9/11 - 10 years on

Its already 9/11 here.

The exact time the tragic events unfolded 10 years ago will start at just
after 11pm, my time and the horror story that unfolded over the next few
hours will run well into tomorrow morning for me. I know for most of you,
its still at least a few hours away, but I wanted to share my thoughts on
the day.

I'd gone to bed at about 10:30pm as I usually do, and Joel was up late, as
he usually was, watching TV. He woke me up before the 2nd tower was hit with
a 'you have to come and see this!'. I objected- what stupid movie was worth
waking me up for? Again, "you have to come see this, QUICK!"

I dragged myself out of bed to see the frist foortage of the second plane
hitting.

I thought I was watching some sci-fi movie and was passingly impressed by
the CGI but thought nothing more of it. It took a while before the horror of
what was before my eyes actually sunk in.

We watched, in silence, in horror, in shock.

Once the plane had hit the Pentagon, I thought it was the start of WW3, that
this was it, Armageddon had started.

At 12:10am, on the 12th of September, 2001 (my time), I wrote to RPCA:

I'm watching as the terror in your country unfolds.

My heart is in my throat and I'm praying for you all.

My thoughts are especially with our military folk, God bless you.

My love
Yowie

Joel and I stared at the tv until about 3am, All the channels were showing
the same scenes over and over, and we had to watch, over and over and over,
because it was just to utterly surreal and unbeleivable to get it to sink in
that it was actually happening, that it was *real*

The next morning, I went to work late, because I had been watching the
morning news. Nothing much more, info-wise, than the night before, but still
had to watch it to make sure it wasn't jsut a nightmare.

No work was done by anyone that day. Access was granted to international
lines for those with family members overseas. The bosses looked the other
way whilst people frantically tried to e-mail, phone and fax friends and
loved ones. People wandered in and out of the conference room - with the big
tv tuned to the only tv channel it receives - with the same footage still
playing over and over. And the occasional new bit of information or
previously unseen footage was digested with growing sense of horror, outrage
and grief. People openly weeped, long term office feuds forgotten as people
put there arms about each other. No words could adequately express our
thoughts, but no words we needed to know that we all felt the same way.

My mother was somewhere in Europe at the time. We had contact details of the
husband of the friend she was with, but didn't know her hour to hour, day to
day contact details. My mother has always been deathly afraid of flying, and
regularly had a repeating nightmare of a plane exploding at a low altitude.
She said the plane hitting the twin towers was close enough to a premonition
coming true. She had to be severely sedated to fly back home the next week -
we'd offered to somehow find the money to get her a ship home so she didn't
have to get on a plane, but flying back to Australia from England is the
only practical way of doing the trip. She didn't fly for years afterward.

Another friend had left Sydney Australia on the 10th to fly back to Canada.
She was 1 hour away from LAX when it happened. She spent an agonising 4 days
trapped LA, with very little money (because what she did have in cash -
remeber all cash machines and eftpos were down - went on a hotel room) and
no way to contact her husband, or indeed, anyone, to let them know she was
OK. She ate all the timtams and twisties she had in her bag that were gifts
for homesick expats back in Canada.

The cleaner here at work lost her cousin when one of the towers came down,
he was a NY Firefighter. A month or so later, she chose to retire. Her
reason for her resignation was that life was too darn short to work and save
for a rainy day, and she was going to go out and enjoy life whilst she still
could. I think her cousin's sudden and unexpected death because of 9/11
triggered that decision.

And I remember, in the first weekend of October, there used to be a
role-playing conevention in Sydney that Joel & I attended annually. Its
located fairly close to the airport, and therefore the planes fly fairly low
above it - something I am not at all used to in the sky. Up until 9/11, I
always used to find the low flying planes -close enough to the airport to
still see their landing gear out and their flaps down - utterly fascinating.
That year, on seeing a plane that far down after 9/11 struck me with a pang
of fear. A fear that has never quite gone away even after all this time.

Every year on this date, I stop and observe a minute's silence (often in
private, but I do).

Peace, Pax, Shalom, Salaam, Rauha, Freden, Paz etc

Yowie

"Yowie" wrote
Its already 9/11 here.

