Three years

It's been three years since the nation was shocked by our vulnerability. We should have accepted it for what it is and moved on, but that doesn't seem possible. Consider this my little tribute to what was lost.

I lost the most identifiable major structure of my youth. I'd watched the towers go up on trips to the city, and had only begun to see the buildings for what they were a few years later during the bicentennial celebration. As I grew older, I saw the buildings as something else and realized that they'd become international symbols, replacing the Empire State building as the center of New York City. And finally, I'd learned that I could take advantage of their wonders, and had done so only weeks before the end.

In the end, we all lost a well known symbol of this country, well chosen for the impact.

I'd have posted this earlier except that what started out as a simple project to learn how to do masking turned in a major task. If asked to explain how I did what I did, I couldn't. Maybe I could repeat it, no guarantees. I will eventually need to understand how I did it. It was simple programatically, but a giant pain otherwise.

I also got lost outside with Steve sitting under the stars talking about 9-11, freedom, our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, fascism and a number of other subjects. Good stuff. We need to do it more often.