9/11 Anniversary Of 9 Year Old Nephew David's Birthday

On this day 16 years ago America and the rest of the world woke up to find America under attack.

Since that day America has been a nation perpetually at war, to varying degrees.

American children born after 9/11/2001 have never known an America which is not an America at war.

My nephew, David, is one of those children. 9/11, is David's birthday.

Today David is nine years old.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVID!

That is David you see above, sidled up to a fish bar, enjoying a libation whilst waiting for his order of calamari and tempura fried jalapeno rings. This fish bar is located in Tacoma, at Point Ruston.

I've never known a kid to be as big a fan of seafood as David is. During the course of my week in Washington last month I saw David consume the aforementioned calamari at Point Ruston, dungeness crab at Duke's in Tukwila, a big bowl of steamed clams at Birch Bay, and on various non-restaurant seafoodings I saw David smacking down smoked salmon, sushi, cod, oysters on the half shell and razor clam strips.

Next time I'm in Tacoma maybe I will get to take David to the Friday seafood buffet at the Muckleshoot Casino Resort for a Happy Birthday feeding...

Remembering 9/11 Fourteen Years Ago Put Me In A Foul Mood Today

Before you read any further, be warned, I am in a foul mood and I am about to let my stream of consciousness flow, with no clear idea where that flow is going to go.

How can it already be 14 years since 9/11 became yet one more date which will likely live on in infamy?

I do not know why it annoyed me, well, except, maybe, due to the craven obviousness, but this morning, on Facebook, I found the multiple exhortations from various Friends to "Never Forget", "To Always Remember", with multiple variations of such, most with the twin towers burning and an eagle part of the image, to be annoying.

Do we really need to be advised to never forget and to always remember something which is etched forever in the memory of us who were alive that shocking morning?

I will never forget getting a call from Dallas, telling me the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. I knew the caller was calling from near the Dallas World Trade Center. So, I assumed it was the Dallas World Trade Center we were talking about.

I turned on the TV just as the second plane hit the second tower, not in Dallas, but in New York City. I sat staring at the tube, shocked. When I realized both towers had been hit I realized this was no accident, that America was under attack.

I then began waking up people on the west coast, telling them they needed to get up and turn on their TVs.

Oddly, all these years later, many of those I called that morning no longer live on the west coast. The number of people I would call on the west coast, now, in a similar circumstance, has dwindled to a couple nephews and a few others.

I digress.

I thought maybe going jogging and the resulting endorphins might shake me out of my foul mood. So, I drove a couple miles west to park on the Quanah Parker Park parking lot.

Before I started running I walked under the shade of one of the world's biggest pecan trees and took the picture you see above. Big trees ooze negative ions which make one feel good, like how the negative ion spewing ocean makes one feel.

The Quanah Parker Park big pecan tree did not have that salubrious negative ion effect on me today. Maybe it takes a forest.

So, I continued on with the jogging.

As I ran along my thoughts drifted to being annoyed at what has happened after 9/11, after George W. Bush informed those who knocked down the towers that they would be hearing from all of us soon.

What the world ended up hearing from us ain't pretty.

After 9/11 America invaded Iraq for reasons which should be investigated, in a much more needed and much more valid investigation than the absurd Republican fixation on Benghazi, with the perps who instigated the crime, tried, convicted and jailed. Iraq is a country which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, the invasion eventually left not only Iraq destabilized, but the entire Middle East in worse shape than it was pre-9/11.

The country we pseudo-liberated is now largely taken over by a terrorist group from hell. A group which has beheaded who knows how many innocents. Which executes young boys for watching soccer. Which rapes women, turning them into slaves. Throws suspected gays off roofs  and commits atrocity after atrocity which has mortified and horrified the world.

Yet little has been done.

We invaded a sovereign nation, toppled its ruler, had him executed, eventually left that nation in an unstable condition, hence the rise of ISIS.

And now with ISIS, a scary threat far worse than Saddam Hussein ever dreamed of being, who presented no real threat to the U.S. or the world, in this century, due to being de-fanged after the first Iraq War, the supposedly civilized part of the world is basically doing nothing, in a meaningful way, to put ISIS out of the world's misery.

Where are the UN Security Council meetings on ISIS?

So much was lost in so many ways in the taking down of Saddam Hussein,  who presented no real threat. And then something comes along, ISIS, that is not a potential threat, but is an actual real present threat.

And nothing is done, for the most part, except  for drone strikes and some attempts by the Iraqis and Kurds to push ISIS out of their territory.

