9-11, Five Years Later

My experience of that day was probably fairly typical of most Americans not directly involved.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001. My wife and I had just moved into our new house; our house-warming party was Sunday the 9th.

I was telecommuting, at the computer in the basement. My wife called from her office to ask if I'd heard the news. Nope; what news? An airplane had just flown into the World Trade Center. I assumed she meant a light plane; a Cessna or something. Whatever, back to work. I browsed some news sites a few minutes later and found how horribly wrong I was. Internet connectivity was spotty; finally I realized I should turn on the TV. A few minutes later, I watched one of the tower collapses. It was the most sickening, gut-wrenching thing I've ever seen in my life.

I didn't get much work done that morning. I had lunch with a coworker; didn't feel like being alone. Stumbled through work that afternoon. Didn't feel like doing anything, but at the same time I had to do something, and that was the most productive thing I could think of. My wife came home. Didn't feel like hanging out around the house, so we took our heavy hearts and went out for a very glum dinner.

Those were scary times; we worried about what else the bad guys had in store for us. My biggest fear was for the economy, which was already teetering because of the collapse of the dot-com bubble. For my family, and for most people I know, things have gone very well in the past five years. I'm thankful for that.

I don't have anything eloquent to say, but may all the people who departed the earth that day rest in peace.