Acura models with navigation systems and it’s a global issue!  

This means that the navigation system I have (and rarely use) is partly to blame.  I don’t use the navigation system mostly because the “navigator” is so judgmental.  “She” hates it when I do a U-turn!  And we have basic communication problems.  She simply doesn’t understand me.  And frankly, I don’t trust her directions.  So there’s that.  But I do miss my clock.  And unless those Honda engineers come up with a fix, I won’t know the correct time for several months.  

Looks like the Y2K bug is 22 years late!  

Bonnie Brown writes a weekly column for The Oxford Eagle. She can be reached at bbrown@olemiss.edu.