At The Movies!

The fella finally got to take me to the movies...
We went to see Contagion.
Stellar cast giving fine performances. Great premise, tracking a virus back to Day One and seeing how it spreads. The efforts to contain it, the efforts to find a vaccination or treatment, government response, etc.
If you have not seen the movie and wish to go see it, read no further as there will be some *spoilers*.
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Okay...here we go...
They showed the trash piling up in the streets as people didn't report to work, etc. because so many people were sick. I mean, they quarantined cities and whole states! Two million people dead in the US within the first 14 days.
HOWEVER...my big  issue is that within all the chaos they were showing...the electricity was still on, the water still flowed from the taps, cable t.v. still up and running, the internet was still going fine and the phone lines and wireless phones were still operating without a problem.
Really? REALLY!?
Almost no violence.
The violence shown was: a sorta raid on a pharmacy (glass breaking, shoving and shouting), a small melee at a food station run by the National Guard (again, shoving, a few people knocked down), shotgun blasts in a darkened home (no bodies or blood shown), a home invasion at a CDC doctors home when his wife was home alone...the miscreants were searching for the vaccination. The wife was never really physically threatened. Apparently just scaring her was supposed to be trauma enough.
That was it.
The story was good...but the details were lacking in realism.

I'll give it two stars and recommend that you wait for Netflix or the dvd.

As for getting to go out on a date with the Darlin' Man....now THAT was WONDERFUL! The only fly in the ointment was I made the Very Bad Mistake of getting some nachos at the movie theater. Was fine for a couple hours and then massive heartburn hit. Yeee-Ouch! Next time I'll stick to popcorn!
We had a spirited discussion of the movie afterwards.
The  Darlin' Man was quick to point out logistical mistakes, mistakes in details about the Armed Forces, National Guard, etc. Also, since he has been to Asia, he saw some of the mistakes made in showing how the governments there would handle the problem. I was amazed that in this particular *scenario*, there was still ample gasoline available for people to high-tail it out of the cities, plenty of trucks on the road, etc. They showed an empty grocery store...but a fully stocked and military guarded MALL ! "Yeah, let's not worry about the food supply...dear heavens, get to the mall! The Gap and Hot Topic NEED us!" (No one actually said that---but that's how it came across to me!) And no interruption of electricity, water, cable t.v., phone systems and internet? That gobsmacked me.
I guess because we are so wired in to the whole preparedness mindset, we have a different world view.
We KNOW that if the garbage men don't come into work, neither will the guys down at the water treatment plant or the workers at the cable company or the linemen for the electric company or the folks that drive the trucks to deliver goods to the malls, etc.
The infra-structure of people that provide the things that those of us on-grid depend on is vast and complex. One fumble and the electric grid goes down. One screw-up at the water treatment plant and raw sewage will back up in your house or flow into the streets.
We live in an intricate web in the on-grid world. We are dependent upon the efficiency and competency of a massive amount of anonymous people that we never meet.
I, personally, am grateful for all those folks. We pay our bills on time...if we don't they can't and things could break down in a hurry! We are aware of all those anonymous folks and hope for their well-being, especially on stormy nights when the power goes out and somewhere out in the darkness, somebody is being roused out of bed to make repairs so the rest of us will have lights, heat, refrigeration, etc.
Conversely, we also prepare for occasions when the grid doesn't work and we will be on our own. We have flashlights and candles, alternate cooking supplies, stored water, etc.
It boils down to the old adage "Hope for the best but prepare for the worst"