Friday, June 29, 2007

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Sunday, June 24, 2007

The Vegas vacation, part 3.

Almost everyone in Vegas must be filthy rich, but not the homeless people you see under the highway overpasses. Everyone else has a big ass pickup truck, van or SUV. There is some smog downtown, but the constant breeze keeps it from getting too bad.
My family is politically divided and it was just a matter of time before simple banter turned to fairly heated discussions. I tried to stay out of it, but had to chime in when I heard some very faulty “facts”.
My Mom and Dad were talking about the current matters of the country. My Mom brought up the national debt, and my brother mistakenly confused the national debt with the trade deficit (which he blamed on Clinton and NAFTA). These are two very different monsters. I offered that the national debt was not related at all with the trade deficit and when Clinton left office, the budget was balanced and the national debt was nil. My brother just shook his head, like I was full of shit. It’s a fact that people get brainwashed by “political” radio shows, that’s why I don’t listen to any of them, especially when they play ridiculous parody songs that bash the other side. It’s not constructive and only fuels malcontent and partisanship.
It was too hot, so I went back inside. I think everyone is allowed to have their opinions, but please get your “facts” correct and stop listening to one sided pontiffs. You will never get the complete honest story that way. But I think some people don’t want the truth, they only want to hear what pleases them.
We took my Dad out to dinner for his Birthday, which went great. The kids were pretty well behaved and I thought the waitress did a great job, but my sister in law thought she had an attitude. The waitress may have had an attitude, but she did her job and fixed whatever problems we had (mostly very strong drinks, but who normally complains about that?). The check was very reasonable and no one was able to clean their plate. That's a compliment to the establishment.
One funny thing was my older brother giving my youngest brother crap about not using his turn signal on the way to the restaurant (no one in Vegas uses them). On the way back home, he was sure to use his signal, or even over use it. We were laughing, wondering if it was being noticed.
The next day I had an early lift to the airport with my son. We made it there in plenty of time, but traffic was a concern. We bade farewell to my brother and Dad and headed into the terminal. This time, I decided I would carry the one bag we have onto the plane. I had to throw away my second lighter on the trip (which my brother bought for me, thanks!), because of this choice.
We got to the gate fine and I figured I would spend the few quarters I had in my pocket on a 25 cent slot machine, but I found they only take bills. I skipped it, so I can honestly say I broke even in Vegas, only because I didn’t gamble at all.
The plane left on time and made it to DC in the expected time frame. It was funny that before we took off, the concierge (her term/title, not mine) got on the horn and said the plane was short on supplies for the flight and we can make an issue of it (which meant waiting) or just take off. With laughs, everyone raised their hands, saying to just go.
I will note that young children seem to become demons when they board an Airplane. They don’t cry like they normally do, they hiss a shrill scream that had me balling my fist in a way that my finger nails dug into the palms of my hands. It is really like something out of a horror movie. The parents just laughed.
Speaking of movies, they ran Shooter, with Marky Mark. It was pretty good, but predictable. And man did he kill a lot of Americans!! They squeezed in Wild Hogs next, which was the worst movie I have even partially watched in a long time. The only saving grace was the very hot Marisa Tomei. Geerrowwll. :)
We landed after Maverick maneuvered his plane like a F-14, but was actually an Airbus. It took longer than normal to disembark the plane. I blame kids for that, and most things. Someone behind me commented “check your bags like everyone else”. That had me a bit on edge because I would have to get my own bag out of the overhead. I made every effort to do it quickly and actually had time to help the guy in the row in front of me get his stuck bag out too. So blow me ass.
The drive home sucked, but I was able to listen to Don And Mike while sitting in traffic. I was not able to hear the show in Vegas at all. I found out they were going on vacation next week, which bums me out, but I won’t complain.
We made it home just in time for me to fire up my PC and make moves in the online chess tournament I am in. I had less than an hour left to make my mandatory move within 2 days before the game site forfeited my game to the opponent. I will probably lose the games anyway, the guy way out ranks me.
I noticed my American Flag (which flew over my boat when I was in the Navy) has a tear in it, about 2 inches long. I will get that sewn up pronto! My dogs are the same, annoying. We ordered pizza and my friend Jenny came down to take part and I popped in my just arrived Kids in the Hall DVD. It wasn’t as funny as I remembered it being, but it’s better than 95% of the programs on TV nowadays.
It was a whirlwind trip, and realize now that I forgot to mention the Dust Devils we saw in Vegas. One was at least 1000ft high, but most were pretty small. They are cool to see none the less. I told my Dad about the dust devils on Mars, which seemed to amaze him. http://marsrover.nasa.gov/gallery/press/spirit/20050819a.html
It was great to see my family, even if we don't all agree on things, we know we love eachother and will support eachother whenever it is needed...I think.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

The Vegas vacation, part 2.

