My schedule is the same every day.

In my opinion it is a good thing to have a solid schedule so as to get things done, so I can stay sharp even as I age.

And I am aging. That's for certain. The old alarm clock I have is over 50 years old. My house was built for me when I was young, and it is even older. I've lived in it for 73 years, I just can't bear to part with it. My wife moved in here when we got married. It feels like it has the history of my life stored inside it.

On a certain Sunday, I got up, stepped out of bed, and got myself some orange juice and eggs. I stepped outside and grabbed a copy of the Sunday paper, wondering what I would find. The date was Sunday, July 8th, 2013. Microsoft Comes out with New Version of Windows Phone. Now that didn't make any sense to me. What is a Windows Phone? It probably is some kind of technology, but I don't care. I haven't cared about new technology for a long, long time.

My wife was just getting up. We sat and read the paper together, and while I was reading, a picture on the wall of my grandchild Sam caught my attention, and I remembered that he and our daughter Emily were coming over for a visit today. My mood skyrocketed. I turned to my wife and said, "Ella dear, I just remembered that Sam is coming over for a visit today."

"How exciting, Robert!" exclaimed Ella. "I can't wait to visit to him. And I'll get the television set up, I know he likes to watch things when he's over here."

Ella grabbed her cane and walked across the dining room and into the living room. She grabbed the remote and clicked a button. Nothing happened. "How weird," noted Ella. She clicked the button again. Still nothing happened. "I must be doing this wrong. Technology is so complicated today. Oh well, I'm sure Sam will be able to help us fix it."

Ding dong. Ella looked up. "Well speak of the devil, that must be Sam!" She went to open the door, and sure enough, standing there, were Sam and Emily. "My, you've grown," said Ella, smiling. "I haven't seen you in months!"

"Grandpa! Grandma!' shouted Sam, giving them each a hug.

"How have you been?" I asked.

"Oh, I've been so worried," said Sam. "I've been trying to contact my Facebook friends all day but I kept getting this message that the internet was not available. And then my phone couldn't even open any of the applications. But the power is still on. I don't know what's going on."

I whispered in my wife's ear, "Ella, do you have a clue what Sammy is talking about?"

"Not a clue, dear."

"It's probably just kid stuff. Although his mom seems somewhat worried as well."

Emily did look kind of worried. She gave us a hug, but then started pacing the room, looking even more anxious than Sam. Occasionally she'd reach into her pocket and pull out the portable telephone, apparently checking to see if it worked. And it didn't, each time. But she kept going back to check again.

"I'm sorry, mom and dad, but we really do have to get going," said Emily.

"What?" I exclaimed. "You just arrived! I didn't get a chance to even talk with Sam."

"I know, I'm really sorry, but we're dealing with some - issues. Nothing for you to worry about, just stuff we need to take care of."

Emily left the house with a nervous look on her face, Sam following reluctantly. As soon as the door closed and they were out of earshot, Ella turned to Sam and asked, "Are we missing something here?"

The next morning, my alarm clock sounded, waking me up. Normally, Ella just kept on sleeping, but this time, she jolted awake. We were both a little on edge after yesterday's incident. Nothing appeared to be malfunctioning that we needed - the power was still on and the plumbing was still working - but their words kept echoing in my head.

I walked out onto the front porch and picked up the Monday newspaper. Communications Blackout Spreads throughout Eastern United States, Causes Multiple Train Crashes, Airports Shut Down from Iowa to Maine.

Oh shoot. I had a brother in Iowa. I didn't know what this was about, but I knew that I had his number on the refrigerator, and that I should probably call him. I dialed his number into the landline and waited for it to ring. Nothing happened.

"Honey, I think we should get our phone serviced."

"Robert, where would we go to do something like that?"

"Beats me," I said. "Maybe we should just wait for tomorrow's newspaper. Chances are, everything will be figured out, and it will be one of those machines' faults, and they will have replaced the machine and everything will be working normally again."

"That sounds good."

And we went about our day as if nothing was happening. We let ourselves forget that something clearly was happening and just enjoyed the day. I took a walk around the block and then sat down with my favorite book, and my wife continued knitting a beautiful scarf that she was going to sell to a local store.

Everything was perfectly normal until the we got a knock at our door. "Just a second," said Ella. "I'm coming. I'll be there in a few seconds."

She opened the door to reveal a fireman standing on the front porch. "Well hello!" said Ella. "Come on in. My husband here just made a fresh batch of cookies and we know that firemen love cookies. Would you like any?"

The fireman paid no attention to her. "Look," he said. "I want you to remain calm. Everything is perfectly under control. We always have backup. All your data that might be stored in the cloud is safe on government computers. We hope to have things back to normal again shortly. Until then, stay safe, and don't stray far from your home." Without even waiting for a response, the fireman left, heading over to the next house to deliver the same message.

"We don't leave the house much anyway, do we?" I noted, laughing.

That night, the sound of gunfire woke us up. It was a chilly, foggy night, and the gunfire was close by, just a block or two away. We could see it as well as hear it.

"Gimme your car, or I blow your brains out!" we heard a voice yell. Then came more gunfire.

"I've been deliberately missing, but not this time. Gimme your god damn car, and I'll abandon this hellhole for good. I'll leave you alone and move to California. Somewhere far away from this mess."

"Honey, I'm scared," said Ella. "I haven't ever heard gunfire here before. What's going on?"

I put on a straight face. I had seen action before, first as a private in WWII and then as a Lieutenant Colonel in Vietnam. But it didn't make things any easier for me.

Finally, the gunfire subsided, and the sound of a car zipping down an empty road could be heard, probably the sound of the shooter getting his ass to California. "It's ok, honey. We're safe in our shell here."

We tried to get back to sleep, but it was just too hard. We were scared, and the sound of jets and distant explosions didn't help. I thought of Sam, ranting about his technology not working. I thought of this morning's newspaper, talking about the communications blackout. I thought of the television that didn't work and the fireman that had come by to warn us to stay inside. And that's when a word popped into my mind that I hadn't thought about in...well...ever, actually.

Cyber-terrorism.

I remembered hearing about it in a news program on the radio. The anchor was saying that our society has gotten so hooked on technology that one single hacker (whatever that is) could render an entire country or area of a country totally defenseless by just breaking into the technology.

At first I brushed it off as ridiculous, but as I thought more carefully about it, it made sense. These computers and social networking tools, the stuff my wife and I knew nothing about, were causing an entire nation to fall into panic. As of this morning, it had only been between Iowa and Maine, but it could have changed throughout the day.

"Darling," I said, turning to my wife. "I think things are going to change soon...and not necessarily for the better."

"Robbie...Robbie...We don't have to be afraid of it though. We've lived good long lives. What do we have to fear?"

Ella was right. As much as I feared this new change that was coming, there was really nothing it could do to me. I probably had ten years or less to live anyway.

So at seven in the morning I got up, took a deep breath, grabbed my cane, and walked to the front door to get the Tuesday newspaper. It occurred to me as I was walking that the newspaper might not be there. Or maybe it would be there, but the news would be so horrible that it would make me cry to read it. I pictured the headline, Millions Dead - America Declares War on Durkadurkastan, or something like that. It was almost enough to make me turn around.

I looked behind me. Ella was standing in the place where the hallway met the living room, giving me an encouraging look. So I took yet another deep breath, and opened the door to the outside. And yes, there was a newspaper there. And no it didn't make me cry. But that was because I couldn't read it at all.

Because it was written entirely in Korean.