Week 5

Still no word from Tony (the contact I mentioned last week). I'm starting to get a little worried. It isn't like him to go completely dark without at least a heads up. A few of my other friends have gone offline as well. On the other hand, there seem to be "rolling blackouts" of internet service. Entire regions just drop off for extended periods. And it seems to be ISP agnostic. My area obviously hasn’t been hit yet. But it makes me wonder if my cellular failover will go down as well…

In an interesting turn of events, we’ve had our first city wide quarantine. Nobody in or out. Enforced by the fucking National Guard if you can believe that. Seems more than a little dystopian, but I’m just a lunatic. What do I know? I am a little surprised at which city is on lockdown. I would have guessed L.A. or NYC. Nope. Minneapolis is completely closed. The state governor had a big press conference and everything.

The lockdown means the traditional media can’t provide any meaningful coverage. But word is still spreading. Apparently, the National Guard underestimated the number of tech enthusiasts in the metro area. The government underestimating the populace? I’m shocked. I also really need a sarcasm font. The important part is that word is getting out and the word isn’t good. The city is devolving into a war zone. Law enforcement has given up and are hunkered down. The troops won’t enter the city.  So far, nobody (that has been reported at least) has tried to force their way through. I can’t imagine that would work out very well.

I do wonder what they are going to do about the food situation. Within 72 hours, store shelves would be stripped bare. If it took that long. After a week or so, the average civilian is in rough shape when it comes to food.

On a much more worrying note: NASA, the ESA, and ROSCOSMOS have announced the International Space Station is being completely abandoned. Extra Soyuz capsules are being sent up so everybody can return to earth quickly. All of the ground crews are in quarantine to ensure personnel is available to get the astronauts home safely. Or at least back on the ground. They may be stranded in Kazakhstan but that’s better than being stranded in space. At least on paper.  But abandoning a project that has cost something in the vicinity of $100,000,000,000… What aren’t they telling us?

For the 2^nd time in my life, the FAA has grounded all non-military flights.

In local news, we have our first local infection. He’s currently in isolation at the better of our two shitty small town hospitals. According to the news, he started feeling ill while driving home from Chicago and just barely made it safely to the edge of town before he pulled over and called an ambulance. Surprisingly, they actually released his name in the media. I went to school with him. He was a prick, but I hope he recovers.

Oddly, the CDC doesn’t even have a name for whatever is happening. They can’t even figure out how the infection works. It isn’t purely viral or bacterial. It seems to be some weird hybrid but I don’t have any details. 5 weeks in and the folks in Atlanta are stumped? I think it is safe to say we’re fucked.

I’ll keep this going as long as I am able. More next week.