• September 11, 2012 •

Where were you when the world stopped turning? I remember it all so clearly. I was on 982 driving the kids to school. I station surfing looking for some good music when I came across a news blip about a small plane that had hit one of the towers. I stopped on that station & listened as I continued on to the school. As I got to the school, another report came in that they may have been wrong, it might have been a larger plane that they originally reported. By the time I was back on 982 & heading home, the report came in that it was a passenger jet, & not a small private one, but a full-size plane. I started driving much faster, trying to get home so I could turn on the news & SEE what the heck was going on. When the 2nd plane hit, I floored it. I don't even know how fast I was going, I just had to get home & turn on the news. I was so upset ... that was my home. WTH was going on? When I got home, I had to mess with the TV to try & pull in a signal from a local news channel. This was the ONE TIME the satellite TV was out, so here I was with a really fuzzy picture. When it became clear what had really happened, I called Pete at work & then woke my mother up. One of the main rules is you NEVER wake my mother up ... well, this was an exception & I never got in trouble for doing it. I stood there & stared at the TV in shock with tears streaming down my face. When the 1st tower fell, so did I. I wanted nothing more in the days that followed than to BE THERE & help any way I could whether it was handing out water bottles or digging through the rubble. It tore me up inside that I didn't have the money to get back home & help. I felt like a deserter. Why had I moved away? Why couldn't I go back & help when I was needed? All those people. All those families. All of those co-workers. All those friends of the victims ... so many lives touched & forever changed. And then there were people like me who didn't have any direct connection to any of the victims, but a connection of home. I had lived in N.Y.C. at some point in my life. I was born & raised 16 miles from the G.W. bridge. As a child I would go to D.Q. in my hometown & then my grandmother would drive us to a nearby street where you could see the city off in the distance. It was home to me. That skyline & everyone that lived in the city was part of my childhood memories even though we never met. Now a piece of my childhood & a piece of who I am had been attacked & there was nothing I could do to help. I was 1,400 miles away with no means to get there on a moment's notice. To add to all of this, there was the flight that went down in PA, & the Pentagon. I was never frightened, I was angry & hurt. I've never really gotten over it. To this day I still tear up whenever I see the footage. I probably always will. I've never been back to NJ/NY since it happened. I haven't seen the skyline or ground zero. I'm not sure that I'll handle it when I do. I was woken up this morning at 7:48a (8:48a EST) by Wylie Communications giving a wonderful remembrance over the radio. I sat up in bed, listened, & teared up. Thank you Wylie ... that was beautiful. 9/11 Memorial at the station tonight at 7 followed by hamburgers & hot dogs. Everyone is invited to join us!

Now, let's see if I can pull myself away from that very painful subject ... at least for a little while today, & get on with other, happier subjects. ::: Breathe :::