It's like how the world dithered while Hitler's madness fed on itself as he took over one area after another until he went too far by invading Poland.

I really don't know how anyone can think back on that day 14 years ago and not be appalled by what has been wrought in the aftermath. Not exactly the happy ending the world and America had in 1945, when only a little more than three years after America entered World War II the fascist menace to the world was exterminated.

Somehow it seems that putting an end to the terrorist/ISIS menace should be a much easier task than taking down the Nazis and the Japanese.

Instead the world dithers......

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.

Looking At The New York City World Trade Center 9/11 Memorial Has Me Pondering The Last 12 Years

Twelve years ago, today, I looked on in horror at the New York City location you see above.

How can it be 12 years since I got a phone call telling me that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane? The caller was calling from Dallas. I knew the caller was calling from the area of the Dallas World Trade Center. I assumed it was a plane taking off or landing from Love Field that had hit the Dallas World Trade Center.

Then I turned on my TV to see the second plane hit the second World Trade Center tower in New York City.

I watched in appalled shock for several minutes and then I realized I should start  waking people up on the West Coast to tell them to turn on their TVs. When asked what's happening I did not tell those I called that America was under attack, I just said you need to turn on your TV.

I had been back from a roadtrip to Washington a week when September 11 became yet one more American date which will live in infamy.

That 2011 roadtrip to Washington is the last time I have roadtripped back to my old home zone. From the time of my move to Texas in 1999, til 2011, there had been 4 roadtrips back to Washington. And none since 9/11.

I do not like to fly, but all trips back to Washington since 9/11 have been airborne. Once in 2002, three times in 2004, once in 2005, once in 2006 and once in 2008.

By 2013 it has become much less expensive to fly to Washington than to drive there. Prior to 9/11 it was less expensive to drive. But, the cost of a trip to Washington was never the factor that determined the means of motion. I greatly prefer a 3 day roadtrip to a 3 hour plane ride.

So, I really am at a loss as to understanding how it is that 9/11 put an end to my roadtripping north. But, apparently it has.

9/11 changed way too many things in America....

The 11th Anniversary Of September 11, 2001

One World Trade Center

It does not seem possible that it is 11 years since I got a call from Big Ed in Dallas telling me that a plane had struck the World Trade Center. I assumed Big Ed was talking about the World Trade Center in Dallas, since he was in Dallas at a meeting near the Dallas World Trade Center.

I turned on the TV right when the plane struck the second tower in New York City.

I thought I was seeing a replay, then I realized the other tower was burning. When it sank into my thick skull that America was under attack I started waking up people on the west coast.

I'd been on the west coast a week prior to 9/11. I'd driven, solo, back to Washington a month prior. This was to be the last time I've driven back to Washington. In the 3 years prior to 9/11 I'd driven back and forth from Texas to Washington 5 times. I do not know why 9/11 stopped the drives back to Washington. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that it became way cheaper to fly.

Now, 11 years later, a very impressive memorial exists where the twin towers used to stand.

What was originally called the Freedom  Tower and is now called One World Trade Center, is not yet finished. However, on August 17, 2012, the building was topped out at the 105th floor, at 1,368 feet, eventually to reach 1,776 feet, with the installation of 408 foot antenna spire.

A lot has happened in the world in the 11 years since 9/11/2001, but that date still seems like yesterday to me.

Up Early On The 10th Anniversary Of The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks

Looking through the bars of my patio prison bars at a very somber September 11 morning.

In a little over an hour, 10 years ago, I felt myself compelled to call people on the west coast to tell them to get out of bed and turn on their TVs.

I'd gotten a call from Big Ed, in Dallas, telling me he'd seen a plane crash into the World Trade Center.

Big Ed was in the Dallas Fashion District, near the Dallas World Trade Center. I assumed he was talking about a plane crashing into that World Trade Center.

I turned on my TV totally confused about what I was looking at. And then, live, I saw the 2nd plane strike the 2nd tower.

I don't remember at what point I started calling the west coast. I know it was well before the first tower collapsed.

My little sister at that point in time worked in law offices high up in a downtown Seattle skyscraper. I remember when I called her I told her I did not think she should go into downtown Seattle that day. I don't remember if she heeded her big brother's advice or not.

It is sort of unsettling that that vivid day happened a decade ago.

I'd returned to Texas only a few days before 9/11, after spending a month up in Washington, driving myself up there for my mom and dad's 50th Anniversary. This was to be the last time I drove from Texas to Washington and back.