We arrived at my youngest brother’s place and my son, Dad and I were left there. My Mom took the rest to her place. I sat outside and had a beer with my brother and his sweet wife. My son kicked stones around the yard, there is no grass there. We chatted and I noted how much clearer the sky was, compared to Maryland. I could see the stars at least twice as clear.
I pointed out Venus, trailing the crescent moon, and my sister in-law grabbed her son and made a point of letting him know it was the planet. I guess they had pondered it a night or two before. That was kind of cool. We crashed shortly afterwards, but I didn’t sleep well. The smoke alarm tripping for no good reason was not helping. My brother came into the room asking me what was happening. I told him the alarm went off, then stopped. I learned later that they have had other electrical problems in the house.
In the morning, my brother and his wife had to go to work, so I made eggs and had my son help with toast for everyone. I couldn’t find a plastic spatula to go with the no stick pan, so I flipped the eggs like pancakes. My Dad was impressed that I could crack eggs one handed (and not break the yoke). I can’t think of where I learned that, I just know that I can do it.
We spent the morning watching the sun heat up the desert around us.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=adobe+grande+street&sll=36.330339,-115.220833&sspn=0.115336,0.225906&ie=UTF8&ll=36.325222,-115.223966&spn=0.230687,0.451813&t=k&z=11&om=1
That photo was taken before the houses were built, but trust me, the whole gated community is there now and thriving.
Later that day and the next, I went outside and noted a few things. I never hear dogs bark. I don’t see kids outside playing. I don’t hear other families even talking outside. It’s too hot. Everyone is inside. The temp is 105-110 F during the day (up to 130 F in July and August). There are few bugs and fewer birds than in a cat house. My brother confirmed that this only goes on for 3 months out of the year. I was then sure, that no matter how much my mother nagged me, I would not be moving here. It is her dream though. She even tried to trick my son into saying he would like to move there.
We all went to my Mom’s place, about 15 minutes away. I got to see my next youngest brother, who I think doesn’t really like me much or anyone, but we had a pretty good time talking and joking. I do love him and wish he would realize that. I miss him actually, even though we were not too close as kids, he was always my brother. To this moment, I can say honestly, that I would die to save him, if it came to that.
I cleaned up a Trojan on my Mom’s computer and removed the MacAfee software that was generating pop-ups on her computer. It’s sad that a product that you PAY FOR starts spamming you! They do.
My Mom fixed up my older brother with a friend she works with. It’s a bee’s hive of a thing to do, but they seemed to really hit it off. We headed back to my brother’s place and we were having fun goofing on my older brother’s fixed date. We got to meet her later and she was fetching, to say the least. She managed to tolerate my family and I think assimilate, or rise above our crude behavior. If he can, I hope my brother works out a way to keep her.

The Vegas vacation, part 1.

Flight out: We (my son and I) left for the Airport a bit after noon on Tuesday and made it there in good time, even considering the mass of DC a-holes in the left lanes going under the speed limit. When we parked the car, I saw the threatening thunderheads to the east, but figured we should make it out before they arrive here.
We got to the gate and boarded without much incident. I had a bit of a problem getting the boarding passes from the new automated computer terminal. When I asked the live cute gal behind the counter for help, she told me to pick up the phone and call customer support. Why was she even there? Why didn’t the web site tell me to save the CONFIRMATION NUMBER!! Duh…
As we boarded the plane, I did notice that a guy in front of me was bringing a bag no bigger than the one we checked in. I made a mental note to not check in the bag on the way back. The seats I had reserved on the web site went down the toilet. I was in one window seat and my son was 4 rows behind me. I thank UniTED for that. Actually, TED, which is part of United Airlines (get it?). Ted is the red headed stepchild, really. We waited 2 hours on the plane, before we had approval to taxi out to take off. It never rained where we were, but storms were in the way of where we wanted to go. What happened to flying around or over? Finally we were off, though.
It was funny that by the time the “snack cart” made it to my seat, they were all out of the “snack pack” I wanted (just $5) so I passed on the alternative yogurt based whale lovers meal. I just had a beer and tried to sleep. The cute mother 2 seats over had different ideas for me. She let her cute sleepy Czech speaking sleeping son, sitting between us, kick me nonstop through the flight. She didn’t even have the courtesy to wake up and let me take a piss when I smacked her sleeping ass on the shoulder multiple times. I was tempted to grab her thigh (she was wearing jeans) to see if that would rouse her. I caught a break when the drink cart rolled past and was able to drop a small lake in the lav. The rest of the flight was uneventful.
At the Vegas Airport, my son and I made it to baggage, where I spotted my Mom right away. She was dressed in a bright all over blue outfit. She stood out. I greeted her and she was amazed at the size of my son, who she hadn’t seen in about ten years. Kids grow.
We went and got our bag (we shared just one). I will say my son is always better at this than I am. He has a very keen eye for these things and pulled the bag out before I even saw it. We then waited with Mom for the rest of the family to arrive. Had we made it there on time, we would have had a 2 hour wait, which I could have spent in a bar, so I still can’t justify the initial delay.
Eventually, my Dad and older brother, with his daughter, arrived. We gathered their bags too, then we headed to the van my Mom had rented for the occasion. I am not sure why she felt the need to do that, but I suppose it would have been crowded in a 4 seat car.
My Mom drove us to my youngest brother’s place, which was fun. My Mom has a bit of an impediment when driving at night, um she can’t see things too well. It must have been a matter of genius, though. She had a perfectly good complaint for every lane she swerved into and red light she ran. My Dad actually had his head in his hands, on his lap. I was just laughing and giving Mom crap the whole time, I am quite the smart ass. I was cracking jokes about “Granny Road Rage” and she fueled them the whole way there.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

