The Rising - this is such a strange day

This is a weird day on so many different levels.  And this is the only song that really feels like how I want to think about September 11th.  The Rising - Bruce Springsteen for those of you reading this on Facebook and not able to see the embedded video.



I woke up at, well, early, planning to do an 11-12 miler around Ft Snelling.  I checked the weather (which was my first mistake) and I kept getting more and more confused.  Once I saw it was 68* and 80% humidity I was not in a good mood.  But then Kare 11 radar had all this activity.  WCCO radar had the same activity but not as severe.  Weather.com had nothing.  I was so confused.  And by this point I'd been staring at my phone and computer long enough I was getting too tired to care.

So I went back to bed.

I woke up later and realized that it was, in fact, September 11th.  This day is just weird for me becuase I wasn't in the country, (or in any country) when it happened and I wasn't even around televisions that day or for most of the time after.  It's like I missed out on this inside story the entire country knows about.

I was on a ship doing a study abroad.  Obviously, we got the news but we didn't have satellite television or anything so I was away from the images and news casts everyone here knows so well.  On the ship I sent an email home and then got one from my dad basically saying we can't get mad at anybody and we can't hold this against people (because violence is a descending spiral).  And then he just told me to be as nice as I could to everyone I met on my journey.

So when we got to Japan the first thing half the boat saw was Hiroshima.  It was very sad to be knowing the US was going to go to war soon and be in these places with these living images of how awful war can be.  Before the US actually went to war, we got further reminders in China, Singapore and most notably Vietnam.  It was sad for me because I'd just spent all this time looking at "hey, this is what war does to countries and people; it didn't make anyone's lives better, it just hurts people" in all these different formats.

I remember finally getting home too.  I drove across alligator alley to Ft Meyers with my Mom, Dad, aunt and uncle and I was all "why are there flags on all the cars?".  My mom was really mad at me for not understanding.  (I still don't get it.)  There's a lot about this day I don't get.  (If that makes me un-American, deal with it.  I'm really one of you.)

After strolling down memory lane, mostly through Facebook posts with people from that trip, I headed to the gym and did a couple hours work on the elliptical.  I had my last Roctane packet during this workout, because I knew the consequences wouldn't be too bad here.  I still don't like it. 

I'm trying to figure out my mileage for the rest of the week.  I still want to hit Ft Snelling, maybe Tuesday when the weather cools off.  And I'm racing a 10K on Saturday.  Which leaves me about 10 miles to spread through the other days of the week and take Thursday and Friday off.