I hadn’t planned on writing anything specifically about 9-11 today. I don’t know. It just felt like the media was making a bit too big of a deal about it. I’m still worried that someone is going to use today to turn it into a political discussion and I wanted to avoid that.

But, I read Scoble’s message about his posts from those days no longer being online and then just watched today’s Rocketboom and it got me thinking.

Due to a migration, a bit of stupidity and a crash my posts from those days are no longer either. I can say that they were filled with anger of a nature I’ve never felt before. I was pissed. I wanted actions immediately and I remember vividly being upset that it took us so long to bomb someone in reaction to it. Thinking about that now it sort of freaks me out how vile I was at that moment. But, emotions do weird things to people and that day certainly did it to all of us in different ways.

On that day I was sitting at my office in Norwood, MA. We were in the direct line of the airport. Planes flew over us all day long. It’s a small airport, but on that day everything changed.

I remember that I had this cool little news alert tool from MSNBC that would blink like a little bull’s-eye whenever there was news. A report came across that “a plane” had crashed into the World Trade Centers. It appeared to be an accident. I vividly remember saying to the girl next to me “no way that’s an accident.” She laughed at me and went back to work.

In the hours that followed a TV was on in the conference rooms. We saw the towers fall. The image that sticks in my mind is a camera of all these first responders going away from the camera. Then suddenly smoke, debris and everything and some of them coming right back. That burns in my skull more then any other image.

There were tears and anger. I needed to see my kids and just left. Wasn’t any need to tell anyone. I just left. I got my kids. I hugged them. I still to this day am thankful that they were too young to have any idea what is going on. Last night I realized I’m going to have to explain it to them today at some point.

I also remember sitting at a light later that day. Knowing that all air traffic was grounded when I heard a plane. It freaked me out. I looked up and an F-16 streaked across the sky. Yes, the world had changed.

I still worry about future happenings. I worried about them that day. I had a script that I had started that had some attacks in it that could have been follow-ups to this. I instantly made the script disappear because I was never going to finish writing something that may give ideas to people who would harm others.

Laura and I have ALWAYS said “I Love You” to each other as the last thing. Might be a phone call. A two second IM. It doesn’t morning. It’s because we both believe that you never know when it’s going to be the last time. Every time before I leave to go anywhere I say this to the kids. I do it before I go to bed at night. You just never know.

Treat every day that your alive as special. Make sure you see the sunshine. Feel fresh air. Be good to all other humans around you. Life is too short. We only get a certain number of days on this big old blue marble.

Please remember that unity that was felt as humans in the days after that horrible day in 2001. Remember how neighbors suddenly got to know each other. How you let that guy cut in front of you in traffic without too much hassle. How you might at least say hi to a stranger in the subway.

I wish everyone had that feeling of unity all the time. Sure, sounds like a fluffy cloud idea, but it’s honestly how a I feel.

Stay safe everyone and be sure you give someone a hug today. Never a bad idea if you ask me.