A Pandemic, Part 7 of 7

25 Sept 2008.
The gas came back on yesterday and the water had picked up enough for drippy showers. We had a hot meal of ravioli and I boiled some water and made hot chocolate from the powdered stuff. It’s getting cold at night now, so this helped warm us and having something sweet was great.

The news was getting better about things, here in the DC area at least. The Hospitals were able to get back to almost normal and they were starting to inoculate the people who had not been done before. The new A.B vaccine (covers both of the current strains of the virus) would be distributed, again from the local schools, but they were saying anyone who only had just the A vaccine before needed to get the A.B one. They were not saying how to tell who has had what inoculation before, though. Very frustrating. I asked my son if he had noticed A or A.B anywhere on the supplies when he was vaccinated back at school, so damn long ago. He couldn’t remember. I decided we would both go when our day came up. They are doing it by first letter of the last name. So we will wait and listen for our letter to come up. They were starting with the T’s and H’s.

The body trucks came through today, yes trucks! The second one waddled out into the field and put a bright yellow plastic flag on the car that had burned, I am guessing to identify it for investigation later.

One of the Oldie stations came on today, no commercials. Kind of cool. I am old enough to appreciate the Beatles and CCR and don’t really think of them as “Oldies”. It was a marathon of those, then the Stones, then The Who. I ran down the batteries in the radio and had to replace them with fresh ones, then I went back to just monitoring the news.

27 Sept 2008.
THE POWER CAME BACK ON YESTERDAY!!! The first thing I did was the very nasty job of cleaning out the fridge and freezer. Bagged everything and put the bags out front. Trash pickup has to resume sometime soon, or this will get messy. A neighbor told me the local grocery was reopening now that power was on. I figured we could walk up there to see what they had. I just wanted to get out of the house really.

I instructed my son to keep his distance from everyone, since our number had not come up for vaccines yet. They announce that “E” and “Q” named people were the lucky ones next and “U” and “I” would be the following day. While walking to the store, my son figured out that they were using “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” to schedule these. Hat’s off to you boy! So we don’t have too much longer to wait. He had taken a typing class in Middle School.

There wasn’t much at the store really (no batteries, consumables) and we did a really good job staying some distance from people. They had setup large fans to blow the smell of the food that had rotted, out of the place. It wasn’t working too well. When we went to checkout with the few items we had picked up, I found out they were not taking credit at all, cash only. The credit authentication services were not back up yet. I have a standing policy of keeping several 20’s tucked away in the back of my wallet, so we were covered. I keep a few hundred in cash stashed at home too, just in case.

The phones are back on and I was able to check-in with my family after multiple failed attempts. Everyone had gotten through this, but my next youngest brother was in the Hospital recovering from exposure to the virus. They are hopeful he will recover fully.

From this point things will start to get back to normal, for sure. This event will have to go down in modern history as a tremendous tragedy and one that I hope people and policy makers will learn from. I will have to wait and see what comes of my own fight to defend myself too. The police have a lot to deal with at this point, so maybe nothing. That will probably be another story for another time.

A Pandemic follow-up.

Ok, I didn’t have an animated Penguin or Speed Boats worked into the story, but I did have Aliens, Spaceships, Gore, Sex (kind of) and Swords. My house was the Castle, so shut up.

I am off on vacation the rest of this week, so there probably won’t be any posts till the weekend. I am sure I will have some tales from the trip. If you enjoyed the Pandemic story, tell a friend.

Monday, June 18, 2007

A Pandemic, Part 6 of 7

21 Sept 2008.
Yesterday, my son and I got back to what I wanted to be a daily routine; exercise, homework, scan stations, check if water or gas is on, police the house. I checked all of the provisions and we easily were covered for 15 more days. It started to rain mid day, so I rigged some funnels and some almost empty water bottles to try to collect some rain water. We did collect an inch or so. Might come in handy.

I saw several people out walking their dogs and meeting each other, talking out in the open. I am still not comfortable enough to be doing that yet. When I start hearing some valid news that it’s safe, then maybe. We are set for a while, so no rush.

One provision I had forgotten to check was cigarettes! My doctor will be elated to know I have quite smoking, not by choice. I started chewing toothpicks though and that seemed to at least satisfy part of the addiction. I have been eyeing the longer butts in the ashtray outside, but I won’t go that low. I bagged them and put that in the trash can.

