Cloudless sky

[lblanchard]

It's September 9 and the sky is blue clear down to the horizon. I'm watching for trouble from the northeast, from the southeast, and from the west, just like a cloudless September day nine years ago.

I couldn't put my finger on the unease I felt this morning. Surely it was more than the fact that the coffeemaker had gone screwy. Then I remembered -- on September 10, 2001, Roy and I decided to try having our morning coffee in the living room the next morning, instead of making it upstairs and lounging around in our bedroom. And we did, and two hours later the world as we knew it exploded.

Other than the fact that Roy had been in the WTC just a week before and went to New York regularly, we had few connections to anyone who was lost on any of the four flights or the crash sites -- cousin of a friend of a friend kind of thing. Still, the feeling of being more or less in the interior of a triangle with points defined by New York, Washington, and Shanksville and wondering who would be next was very unsettling. That and the realization that we're not far from some iconic American landmarks.

We biked to the Red Cross to give blood and were thanked and put on a waiting list; and then we went and unlocked the church so that we, and others, could pray.

I'm overdue to give blood. I think I'll drop by the Red Cross tomorrow.

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

of all the things I remember about that day, I remember the blue sky. I remember, the next day, a picture of the smoke and the rubble and in the foreground the statue of Liberty. And the sky, so very blue.

There is nothing like the feeling
of an early morning sunshine
after weeks of long hard travelling
It drains the weary miles away
Beautiful Bar Harbor
the 11th of September
The blue sky a perfect mirror
to another perfect day
As I took the path that led down to the bay

As I walked along the shoreline
In the warm Fall sunshine
In had no other view in mind
than just to let the day unfold
as contended I went walking
in New York that lovely morning
A day of Hell was dawning
That shook a nation to its soul
and made that sweet warm day seem bitter cold

Eric Bogle - One Morning in Bar Harbor

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

I will never be the same.

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

How could ANYONE be the same? It didn't just happen to New York, even though it happened IN New York.

I too went to the blood bank, and was turned away because they had more than they could handle. That made me proud.

I had one glimpse of "the Twins" (as my dear guitar teacher calls them) before their demise. My friend Jan talks about flying in to NYC from the west, when she was an adjunct prof in Montana. She used to watch for the Twins. So did so many people. The terrorists took the heart of New York. Oh, the heart is still there, and it beats. But, like a patient whose heart has sustained damage, nothing will ever be the same.

[karenkay.livejournal.com]

I really like the fact that your ucky feelings translated into positive action.

[lblanchard.livejournal.com]

Lots of folks had the same idea -- the line at the Red Cross was way out into the parking lot.