Wow, I knew you were almost a full day ahead of us in the USA, but I didn't
think it was *three* days!!

Pat wrote:
"Yowie" wrote
Its already 9/11 here.

Wow, I knew you were almost a full day ahead of us in the USA, but I
didn't think it was *three* days!!

Rasfrassenfrassenrassen[1] stupid different date formats!

Today is the 9th of September. Not thinking, I here 9/11 and thing '9th of
the month'. I'm not paying any attention to the 11th part which would mean
November in my date format.

Rassenfrassenfrassenrassen.

Oh well, the sentiments are there, they're just early!

Yowie
[1] the sound Mutley makes when he's "cussing".

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
Its already 9/11 here.

The exact time the tragic events unfolded 10 years ago will start at just
after 11pm, my time and the horror story that unfolded over the next few
hours will run well into tomorrow morning for me. I know for most of you,
its still at least a few hours away, but I wanted to share my thoughts on
the day.

I'd gone to bed at about 10:30pm as I usually do, and Joel was up late, as
he usually was, watching TV. He woke me up before the 2nd tower was hit
with a 'you have to come and see this!'. I objected- what stupid movie was
worth waking me up for? Again, "you have to come see this, QUICK!"

I dragged myself out of bed to see the frist foortage of the second plane
hitting.

I thought I was watching some sci-fi movie and was passingly impressed by
the CGI but thought nothing more of it. It took a while before the horror
of what was before my eyes actually sunk in.

We watched, in silence, in horror, in shock.

Once the plane had hit the Pentagon, I thought it was the start of WW3,
that this was it, Armageddon had started.

At 12:10am, on the 12th of September, 2001 (my time), I wrote to RPCA:

I'm watching as the terror in your country unfolds.

My heart is in my throat and I'm praying for you all.

My thoughts are especially with our military folk, God bless you.

My love
Yowie

Joel and I stared at the tv until about 3am, All the channels were showing
the same scenes over and over, and we had to watch, over and over and
over, because it was just to utterly surreal and unbeleivable to get it to
sink in that it was actually happening, that it was *real*

The next morning, I went to work late, because I had been watching the
morning news. Nothing much more, info-wise, than the night before, but
still had to watch it to make sure it wasn't jsut a nightmare.

No work was done by anyone that day. Access was granted to international
lines for those with family members overseas. The bosses looked the other
way whilst people frantically tried to e-mail, phone and fax friends and
loved ones. People wandered in and out of the conference room - with the
big tv tuned to the only tv channel it receives - with the same footage
still playing over and over. And the occasional new bit of information or
previously unseen footage was digested with growing sense of horror,
outrage and grief. People openly weeped, long term office feuds forgotten
as people put there arms about each other. No words could adequately
express our thoughts, but no words we needed to know that we all felt the
same way.

My mother was somewhere in Europe at the time. We had contact details of
the husband of the friend she was with, but didn't know her hour to hour,
day to day contact details. My mother has always been deathly afraid of
flying, and regularly had a repeating nightmare of a plane exploding at a
low altitude. She said the plane hitting the twin towers was close enough
to a premonition coming true. She had to be severely sedated to fly back
home the next week - we'd offered to somehow find the money to get her a
ship home so she didn't have to get on a plane, but flying back to
Australia from England is the only practical way of doing the trip. She
didn't fly for years afterward.

Another friend had left Sydney Australia on the 10th to fly back to
Canada. She was 1 hour away from LAX when it happened. She spent an
agonising 4 days trapped LA, with very little money (because what she did
have in cash - remeber all cash machines and eftpos were down - went on a
hotel room) and no way to contact her husband, or indeed, anyone, to let
them know she was OK. She ate all the timtams and twisties she had in her
bag that were gifts for homesick expats back in Canada.

The cleaner here at work lost her cousin when one of the towers came down,
he was a NY Firefighter. A month or so later, she chose to retire. Her
reason for her resignation was that life was too darn short to work and
save for a rainy day, and she was going to go out and enjoy life whilst
she still could. I think her cousin's sudden and unexpected death because
of 9/11 triggered that decision.