I know the lack of nicotine was getting to me because I wound up going off on my son about the way he was sitting, hunched over, playing his Gameboy. I yelled at him to sit up straight, for no good reason. I apologized once I realized I was being an ass and told him to ignore me if I do something like that again.

23 Sept 2008.
The body truck came through yesterday! It picked up all of the dead in the neighborhood. I told them about the ones behind my house. They said they couldn’t do anything about them. To bring them up to the curb.

That got me to thinking about the body out back and the fact that I might get into trouble about it. I figured I could easily drag the body out to the field when it got dark, but someone had seen it there by my fence. I decided I would take my lumps for what happened and bagged the body. I put a note in the bag that a group had tried to break into my house and that I defended myself. I put my name and address on it and dragged the bag out front for the next time the truck came.

There was no one around so I walked out to the car that had burned and noticed that besides the charred driver, there was another body in the back seat. It looked like someone young, in their teens.

Today I scanned the radio and the local news radio station was on. They had no commercials and everything seemed very poorly produced, like some interns were doing it on their own. They have been able to setup some satellite phones with the help of DHS, in most major cities. The groups in each are relaying news about each city to the others and also pass out CDC and Federal notices.

News from Atlanta was especially bad. When the police and Georgia National Guard tried to impose the curfew, a few kids were killed in a scuffle (I would not propose it was accidental). Full blown riots erupted and they think now that the crowds that gathered and mingled managed to infect many more people than would have been otherwise. The death rate there was estimated to be around 30%. They were identifying the remains now and moving the bodies into a strip mine outside the city. Over 140,000 had perished.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

A Pandemic, Part 5 of 7

17 Sept 2008.
Yesterday was quiet, still no power and the water pressure has dropped, to little more than a trickle. We filled up every container we could find in the house and put them in a corner in the living room.

I scanned the radio twice on batteries and there’s nothing. I am still very worn out, but managed to put some more screws into the boards over the doors and windows. It will take a sledgehammer to get through these, unless someone tried to burn them. I filled two buckets with water and placed one near the front and the other at the back of the house.

It was mostly quiet overnight, except some distant shouting, right up till dark. I heard people out back, they were trying to be quiet, bet failed miserably. They were trying to get into the backyard through the gate. I went upstairs and sent my son to the front of the house to watch for anything there. I had placed the trim from the doors to throw as spears (not pretty, but it should be shocking). I also had two heavy brass fire hose nozzles’ up there, that I saved from being thrown overboard back when I was in the Navy. I use them as bookends normally. I also had my heavy leather work gloves up there.

I was being quiet as possible and watched as each of the 6 people clumsily jumped the gate, helping each other. I put on the gloves and threw one of the 4 foot lengths like a spear and hit someone, they didn’t go down, just hollered. I grabbed one of the nozzles and threw it as hard as I could at the leading shadow and missed, they were on the porch now and clawing with something at the lattice. I threw the second nozzle and someone went down, fell off the porch unmoving. Someone else went to that person and I sent down another shorter piece of trim, thrown with an end over end spin. They were throwing things back now, so I grabbed some of the trim and headed downstairs. There was a loud crash behind me, I figured they sent one of the nozzles back through the bedroom window.

Once I got downstairs, I could dimly see the outline of the attackers through the gaps in the lattice I had built, just from the starlight. They were screaming threats and trying to get in, one lattice was coming loose. I took a long piece of the trim and laid it between the lattices about bellybutton height and went to the far end. I waited till someone was right over the tip, then pushed hard, fast as I could. There was another scream when it hit, but I was able to pull the trim back in, it was dark on the end, blood. I reset it at the next higher gap in the lattice and waited to see if any of them came close again.

They were throwing anything they could find at me now, but it wasn’t coming through. A few minutes later things quieted down and I went to the window in the kitchen. That had been shattered by something during all this. I could see the shadows going back over the gate. Someone shouted that I was a “dead man”, over and over. It trailed off. I told my son everything was fine, but to stay in the basement for the night. I went upstairs to keep watch as long as I could, I was exhausted.

Looking out the shattered window, I saw a bright star far to the south, which was strange. I then thought it must be a plane, but realized that was wrong too. It was the International Space Station, which I had watched fly over several times before. I hadn’t even considered what their status was up there. Do they have food and air? I started thinking the Soviets could send up an unmanned Soyuz to save them and blacked out.

My son shook me awake in the morning.

19 Sept 2008.
The last two days have quiet. I dragged the body in the back yard to just outside the fence. I noticed another body a few houses away sitting on the ground, but leaning against the fence. I went back into the back yard and reseated the one board that was broken loose during the last attack. That was all I could muster.

