9/11 At My Location In Texas Began With A Loud Boom This Morning In 2014

Oddly Lit 9/11 Computer Room Window Thunderstorm View

On a 9/11 morning you really do not want to be vibrated by loud unpredicted booms rattling your windows.

But that is what happened this morning, soon after I got vertical. The first boom was very close, and I'd seen no lightning flash.

Before the second boom rattled my windows I did see a lightning flash, so I was almost 100% certain the booms were not being caused by demented barbarians.

After a few more booms rain began downpouring.

So, I decided to opt out of my regularly scheduled morning swim for the first time in a long time.

I know I am not the only one thinking today how can it be 13 years since that awful morning when we first learned the shocking news that America was being attacked.

For me, it was a phone call from Big Ed in Dallas, telling me the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane and that I needed to turn on my TV. Since I knew Big Ed was at a meeting near the Dallas World Trade Center and Love Field, I figured it was the Dallas World Trade Center to which he referred and it was a plane taking off from Love Field accidentally crashing.

So, I was shocked to turn on my TV right when the second plane hit the second tower. A couple minutes after that I began calling people on the West Coast telling them they needed to get up and turn on their TVs.

The thirteen years since 9/11 have not been good. I don't know if it is related but I have not driven up to Washington since 9/11. I returned from a month in Washington the week before 9/11.

Prior to 9/11 I'd flown twice up to Washington. No security hassle. I've flown up to Washington several times since 9/11, disliking all the new security hassles.

After 9/11 we suffered many more years of George W. Bush being president, with two wars, neither of which went well and in which we continue to to be stuck.

And then there was the Great Recession, from which we have only partly recovered.

It is interesting, but pointless, to ponder how our world today may have been different if the person who actually got the most votes in the 2000 election actually became president.

Methinks, for some reason, had that happened, today we would not be hearing of a scary entity known as ISIS.