Yesterday was positively insane as far as being busy. I woke up, & 6 minutes later got a text message about washing the trucks at the station. OK, just give me a minute to get the dogs back inside & get dressed. Be there in a few. I get to the station, get some money to wash the trucks, put my gear in the brush truck, put Kathy's gear in the engine, pull the brush truck out & close the bay door, pull the engine out & close the bay door. Kathy pulls in & we head out to wash the trucks. We get there & the machine doesn't like my money. Of course. I hand Kathy the $1.75 I had in quarters & walked next door to the Mexican place to ask if they had a "cleaner" $10 bill. They handed me a 5 & 5 singles & I walked back to the car wash. Success, the bill changer liked these. I fed quarters into Kathy's machine, fed some into mine, & we were washing. Well, the engine is large & Kathy did a great job, but we ran out of quarters (my fault, I should have brought more money). She got to drive back to the station with soap all over the left rear of the truck.. She got back & hosed off the remaining soap. The brush truck, being smaller, made it all the way through. It looked great! Wash followed by wax, followed by spot-free rinse. I get back to the station, back the truck into the bay, get out (the truck is now completely air-dry from the trip back) & does it look as good as it did when it was wet? Nope. Aw come on! Well, it's cleanER. I get back home & now with me doing ALL the daily chores around the house, I decided to completely re-write the chore spinner. Now, instead of listing a room & choosing a name, it lists a room & then chooses 1 thing in that room to concentrate on. I spent a lot of time coding the whole thing & then when it was finally perfect, I let 'er rip. 12 chores in a 4 X 3 grid. I spent the next several hours cleaning. First I completely scrubbed down the tub & bath mat & polished the chrome. After my arms felt like they were going to fall off, I moved on to the dresser in the bedroom. I took all the afghans that had been piled on the dresser, almost to the ceiling, & put them in the closet. Before I could do that, I had to rearrange the closet a little bit to make space in one of the corners. Fed the cats & dogs, straightened my bar stool (drives me nuts when it's not "straight"), got up on a chair & dusted off the ceiling light in the kitchen, did the same thing in the living room along with the lamp shade on the floor lamp in there, pressure hosed the entire front porch after cleaning all the random items off of it that ended up there, pressure hosed the front walkway, & the entire driveway. Used canned air to blow the dust out of my knitting machine in my office, Kyle had just gotten home & felt bad, so he trimmed the hedges for me, & last but not least I swept the utility room. After all that, I was ready to collapse. And I have to do this much work EVERY DAY now? Aw crap. Well, I finally got the rest of everything done after the housecleaning & then rolled from my desk over to my knitting machine. Finally! West & wewaxation! FAIL. The yarn I thought would work well in there didn't, so I stopped the panel at 50 rows (I think it was 50 ... that was another problem. Kyle was home & very chatty. It's very hard to count rows when someone is talking to you non-stop). I now have a very nice knitted hot pad / potholder. I put the remainder of that yarn away & replaced it with yarn that I KNOW goes through the machine well. I'll work on that tonight if I get that far. I finally just gave up on said to myself "Sims is always good to me ... it's Sims time"! HA! The house I decided to play, St Helena, was gone. It wasn't listed anywhere in my list of available houses to place in a town. What happened to St. Helena?! I had to exit out of the game (the game takes a LONG time to load, so I try to avoid bouncing out of it, but this time I didn't have a choice). I went to Sims3.com & looked through my gallery of uploaded homes that I've made. This was tricky too, because the site had a few burps a while back & deleted some of the homes I had uploaded. Was this one of them? I sure hope not. That would mean it's really gone forever. On the last page, near the bottom, there it was! One of my 1st homes that I made. It looked familiar. I think I did see it in the list of available homes in the game, but it didn't have a name. Just "Lot __________." What the ---, OK fine. At least it was in there. I wonder why no name though? I loaded the game back up & placed the house in Sunset Valley. I created a Sim & a pet cat & proceeded to start playing the game. Based on the Sim's traits, he joined the Criminal career. After a couple days on the job, he finally met a woman. After a couple more days on the job, he finally had the time & energy to invite her over. She was pregnant. Damn! After a couple more days, on his day off, he invited her over again. No longer pregnant. He inquired about her relationship status, expecting her to be married of course. Nope, SINGLE! Wait, single? What's with the brand new kid? Hmmm ... anyway, they marry & instead of having a baby of their own, they're raising her child. That's a 1st, I usually ALWAYS have my Sim reproduce so I can keep the family line going. It's always really interesting to see what the kids look like since they're a morph of both parents (kinda just like in real life). BUT, twins is TOUGH & even though these wouldn't be twins ... it's keeping up with 2 children that wipes me out. LOL! So ... nope. he's not going to be a biological dad. Sorry dude! Still no idea who the father is though ... but it's my Sim now. Damn, I forgot to write down the name of the child & her traits, etc. Oops! OK, made a note on the sheet to do that the next time I load up that particular game. Then as Pete got home with some much needed grocery staples, Josh called. He got the job at Market Street & asked if he could move back in with us since we're closer to where he works now. He came by just as we were finishing dinner. This morning he helped out by doing the dishes, sweeping, & taking the dog out. THANK YOU JOSH! :)

9/11: Inside the Twin Towers:

Drawing on interviews with survivors, emergency workers and the families of victims, this powerful drama from the Discovery Channel re-creates the events inside the World Trade Center's twin towers on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Narrated by Terence Stamp, the Emmy-nominated film follows the stories of more than a dozen people whose routine day suddenly erupted in violence and fear.