The gas was out now, no cooking and the water was totally gone. I took the bottles of water out of the freezers, it was all thawed now and the food still in there was now starting to rot. At first I was going to use the water to refill the toilets so we could flush, but decided to save them for drinking, they should be fine and why waste them? I had saved 4 coffee cans incase we ever had to do the “shelter in place” during a terrorist attack.

We finished the thawed frozen food that didn’t need cooking and closed off the fridge and freezer. Anything left in them would be unusable. I had the emergency stock of canned ravioli and Spagettios that we can eat right out of the can. I had also set aside a pack of paper plates and plastic cutlery (spoons/forks). We wouldn’t be able to run the dishwasher, so the silverware and regular dishes were unusable.

There was a loud knock at the front door around noon today. Some idiot I have never seen before was out walking his dog and stopped by to tell me there was a body behind my house. I told him to get away from my house and to not come back. He started to point to the bodies from out in the field and say something, but I was not listening. I went to the basement and scanned the radio. I thought this guy must have heard something, to be out and about like that. There was nothing new, just the weak Civil Defense broadcasts.

I checked the scanner and found out that Hurricane Michael had driven straight north into Connecticut and Rhode Island. Some Ham radio operators were actually able to pick up the International Space Station’s reports of the visual track of the storm and got the word out the best they could up there. I am sure it’s a nightmare for them. The Ham guys/gals were relaying some useful news, finally. Some of the operators were kids who had taken over in their parent’s place. One that received a lot of note, was an 8 year old kid in Ravine Pennsylvania that called himself “The Tower”, who had taken over his father’s post and managed to relay info from the north east to Ohio, West Virginia and other operators. They passed it on from there. The Tower will be a hero in some circles for years to come.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

A Pandemic, Part 4 of 7

13 Sept 2008.
Yesterday around mid-day, I heard a commotion behind the house, outside my yard. I looked and 3 young guys had a girl pinned to the ground on the small hill about 15 yards away from my back fence. It looked like they were trying to rape her and she was screaming “no” and “stop” over and over. I haven’t mentioned the machetes I have before now. I went in quietly and took one up in my left hand and went back outside. I have gravel around the base of my AC condenser, so I grabbed a handful of the in my right hand. I went to the gate and opened it.

The 3 kids were oblivious to the fact that I was there. I stepped out of the gate and threw the gravel at them as hard as I could. The two standing up turned to see me and started to say something until I raised the machete menacingly. The both took a step back and the guy on top of the girl stood up and back up too. I took a step forward and growled at them to get out of here, raising my voice as I spoke. They ran.

I looked at the girl who was topless and her jeans/panties down half way to her knees. I didn’t recognize her. She stood and covered her breasts while trying to pull up her panties and jeans. I took off my shirt and tossed it to the girl, who was crying. I asked if she had a home or somewhere to stay and she mumbled yes. I told her to go home and stay inside, then went in myself. I looked back and she was heading in the same direction the boys went.

The power came back on last night; it scared the crap out of me when the lights and radio in the room came on. I quickly shut them off and then went around the house killing the other lights, except the motion sensor controlled flood lights on the back of the house. I want to stay as dark and quiet as possible. I put the scanner on charge.

Since I was awake, I scanned the radio stations quietly and quickly, AM and FM. The local news radio station was down. I just got static up and down except a few very crackly civil defense recorded transmissions. I speculated those might be from the local National Guard posts, just a guess. I switched on the scanner and was not getting much on the police freqs and nothing on emergency. I did hear on the NOAA channel that hurricane Michael had skirted the NC Outer Banks and was heading due north. It already devastated the Bahamas. On the civilian freqs, it was show time. Every nut job out there was spewing about recent events and bellowing doom and gloom, some preachers out there too. I wish they would pass on some damn news and not preach.

In the morning it was real quiet, so I went out to the field. I could see there was a burnt body in the car that crashed into the tree; the driver didn’t make it out. I didn’t see another body in there, so I don’t know why those guys were shouting two names after the crash.

I was feeling really run down today and realized we had been stuck in the house now for almost two weeks. I decided my son and I would both start some regular exercise. We did the stairs (literally walking up and down the stairs) for 15 minutes, then light weights until we were too tired. I decided we should do this twice a day, to the best of our abilities. Then I started thinking about what else we should be doing daily.

I hadn’t started the car in forever, so I had my son stand watch on the front porch and I went out and ran it for 10 minutes (I don’t have a garage). I was afraid it wasn’t going to start, it took a few tries, but it is a fairly new car and did. That body bag was still there by the curb across the street, propped up and looking back at me in the side mirror.

That night, I was right in the middle of cooking some spaghetti for dinner when the power came on again. I had replaced my electric oven with a gas one a few years ago (after a hurricane knocked out power for 3 days), so I didn’t need it to finish dinner. We played cards and Scrabble, anything to break the boy away from the Gameboy for a while; he is using up all the batteries. He is doing ok on the homework, but the Geometry escapes me! I never took it in high school.

The power went out again after a few hours.