A lot of things changed, post 9/11, like driving back to Washington. I think there'd been 5 trips back, pre 9/11, since the move to Texas in late 1998. Or was it 1999?

This morning, as I was looking at my various news sources, online, with all the focus on 9/11 remembrances, it crossed my mind to wonder what sort of fuss was made on December 7, 1951, ten years after the Japanese sneak attack on Pearl Harbor brought America into World War II. A war which ended less than 4 years later, after America dropped a pair of atom bombs on Japan.

In 1951 America did not have quite the highly developed electronic news media industry it has today. I suspect not as much attention was paid to December 7, 1951 than is being paid to September 11, 2011.

An awful lot of people have died as a result of the barbaric acts of 9/11. And continue to die. An awful lot of people died as a result of the barbaric acts of 12/7. With people, for the most part, ceasing dying in September of 1945.

I imagine the memory of December 7, 1941 would be etched much more vividly into the American consciousness if that awful day was covered live on TV, like the events of 9/11.

Anyway, this should be an interesting day. I think I will start 9/11 off with a long swim in semi-cold water.

Encountering A Sinister Looking Camouflaged Canister Today On The Tandy Hills On The Way To David's 3rd Birthday Party & Elephant Garlic

Yesterday a Giant Tire appeared on the Tandy Hills. How this Giant Tire got to where it sits on the Tandy Hills remains a mystery.

Adding to the mystery is the sinister looking camouflaged canister which showed up inside the Giant Tire today.

I slightly moved the sinister looking camouflaged canister to see if I could tell if it was empty.

It did not feel empty. I did not feel like taking the lid off the sinister looking camouflaged canister for fear something like a spring-loaded snake might pop out at me.

That and due to the current state of high alert due to tomorrow being the 10 year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, I thought it best to let Homeland Security deal with the sinister looking camouflaged canister.

My nephew, David's, 3rd birthday is this weekend. His favorite aunt flew up from Phoenix for David's birthday party. I do not know if today is David's birthday. Or tomorrow.

I was not invited to the party.

Having ones birthday on 9/11 would make it easy to remember.

Treasure hunting at Town Talk today only yielded one unique item, that being huge bulbs of Elephant Garlic. I also got a lot of chicken wings, among other things.

Up Late Sunday Morning In Texas Worrying About Alzheimer's

It is Sunday morning. When I looked out my bedroom window I was appalled to see that the sun had gotten up way before me. I hate it when that happens.

I stayed up late watching the replay of the 9/11/01 events on one of the cable news stations. It was oddly mesmerizing.

While I was watching I had a very troubling moment that seemed like some sort of onslaught of Alzheimer's indicator.

I could not remember who was vice-president when George W. was president.

And then Dick Cheney was on the screen, telling his story of the evacuation of the White House.

How could I not remember that Dick Cheney was Bush's vice-president? Memory blocked due to being painful?

Yesterday when I crossed the Trinity on the Beach Street bridge, I saw the river had receded quite a bit. It is still running over the dam/bridge that makes Trinity Falls, but just barely, and the falls is back falling.

I think I may attempt a bike ride today, maybe on the Trinity Trails. But, before that happens, I am going swimming. As in, right now.

Recalling 9/11 From My Patio Prison Cell In Texas

I am up well before the sun, looking out from the bar of my patio prison cell on September 11, 2010.

It seems so recent, but in a couple hours it will be 9 years since I got a call from Big Ed in Dallas, telling me that he just saw a plane crash into the World Trade Center.

I thought he was talking about the World Trade Center in Dallas and the plane must have been heading to or from nearby Love Field.

I do not ever remember being as shocked as I was that morning when I turned the TV on right when the second plane was hitting the second tower, in New York City, not Dallas.

I sat stunned at what I was seeing. When I realized that America was under attack I decided I should wake up people on the West Coast. I don't remember who I called first. I do remember waking up Wanda and Wally, in Seattle. All I said was you need to get out of bed and turn on your TV. By the time I called my sister, who now lives in Arizona, she was already awake and about to go tell my mom and dad what was happening.

So much has happened since 9/11 of 2001, much of it bad. In the days that followed that day, 9 years ago, if someone had predicted that 9 years later Osama bin Laden would still not be captured and that America's President's name in 2010 would be Obama, well, that would have seemed very unlikely.

I hope 9/11/2010 is a very very uneventful day today.

If the sun ever lights up the place I'm heading to the pool.