And I remember, in the first weekend of October, there used to be a
role-playing conevention in Sydney that Joel & I attended annually. Its
located fairly close to the airport, and therefore the planes fly fairly
low above it - something I am not at all used to in the sky. Up until
9/11, I always used to find the low flying planes -close enough to the
airport to still see their landing gear out and their flaps down - utterly
fascinating. That year, on seeing a plane that far down after 9/11 struck
me with a pang of fear. A fear that has never quite gone away even after
all this time.

Every year on this date, I stop and observe a minute's silence (often in
private, but I do).

Peace, Pax, Shalom, Salaam, Rauha, Freden, Paz etc

Yowie

I worked for a company that had just been bought out Marsh & McClennan, an
investment company whose offices occupied the 99th to 102nd floor of the
North tower of the World Trade Center in NYC. A number of colleagues had
transferred there from our Memphis office. When I heard about the first
plane hitting the South tower I thought it was a fluke. A tragic accident,
you know? Then another plane hit the North tower and it was clear this was
no mishap. And someone said to me, "Aren't our headquarters in the north
tower?" OH NO!

While all this was going on a plane was taken down in Pennsylvania by brave
passengers not willing to let terrorists take control of their lives. And
the plane hit the Pentagon but it didn't do the damage they'd hoped for.

I worked in IT and the folks in the office got very busy connecting all our
large multi-media screens in the conference rooms to satellite hookups so
we'd have coverage available everywhere. Everyone from programming and
support were standing there, watching it live. I remember when the manager
of the department, who was standing behind me said, "Shouldn't someone be
manning the phones?" And I chuckled and said, "Do you really think anyone
cares about our software right now?" Guess not, because we all kept
standing there.

We all watched as the first shudder went through the North tower after it
had been hit. Someone commented, "It was built to withstand wind. Surely
it won't fall." But fall it did. It shuddered again, and then it fell. It
just went straight down. I was the scariest thing I've ever seen. The
South tower fell moments afterwards. OMG.

We lost 295 colleagues that day, 30 of whom I knew personally.

I'll never forget that day. But they didn't get us down. America has an
indomitable spirit G

Jill

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
Pat wrote:
"Yowie" wrote
Its already 9/11 here.

Wow, I knew you were almost a full day ahead of us in the USA, but I
didn't think it was *three* days!!

Rasfrassenfrassenrassen[1] stupid different date formats!

Today is the 9th of September. Not thinking, I here 9/11 and thing '9th of
the month'. I'm not paying any attention to the 11th part which would mean
November in my date format.

Rassenfrassenfrassenrassen.

Oh well, the sentiments are there, they're just early!

Yowie
[1] the sound Mutley makes when he's "cussing".


Every year I spend a few minutes in tears for all those lost that day
Every time I read this poem I shed more tears
I can't believe it has been 10 years

WELCOME AT RAINBOW BRIDGE
(Adapted from the original)


by Alexander Theodore, Bouvier, Fourth Year Resident

On the morning of September 11, 2001, there was an unprecedented amount of
activity at the Rainbow Bridge. Decisions had to be made. They had to be
made quickly. And, they were.

An issue, not often addressed here, is the fact that many residents really
have no loved one for whom to wait. And, the ones who were abused. Who are
they to wait for?

We don't talk about that much up here. We share ones as they arrive, happy
to do so. But we all know there is nothing like having your very own person
who thinks you are the most special kitten in the Heavens.

Last Tuesday morning a request rang out for kittens not waiting for specific
persons to volunteer for special assignment.. An eager, curious crowd surged
excitedly forward, each kitten wondering what the assignment would be.

They were told by a solemn voice that unexpectedly, all at once, thousands
of people died on Earth long before they were ready.

All the kittens, as all kittens do, felt the humans' pain deep in their own
hearts. Without hearing more, there was a clamoring among them - "May I have
one to comfort?" "I'll take two, I have a big heart." "I have been saving
tail-swishes forever."

One after another they came forward begging for assignment.