Attack on America (2001):

At 8:45 a.m. on a clear Tuesday morning, an American Airlines Boeing 767 loaded with 20,000 gallons of jet fuel crashes into the north tower of the World Trade Center in New York City. The impact left a gaping, burning hole near the 80th floor of the 110-story skyscraper, instantly killing hundreds of people and trapping hundreds more in higher floors. As the evacuation of the tower and its twin got underway, television cameras broadcasted live images of what initially appeared to be a freak accident. Then, 18 minutes after the first plane hit, a second Boeing 767--United Airlines Flight 175--appeared out of the sky, turned sharply toward the World Trade Center, and sliced into the south tower at about the 60th floor. The collision caused a massive explosion that showered burning debris over surrounding buildings and the streets below. America was under attack.

The attackers were Islamic terrorists from Saudi Arabia and several other Arab nations. Reportedly financed by Saudi fugitive Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist organization, they were allegedly acting in retaliation for America's support of Israel, its involvement in the Persian Gulf War, and its continued military presence in the Middle East. Some of the terrorists had lived in the United States for more than a year and had taken flying lessons at American commercial flight schools. Others had slipped into the U.S. in the months before September 11 and acted as the "muscle" in the operation. The 19 terrorists easily smuggled box-cutters and knives through security at three East Coast airports and boarded four flights bound for California, chosen because the planes were loaded with fuel for the long transcontinental journey. Soon after takeoff, the terrorists commandeered the four planes and took the controls, transforming the ordinary commuter jets into guided missiles.

As millions watched in horror the events unfolding in New York, American Airlines Flight 77 circled over downtown Washington and slammed into the west side of the Pentagon military headquarters at 9:45 a.m. Jet fuel from the Boeing 757 caused a devastating inferno that led to a structural collapse of a portion of the giant concrete building. All told, 125 military personnel and civilians were killed in the Pentagon along with all 64 people aboard the airliner.

Less than 15 minutes after the terrorists struck the nerve center of the U.S. military, the horror in New York took a catastrophic turn for the worse when the south tower of the World Trade Center collapsed in a massive cloud of dust and smoke. The structural steel of the skyscraper, built to withstand winds in excess of 200 mph and a large conventional fire, could not withstand the tremendous heat generated by the burning jet fuel. At 10:30 a.m., the other Trade Center tower collapsed. Close to 3,000 people died in the World Trade Center and its vicinity, including a staggering 343 firefighters and paramedics, 23 New York City police officers, and 37 Port Authority police officers who were struggling to complete an evacuation of the buildings and save the office workers trapped on higher floors. Only six people in the World Trade Center towers at the time of their collapse survived. Almost 10,000 other people were treated for injuries, many severe.

Meanwhile, a fourth California-bound plane--United Flight 93--was hijacked about 40 minutes after leaving Newark International Airport in New Jersey. Because the plane had been delayed in taking off, passengers on board learned of events in New York and Washington via cell phone and Airfone calls to the ground. Knowing that the aircraft was not returning to an airport as the hijackers claimed, a group of passengers and flight attendants planned an insurrection. One of the passengers, Thomas Burnett, Jr., told his wife over the phone that "I know we're all going to die. There's three of us who are going to do something about it. I love you, honey." Another passenger--Todd Beamer--was heard saying "Are you guys ready? Let's roll" over an open line. Sandy Bradshaw, a flight attendant, called her husband and explained that she had slipped into a galley and was filling pitchers with boiling water. Her last words to him were "Everyone's running to first class. I've got to go. Bye."

The passengers fought the four hijackers and are suspected to have attacked the cockpit with a fire extinguisher. The plane then flipped over and sped toward the ground at upwards of 500 miles per hour, crashing in a rural field in western Pennsylvania at 10:10 a.m. All 45 people aboard were killed. Its intended target is not known, but theories include the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, or one of several nuclear power plants along the eastern seaboard.

At 7 p.m., President George W. Bush, who had spent the day being shuttled around the country because of security concerns, returned to the White House. At 9 p.m., he delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, declaring "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America. These acts shatter steel, but they cannot dent the steel of American resolve." In a reference to the eventual U.S. military response he declared: "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them."

