Thunder and Lightning

Storms are flying past back to back tonight at 50 kmh, so I watch fork lightning and listen to continuous rumblings and sudden, frightening cracks. It's been more than two hours so far. At one point rain came so furious it somehow washed down the inside of the wall of our place, pouring over outlets where I raced to unplug things and ran for a towel. And throughout these storms, large commercial airliners continue circling Brooklyn to land at JFK. 

There are always jets overhead, even in Manhattan

In Manhattan I've come across monuments both planned and unplanned. (Even walking in Brooklyn I've found monuments at firehalls.) I was in a pub yesterday with relatives, half a block from ground zero that had a few photos of their place taken in the aftermath. If you don't see the photos, you are just in a pub. If you see the photos, you realize you are in the middle of the place where one day things went horribly awry.

Years ago we did the tour to the top of the towers - we have a photo somewhere. And yes, we saw the TV that day, everybody has those images stored in their brains. There is a TV Guide here on the bookshelf that came out just a week or two after. Now during the rumbles and cracks and random flashes I pick it up and start reading first hand reports from dozens of journalists describing their involvement in the event, helping each other, running for their lives. I know every day on the subway or in the streets I am next to people with their own stories and losses from that day, but I can't really begin to comprehend.