One cozy-looking fluffy kitten hesitantly asked, "Are there any children
coming?
I would be very comforting for a child 'cause I'm soft and squishy and I
always wanted to be hugged."

Little cats volunteered to do what they do best, cuddle and rub against
legs.

Cats who on Earth had never had a kind word or a pat on the head, stepped
forward and said, "I will love any human who needs love."

Then all the cats, wherever on Earth they originally came from, rushed to
the Rainbow Bridge and stood waiting, overflowing with love to share. .

In ng.com,
Matthew typed:

snip

Every year I spend a few minutes in tears for all those lost that day
Every time I read this poem I shed more tears
I can't believe it has been 10 years

WELCOME AT RAINBOW BRIDGE
(Adapted from the original)


by Alexander Theodore, Bouvier, Fourth Year Resident

On the morning of September 11, 2001, there was an unprecedented
amount of activity at the Rainbow Bridge. Decisions had to be made.
They had to be made quickly. And, they were.

An issue, not often addressed here, is the fact that many residents
really have no loved one for whom to wait. And, the ones who were
abused. Who are they to wait for?

We don't talk about that much up here. We share ones as they arrive,
happy to do so. But we all know there is nothing like having your
very own person who thinks you are the most special kitten in the
Heavens.
Last Tuesday morning a request rang out for kittens not waiting for
specific persons to volunteer for special assignment.. An eager,
curious crowd surged excitedly forward, each kitten wondering what
the assignment would be.
They were told by a solemn voice that unexpectedly, all at once,
thousands of people died on Earth long before they were ready.

All the kittens, as all kittens do, felt the humans' pain deep in
their own hearts. Without hearing more, there was a clamoring among
them - "May I have one to comfort?" "I'll take two, I have a big
heart." "I have been saving tail-swishes forever."

One after another they came forward begging for assignment.

One cozy-looking fluffy kitten hesitantly asked, "Are there any
children coming?
I would be very comforting for a child 'cause I'm soft and squishy
and I always wanted to be hugged."

Little cats volunteered to do what they do best, cuddle and rub
against legs.

Cats who on Earth had never had a kind word or a pat on the head,
stepped forward and said, "I will love any human who needs love."

Then all the cats, wherever on Earth they originally came from,
rushed to the Rainbow Bridge and stood waiting, overflowing with love
to share. .

The monitor has gone all misty again.

That gets me every single time. Thanks for re-posting it.

Yowie

"Yowie" wrote in message
...
Its already 9/11 here.

The exact time the tragic events unfolded 10 years ago will start at just
after 11pm, my time and the horror story that unfolded over the next few
hours will run well into tomorrow morning for me. I know for most of you,
its still at least a few hours away, but I wanted to share my thoughts on
the day.

I'd gone to bed at about 10:30pm as I usually do, and Joel was up late, as
he usually was, watching TV. He woke me up before the 2nd tower was hit
with a 'you have to come and see this!'. I objected- what stupid movie was
worth waking me up for? Again, "you have to come see this, QUICK!"

I dragged myself out of bed to see the frist foortage of the second plane
hitting.

I thought I was watching some sci-fi movie and was passingly impressed by
the CGI but thought nothing more of it. It took a while before the horror
of what was before my eyes actually sunk in.

We watched, in silence, in horror, in shock.

Once the plane had hit the Pentagon, I thought it was the start of WW3,
that this was it, Armageddon had started.

At 12:10am, on the 12th of September, 2001 (my time), I wrote to RPCA:

I'm watching as the terror in your country unfolds.

My heart is in my throat and I'm praying for you all.

My thoughts are especially with our military folk, God bless you.

My love
Yowie

Joel and I stared at the tv until about 3am, All the channels were showing
the same scenes over and over, and we had to watch, over and over and
over, because it was just to utterly surreal and unbeleivable to get it to
sink in that it was actually happening, that it was *real*

The next morning, I went to work late, because I had been watching the
morning news. Nothing much more, info-wise, than the night before, but
still had to watch it to make sure it wasn't jsut a nightmare.

