The view from Up Here

Through all the pontificating in the media - I have two clear recollections of that day- The first was standing in the Lobby at the US Dept of Transportation, watching CNN with a knot of co-workers - stunned at the unfolding story. It seemed unreal and I remember wondering how a pilot could have gotten so off-course as to fly an airliner into a building - it had to have been an accident. And then the second airliner hit.
The second clear memory is that of riding west on Interstate 66 in the back of a pickup truck, watching behind as a pall of smoke rose from the Pentagon, 2 or 3 miles away. Another unreal moment. Yet at home, 75 miles away, things seemed so, well, normal.