9/11 Rememberance on 9/12

I remember that 9/11/2001 in the Puget Sound area was warm, sunny and gorgeous, much like it was in Manhattan that day.

I woke up, took my shower, got dressed, had a bite to eat and some coffee, then headed to work. I had about a 5-10 minute commute at the time. During all this I had not switched a radio or TV on. So I arrived at work with no clue as to what had occurred. Being on the west coast, all of the major events had already transpired.

So I walk into work, and I see co-workers gathered around a radio crying. I asked what was wrong, and they started saying something about how planes had crashed and towers had fallen and frankly not one bit of it made any sense to me, it was all too overwhelming.

For the first and only time since it became so huge in our lives, the Internet did not help much that day, at least at first. I remember all the news sites being overwhelmed and loading extremely slowly if they loaded at all.

So I went to the message boards that I have always liked to visit, and slowly pieced together the news from there, plus I listened on small transistor radios with my co-workers. It all seemed like a dream or an epic end of the world dramatization.

I had to attend a big sales meeting that day in our other office, and we still held the meeting, but nothing remotely like sales was discussed. Instead we spent much of our time around a television set in our client lounge watching a TV.

On the drive back to my office I stopped at a 7-11 and bought a small American flag from a middle eastern gentlemen who looked as shaken as everyone else and put it on my car. I am not normally given to overt displays like that, but that day it seemed right.

When I got home that evening I didn't know what to do other than carry on as usual - I made dinner for my family and then took my kids to the pool.

We lived near Sea-Tac airport at that time, and the silence of no planes flying was noticeable that night. When we had first moved in the jet noise was a little annoying, but we felt hope again the first time we heard it again post 9/11.

It sounded like the world was righting itself again, at least a little.

Seven years and a day later it seems like some weird fever dream, but it must still seem like a nightmare to those who lost loved ones and those that were there and survived when others did not.

My prayers are with them.