Wednesday, September 11, 2013

What Day Is It?

I am easily discombobulated, and yesterday was a fine example.  Goats are a seven-days-a-week job without a defined "weekend."  My train gets derailed when NASCAR holds a night race on Saturday instead of a day race on Sunday, and this week my Monday milk customer came on Tuesday.  Hearing Trash Guy coming up the road yesterday morning I thought, "What's he doing here on a Thursday?"  Duh.  He was on schedule and it was Tuesday.  Darn that train.  Of course it was too late to get the barrel down to the big road, so I proceeded to get the barn chores done early (the girls cooperated beautifully) so I could get to town.  Dr. Doug did his deed and we hopefully will not see each other again for awhile.  I told him we had to stop meeting anyway, as I was wearing my last clean pair of bibbies.

What American doesn't remember exactly where they were on September 11, 2001?  I was returning from making an early-morning delivery of transcription.  Steve came out the front door and said, "We're at war."  I asked where, with whom, and he said, "Here, in America."  I couldn't quite process this and thought, "I know they always said the South would rise again, but this is ridiculous."  (I'm good at jumping to conclusions; it's how I get my exercise.)  Steve always turned on the television as soon as he opened his eyes, so he had seen the Towers fall in real time.  Like the rest of the country, I spent the next two weeks in tears.  It seemed that the only way I could share the pain of those in the East was to watch day after day and night after night.  Working in hospitals for years and going through many disaster plan preparedness trials, I knew what the doctors and nurses were feeling as they stood waiting for the injured who never came.  We get so little air traffic here that a plane or helicopter passing overhead is reason to look up, but it was eerie when America was a no-fly zone and not one plane was in the sky.  Everyone I know was compelled to touch base with all family and friends, even on the west coast, just for reassurance.

I know what day it is.

1 comment:

Kathryn said...

I was in Ohio, helping a friend can tomatoes, when her husband called from work and told her to turn the television on...we watched in horror as the second tower crumbled...not yet really understanding the whole scope of what we were seeing. I do hope this anniversary is more peaceful than last year!