Remembering 9/11

I was on my way to work when the radio announced that a plane had crashed into the Twin Tower. I'd never heard any disc jockey on this Christian radio station interrupt like that before. I figured it was a commuter plane but thought it was odd, and how horrible devastation was going to be.

My co-worker came in and said another plane had flown into another building and that that was no accident, but a terrorist. Since this co-worker is prone to exaggeration, I dismissed her comment and tried to get news online. It was jammed. I remember listening to a British radio program talking about the tragedy. I called my parents to find out what was going on. My mother said, I don't know, I have to go, they just few a plane into the Pentagon.

Terror. Heart racing. Feeling hopeless and on the brink of tears.

Another co-worker came in and told me to pray for her friend's son, who was working at the Twin Towers that day. He called a little while later, sounding confused and surprised when I told him I'd just been praying for him. His meeting had been called off that day so he wasn't in the building.

I didn't know what to do. No one was really working, just sitting around, somber, silent, talking about the incredulity of the whole thing. Louie was watching the towers fall on TV. I didn't want to see it, so I left the room. Too horrifying, like a nightmare.

I talked to a fellow graduate student, and we were cheered that class for that night had been cancelled. Silly, self-centered girls. Later that student would cry when she relayed to the class that her friend had died in the attack on New York. Our professor told us that Bin Laden's sister, who was a student at the college, was leaving the U.S. for fear of her life.

Since I didn't have school I spent a rare night at home, watching, watching, watching. For the survivors. Where were the survivors? Trying to understand - who had done this awful thing? How had it unfolded? Why is it that having the facts makes it better, somehow? If we can understand then perhaps we'll be safer. No. God is the only One with true understanding, and provides perfect safety.

What can I do? I want to help. Can I donate blood? But there weren't any survivors who needed blood. So many people gone. My co-worked said (the one who asked me to pray), that could have been us, they were just going to work like us.

Weird how we can be personally affected, right here in Connecticut, isn't it? We're really too far north to have many folks commuting to the city. A flight attendant on the Boston United flight was from a town near mine.

So ten years later, it seems like a lifetime ago. Saddam? Dead? Osama? Him, too. I'm guessing God had an interesting conversation with both of them. But this is a religious war, people. Or a culture war. And these radical Muslims must be stopped. Really, they're not much different from when God had ordered them killed back when Israel was given their Holy Land. But that's a whole 'nother discussion.

Rudy Giuliani was very impressive, as was George Bush. I hope people always remember and understand this vicious act of war and the loss of 2819 innocent lives.

Here are the stats:

9/11 by the Numbers
Death, destruction, charity, salvation, war, money, real estate, spouses, babies, and other September 11 statistics.

The initial numbers are indelible: 8:46 a.m. and 9:02 a.m. Time the burning towers stood: 56 minutes and 102 minutes. Time they took to fall: 12 seconds. From there, they ripple out.

* Total number killed in attacks (official figure as of 9/5/02): 2,819

* Number of firefighters and paramedics killed: 343

* Number of NYPD officers: 23

* Number of Port Authority police officers: 37

* Number of WTC companies that lost people: 60

* Number of employees who died in Tower One: 1,402

* Number of employees who died in Tower Two: 614

* Number of employees lost at Cantor Fitzgerald: 658

* Number of U.S. troops killed in Operation Enduring Freedom: 22

* Number of nations whose citizens were killed in attacks: 115

* Ratio of men to women who died: 3:1

* Age of the greatest number who died: between 35 and 39

* Bodies found "intact": 289

* Body parts found: 19,858

* Number of families who got no remains: 1,717

* Estimated units of blood donated to the New York Blood Center: 36,000

* Total units of donated blood actually used: 258

* Number of people who lost a spouse or partner in the attacks: 1,609

* Estimated number of children who lost a parent: 3,051

* Percentage of Americans who knew someone hurt or killed in the attacks: 20

* FDNY retirements, January–July 2001: 274

* FDNY retirements, January–July 2002: 661

* Number of firefighters on leave for respiratory problems by January 2002: 300

* Number of funerals attended by Rudy Giuliani in 2001: 200

* Number of FDNY vehicles destroyed: 98

* Tons of debris removed from site: 1,506,124

* Days fires continued to burn after the attack: 99

* Jobs lost in New York owing to the attacks: 146,100

* Days the New York Stock Exchange was closed: 6

* Point drop in the Dow Jones industrial average when the NYSE reopened: 684.81

* Days after 9/11 that the U.S. began bombing Afghanistan: 26

* Total number of hate crimes reported to the Council on American-Islamic Relations nationwide since 9/11: 1,714

* Economic loss to New York in month following the attacks: $105 billion

* Estimated cost of cleanup: $600 million

* Total FEMA money spent on the emergency: $970 million

* Estimated amount donated to 9/11 charities: $1.4 billion

* Estimated amount of insurance paid worldwide related to 9/11: $40.2 billion

* Estimated amount of money needed to overhaul lower-Manhattan subways: $7.5 billion

* Amount of money recently granted by U.S. government to overhaul lower-Manhattan subways: $4.55 billion

* Estimated amount of money raised for funds dedicated to NYPD and FDNY families: $500 million

