So, the war channel is on again. Just like it was before only louder. I just wish they would find this Bin Leiderhosen, or whatever the hell his name is and let us get back to normal.
But alas that cannot happen now. He will lurk in some dusty cave and train even more furtive martyrs to scare us shitless.
When I lived in Manhattan I did my best to avoid the Twin Towers... since my vicious fear of heights left me sweaty-palmed at the thought of visiting the top. They were the beacons that you could use to orient yourself as you approached the city when coming back into town. They were the scaffolding of the skyline.
Of course I couldn't avoid it altogether and eventually a visiting friend convinced me to go with him one Sunday morning a couple of years ago.
The observation area had been renovated since I had been there last, so I was unprepared when we went one flight up to the observation deck proper which was built on a platform above the roof. To my horror I realized the down escalator was on the other side of the deck which meant I had to walk all the way around to get down again.
Where are the valium when you really need them?
What you cannot forget is the sheer scale of the buildings... that what stays with me. The didn't seem real, especially if you stood at the base of them and looked skyward.
Thankfully I didn't have any close friends or loved ones among the lost, but it doesn't really matter. They attacked my city, and they surely messed with the wrong one this time. The wrath of a New Yorker is one thing, but to make the entire country a nation of New Yorkers is quite another.
So, last week, on a very quiet street in an otherwise undistinguished suburb of Toronto, we recently took a broken old pool skimmer, lashed the poles together and hoisted an American flag over our Canadian back yard.