MY SEPTEMBER 11th

My shadow late in the afternoon of September 11th, 2016. It was a warm, sunny day. I took a bike ride while listening to the Patriots/Cardinals football game. There were a few people out on the Trail and in the parks, but not many.

September 11th, 2001. I can't say it's a day that altered my life forever, but it's one of those events that you never forget.

The day started out well enough. We were in the midst of a great Indian Summer, with temperatures in the high 70's F to low 80's.

I was working the early shift at a company in the radio industry. We shipped CD's and music-on-hard-drive to about 1500 radio stations in the U.S. and Canada. I don't remember what project I'd finished, but when my boss came in around 6 a.m. he said something like "Wow, some plane hit the World Trade Center in New York."

"Was it a big plane or small plane?"

My boss wasn't sure. The news out here was sketchy at that point.

An empty cricket field with long shadows, but the sun feels so warm on my back.

Of course, being out here in Seattle, our news sources were limited concerning quick events Back East. All we had was the radio, TV, and newspapers -- the internet news wasn't as fast or efficient as it is now.

And social media was in its infancy -- there were no instant pictures taken by someone on their IPhone to simultaneously Tweet to the world back then.

Someone spray painted 'Trump' on a retaining wall. The local Trail has had several chalk markings placed by a pro-Trump supporter as well. Obviously, by the use of  graffiti, this particular Trump supporter may be in the 18-24 demographics. :-)

No one in the production department -- at that time -- bothered to switch on the radio. We had the stereo blasting most of the time, anyway; after all, we had to, to listen for digital glitches, skips, or swear words that we may have inadvertently missed on CD's -- we usually took cuss words out whenever we found them on the CD's we were burning. You had to -- it was for radio airplay.

So when we heard a plane hit the World Trade Center, we figured it was a private prop plane or maybe a business jet, hitting the skyscraper by mistake. It's happened before with small planes and skyscrapers. In the 1920's or '30's a plane hit the Empire State Building.

About half an hour later the number two guy in our department, who had been listening to the radio in his office, came out and told us that a second plane hit the World Trade Center.

"A second plane?"

"Yeah, a second plane. And they're saying they were passenger jets. 757's."

"You're kidding. How can that be?"

He didn't know. By that time, no one had said it was terrorism.

Listening to the New England Patriots / Arizona Cardinals football game on KJR 950 AM, on my $2.99 Sony Sports Walkman, which I got several years ago at a thrift store.

Instantly I went back into my CD studio and grabbed my portable radio, and switched it to the local news station, KIRO. The main announcer, Dave Ross (who is still the main morning guy on KIRO-FM), was watching the cable TV news feeds.

"You won't believe this, if you're not watching. But the two towers of the World Trade Center look like the Twin Smokestacks." They were talking about the planes being passenger jets, like 757's, and the problem of fire. How could they put the fires out?

You can tell Fall is approaching because the clouds start to look more interesting.

When I went back out into the main production room, we were all talking. We knew it wasn't a mistake -- you don't have two planes hitting a prominent, well-known skyscraper with it being an accident. It had to be an act of war. But who was it? That was the question.

Word got around the building that someone had switched on the TV upstairs, which was hardly ever used. Soon enough, most of the people in our building were up in the conference room, and the video we were watching was mind-numbing. The two towers were indeed looking like smokestacks. Hardly anyone said much -- I think we were all equally shocked.

A bullfrog pond that is used as a water trap at a nearby golf course. The City took an old gravel pit -- which had turned into a deep pond -- and lengthened it, and made it part of the golf course. Over the years it became a natural part of the landscape.

Then came the report of the plane hitting the Pentagon. Then rumors of a plane going down in Pennsylvania.

"This is war," someone said in the room.

But with who? Of course, about three hours later the news came out about the pilots, the plot, etc. But in the first few hours of coverage, there were more questions than answers.

Next we all saw, live on television, a mountain -- a monstrous cloud of dust rising from the streets surrounding the towers. Then they showed the first tower collapsing -- it had collapsed while there was someone being interviewed, and the TV network had cut to the live coverage when the pall of dust rose. Soon after, the second tower collapsed, live on television.

I felt a huge pit in my stomach. All those people.

Soon after, it was time for me to go home.

I remember the day was sunny and warm. Almost like summer when I made my way out to my car and drove south towards my suburb. The weather looked like a great day, when in the back of my mind was the uncertainty of the national disaster that had just taken place. Of course, over the next few days the news got worse: the accounts of people diving out the windows, trying to escape the fire. The dust, the terror. Horrible.

For several weeks afterwards people around Seattle acted differently. American flags began to appear on cars and trucks on the highways. People were more polite to each other -- even to total strangers. Perhaps in the attack on our country we all felt more of a sense of unity.  It's a sense of unity I don't see here now.

A few years ago I commemorated 9/11 by watching two movies on DVD, "World Trade Center" and "Flight 93". I'd suggest that anyone overseas who is interested in sensing what it felt like to be an American and go through 9/11 to watch them.

As for September 11th this year? I worked out twice, and went for a bike ride. It was a 75 degree day (around 24C), and beautiful and sunny. There were a few clouds in the sky, and although there was a slight breeze, the sun felt so warm on my back. It felt really good, and lifted my spirits. I listened to a football game, on my thrift-store Sony Walkman. The New England Patriots won, even though their star player wasn't playing.

Someone had some extra stickers they took off their car's visor (Airbag warnings, etc.) and for some reason they stuck them to the back of this sign.

Throughout this blog post I've tossed in some pics that I took the afternoon of the 11th.

 A Canadian Thistle, considered a "noxious weed", but it's just another natural plant. This one is ready to spread more noxious weeds in the vicinity.

The next couple photos were taken earlier this month, over the previous week. On my Canon camera -- my trusty Nikon still has nearly 3 gigs of pictures to go through, save, edit, etc. :-)

Bright morning sun glinting off the Cedar River. Taken the first week of September.

The river still looks swimmable -- but no one has been swimming there since the 90F weather we had the last Saturday in August.

80 degree weather and it looks like June, but it's the first week of September -- generally an iffy month weather-wise. Here in Seattle it's always a wondrous time when the sun is out bright. I think it's because of our grey weather half of the year.

Here's hoping you have a good mid-September, wherever you are.
C.C. 9-12-2016