[cd34]

I remember waking up around 9:30 that morning after a late night coding. My icq was lit up my a christmas tree with everyone asking "Are you watching TV?" I tried to hit cnn.com and it was down, tried msnbc.com and it was down -- then turned on the TV and basically sat there dumbfounded watching. I had a conference call scheduled later that week with someone that worked on the 103rd floor that I had just met the week prior. When the plane hit the Pentagon, my immediate thoughts were about a good friend of mine that worked there, and moreover, his children that were in the daycare center. We tried to get through to his wife most of the day to find out that they were on the other side of the building -- and while it took a lot of time for them to get out, they were fine.

I had a Fedex delivery due that day which was returned to the delivery station, rescanned, and redelivered. The guy told me I was one of the last deliveries that day.

I ended up driving to the office anyhow -- it was eery not seeing any planes in the air. You don't realize how much little things like that make a difference. Airports had planes on the ground with no room for more planes, downtown Miami was a ghost town, policemen guarding federal buildings everywhere.

What a sad day.

It took a few days to get in contact with a few friends that worked a few blocks from the World Trade Center and they told us that they ended up walking home and it took 8 hours or so.

A client of mine in Washington DC lost two dear friends from National Geographic on the plane that hit the Pentagon. Another good friend of mine that worked for Akamai lost a good friend on the flight from Boston.

That six degrees of separation theory sure does hit home when things like this happen.

Special thoughts of rememberance to all those that lost their lives needlessly.