Today is of course the 14th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and as with previous years, it is impossible not to be moved when listening to family members read the names of the victims. A road around the corner from me was renamed after one of those who perished, and my sister worked in an adjoining building at the World Financial Center. She was one of the many dust covered people standing in the street when the first tower came down. I was at the grocery store this morning when an announcement came over the P A system at 8:46am, marking the time the first tower was hit. They asked all customers and staff to pause for a moment of silence, everyone did, and the only noise you heard was a small child who is far too young to know the significance of that particular moment. Thank you Stop & Shop.
Completely changing the subject, if you are a cat person, and even if you are really not, do read Luke's story on the Cats page. He is a nice big kitty these days, but was quite tiny when we first encountered him. It's still hard to believe the circumstances of that unforgettable morning almost exactly two years ago. He does like to scratch the woodwork and furniture around the house too frequently, and especially likes torturing the moldings of our nice Anderson sliding doors--climbing up like it's a rock face. They've been plastered with layers of blue tape many times, but this only does so much (we don't even think about using the screen doors).
We are looking forward to when he gets a bit older and less 'energetic', but Luke is a lovely boy and we are so happy he found us. He gets very affectionate at nighttime and has the best tail of any cat I've ever seen. It's a good bit longer than that of our other 3 cats, and he often proudly walks around with it up in the shape of a big question mark. I often joke that the line separating a cat person from a cat freak is between 3 and 4. Our veterinarian swears it's between 4 and 5, so lets hope he's right, and that no additional baby kittens present themselves to us because we wouldn't be able to say no.
And BTW, I am so so bummed that Serena lost today. I was definitely routing for her. Maybe Grand Slam next year? Still one of the most awesome athletes on the planet.