September 14

September 14, 2001

10:00 A.M.

It’s raining. Finally, the weather matches our mood.

The past several days have been sunny and bright. It contributed to the surreal aspect of this tragedy.

My father is driving down to visit this weekend. We had planned this a while ago. We are going to see the Broadway show “Blast” Saturday evening. The most important thing the average person in the Big City can do is live as normally as possible.

I haven’t cleaned the apartment recently. I hope dad understands.

Things I didn’t think I would ever see: Fighter jets patrolling the skies over Manhattan; Humvees in convoy down Fifth Ave.; New Yorkers standing on the side of the road cheering dump trucks in convoy on the way to ground zero; A guy on the streets handing out free American flags.

One of my co-workers was having lunch at a diner on Wednesday. A convoy of National Guard vehicles passed. The patrons stood and cheered.

Yesterday there were several bomb threats in midtown Manhattan. One was at Grand Central Terminal, which is a block and half from my office building. It is hard to know how to react to such things.

A lot of what we are reading in the papers and seeing on the television news is simply untrue. Be careful to filter news you hear.