Thread Drift

[Lise]

Thanks, CC.

I got up this morning and plugged in the TV (that's how seldom I watch it). Remembering the sudden awareness that the first plane wasn't just a horrible accident.

It's raining and chilly here. I'm going to Y to run on the treadmill. It's good to be on vacation.

[DrBee]

Cool new snake Nanci - he's beautiful!

I have a wierd association with 5 years ago today. It was the first day that I wore maternity clothes to work (when preg with FishJr). I was so excited. Then - it seemed so insignificant.

Vacation - I asked the question, so I guess I could answer it too. I would love to go Scotland and Australia and New Zealand. I think those would be my top choices.

Lise - enjoy your vacation! Good luck with the new round of dating possibilities. I look forward to hearing all about Mr. so and so. Maybe this time you'll find Mr. Nearly perfect. I say nearly perfect because perfect would get annoying

SF TE ladies - I'm "extra bitter" today. Picked one up to remind me of the trip

[Trek420]

Fishdoc, I'm "extra bitter" that I had to work that day

[KnottedYet]

I have come to the conclusion that there is no such thing as Mr. or Ms. Perfect. (protects me from becoming extra bitter...) Now, where's the chocolate?

and <whispering>
where's. my. bike?

[KnottedYet]

Just called the bike shop (again). Gotta love that time zone difference.

The bike is "in transit" now! Wooo-hooo! It even has a tracking number for FedEx.

The shop couldn't quite figure out how much they'd charged my credit card, but once they do figure out how much they charged me they'll send me a reciept.

Ok...

Now I have 20 minutes to shower, dress, pack a lunch, pack the pannier, and walk the dog.

Byyyyeeeeeee!

[mimitabby]

choco is cute, Nanci! I just got two feral kittens too. I am a kitty cat foster mother... One is Babe, a gorgeous silver tabby and white, and the other is Freddie, a terrified little grey boy.
So far no one has bitten me. I am hoping to calm Freddie down enough so that it doesn't happen. Babe is a mellow guy. Once he learns how much fun life
can be, he'll be a great cat..

Knotted,
you'll be clicking on the UPS tracker website 300 times a day. that's what i did waitng for my own bike. and of course, my bike was shipped over memorial day weekend; it took FOREVER!

[Nanci]

I'm trying to not freak out- because I'm a _little_ worried about the size of the screen cover...He'd better be in there when I get home.

[maillotpois]

Fish - you got an "extra bitter", too??? How very fitting!!

[Kitsune06]

I'm kind of in a weird place as far as where I was 5 years ago...
I'd written in my LJ that it was a horiffically boring day and I wanted to go home. Then the bell rang and I went to my 1st class, where everyone was gaping at the TV. I glanced up, saw an explosion, said something about bad special effects, and my friend said "No- that's CNN. That's in New York right now!"
Then I freaked out.
I called my long-distance bf (later hubby) to see if he and his were ok. The first thing he said was "I told you Bush would take us to war."
(after we'd bickered through the entire election night that Bush was a better deal than Gore, or whether or not the US would end up going to war, should he win...)
I ended up saying "We won't go to war over terrorist actions- that'd be stupid."
...what an I-told-you-so.
I still don't trust 9/10 of what I hear today. How can we?
I just feel so bad for the people who had to be in or near those buildings...
So sad.

[snapdragen]

I'm extra-bitter today too!

I remember sitting on the couch watching everything unfold; first I thought it was an accident. Even when the second plane hit, in my mind I thought "Wow, there's an air traffic controller out there that's lost his mind". Terrorism didn't even occur to me. When it finally hit me what was happening, I started worrying about my brother and sister in law. She works at Columbia, he was teaching in Manhattan at the time. They had to walk home to New Jersey that day.

[Nanci]

Gulf quake rattles Florida
Sep. 10, 2006. 01:00 PM

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A magnitude 6.0 earthquake deep in the Gulf of Mexico caused shock waves in an area from Louisiana to Florida on Sunday, but no major major damage was reported, the U.S. Geological Survey said.

