The Outbreak: Today

Saturday, March 26, 2005

Today

Something just flew overhead that sounded like a jet.

When we woke up the rioting had already started, so I called Ken and Savas and a couple of other people in the city to find out if they had any clue what was going on. They didn't, not really, though they both thought the "shoot-out between gang members in the emergency room" explanation was pretty weak. It had already gotten pretty bad. But it did take me a while to reach them, so it's tough to characterize what the immediate cause might have been in the epicenter(s?) hours earlier.

One of the stranger aspects of whatever the hell is going on is that wherever else it's happening in the city, it's also happening in SoHo and the Village. That would be like the Rodney King riots centering in West Hollywood. It doesn't make sense to me, and neither does the Asian situation, which is totally out of control by whatever accounts are still making it out. Then you've got places like Kyrgyzstan and Pakistan where you don't really know if it's even out of character given the political climate, but the mind wants to see patterns. You really can't make any judgements from the news anyway, since the TV is pretty much just showing "all smoke and skylines all the time" instead of any on-the-ground footage; the picture being painted by the NYC-based bloggers is pretty goddamn grim, though, that's for sure.

I had to go out this afternoon to replace my glasses, which I had snapped in half at lunch the other day in a misguided effort to tighten the fit. This was around 5 p.m. and I didn't really notice anything out of whack here. Aw shit, that isn't true, is it? Now that I think of it you could see the cop cars down by the Nassau University Medical Center. Probably unrelated, but actually? Probably not, at this point. I'll see the patterns until they're proven otherwise.

Amidst all this Amy got a call from her parents telling her that her dog Bobo passed out in the middle of the night and had to go to the veterinary ICU. He was diagnosed with congestive heart failure about a year ago, and that's what caused this. Probably the last thing she needed to hear today, the day after she got back from visiting. He seems fine now but they're keeping him overnight, and they've got him on oxygen and on higher doses of medication. Amy called the animal hospital a few minutes ago and things were still normal out there.

You can hear sirens fairly frequently now, so I'm sleeping with earplugs in.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

sean. I like your blog. things are fucked out here. I closed the library today when the dsl went down. It's three am here. I'm writing from the street near a cafe near seatle center where somebody told me the wifi ran at night. do you know anything about my family? I couldnt call them tonight. are there more big snowstorms out there or something? happy easter.
davey

Sunday, March 27, 2005 6:42:00 AM  
Blogger Sean T. Collins said...

Just rain Dave. I haven't talked to anyone's family except mine and Amy's so no, no idea, Christ I hope you get trhough to them. It seems to go in and out if that makes you feel any better, like it's not just straight deteriorating and then crapping out permanently.

Have you talked to Ken or anyone in NYC? You can still go out on the street out there? Be careful PLEASE Dave. I love you and so does Amy.

Monday, March 28, 2005 12:49:00 AM  

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