Just Another Day

Val had a scare today.

I'm sitting back at ManCamp yesterday afternoon hoisting a few beers with my neighbor. It was a long day at work and I needed a little R&R, a little decompression. We're just sitting back there talking shit and all of a sudden there's this huge BOOM. My neighbor and I stare at each other for a second in stunned silence.

It turned out to be a truck's engine catching fire and exploding. Not an everyday occurence but something that does happen from time to time.

The post-9/11 world, brother.

But I learned, no, I confirmed something about myself just then. I am definitely not the same person I was before September 11, 2001. Call me paranoid but for that brief instant, for that tiny miniscule second I was scared.

[...]

I know, it sounds crazy. But I have to admit it. I can't fool myself. I just don't think so naively anymore. My little world, that microcosm of friends and family and work and home no longer feel so isolated from the reality of the rest of the world. I am not the same. My family is not the same. And while the world around me still revolves as if nothing had ever happened on 9/11 and beyond, I know it disguises itself in its familiar daily routine. Yet somewhere there is that little nagging voice that says Be careful man. Shit just aint the same anymore.

A natural reaction. About once a week driving home from work, I see a plane flying too low as it heads into or out of LaGuardia, I get a knot in my stomach.

A few months ago there were three planes, low and flying way too slowly in my mind. Like they were heading for a target. I kept checking them like you check your rearview mirror. I would look straight up through the sunroof to follow them. Chrissy, my parents, my brother, my family, my friends, like a slideshow through my head.

Then, they're gone and that's that. Another day done. Another day without a 9/11.

Friends of mine live on a canal on the south shore of L.I. This afternoon they were sitting on their dock reading their books, when down the length of the canal a formation of fighter jets comes screaming, very, very low. What do you think their first thought was?

The 911 operator quickly put them at ease, the switchboard was getting lit up, The Blue Angels are in town this weekend.

Another day without a 9/11.

I think I'll head down to Jones Beach this weekend and watch the show.

What else can we do?

Comments

[Val Prieto]

Chrissy, my parents, my brother, my family, my friends, like a slideshow through my head.

I know the feeling Rob.