15 Sept 2008.
Yesterday was a nightmare. My concerns over the sliding glass door came true. Around 7PM my son called me because there were people IN the back yard. The curtain was pulled almost shut, so we could see out and they couldn’t see in, since it was still pretty bright outside. My son and I each took up a machete. I hadn’t heard any other break-ins since that first attack, but the neighbors might have had their doors sitting open for all I know.

There were two men, moving slowly towards the house. They looked like hell, filthy and maniacal. There was no way they were getting into my house, sick or not. I moved into the kitchen staying low and once I was near the window in there, I yelled at them to get the hell out and smacked the machete really hard on the window, harder than I wanted to, because I cracked the glass. The men were surprised and backed up a bit. The sound caught the attention of my old deaf dogs too, who moseyed into the dining room to see what’s up. I went to the door and pulled the curtain back and the dogs went crazy once they saw the strangers outside. They scare me when they get like that. It was enough to get the men to backup to the far side of the yard while they rethought their intentions.

I ran upstairs and opened the window in the spare room and hurled several heavy tin toys at the men, yelling at the same time that “we” (important that they think we have more people in here) were going to let the dogs loose now, pretending like I was talking to someone else inside too. The guys fled, one paused and displayed a gun for me, but never pointed it at me. Probably a toy.

A minute later, as I was coming back to the main level and I could see one of them outside through the curtain opening. As I entered the dining room, he threw a large rock at the sliding glass door, right in front of me, shattering it. The rock skidded across the floor and landed at my feet. The dogs tried to get out and one cut a paw in the process, this is all I need right now. I went outside after some time passed and I had my son posted upstairs to stand watch. I closed the gate and DUH, locked the padlock. One dog was gone, I guess chasing the men? I didn’t hear barking.

When I came in my son was on his way downstairs to check the pooch, he had seen the blood. We cleaned the cut and put gauze on it and taped it up tight (dogs hate Hydrogen Peroxide BTW). Seconds later the dog was trying to take off the bandages. My kid sat and pet the wounded dog to keep him occupied for over an hour.

Now I have to fix the broken door. I don’t have any plywood, but a bunch of 2x4s and some 2x6 planks leftover from a porch job I helped a neighbor with last year. My son and I cleaned up the glass (saved all the broken bits in a cardboard box) and took the trim off around the broken door, which I took upstairs to be used as spears if we get more “visitors”. I shored up the opening in the door and slept very near it that night.

The next morning I got the longest screws I had and made a lattice with the lumber, only over the broken part of the door. I went outside and did the same out there over the whole of the door. I used the leftovers to shore up the other 3 main floor windows on the inside, removing the trim of each one before hand. I was exhausted afterward and collapsed.

Friday, June 15, 2007

A Pandemic, Part 3 of 7

9 Sept. 2008.
It’s Tuesday morning and my son has no cartoons to watch (he still likes them, and the G4 network). The TV stations all have a test pattern or Civil Defense patter. It’s all useless crap at this point. We watched a few episodes of Monty Python on DVD, brilliant! It lightened our moods.

Yesterday, around lunch, there was a freak I have NEVER seen before walking in wide circles out in the field. He was large and stocky with a ball cap and a black garbage bag with holes cut out for his bare arms. He looked like a creepy alien in his sun glasses…stunned, like something out of MIB. He went away after an hour or so and didn’t cause any alarm for me, but it’s just weird. People…

Last night I was listening to my scanner (a great gift from a good friend) and someone on the DC PD was talking to a local precinct about the “unexplained suicides” downtown. People were walking in front of ambulances and jumping off buildings. Some people blame the “Tami-flu” drugs that have been distributed sparingly to the second tier of “non-essential” government workers. They are the ones who didn’t rank the vaccine and are most of the people I work directly with. It’s supposed to help combat the flu, but it was reported to be the cause of like suicides in Asia and England. As a contractor, I didn’t qualify for a “share” of the drug, which is fine by me. I’ll get by without it, ahem. At this point I am feeling fine as is my son.

There was more activity outside last night, not right out front, but out in the field. There was a lot of screaming, very late. I looked this morning and there are 3 bodies out there, lying fairly close together. It’s raining today, but if it lets up, the animals are probably going to get to them. I will go out and sack them up tomorrow if they are still there. The news radio station announced that anyone with dead can bag them (as best you can) and put them out by the curb for removal and to identify the bag as a body, “Put something boldly red on it” they say. They are asking that the dead and living have their Social Security numbers written on their forearms in indelible ink. I did this for my son and myself. It was very freaky to do that.

I talked to my next door neighbor across the fence today and his son and daughter are very sick. They must have not been in school when shots were handed out, but I didn’t ask. They are Indian and often take their kids out of school, not sure why. I didn’t know what to tell him, except to take them to the Hospital if they are really sick. A sick kid with a cold sucks real bad, two are worse, so I can’t imagine what this must be like for him. He said they are all set with food and water though. I noticed later in the morning that his one car was gone.

