I must admit, it snuck up on me a bit. Tomorrow is the third anniversary of the terrible events in New York, at the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania where nearly 3000 lost their lives.

On that morning, I was in my car driving my son and my wife to school and work respectively. As I always did, I turned on the radio to get the traffic news, and immediately found news that one tower of the World Trade Center had collapsed. I was dumbfounded, but still dropped my son off, and then went on to drop my wife at her place of work in downtown Oakland. When I had reached Pixar, the gate guard said that people could consider work optional, and could go home if they wished. I went in for just a brief time, checking the news with the few others who where there, but then got a call from my wife. Her building was close to the federal building downtown, and they were being evacuated. I decided to call it a day, and went to go pick her up. As I arrived, police were busy erecting barricades and closing the roads surrounding those buildings.

For the next several hours, I remember watching the second tower crash, the discussions of the possible death toll, and just feeling bludgeoned by the loss of life, especially among the brave fire and police crews who responded to the disaster.

About 2:00pm in the afternoon, I was overwhelmed, and turned the TV off for the rest of the day. I remember how quiet it seemed, and then realized there were no airplanes in the sky.

My continued sympathies go to anyone who lost someone close to you on that day.

That’s what I was doing that day. There are of course a huge number of websites describing the events from others perspectives. Many of the best ones are linked and archived at 911digitalarchive.org.