Texas Travesty George W. Bush & Other Things Making Me Cranky

Time passes, fresh trauma causes older trauma to fade.

A book I recently read was setting the tone at the start of a chapter, reminding me of something that had faded from memory, what with so much fresh trauma.

This is what I read...

"Front page articles covered campaigning by George W. Bush and Al Gore for the presidential election coming in November 2000.

Some readers worried about more prosaic announcements. The average price of gasoline had leaped to $1.64 per gallon. In other financial news, President Clinton announced that the government's anticipated budget surplus would exceed projections by almost $2 trillion over the next decade-a cornucopia of cash that would make social programs achievable. GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush said the estimates validated his claim that there would be plenty of room in the federal budget for his ambitious plans to cut taxes and still have money for other priorities."

We got George W. Bush as president, with Al Gore having received a couple million more votes than Bush. Clinton had fixed the chronic budget deficit problem. With surpluses in the $trillions projected.

I don't think it made any difference who'd become president as to the horror that happened on 9/11/2001. I do think Al Gore would have led America in a direction different than Bush did, post 9/11.

A couple days ago I saw a legless Vet riding an electric wheel chair device. Were his legs lost in Iraq? Or was it Afghanistan?

I'm pretty much 100% sure had Al Gore become president America would not have started its first pre-emptive war. A wiser president likely would have simply beefed up America's presence in Kuwait and waited out Saddam and his intransigence over Iraq's alleged, now known not to have existed, weapons of mass destruction.

How many billions of dollars have been lost in Iraq? How many lives?

As for Afghanistan, once Al Qaeda had been identified as the 9/11 perps, with their training camps being in Afghanistan, if I had been the president I would have launched a massive attack on the Al Qaeda camps as soon as possible. From the air. No ground troops. No takeover of Afghanistan.

How many billions of dollars have been lost in Afghanistan? How many lives?

What would Al Gore have done differently I can't help but wonder? Would he have put a different perspective on the barbaric, primitive attack than had Bush? Would a President Gore have led the battle against terrorism differently? With a guiding principal being not letting the terrorists cause America to over react in fear and anger.

The Al Qaeda attacks killed almost 3,000 on 9/11. More than that number of Americans have died in the 2 unnecessary wars since 9/11. How many soldiers have been seriously injured? The number is in the thousands.

I believe the War on Terror was basically won on 9/11 when The People onboard Flight 93 fought back and caused the plane to crash in Pennsylvania, rather than its target in Washington, D.C.

Since 9/11 there have been other instances where The People have thwarted a terrorist.

I think what we go through to get on a plane now is ridiculous. We've let the threat of terrorists alter our freedom, way too much. There has to be less intrusive ways to determine if a person poses a threat.

Had Al Gore become President, instead of George W., would we now be seeing those Clinton surpluses, rather than the humongous deficits? Would there have been a financial meltdown? Would the world economy have plummeted to the worst recession since the Great Depression?

I don't know.

What I do know is seeing that legless Veteran yesterday made me cranky.

Hearing CNN or Fox or whatever cable news I had the TV on, trumpeting that, after the break, the story of a soldier who lost all his limbs. I turned off the TV. I don't know which of the unnecessary wars the soldiers limbs were lost in. But, I do know, that this did not need to happen to that soldier, and would not have, had America not been misled by someone who I really think never should have been President of the United States.

A travesty we are still trying to recover from.

December 7, 1941 Pearl Harbor Day's Diminishing Infamy

I opened an email from Don Young a few minutes ago, subject line "December 7, Do you remember..." which I assumed was going to be about today being the day in 1941 when Japan sneak attacked America at Pearl Harbor.

But DY's email was not about Pearl Harbor and that particular day of infamy, which seems to have faded in its level of infamy judging by how little note seems to being made in the various media I've looked at today, such as CNN online, which does have an article making note of the fact that tomorrow is the 29th anniversary of the murder of John Lennon. Seems sort of shocking that that was that long ago.

Is there anyone reading this who was alive and paying attention on December 7, 1941? How does the shock of that day compare with the shock of September 11, 2001? There would have been no live television coverage from Pearl Harbor on 12/7, like what happened on 9/11. But I believe the nation was glued to their radio way back in 1941.

I suppose Americans were already in a bit of state of shock on 12/7 due to all the nasty stuff the Nazis had been doing in Europe for a couple years.

Speaking of those nasty Nazis. Nazi's are sort of what Don Young's Pearl Harbor Day email was about. I think I'll share that in another blogging.