Later in the afternoon, a car went ripping through the field, doing doughnuts and fishtailing all over the place. I watched while I had a smoke out back on the deck. It was obviously kids on the loose. They went on for about 10 minutes and trashed the ball field completely, mud everywhere. The car managed to not run over the bodies in the field, before loudly hitting a pine tree head on and catching on fire. Two people crawled out and were shouting the names “Ashley” and “Justin” back at the car, which was soon engulfed in flames. The two limped away as best they could, after a few minutes. The tree they hit caught fire too, which added to smoke plowing upward into the sky.

The fire department never came, or an ambulance.

Outside in the distance, I saw other plumes of smoke, obviously bigger than the one from the car and tree in the field. I went back to the scanner to try to get some details on what was happening, but I was not getting any local details, just more about late evacuation matters downtown in DC. Where will these people go at this point?

The police and emergency sirens I had been hearing most days recently have all but stopped, as has the bulk of interesting chatter on the Police and Emergency scanner channels.

11 Sept 2008.
Yesterday my son and I went out and bagged up the 3 bodies in the field early. We used two bags each with duct tape to seal them and had to fold their arms and legs tight to get them in. We used a plastic sled to drag them up to the edge of the parking lot, one at a time. My son was crying lightly because he thought he knew one of the kids. They were beaten badly and blood was oozing out of them, mostly around their heads. I probably should have bagged them alone first. We took shards of an old red T-Shirt to flag them as bodies for pickup.

This morning I got out the Circular Saw and cut a 4x4 wood plank to fit and propped it against the front door knob on the inside. I nailed 2x4’s around the base to the floor, to secure it in place at the base. Someone tried to get in the house last night and I was not going to allow myself to be robbed or killed like that. I was able to scare away whoever it was with some yelling, banging, flashing the lights on and off and then threats.

My son was petrified and he certainly had his vocabulary increased, listening to me during the whole scene. “Shove what where?” he asked me the next morning. He ran downstairs from his room, in the middle of the event, which ended when I smashed out one of the little windows near the top of the door and shone the bright flashlight out at them. I threatened to use my gun, which I don’t really have. It was a mixed group of young men and women, black and white. I think the lights being on are drawing attention.

I rigged the 4x4 so I can remove it if needed, but once in place, someone would have to pretty much take the whole door frame down to get in. What to do about the Sliding Glass door on the back of the house and the ground floor windows though?

Later, I heard banging and screams somewhere in the neighborhood. I expect the punks broke in to another house. I don’t really want to know what happened right now.

News is getting very patchy. The internet is all but down, connections to any site just hang. I was able to IM my friend to the north again to just find out that they had a major outbreak. Everything there is pretty much like here, except my friend and his whole family (kids too) are sick. I could only wish him luck and hope for the best. I could not get a VPN connection to work, so that appears to be down totally. Since I am a contractor, I will not be getting paid for the duration, but I bet the government employees will. I probably shouldn’t gripe.

I saw the body truck (one of the Recycling contractor trucks) come through the neighborhood this morning. There was nothing to pickup in our area that I saw, besides the 3 we had bagged. That reminds me, trash service hasn’t been operating and they should have come Tuesday. I didn’t have much so I didn’t put mine out.

We had a strong thunderstorm this afternoon and the power went out. I have had several ½ gallon bottles of water, frozen in the freezers, to help in this sort of situation. We have been eating the frozen food first, because the other non-perishable food was the last resort. I still have my gas stove to warm the food up.

I tried to call my family to the west (Detroit and Vegas) on my one land line phone and that is all dead. So the phones are dead, the internet too and my Blackberry. I charged the scanner last night, so that would be all I can use to get info for now. I heard on the scanner that some of the police and fire stations are closing. Before I went to bed, I noticed a bagged body was out, across the street, with a red sock around the tied off top of the bag.

Monday, June 11, 2007

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.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

A Pandemic, Part 1

This story is obviously fiction (previously posted elsewhere, but I am “beefing” it up). As of today the Pandemic Flu outbreak has not yet started. When I originally posted this, over a year ago, I had read on the CDC web site FAQ (seriously) that the “Bird Flu” has already jumped person to person. It didn’t spread because the people infected got so sick, so fast and died, that it didn’t have a chance to spread. Today I look and there is nothing on the main CDC.gov web page linking to Pandemic Bird Flu. It dropped off the radar like SARS and West Nile Virus. The next scare to be swept under the carpet will probably be "global warming". Ahem..

The scenario I paint here is not at all out of the realm of possibility, I do think.

1 Sept. 2008.
Schools closed today and they had just opened this week! My son (17) came home on the bus half way through the day. They had their flu immunization shots at school this morning. Someone’s using their head there. Then they sent the kids home and locked everything up. The kids have all their books and lists of work to do each day for 30 school days, as long as they are well. They provided a sealed packet of quizzes that patents are supposed to administer and return when the kids go back to school. The Flu has only spread badly through New York and southern California, but there are spotty cases/outbreaks in most populated areas. Of those it looks like Minneapolis, Atlanta, Salt Lake and Dallas are the worst.

