What I Was Doing.

I did not think I would write a post today. But I am going to. Unlike most days that happened 5 years ago, I can remember what I was doing this day in 2001. I suspect that hundreds of millions of people around the globe can say the same thing.

At the time, I was still taking classes at Florida International University. I had classes on this day. But I was just as lazy then as I am now.

So when the first plane hit I was sleeping. My first class was not till 11:30 AM and I did not need to get up till 10:00 or so. My commute to the university was only a few minutes, and I knew where to park without having to hunt for a space. I had my sleep time down to an exact science. I would never be more than 5 minutes early to class and very rarely was I late.

When the first plane hit there were people awake and watching the TV. My mom knocked on my door and said "turn on the TV. Something is going on". My reply was along the lines of "I am not awake yet, Ill turn on the stupid TV later". I am grumpy in the morning.

A few minutes later, the same thing happened. Once again my reply was that I would wake up in about an hour, and to bug me about whatever was going on then. But the bugging did not stop.

"Fine. I will wake up enough to reach for the remote control and turn to CNN - if it will shut you up". I said the "if it will shut you up" part quietly. It is usually a bad idea to say that to your mother. She can hit you and you are not allowed to defend yourself.

Now I had thought, up to that point, that whatever I saw on the TV would not shock me. After all, the idiot box had showed a lot of stuff before. I saw the Space Shuttle Challenger explode on live TV. I had seen the footage of Vietnam and other wars. Bodies floating in the surf at Normandy. Blood in the streets thanks to the "the more blood the better" trend in American Media.

But I was shocked. An aircraft had hit the World Trade Center. This just does not happen. Everyone knows that the airspace around tall buildings is restricted. Even in Miami, where the tallest building is only 55 floors (about 1/2 the size of the WTC towers and by New York City standards not that tall of a building) you never hear jet engines if you are in the tall building district.

I knew it could not be an accident. Pilots are too trained to make a mistake like that. With GPS technology, radio communication, the perfect weather, and back up instruments on a modern jet aircraft it was far too unlikely - impossible - for it to be an accident.

So I called a friend of mine and told him to turn on the TV. He asked why and I said "something major is going on".

"What is it?"

"I do not know exactly, but this is huge. Major".

"Was the President shot or something?"

"No. Bigger than that. I think America is under attack".

"Come on. Under attack? By who? Cuba?"

"I do not know who. But they hit New York City"

So my friend turns on the TV. The next question was something like "Is that the WTC?". Of course both of us knew the answer. Everyone knew what those buildings looked like.

It was about this time that the second plane hit. By this time both of us were watching the TV. When the second plane hit, even the TV was using the word "attack". From that point on there was no more talk of "an accident". It was not an accident.

From there on, everything is not as clear. The buildings collapsed. The Pentagon was hit. Another plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Classes were canceled. Airports nation wide were shut down. People working in buildings downtown left the office. The news reports were coming in so fast that it was hard to keep track of what was going on. I had the TV on CNN, a FM radio tuned to local TV channel 6 audio. Another AM radio was tuned to WIOD 610 AM news radio. I also had a VHF amateur radio tuned into the repeater all the local hams use when something is going on. It was total overload.

After a while the overload got to me. With the TV and three different radios tuned into three different things it was too much. I had to get outside.

When I did walk out the front door I was looking to the north. Towards Miami International Airport. I did not work at the airport, and I was not in the main air traffic lanes, but I could usually see aircraft operating off in the distance.

There were no aircraft visible. All airplanes in the area had already been grounded or turned back to the airport they departed from. It was strange. It was strange for three days to not see a single aircraft.

Later that afternoon I did hear a jet engine. I rushed out of the house with the cordless phone, unsure if I should call emergency services or not.

But it was only some F-16 fighters from the nearby Homestead Air Base, flying in a tight formation over the house. The sky was absolutely quiet for the next three days, except for some birds.