9/11 Eight Years Later

This day, 8 years ago, remains so vivid in my memory it does not seem like it was that long ago.

I got a call that morning from someone in Dallas, telling me to turn on my TV, that the World Trade Center had been hit by a plane. I knew the caller was in the vicinity of the Dallas World Trade Center, so I assumed that that was what had been struck by a plane.

I turned on my TV seconds before the second jet crashed into the New York City World Trade Center tower.

I was shocked. As soon as I realized this was an attack of the most outrageous sort and not knowing how bad or extensive it was, I started calling friends and relatives on the west coast to tell them to get out of bed and turn on their TVs. The only one who was already up and watching was my sister Jackie in Marysville, now living in Arizona.

I did not tell any of those I called why they needed to get up and turn on their TVs. When they asked I just said, "Trust me. You need to get up and turn on the TV."

The days after 9/11 were very strange. I remember going to Wal-Mart and the mood was so somber, like people were in a state of shock, which I guess they were. I remember driving by the McDonald's by Six Flags Over Texas and there was this semi-old guy standing on the bed of his pickup waving a flag back and forth. I wondered how long he'd been doing that. When I drove by 2 hours later he was still standing and waving the flag.

Keith Olbermann 9/11 Rant

Keith Olbermann is like the liberal TV version of Rush Limbaugh. Great ranting here. Some of the ranting rings sort of true to me. Some of it. Some of the ranting seems just a tad overwrought. Some of it.....

9/11 2008

I know I'm not the first person today to think it's amazing it's been 7 years since that shocking morning in 2001. Who would have thought on that day that 7 years later we'd be bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan? The Bush presidency had barely begun on that day. And now it is almost over.

That shocking day began for me with a phone call, telling me a plane had hit the World Trade Center. Since the caller was in Dallas at the time, I thought he was referencing the Dallas World Trade Center, which is not all that far from Love Field.

When I turned on the TV I was shocked to see it was the New York City World Trade Towers, just as the second plane struck the second tower.

As soon as I realized how bad this was I began waking people up on the west coast. I didn't tell them what had happened, just that they needed to turn on their TVs. I remember calling my little sister back and saying I didn't think she should go into work that morning. She worked, at the time, in one of Seattle's tallest towers.

About a month after 9/11 a friend from up north, Nancy, came down here. When I picked her up at D/FW I asked if she was hungry. She was. So we went to the Fort Worth Stockyards to find Mexican food. It was deserted. It took awhile, post 9/11, for places like the Stockyards to get back to normal.

A couple weeks after Nancy was here my mom and dad showed up for a week long visit. The Stockyards had picked up by then. Go here and the first photo is my mom watching my dad take a picture of the Fort Worth Herd. I thought I had a picture there of my dad with barbecue sauce all over while eating ribs at Riscky's BBQ. That must be somewhere else. I have too many webpages to keep track of.

While mom and dad were here my mom called my sister who now lives in Phoenix, but then lived in Washington. My nephew, Jeremy answered. He was home alone and scared. The war in Afghanistan had begun. It was his first exposure to such a thing where he was old enough to know it's serious. Jeremy must have been 13 or 14 at the time.

I got back here in Fort Worth a few days before 9/11. I'd driven myself up to Seattle the month before. Best roadtrip ever. Thousands of miles alone with no one to bug me about being hungry or needing a restroom. On the way north gas was $1.17 in Amarillo. When I returned a month later it was $1.39. When I moved to Texas in 1998, OH GOOD GAWD, it's been 10 years, gas was $.77 a gallon in Amarillo. 77 cents!

Columbia Anniversary

It was 5 years ago yesterday that north Texas was awakened by an explosion high overhead with debris falling from the sky. I did not hear the explosion or see the debris falling. But many did. I was laying on the floor reading my morning paper when the disaster struck. I didn't know it had happened until I checked my email and saw a news update from MSNBC.com.

When I realized what had happened I performed my post 9/11 duty of calling those I know on the west coast, who were still asleep, to let them know something awful has happened and that it was time to get up and turn on the TV.

The morning of 9/11 calls were very strange to make. I didn't want to tell people outright what had happened. I just told them they needed to turn on their TV and probably not go to work today. I particularly thought my little sister should stay home since she worked high up in a Seattle skyscraper and at that point in time who knew how many more airliners had been hijacked.

That day 5 years ago yesterday brought about the most unusual freeway warning signs I've seen. Sort of surreal. The one above was taken looking west past the Fort Worth UFO towards downtown Fort Worth.