HAPPY BIRTHDAY, RAY!

Today is also my father's birthday. Although that sounds strange since I never called him "Father". He was always "Daddy". He would have been 70 today. However, he lost his battle with Leukemia 19 years and 358 days ago. Maybe one day I'll tell you about him... but not today.

With the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Tuesday (God, has it only been 48 hours?!), there has been enough sadness, indignation, diatribes, racism on the internet and in our lives. I don't think I need to contribute to any of it. Yes, I work about two miles away (I thought it was less than that until I checked a map) from the Pentagon. While we could see the smoke, we didn't hear or feel anything when the plane hit. My co-worker was talking to his father, who works across the street from the Pentagon on Army-Navy Drive, and saw the explosion. The phone suddenly went dead, as well as all cellular and land lines, and my co-worker bolted. I don't blame him, but someone had to stay because even though I'm not a Federal employee, the Helpdesk is considered essential. Besides, I knew that all of my family was well away from the area. I also knew that I wasn't very close to any military or political targets. So I stayed about another half hour until they closed all the Federal offices.

I had been talking to Lisa and Alison in AIM during all of this. I knew there would be several "Rennie headcount" type calls going out to make sure everyone was okay. That's one of the reasons I love the Faire family... everyone looks out for one another. I knew one of them would through my name out as being alright. The streets were packed worse than I've ever seen them, but everyone was going out of their way to be courteous and helpful. (That lasted until the next morning when I got cut off on the way to work. *sigh*)

I went straight to the school, signed out the Clanlad and took him home. I tried to explain what was going on, but I don't think he really got it. I'm not saying I do, except on some superficial level, but I found myself not even being able to explain what a "terrorist" is in terms a 6 year old could understand. We settled on "very, very bad people". It's not like I really wanted to try and explain things like terror, mass deaths and destruction to my child. But then again, I don't want him thinking it was all a movie either. Too many people expressed that feeling already. Even though he had never been to NY or seen the WTC in person, I want him to remember what happened this week.

So hug your kids, kiss someone special, tell those you love that how you feel and may you be safe from all the very, very bad people.