No work was done by anyone that day. Access was granted to international
lines for those with family members overseas. The bosses looked the other
way whilst people frantically tried to e-mail, phone and fax friends and
loved ones. People wandered in and out of the conference room - with the
big tv tuned to the only tv channel it receives - with the same footage
still playing over and over. And the occasional new bit of information or
previously unseen footage was digested with growing sense of horror,
outrage and grief. People openly weeped, long term office feuds forgotten
as people put there arms about each other. No words could adequately
express our thoughts, but no words we needed to know that we all felt the
same way.

My mother was somewhere in Europe at the time. We had contact details of
the husband of the friend she was with, but didn't know her hour to hour,
day to day contact details. My mother has always been deathly afraid of
flying, and regularly had a repeating nightmare of a plane exploding at a
low altitude. She said the plane hitting the twin towers was close enough
to a premonition coming true. She had to be severely sedated to fly back
home the next week - we'd offered to somehow find the money to get her a
ship home so she didn't have to get on a plane, but flying back to
Australia from England is the only practical way of doing the trip. She
didn't fly for years afterward.

Another friend had left Sydney Australia on the 10th to fly back to
Canada. She was 1 hour away from LAX when it happened. She spent an
agonising 4 days trapped LA, with very little money (because what she did
have in cash - remeber all cash machines and eftpos were down - went on a
hotel room) and no way to contact her husband, or indeed, anyone, to let
them know she was OK. She ate all the timtams and twisties she had in her
bag that were gifts for homesick expats back in Canada.

The cleaner here at work lost her cousin when one of the towers came down,
he was a NY Firefighter. A month or so later, she chose to retire. Her
reason for her resignation was that life was too darn short to work and
save for a rainy day, and she was going to go out and enjoy life whilst
she still could. I think her cousin's sudden and unexpected death because
of 9/11 triggered that decision.

And I remember, in the first weekend of October, there used to be a
role-playing conevention in Sydney that Joel & I attended annually. Its
located fairly close to the airport, and therefore the planes fly fairly
low above it - something I am not at all used to in the sky. Up until
9/11, I always used to find the low flying planes -close enough to the
airport to still see their landing gear out and their flaps down - utterly
fascinating. That year, on seeing a plane that far down after 9/11 struck
me with a pang of fear. A fear that has never quite gone away even after
all this time.

Every year on this date, I stop and observe a minute's silence (often in
private, but I do).

Peace, Pax, Shalom, Salaam, Rauha, Freden, Paz etc

Yowie

Thank you for this, Yowie, not only for the sentiments but for the
information it contains. I didn't know it had made such a big impact in
Australia.

While you first heard the news late in the evening, I woke up to it. The
news of the first plane was on my clock radio as it turned on. As soon as I
could, I went to the living room and turned on the TV, where I, too, watched
the same horrific scenes over and over for hours. I learned later that a
member of my Toastmasters club had been in New York visiting relatives, and
was scheduled to fly home later that day. Obviously, he remained in New
York much longer than he had planned.

The news of the Pennsylvania plane filled me with pride and admiration, as
well as grief, and I knew that no American airplane will be hijacked again.

When airline service resumed, and I heard of people who were afraid to fly
because of the horrific events of 9-11, I thought about the real goal of
terrorism. Sure, they want to kill people they consider the enemy, but
mainly they want to terrify all those they didn't kill. I made up my mind
then and there that I wasn't going to live in fear. I immediately started
making plans to visit a newsgroup friend I hadn't previously met. She lived
about 2/3 of the way across the country from me. Three or four weeks after
9-11, I flew to visit her.

Joy

I was about ready to start a new job, and planned to get together with
an old friend first - but put that off because my uncle died and I
needed to attend his funeral. So she came to pick me up early on the
morning of Sept. 11, and urged me to get in the car quick; a plane had
hit a building in New York. We listened to the radio while she drove
home, and I thought it must have been an accident. Then came the news of
the second plane, and we knew my friend was right; it was no accident.
We watched the rest of the story unfold on her TV.

