(Update: At 6:08 p.m. ET Friday, Gov. Deval Patrick said residents could go outside again. And at 8:45, the suspect was captured.)
I'm writing this from a major American city where we aren't supposed to go outside, because a teenager accused of bombing our marathon is hiding somewhere nearby.
The governor has ordered us not to leave home. Cabs and trains are shut down. Police are scouring the streets.
Luckily, Boston is good at staying indoors. We have terrible weather here.
The other stuff you've heard is true, too: People really are obsessed with sports and Dunkin' Donuts, but today's Bruins and Red Sox games are off and most (but not all) of the Dunkies are closed. The only businesses open in my neighborhood are the pizza place selling "Boston Strong" slices and the bar that doesn't close for anything.
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I live in Brookline, between Boston proper and Watertown, where police have been looking for the suspect since last night. My friend John Meigs lives there. A SWAT team just came to his door.
"They're going house to house," he said. "They checked every part of my building. Three apartments and the basement. About seven heavily armed SWAT officers. It's eerily quiet here right now, has been all day."
The Armenian grocer across the street from him got a bread delivery this morning, he said. The market's closed, so no one's brought the bread inside. But no one's stolen it, either. Maybe because of all those SWAT teams.
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Around 5:30 p.m., Meigs finally got permission to leave home. He's going to New Hampshire.
"It's stressful here," he said.
The other night I went by Boylston Street, close to the finish line. Normally, it's a bizarrely clean and orderly street for a big city. You almost feel sometimes like you shouldn't be walking there. It especially feels that way now. There are satellite trucks and armed guards and military vehicles that look like more compact versions of the Batmobile. Nearby, people have hung banners — some with painted red sox — to honor the victims and first responders.
I live far enough from the action — about three miles from Watertown — that the cops didn't say anything this afternoon when I left home to walk the dog. A handful of other people were out, too, walking their dogs or asking the cops questions or grabbing a smoke. They also didn't bother the woman I think might be homeless.
The cops are letting some other things go, too: BuzzFeed says Dunkin' Donuts shops near Watertown are open.
"There was an automated message going around telling businesses to close," store manager Jessica Cadorette told the site. "But because we're Dunkin' Donuts, we called the police department and they said we didn't have to."
Boston actually shuts down kind of a lot: Twice in the last six months nearly everything has closed because of weather. In February, we could barely walk down the block for two days.
Right now it's 73 degrees, for the first time in I don't know how long. It might be nice to go for a jog or to take the dog to the park or to go with my girlfriend out to dinner.
But we'll probably just stay in.