Loose's blog: "Loose Cannon on Board"

So tomorrow is 9/11. The day that four years ago, as Toby Keith puts it, America took a mighty sucker punch. There will be four seperate moments of silence in the city of New York tomorrow. One for each plane that struck, and then one for the time each tower collapsed. I'm sure ceremonies like this will go on for years in memory and out of respect of those who died that day.

September 11, 2001 is, quite obviously, one of the most momentous days in civilized history. But has anyone ever stopped to think of just how important that the day before - 9/10, and the day after - 9/12, really are in the entire mix of things? I honestly don't believe I've ever heard anyone talk about it, so guess what - I'm about to.

So why doesn't everyone think back to September 10th, 2001. Do you remember where you were? What you were doing? Where you were living? Where you worked? I do. I was still married, living in an apartment with my wife, son and step-son. I was the payroll manager at Labor Connection in Rohnert Park. Life was normal. My son was just under a year old.

I had just been camping at Burney Falls the month before. We, as Americans, lived our lives knowing we were in a free, safe country, and felt untouchable. We could get on an airplane without worrying about whether we were going to be strip searched, making sure our nail-clippers weren't in our pockets or carry-on bags, and could walk through the security check-points with our shoes on. We weren't suspicious of people acting weird before they got on a plane. Hell, I always fly out of SFO - weirdness is the norm there.

When it comes down to it, we were just living our lives. Worrying about our credit card bills. Saving for that next vacation. Figuring out what we were going to do for the upcoming weekend was what was on our minds, not wondering if the Golden Gate Bridge was going to get blown up while you're driving across it. I was just trying to remember to put on my nicotene patch, as that's the week that I was quitting smoking.

September 10, 2001 was the last day we were able to live like that. It was the last day that we, as Americans, were untouchable. Because little did we know, the very next day would change the way we thought, acted, and lived our lives.

I remember September 11, 2001 very well. I woke up at about 6:30 in the morning, went into the kitchen, drank a glass of milk, and turned on the tv while I waited for my Eggo waffles to cook in the toaster. I was a big CNN watcher back then (I have since switched to Fox News), so I flipped to CNN and immediately saw a replay of the first plane crashing into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I almost spit out my milk that I was taking a sip of. I yelled out "What the hell?" which proceeded to wake up everyone else in the apartment. The wife came out all bitchy that I was yelling, but I just pointed at the TV, and she instantly forgot that I had woken everyone up.

A few minutes later, on LIVE TV, I watched the second plane crash into the other tower. I immediately picked up the phone, called my mom, and made sure she was watching since my aunt and uncle lived not too far from there. Turns out that my aunt was actually in the area, and was one of the many people that was covered in ash and soot after the towers collapsed.

I was late for work that morning - just by a few minutes - but no one noticed. Because when I got there, everyone was doing the same thing that kept me from getting to work on time - sitting around the tv watching news coverage of this unbelievable catastrophe. No one knew what to make of it. Were they pilots gone bad? Was it Gadhafi? Was it Bin Ladin? Was it Hussein? Was it domestic? No one had any idea - at least no one talking about it on the news. We all know about the information that the government had prior to 9/11, but that's for an entirely different day of writing.

But everyone was just walking around in shock that day. Nobody went home that night and watched Seinfeld or Everybody Loves Raymond. Everyone was watching the news, making phone calls to the east coast to check in with friends and family, and trying to figure out just what to make of what just happened to this "untouchable" country of ours.

Then came 9/12...the morning after. And boy oh boy, that was worse than one collective national hang over. The shock was still there, but not as bad. We woke up and realized it wasn't a dream. Those horrible images that we spent all day watching on television were as real as it gets. People were trapped. People were dead. People were missing loved ones. We were collectively scared as a country. The United States of America had an achilles heel, and it showed itself massively the day before. We were left to lick our wounds, and make some sense out of the surreal day we had as a nation just 24 hours prior.

More information came out. Bin Ladin was quickly blamed, and Al-Quaida was a household term. We all very quickly knew about the Taliban, and their association to Bin Laden's terror network. This was all stuff that we didn't care about two days prior. Hell, I consider myself someone that keeps "up" on world news, and I had only heard the term Taliban once, and really didn't know who the hell they were. But 2 days later, you're damn right I knew. Just like you. We had to know. We had to put a face and a name to the enemy. We had to identify the ones who threatened our freedom and way of life.

To me, September 12 is the day that we as a country really changed mode of operation. Because to be honest, 9/11 was the day the world stopped for most of us. We weren't in a mode of living on that day, because we didn't know what had hit us. We didn't know the impact it would have on the rest of our lives. It truly is a day that will be frozen in time.

So today, as I right this, I remember the way we were once able to live. Proud to be American, yet not really considering what that actually meant when it came down to it. Compared to the present, we were care free 4 years ago. We weren't at war. Soldiers weren't in Iraq dying every day.

Tomorrow, I'll remember that horrible day. The images I saw on television are still fresh in my mind, as if I had just watched them. I'll remember the people who died, both the innocent who lost their lives as a result of the attack, and the brave men and women who lost their lives in the rescue efforts.

And on Monday, we go on again in our new way of life. Living in a world where our Terror Alert Level is always at "Elevated," praying for our troops that our overseas risking their lives day in and day out.

Three days, all consecutive on the calender, yet that's the only thing they have in common. Each day entirely different than the other - yet all having such an impact on the way we live now.

To me...the memorial begins today...remembering a way of life that we may never know again.