Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Five Years Later

   

Just wanted to share where I was when 9/11....occured.  I'm not going into feelings and all of that....because I've done all of that.  I just wanted to share the moment when I saw everything happen. 

I was working the graveyard shift at work [7pm to 7am] when I came home about 7:30 that morning.  My wife was asleep, I was tired, and I sat down to chill for a while.  At the time, my dog was pregnant....and was near time to deliver.  I sat down, petted my dogs and was watching ESPNews to see what happened in sports [that was a Tuesday morning, so the first Monday night game of the season - the Giants and Broncos - happened the night before]. 

After an hour of sports viewing, my dog was pacing around the living room and panting hard.  Now, my wife and I read up on this and found out that when a dog is ready to deliver her puppies....she starts doing that.  We had set up a crate with blankets for her in the kitchen to deliver her puppies....so I moved her into it [I also had to lock my other dog in the bedroom with my sleeping wife so he wouldn't get hurt...lol].  This dog means so much to me since she was a gift from my wife on our first Valentine's Day together....and she's been with my wife and I from the beginning.  We don't know life together without her. 

Anyways, I figured that I was gonna be up for a while.....since I was worried about this entire process.  So, after making sure she was okay [and not going to get up from her crate], I sat down in the living room and just put on the news just to see what was going on in the world.  I usually watched MSNBC...so I just hit the 356 on the remote. 

Right then, I saw smoke coming from one of the towers of the World Trade Center.  Initially, I thought it was just some really bad fire.  I've never been in New York City...so I really was ignorant into how giant these buildings really are [the biggest building I've seen personally is the giant Bank of America building in Charlotte].  I then read the bottom of the screen which said that a plane had crashed into the building.  It was awful to hear that....but I only assumed that it was just some small plane that lost its way and hit the building.

Oh no.

I swear on everything....right when I thought that.....the second plane, on live TV, smashed into the 2nd tower.  I thought that it was just a replay of the first plane....but the horror and shouting that went with it that this was live.  It was horrific!

I watched for another couple of hours as the unbelievable images unfolded on my TV [including more planes]...and as my dog was pushing out her first puppies.  I went into my bedroom....woke up my wife and said, "the dog is having her puppies....and a couple of planes crashed into the World Trade Center". 

And that is how she found out.

I watched for a little while longer....as I was worried that this could hit where I was living....or where my family was living.  I'm from Charlotte, and since the terrorists were targeting American financial interests, I was worried about Charlotte since it is the 2nd largest financial city in the United States and has many bank headquarters there.  Eventually, my wife was awake and watching everything...and I went to sleep.  I woke up around 5pm to my wife explaining everything with the dog and the attacks. 

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