"These cold and damp white mornings"

On the Anniversary
I opened up my Web browser towards the end of work today, and instead of the my company's intranet, I discovered there was a page remembering the deaths of 260 of our MMC colleagues and 60 other consultants on 9/11. MMC is our parent company, and my guess is that one of the planes flew right into their floors for so many to have died. That's nearly 10% of all casualties that day!

I clicked on the list of people and their tributes that had been created a couple of years ago and scrolled through. One man loved to play sports with all of the kids in his neighborhood. Another was "one of the good guys." Mark Rosenberg was 26 and had met his wife, Jennifer by chance one day. A couple of year's ago Mark's sister had written about how she'd missed him. How she still couldn't believe he was gone.

On Michigan's Fall
As I mentioned last week, fall is in the air in Michigan. The sky is cloudy. The air is cold. Open windows bring a breeze through the room and a shiver to your soul. Perhaps nothing signifies fall so much as the advent of football season. I'm not really a big football fan, but I'm a fan nonetheless. Last night after attending the Lions vs. Seahawks in the afternoon, I laid on my bed watching the Colts vs. Giants while doing work on my laptop. It was a comforting feeling of sorts. Discouraging in some ways to be doing work until 1 a.m. But comforting, because it was a feeling I've had many times before. Juggling work at home with a Sunday Colts game.

Mostly the fall in Michigan just makes me scared of the coming winter. Early black mornings. Hour-long commutes to work in the dark traveling slowly over icy roads. I don't know what to expect, but I'm not looking forward to it.

May fall be long, and the winter mild. Goodnight.