Just in case anyone is unaware of the situation just now, I woke up to find several messages asking if I was all right and one company-wide email saying "DO NOT GO INTO THE OFFICE" in all-caps. Last night, the two Boston Marathon bombers were chased from the city into Watertown, where we happen to live, and I managed to sleep through a high-speed gunfight with explosives being thrown out of a car window.

One of them is still on the loose, and the entire city of Boston has been advised to stay indoors, causing the streets to become frighteningly still and empty. And it turns out that being on a shelter-in-place order with a bomber running around your town is much more cripplingly boring than you would expect. It's strange, because left to my own devices, I could keep myself entertained by the Internet and remain in the house for about six million years - but when you know that your only options are waiting for news or becoming collateral damage, every consecutive hour stretches out even longer.

The police are outside just now on their door to door search, and there have been a couple of helicopters flying low overhead. We live out in a corner of the town and I don't think we're in any real danger, but I am certainly worried about sleeping here tonight. If they start allowing cars out of the city again by tonight, I think we may go off and take a short holiday.