We didn't know then that thousands of people from all over the world
were landing in our own province. Most of them hadn't learned about the
tragedy until after they landed in a strange part of a strange country
with nothing. Of course, it wasn't even possible at first for them to
get through to their friends and families with the news that they were
safe. My city was big enough to take in the extra people easily, but
another airport that took in a lot of the US-bound planes, the one in
Gander, is in a much more rural area. Local people from small communties
in the entire area did everything they could to provide everyone with
food, a place to sleep and, as soon as possible, communication with the
outside world.

It's like the Kennedy assassination, for those who were alive then.
People remember where they were and what they were doing.

--
Cheryl

On Sep 9, 11:34*am, Cheryl wrote:
I was at work and doing a late shift, which meant about 2pm I had gone
down to the canteen for lunch and I just sat down, opened my sandwich
and my paper when someone ran in shouting "Put the telly on!"

Everyone looked up and at first people were saying "What a terrible
accident!" we all assumed it was a private plane like a Cessna had
hit I don't think our brains could quite process the idea that it was
a passenger jet then the commentator almost screamed "There's a second
one!" and everyone stood there open-mouthed as we watched the second
tower get hit about this time someone in the canteen said "They're
passenger jets!" We all watched silently as the first tower started
to fall then I went back upstairs and told the staff what was
happening and someone got a news feed on the PC's and seconds later
Jeff my manager called us all over with a yell of "The second tower is
coming down!" I called Dave who in those days used to keep the news
on just for something to watch and said "What do you make of the
news?" and he said "What news? I haven't got the telly on, nothing in
the news this morning" so I told him "Just switch it on now- you're
missing something major" and he did and all I heard was him muttering
"Oh my God......."

We didn't get a lot of work done that afternoon, everyone was walking
about in shock, people all over the building were huddled by PC's
watching the news feeds coming in- we didn't hear about the Pentagon
or the other plane until a bit later and a lot of what we got in the
UK was coming through confused and in bits so we'd here a story
reported as "unconfirmed sources say" then moments later "We've just
heard that's incorrect" then "It might be true".

Walking back from work the streets were deserted- every shop, every
pub, everywhere people were huddled together in groups staring at the
telly, the Hi Fi shop had about 100 odd people outside staring at the
televisions in the window, there was hardly anyone on the bus. I got
home, Dave was staring at the telly, I didn't say a word, just sat
down and joined him , I don't think we spoke for about an hour and
even then it was only to comment on it, we sat there until about 2am

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs

"Cheryl" wrote in message
...
I was about ready to start a new job, and planned to get together with an
old friend first - but put that off because my uncle died and I needed to
attend his funeral. So she came to pick me up early on the morning of
Sept. 11, and urged me to get in the car quick; a plane had hit a building
in New York. We listened to the radio while she drove home, and I thought
it must have been an accident. Then came the news of the second plane, and
we knew my friend was right; it was no accident. We watched the rest of
the story unfold on her TV.

We didn't know then that thousands of people from all over the world were
landing in our own province. Most of them hadn't learned about the tragedy
until after they landed in a strange part of a strange country with
nothing. Of course, it wasn't even possible at first for them to get
through to their friends and families with the news that they were safe.
My city was big enough to take in the extra people easily, but another
airport that took in a lot of the US-bound planes, the one in Gander, is
in a much more rural area. Local people from small communties in the
entire area did everything they could to provide everyone with food, a
place to sleep and, as soon as possible, communication with the outside
world.

It's like the Kennedy assassination, for those who were alive then. People
remember where they were and what they were doing.

--
Cheryl
**********************
Yes, you never forget those moments. I was only 3 years old when John F.
Kennedy was shot but I remember it as clearly as if I'd been 23 or 43. I
was in the basement, the "TV room" of our house, and my mother came down the
stairs crying. I'd never seen my mother cry before. Naturally I was
alarmed by this. She turned on the television. Television coverage wasn't
the same in 1963 as it is now, but they still took over the airwaves to
report about the President being shot. (We lived in Virginia at the time;
my father was stationed at Quantico right outside of Washington. I don't
remember seeing him for a couple of days.) Then, of course, was the funeral
and the lighting of the eternal flame. All those images are still in my
head. And I was only 3 years old.

I was 41 when the twin towers fell. I'll never forget that day, either.

Jill