I was in the shower when the CFO poked her head in and said “Planes have hit the World Trade Center! — one of the Towers collapsed!!” Huh? I rinsed off as fast as I could, grabbed a towel and ran out to the front room. Within 5 seconds of me making it to the TV the second tower fell. A smarter, more insightful, more creative (and less vulgar and/or blasphemous) person would have said something meaningful at this point; the CEO was reduced to Holy-motherfucking-shit did that just happen!?!? And then Son-of-a-fucking-bitch. Goddammit. I just watched 5,000 people die. Fuck. The rest of the day was a haze, punctuated by the occasional what the fuck? as some new detail would come out. I’m pretty sure I went to work that day, but I’m equally sure that no work got done.
It’s probably some sort of character flaw but by the time I got home and the enormity of what had happened had penetrated my thick skull, I had a monumentally overwhelming urge to lock the windows, bar the door, pour myself six fingers of bourbon and then stay up all night sitting in a chair in the hallway with a loaded shotgun in my lap. I could have remained in that position for a week. If I could also have had the launch codes for the U.S. nuclear arsenal near my right hand, all the better.
Christ, that was only 2001; back then Kjel.org consisted of just me and the CFO. I can’t imagine what I would do now in the same situation, but it would likely involve a certain someone “going off the deep end” so to speak. If in the future some terrorist shitstain lands another 9-11 sized blow on the U.S. I recommend you call before you come over.
I was gonna start this with “maybe I’m an idiot”, but really, there is no “maybe” involved. A better person would have put most of this behind them by now, but that better person is not the CEO. I very much miss September 10, 2001, and while remembering the day that followed thoroughly sucks, I think also that we forget that day at our peril. I haven’t, even though I sometimes try. Sorry for the downer. Pointless drivel about mundane crap will resume tomorrow.
