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Originally Posted by Griff
I remember feeling guilty later in the week when appreciating how beautiful the sky was without any contrails and how quiet the woods were with no air traffic.
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It was kind of nice while we had that, wasn't it?
I was at work, and heard about it by an office e-mail that went around. They set up a TV in the cafeteria, and the place was standing room only as we all watched the towers fall. There were lots of false rumors going around. A bomb at the State Department, one on Metro, Metro being shut down. It was all kind of confusing and pretty scary. A few people were crying. I went around trying to comfort some of the people in my department, and get them thinking clearly. Mostly folks were worried about their loved ones, who they couldn't reach because the phone circuits were overloaded. I think I helped to calm a few people down. Then my firm closed. Nobody was working anyway.
I left a voicemail for my wife at home, letting her know I was OK, and that I was going to walk home, I had heard a rumor that Metro was closed, and even if it wasn't I didn't want to be trapped in the Metro tunnel. I felt like I had options if I was above ground. When I got outside, the place was gridlocked. The intersections weren't moving, which was great if you are a pedestrian. You just walk around all the cars. I made it home much faster than if the traffic was actually moving and I had to wait for lights.
My walk home would have taken me within one block of the White House, but I went a few blocks out of my way to stay away from that potential target. I kept looking up at the sky for planes, and imagined what I might do if I saw one heading towards me, but the sky was empty. After awhile there were a few fighters flying around, but that was it. Lots of sirens all over the place on my walk home.
There was one point where I crossed over a bridge into Georgetown over Rock Creek Park, and I could see the huge cloud of smoke billowing out of the Pentagon. I stopped to watch it for a while and take the whole scene in. Fighter jets flying around overhead, sirens all over the place, oily black smoke filling the sky a mile or two away. It was bad.
Then as I got closer to home, things started to seem more normal. It was a drop dead gorgoeus fall day. I walked into my living room, hugged my family. We turned off the TV, and just enjoyed each other's company. We were happy to be alive and it really was a beautiful day outside. I think we went to the playground for a couple hours.