Terrible day......

This is mostly just as a memo for myself.

Once again on a Monday, I'm alone at home and a tragedy strikes in the U.S.

It feels a little surreal.  Our country is so very large, but in a matter of minutes you can get the entire country to stop and pay attention to what is happening in one place.

There was no facebook or twitter last time.  I really only knew it happened as it popped up on the side of the screen on facebook.  When NPR posts something, I certainly stop and go check it out.

I found some of the first pictures that came from people on Twitter.  There were a couple of pretty bad pictures, although I know I did not see anything near the horror the people on the ground there saw.

I have a friend that works in a streaming company, that passes on video from one place to another.
After I posted on facebook they contacted me to share the link to the live feed from Boston.  It turns out to be a lot of repeating video and just talking heads in the back ground, but I'm sure I've heard far more about this situation than the average person on the street.

It started at 2:50 edt today.  The interesting part is that it happened after the big races were already done.  The men's, the women's and the wheelchair elite races had already finished before this happened.
The largest group of people were starting to filter into the finish lines of the Marathon.  
A huge group of spectators had just sort of cleared the area before it happened; and it did not happen on the side with the grandstands.

President Obama spoke to the press around 5:10 pm Cdt.  The biggest problem is that they can not connect people to each other. All of their preparations to connect people to their friends was ruined, because the area you were supposed to meet your friends became the place no one could go to.
Then they shut down cell phone service, which now has made it impossible to meet up with your friends.
I feel for those families that are still looking for their runner this evening.

The game for tonight has been cancelled and the air space around the area has been cleared.

The live feed has been interesting.  They have managed to find plenty of people to talk to and they have cleared out a lot of places in that area.  Hotels are locked down or being cleared.

Once again, we will probably never know what really was the point.  No one has claimed responsibility.  I can only hope that the person who placed those bombs went up with one of them.