Doh!

It's not the land lines. They're fine.

It's our study phone, which *Some* body forgot to hang up.

For a plague and all, the local services seem to be running just fine. Cable is still in (and still nothing worth watching). Somebody at AMC with a sense of humor is running a George Romero marathon.

The news updates say that it's not "undead" or anything.

Some sort of parasite. I'm wondering if it's biological warfare, like in Day of the Triffids.

Anyway, I need to go in to work, as there's no state of emergency, and they guilted me into it.

Taking *all five* of the kids in, which should be a real treat. On the other hand, I've been a little worried about the Head Start kids. Spouse will meet us there, as will my sister and *her* kids and spouse.

Spouse has "borrowed" back the Queen Emeraldas, which is diesel (full tank o gas), with a crew cab and extended bed. So we'll be able to fit all this stuff and kids in.

Weird that we're not more scared than we are. For me, I think it's all those dreams about something like this happening, so...