A Pandemic, Part 2

5 Sept. 2008.
I live in a fairly small townhouse, in a usually quiet neighborhood, with my son. A friend of mine asked me once, why I didn’t live in a single family home? To which I answered, that I didn’t need anything more than this. Why would I want a bigger house with more rooms to clean and more lawn to mow? I like my little place and little Mortgage.

I did telework yesterday and today. There’s not much going on that is work related, mostly just chatter about the spread of the Pandemic. I am able to use VPN software to securely connect to the work intranet and then use Windows Remote Desktop to connect to my work PC. It’s like being in the office. My Blackberry service (Cingular) has been spotty, more so than normal. I’m not sure if it’s Pandemic related though. I also noticed I could not get to Rocketboom.com, a daily VLOG that I never miss, out of New York.

The news out of NYC is bleak. After a city council vote and the Mayor’s approval, they are loading the bodies onto garbage barges and burning them at sea. They have lost 8500 souls in two days, up sharply from last week’s totals. I do understand the health concerns of having so many bodies lying around. At least they brought in Army Reserve clergy who can administer last rights for many religions, which should help stem the outcry over the choice of disposal. They expect things to get worse, as many dead may be undiscovered, in their homes.

Speaking of the Army, they recalled all troops from Iraq and Afghanistan last week…every last one. The outbreak was widespread there too and they couldn’t maintain support lines. The bad thing is that the planes carrying them home will take them straight to confinement, to minimize the spread of infection. The ships returning are in a worse state, because the infection’s spreading in transit home. There may be some ghost Carriers or Destroyers out there before this is over. Just big war ships floating out there in the Ocean, uninhabited by anyone living. I expect they will get vaccinated though and it might not be a problem.

Several of my neighbors have decided they are heading to a camp ground away from the urban area; I declined the invitation to join them. I like my home and my creature comforts. I think I am prepared enough; still it’s a bad situation we all share now. The spread hasn’t slowed and most of the country has gone from spotty outbreaks to full fledged. It’s beginning in earnest now. The traffic out of the major cities has been real bad and the National Guard has setup road blocks between cities and they are only letting food and supplies pass through.

The few neighbors I am friendly with stopped by, but I would only talk to them through the cracked open door. I don’t want to risk exposure and the vaccinations have been completed to “the best the government could do at this time”. I didn’t rate a shot, shocker. There were two schools of thought on distributing the vaccine; one being the elderly, young and first responders. It was argued that this would leave the country with no viable society, work force or Military if the majority of people 20-40 are dead. I liked the argument, but don’t denigrate my son getting his shot. The other idea was the opposite, but also included first responders as a priority. It’s a very tough moral dilemma, to say the least. They are still hurriedly preparing more vaccine, but I don’t see how they can distribute it at this point?

Since I am the President of our communities HOA (Home Owners Association), I had more than my share of people asking me questions. Like I get special consideration/information from anyone just for being in the position?? It’s the lowest rung of the governmental food chain. I made suggestions on how they can get through the mess and told them to watch the news.

7 Sept. 2008.
I didn’t sleep well last night, mostly because of all the yelling outside. In a row house community like mine, anyone yelling out in the middle gets trapped between the houses and it’s like you are standing right there. Note to self; Move when this is over! It sounded like the local “gang” as they like to call themselves. Mostly, just kids who spray paint their “mark” around and steal Halloween candy from kids who wander into the adjacent field on that day. How do their parents let their kids stay out all night though? I don’t get that.

Yesterday, the NBC and ABC networks signed off indefinitely. CBS and FOX are maintaining some news coverage, but it’s turning into news re-runs. Fox ran a marathon of the Simpson’s and CBS ran one episode of CSI Miami. I hate David Caruso.

I heard my local Giant grocery store is cutting hours to just 10AM-4PM. They are out of fresh produce, no more trucks are coming. They are just clearing out whatever is left. The government continues to ask people to stay inside their homes except for emergencies.

Around lunch time, I was IM-ing with a coworker who lives about 30 miles more north of DC than I am, the hicks, and he said things there were not too bad. People there are still getting around and the stores are all open.

I am turning to the radio for news, here in DC there is only one real 24X7 news station, but most of their coverage has been local. That’s fine, I guess I should be focusing more locally as this progresses.

My most favorite radio show, “Don and Mike” signed off just now. Mike has taken ill and Don came in to do the signoff by himself. He tried to keep it lighthearted, but sank into a pretty dismal appraisal of things. He wished everyone luck and was gone in a flurry of Larry King insults. Buzz does the news and had (as usual) nothing good to say, but had terrible news out of Florida. He reported that a group of people impersonating local medial staff had taken white Vans and trolled around retirement communities distributing fake shots. They charged $100 cash and were reusing needles. That is disturbing on so many levels. The show is usually just funny, the best thing on the air, and I will miss the banter that keeps me amused for 4 hours each weekday.