The earthquake, centered about 260 miles southwest of Tampa, was too small to trigger a tsunami warning, the agency said.

[DebW]

I started a 5 day hike on 9/11/01 and so was blissfully ignorant for two days following the attacks. To this day I have not seen the footage of the planes or collapsing towers because the TV news was no longer showing it when I got home (though I'm sure I could seek it out if I really wanted to see it) and the initial shock was over. So I'm sure it's not as real to me as it is to many of you. My sympathies to everyone who lost loved ones and endured the trauma of that day either directly or indirectly. My sympathies also to those in Afganistan and Iraq who lost innocent loved ones because of the US response to it. I would feel safer from repeated terrorist attack if our response had been increased policing, intelligence gathering, and border security. War makes the whole world less safe, and violence breeds violence. May our future leaders find a better way.

[mimitabby]

we were in southern Italy whn it happened. we had ducked into a hotel
to use their bathroom. when we came out, people were all flocked around the tv. they saw us and said "Americani? come come come!"
I couldn't believe it. I didn't want to come back.

Now, yes, i am pretty bitter too. Osama is doing just great, but how many Iraqi's have we killed ? and more of our troups have now died in this senseless war than the number that died that day...

Bombing bagdad is not going to help american security. REALLY!

(i am getting down off the soap box because you guys really don't want to hear it.)

[Lise]

more of our troops have now died in this senseless war than the number that died that day...

mimi, I thought exactly that this morning. Will Bush have their wives and mothers and husbands and children stand on the White House lawn and read their names, one by one? Should we remember and honor them any less?

Sigh.

I was the new coordinator of a social service agency within our clinic on 9/11/01. I heard the news of the first plane while getting dressed for work. I envisioned a small plane that accidentally ran into the Tower. How sad. I was driving to work and Susan Stamberg was talking to some guy on NPR about his decision to become a teacher when they broke in and said the second plane had hit. It was eerie. Driving down Lake Shore Drive, everybody listening intently to their radios. Watching the sky. Looking at the Sears Tower, the whole Chicago skyline. Wondering if we were next.

Got to work, someone had turned on the TV we used for patient education. My small staff and a few of the docs huddled around it. One of the Mexican case workers turned angrily to a Pakistani doctor and said, "Your people did this." That was my first encounter with the Muslim phobia that swelled around us in the days to come. The look on that sweet pediatrician's face...we spent weeks, after, worried for him, his wife, and children. He told me that people were wonderful to them, offering to go places with them, protect their house.

Many of my patients lost their jobs, sometimes every adult in the family lost their jobs. Most of our patients worked in service industries, many were undocumented immigrants. Terrorism hit the poor the worst. I used to think about that a lot, that the terrorists hurt most the working poor.

[betagirl]

What do you guys think of CNN.com running the full day of 9/11 coverage on their pipeline site? I think it's in bad taste personally, but then again I don't think very highly of news organizations as of late.

I was on my way to work when it happened. I read about a plane hitting WTC in the elevator and assumed it was a cessna or something. Only when I got to my office on the 46th floor of a high profile building here in Chicago did I figure out what was up. After about an hour, we all collectively decided we should not be on the 46th floor any more. About a minute after that decision was made, they evacuated the building.

I worked for American Express in the late 90's, and their corporate HQ is across the street from WTC. I went there several times and stayed in the WTC Marriott a lot. I went back to NY about 6 months after the attacks and the weirdest thing for me was the big gaping hole. It was such a massive complex. We'd always make jokes about the WTC being a target when we'd go over for lunch or to go shopping. I refused to go to the top or to the Windows of the World restaurant.

On a lighter note, Sloane the Bianchi is ready for her first test ride. I installed a front brake over the weekend and took her into Performance to get the chain installed. I bought a freewheel cog to put on as well, you know in case I want to coast at some point. I'll try her fixed for now. Maybe tomorrow if this dang rain lets up.