There is little news coming out of Africa, where things started, that is at all good. One week ago the Flu was said to be at its peak there. A lack of food, communication and medical care resulted in devastating casualties. Some estimates are as high as 30% of the overall population is dead and nearly 90% sick. I am sure the poor are bearing the worst of the casualties.

All of the other continents have outbreaks, but Brittan has managed to stay Flu free. They were the first country to close their borders entirely, even to their own citizens outside the country. It’s easier when you are an island I suppose. They gave a weeks notice and put everyone entering that week into quarantine and it has worked, so far. Now they just have to stick it out.

Europe as a whole is doing OK so far. Spain and Italy have massive problems and I heard the islands of Cyprus, Sicily and Sardinia are completely lost. The riots and looting left the islands wasted and travel was completely cut off.

Russia has been totally dark as far as information goes. They have probably taken drastic steps to close their borders and combat the problem, but who can say.

3 Sept. 2008.
The US President announced yesterday that all non-essential, civilian Federal Government agencies will “close to traffic” the day after tomorrow. This means all non essential staff will work from home, if possible and are able. It will impact all of the parts of the civilian government like, HHS except the CDC, the NSF, IRS, Treasury, FCC, etc. I work at NIH and they were sending anyone home who even "seemed" sick, which included me. I smoke and have a bad Ragweed allergy, so “out you go coughing-sneezing guy”. Fine by me. I hit the liquor store on the way home, to stock up, just in case things get bad. I have stocked up on about everything else I could, last year.

Sitting at home watching the news, I see that today all US airlines suspended flights as mandated by the FAA. The CDC was concerned that at least two variations of the Flu exist now and don’t want to contaminate one part of the country with another’s Flu. The Surgeon General was on TV announcing the move. When I went out for a smoke, I thought that I haven’t seen the skies this empty since late September 11th 2001.

The State Pandemic plans, which were tossed together hastily, were just today “unified” under a Federal plan. It was announced by the Press Secretary, who had a bad cough and was alone on stage. Marshal Law will be rolled out as the Pandemic spreads. New York and San Diego are already there and are doing their best to deal with the looting and general unrest. In New York its worse, some Hospitals have bodies piling up fast and they are trying to decide the best way to handle the problem. Arguments were feverish about some of the more gruesome options, but they have nowhere to put them all. The whole northeastern US is now in some stage of Pandemic and it is spreading south. Some states are limiting travel, but not really enforcing it. To top all this off, I just heard a category 2 hurricane “Michael” is churning in the middle of the Atlantic, heading west and a large tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico is raising concerns too.

Saturday, June 9, 2007

The Bridge

http://thebridge-themovie.com/new/index.html

This movie looks interesting and sickening at the same time. Some of the jumpers have stories of survival, so it's not all bad. I would be interested to know where people go to do this in other cities.

Friday, June 8, 2007

Perfect Launch

The US Space Shuttle Atlantis had a perfect launch a few minutes ago. I tear up at the sight, because I am patriotic and these are a huge win for our country.

I am jacked up that we plan to send people to the moon again, I just hope we find something more meaningful for them to do there this time. I don't know I will live to actually see it happen, but I will watch the progress closely.

It will of course scare people when we start screwing with the moon, which we will. There has to be something up there we can use, which we will. In the next few generations they will have to grapple with rights to the moons of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, which will all be treasures. Liquid Methane lakes, um, what's something like that worth?

We are on the brink of ultimate war or greatness. It will be up to the people at the top to let this all happen nicely, but knowing the animal that in Mankind, I expect you kids will see more war and death. It is our "Nature" to do so.

Friday, June 1, 2007

Iranians

So I was talking to this young gal at work, reviewing some software updates (she is a developer) in her cube. I noticed a piece of paper in a language I didn't recognize, so I asked what it was. She said it was Farsi.

I said "I didn't know you were Iranian", which surprised her. Most Americans wouldn't put the two together. She seemed impressed. I told her I had done some reading, because of all of the problems between the US and Iran. She said the problems were not with Iran, but with the crazy Government.

When I said I was scared to travel there, she became almost livid. She is very pro Iran, but doesn't like the Government. I figured we should stop there, so I said we can talk more about it later. We finished our business and I left.

What I didn't want to sit in her cube and say out loud (all those nosey people around) was that I had been in the Military and had a Top Secret clearance back then because I had worked with Nukes.

Do you think if I jumped on a plane to Iran, their Government wouldn't investigate my background and find that out? I doubt it.

If anything interesting comes of our subsequent talks on the subject, I will let you know. Oh, this is good too. http://www2.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-203/0706016686151816.htm
And they arrested a scary US Grandmother http://www.freehaleh.org/. Yeah, where's my plane ticket??