* Percentage of total charity money raised going to FDNY and NYPD families: 25

* Average benefit already received by each FDNY and NYPD widow: $1 million

* Percentage increase in law-school applications from 2001 to 2002: 17.9

* Percentage increase in Peace Corps applications from 2001 to 2002: 40

* Percentage increase in CIA applications from 2001 to 2002: 50

* Number of songs Clear Channel Radio considered "inappropriate" to play after 9/11: 150

* Number of mentions of 9/11 at the Oscars: 26

* Apartments in lower Manhattan eligible for asbestos cleanup: 30,000

* Number of apartments whose residents have requested cleanup and testing: 4,110

* Number of Americans who changed their 2001 holiday-travel plans from plane to train or car: 1.4 million

* Estimated number of New Yorkers suffering from post-traumatic-stress disorder as a result of 9/11: 422,000

Copyright © 2011, New York Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

What I Learned About Housekeeping This Summer

I don't like to deep-clean anything. I like things to look picked-up and put-together, but I hate moving furniture and scrubbing things. It's exhausting. Once I arrange a room I don't like to move anything. My house is especially unkempt during gardening season (basically May through July).

Unfortunately this summer my house has become infested with fleas. I have three beloved, adorable cats. See for yourself - Rudy, Lucy and Carly. The fleas were everywhere. It was most horrifying. Sickening. Depressing. Frustrating. I vacuumed, cleaned, bombed, sprayed, gave pills and lotions to the cats. I still see them and my cats are still scratching. I guess I'll have to call in an exterminator and spend money I don't have.

Anyway, I've now become obsessed with cleaning. Which products are best, most efficient, smell the nicest? I'm really liking a Lysol spray I bought that smells so heavenly I'd like to dab it behind my ears.

I've had to store my sisal rugs, since the fleas really seemed to like them. I'm also storing radiator covers so I can more easily get underneath for vacuuming and spraying poison. I've done load after load of laundry, being careful not to put it in areas where the fleas are. Vacuuming every square inch of a 1560-square-foot house all the time is exhausting. This ordeal is also emotionally exhausting as I'm constantly checking myself for fleas and inspecting everything for evidence. It gets depressing when I read that a flea can produce thousands of eggs, and they hatch every two weeks. The eggs are too small to see so I'm battling an invisible enemy for the most part.

I finally finished a thorough cleaning of the bathroom, including cleaning and organizing the medicine cabinet. Have you ever found pills that you have no idea what they're for? I've been known to ask my brother the nurse what the pills are for, since I have an insuppressible need to know stupid details like what horrible ailment I had that required these unidentifiable medications.

I hate cleaning bathrooms. Perhaps if I did it more often it wouldn't be such a bear of a job when I finally get around to it. This particular bathroom is horrific because in my c. 1875 home, the previous owner did a cheap, slap-dash job of renovating it so I have a hokey, homemade vanity, corner shelves and bath surround. It also has a vinyl floor with an imprint design so the dirt hides nicely in all the nooks and crannies.

So I found that in an area where the vinyl floor cracked, water has gotten in and caused the subfloor to start rotting. My ceilings on the first floor are almost nine feet high, so I never had a shower curtain that was long enough, causing water to continuously fall on the floor. I broke down and ordered an 84" long curtain. Hopefully that will stop further deterioration.

I dream of the day when I can finally install a bathroom upstairs and can renovate this bath. I dream of a clawfoot tub, little white hexagonal floor tiles, beadboard part way up the walls and a pedestal sink. Maybe I'll win one of those contests I keep entering at magazine websites.

Here's what I've learned from the Great Flea Infestation of 2011:

1. I have too much stuff! I thought I'd done well at de-cluttering, too.
2. My furniture is too big for my small rooms. I thought I was maximizing the space by super-sizing the furniture.
3. Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance! It's so important to stay on top of housecleaning. It's amazing how quickly things get dirty with three cats in an old, drafty house.
   

My neat-freak mother always tells me that I should pick up after myself immediately. "Do it now" was one of my father's mantras. But after a hard day's work who wants to come home and clean? I just want to plop down on the couch, relax and zone out. Forget obligations and responsibilities.

What about you? What are your housekeeping habits?

June - It's All About the Garden

June is an incredibly busy month. You see, I'm a gardener. Since I became a gardener five years ago, spring has become my favorite season. Oh, the anticipation! What will the weather be like, and how will it affect my plants? What lived through the winter? Do I see evidence of the woodchuck's appetite? So it's a very tough time to be balanced. It's all about the garden. Morning and evening walk-throughs. I want to savor the sights and smells, because it comes and goes so quickly. There's no guarantee that it'll be this way again. It's all about now, and trying to remember. I rush to capture it all on film, but it just never can quite tell the story, the essence. That's life. There'll never be a June 18, 2011 evening again. Will I ever remember how it became so muggy as twilight fell? Will I remember the garden tour, the nine homes my mother and I visited? Will I remember that my banana bread didn't turn out well? I think I want to remember. Our memories are changed by new perceptions we attain, by the new person we've become. What remark hurt me yesterday may have no effect on me today. Strange. Anyway, this is June 18, 2011. It's Rose Weekend at Elizabeth Park, so in honor of that I'll show you the roses from the garden I planted in the front side yard last year.