Operation Enduring Freedom, the U.S.-led international effort to oust the Taliban regime in Afghanistan and destroy Osama bin Laden's terrorist network based there, began on October 7, 2001. Bin Laden was killed during a raid of his compound in Pakistan by U.S. forces on May 2, 2011.

Don't bring half-cooked foods to be finished up on a grill. They're a target for bacteria.

In general, spending a ton of money on children's sports activities isn't financially logical. There's very little correlation between someone becoming successful in life & playing local or travel basketball. So unless your child is going to be a professional athlete, which means they're in the top 1% of everything they do & they're going to make a living doing that sport, then the expenditure is a luxury by far.

Los Angeles Rams halfback Fred Gehrke, a former art student, painted the 1st football team logo on Rams leather helmets in 1948. Because the leather helmets often took beatings, Gehrke had to touch up the helmets after each game. In 1949, plastic helmets became the official helmets of the National Football League, & the new helmets could be more easily manufactured with painted logos.

Proper selection of guests is the 1st essential in all entertaining. Taste in house furnishings or in clothes or in selecting a cook is as nothing compared to taste in people! ... Choose your guests exactly as an artist combines flowers in a bouquet; the greater the artist, the greater the variety he can combine.

Ripsnorter:

Something extraordinary : humdinger.

We had high hopes that the football game would be a ripsnorter, but it turned out to be a real snooze.

English-speakers of the mid-19th century already had the term "snorter" at their disposal if they wanted a colorful tern for something extraordinary, but that didn't stop Americans from throwing the verb "rip" into the front of the word to create "ripsnorter." And they didn't stop there: by 1925 they had added "hummer," "humdinger" (probably an alteration of "hummer"), "pip" (from "pippin," a kind of crips, tart apple & a term for a highly admirable person or thing), and "doozy" (thought to be an alteration of "daisy") to the catalog of words for something striking or extraordinary.

Spidy:

This Spidy pendant is the spinner of fate.

Swakker:

Texting is what your dad does. Wanna swak?
Swakker lets you personalize your mobile messaging. Now you can communicate in creative ways, like drawing in a chat and writing messages in the sky. Swakker is powerful, allowing you to text with all your friends, and it's special, giving you the ability to create and share pictures and messages that no other service provides.
It's time to revolutionize your mobile messaging and go beyond plain texting.
Features
• Write 3D messages in the sky and send them to friends on Swakker, Facebook, email, SMS and IM
• Draw in your chat in an ongoing stream on new and album photos
• See where your friends are on a live GPS map. Choose whether to share your location
• Text for free with any mobile
• Chat with friends and sync your status and availability across all IM services
• Swipe from chat to chat
• Combine your Swakker, Facebook, Address Book and IM friends into one buddy list
• Tap a song, artist, album or movie in your friend's list of Faves to download in iTunes
• Decorate your friend's Swakker Wall with stamps and doodles
• Receive an alert from Swakker Seatbelt when you may be texting and driving
• Receive an alert from Swakker Goggles when you text after midnight
• Create full motion messages in any language
So, wanna swak?

What is a reptile doing when it brumates?

What prize did tennis great Margaret Court receive when she won the first of her 11 Australian singles championships in 1960?

An umbrella. Rod Laver, winner of the men’s singles title, received a silver tea service. Prize money was introduced nine years later.

When traveling, use the complimentary shower caps found at hotels to cover the bottom of your shoes. This protects your clothes from getting dirty.

Which animal has the most, 2nd most, & 3rd most teeth?

A. Cow

B. Dog

C. Cat

BAC. Most dogs have 42 teeth, cows have 32, & most cats, 30. In the wild, a dog uses its splendid array of choppers to grab, tear, puncture, & crush bones. Family pets do pretty much the same - plus snaring frisbees & catching balls.

Which N.Y.C. borough has the most, 2nd most, & 3rd most people?

A. Brooklyn

B. Bronx

C. Queens

You were kicked out of the __________, not because you __________, but because they feared you would __________.