Today while I was out getting groceries, I made the mistake of turning on the radio and caught the end of that report about the mass suicide in Iowa. 23 dead in a dairy barn— apparently they’d rather die than become infected. Went to turn the radio off, but had already heard more than enough. That’ll teach me.

Drove Meredith to Dr. Meachum’s office today. We got as far as the parking lot — it was worse than Wal-Mart, no parking spots anywhere. You could see people lined up outside the clinic, some of them in wheelchairs, wearing masks, others laid out on the grass, old people, little kids – man, those were the hardest to look at. Meredith was in the passenger seat, doubled over and crying, scared and in pain. She kept asking, “What if it’s the baby, what if there’s something wrong,” and I didn’t know what to say to her, I just held her hand and tried to tell her it was going to be all right. How would I know? But it seemed to help. (more…)

Okay, now I’m sitting up here in my study with the laptop and a half-empty bottle of bourbon, typing the words and it seems like it happened to a different person. It’s late and the house is quiet—if I listen I can actually hear Meredith down the hall, sleeping. She has to sleep on her side with a pillow between her knees. Dr. Meachum says that’s best. I’m going to post this now and try to keep it as updated as possible. If you’re reading it, and anything like this is happening where you live, I hope you’ll leave a comment.

I saw a woman killed this morning.

After breakfast, Meredith sent me out for supplies. The parking lot was jammed, and on the way in I saw a fight break out between two guys over an empty spot. I just kept my eyes straight ahead and kept walking. (more…)

Are you watching this map? It’s scaring the hell out of me.

I guess a few of you found this site. One of you emailed me a copy of a quarantine sign that they’re using in your town. I’ve thrown it up in our “initiatives” section. Feel free to use it if it will help stop the spread.

Here’s hoping you don’t need to use it.

Feel free to check out that Twitter-account analyzer we’ve got hooked up. The media keeps talking about all the things that the infected seem to obsess over, and the symptoms they seem to show, so we took those and plugged them into a program that looks over someone’s musings. Take it with a grain of salt — but if your friends are popping up with some pretty high scores on there, you may want to avoid some face-to-face contact with them until this whole thing blows over.

It’s gotta blow over, right?

So, here we go. My name is Paul, and that’s about all I’m going to say about who I am. If what people are saying is true, the government is shutting down sites like this left and right for causing hysteria. So let’s just leave it at “Paul.”
(more…)