And to echo it, Jeeesusss this week. What a week.
You all know what happened nearby to where I live. For those of you wondering geographically, I'm up north of Boston, south of the NH border. Thirty miles difference between me and the big to-do that went down this week. On Monday Jess and I were headed to work, and the town we work in is on the Boston Marathon route. I told her we had to be clear from the house here by 8am to not only get her to work on time but to avoid road closures and obstacles that would prevent us from getting to the office. We made it, but saw a couple of ramp closures and state troopers keeping traffic from coming off of the highway and the back up was starting to get huge ... we made it by the skin of our teeth I think.
Work was uneventful. Kids, cooking, parents and grandparents with them in the kitchen, phone ringing, email answering. The usual every day laughs with Jo, the usual every day adventures that we undertake on a daily basis.
Shortly after the early afternoon classes wrapped up, our Knife Sharpener person was sitting in the office and said "Facebook? Do you have nothing to do but be on Facebook at work?" Truth be told, I had just tweeted something from our account, cross posted something to our business Facebook page, and I was staring at my news feed... and words were on the screen that I didn't expect to see.
I tried to go to Boston.com and heard Renee at the front desk say that she couldn't get a call out to her husband, and that WCVB.com was saying there was a bombing at the marathon finish line.
Honestly, I will say that initially I thought maybe this was some sort of domestic "right wing" terrorism because of the date on the calendar... April 15th. During this week historically, a ton of really horrible things have happened in the USA that have nothing to do with radical Islam or Arabs or anyone other than Americans... Ruby Ridge, Waco, Columbine, Oklahoma City... what am I missing? April 19 and 20th always make me nervous (by the way, I consider myself a Libertarian, not a Liberal Democrat so don't say I'm some sort of Liberal Whacko accusing the Right of doing wrong...) so I was initially worried that this wasn't the usual "date" to expect something to blow up, but it was indeed a very unique opportunity to wreak havoc.
Suffice to say, as the suspects' story unfolded, I still wasn't surprised at what was discovered either...
Friday morning as I went to get out of bed, the radio was on and I heard that my work town was under a "shelter in place" order along with other towns surrounding Watertown. I texted Jo and asked her if she was watching the news... she closed the office, Doug's boss called a little before 7 to tell him not to come in either. Doug and I planted on the couch as I monitored my facebook feed and we listened to the Boston police scanner and watched the news. The police scanner was usually 15 minutes or more ahead of what was being reported on the TV so that was an interesting listen.
Strangely, as all of this was going down, for me Facebook was the place to be. Several friends were in the neighborhood of the activities, several were far away, several were freaking out and several were cracking wise and making jokes. Gallows humor reigns amongst most of my friends. Some of my friends on the left and right were politicizing the events. Some were praying. Some were dead silent and had nothing to add and I wanted to hear from them. I got messages from friends around the world asking if we were impacted at all by this Friday development, from Denmark, Sweden, New Zealand and South Africa.
I was surprised when they lifted the shelter in place order, and within minutes all fresh hell broke lose and the excitement rekindled. What happens next will be interesting to see.
I don't have much else to say because I'm still trying to process things in my head and heart.
Today, April 21st, is the 12th anniversary of the death of my best friend. Doug and I took a wonderful long walk in Gloucester today and I thought of the Counting Crows... "It's been so long since I've seen the ocean, I guess I should." I think my take away from the events of this stupid week are that I should do things like go see the ocean, take opportunities to do life affirming activities, and get off of my couch. I may never run a marathon - but I can get up and go... and will.
Just sending you a virtual hug, just because.
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