Day 19 (September 11, 2009)

I noticed today people were talking more about where they were and how they heard about the events of 9/11/01. Here's my story:

As was my tradition at that time, I woke up in time to turn on Joyce Meyer on TV at 9:30 in the morning. When I turned it on I saw that it was news and thought I was on the wrong channel. When I realized that it was the right channel and that something was going on I turned to NBC for better coverage.

The impossibility of the situation was reflected in the thoughts I had as I watched scenes unfold. They included:

-It's a good thing that skyscrapers are built to withstand crashes like this.
-I wonder if/how the buildings can be repaired and, if not, how would they tear them down?
-It will be so strange to see just one tower standing by itself from now on.

As troubles expanded into Virginia, I felt a need to pray for Detroit and Pittsburgh.

I got a phone call from Mike saying that Bonnie, who worked in the Pentagon, saying that she was stationed on the side the plane hit but that she was OK. Another friend of mine who was flying that morning landed safely in Dallas but some of his coworkers were on the flights that crashed.

After getting Bryce from Kindergarten and Vonceil getting home early from her school, I had a lot of nervous energy that had built up. I needed something to do.

We were in the process remodeling our home after buying the house next door and converting the two houses into one. Bryce had moved into his new bedroom and we'd just finished converting his old room into a nursery for Onalee (who would be born in another 6 weeks, though we thought 12 weeks at the time). The playroom was the next room on the list.

That room had paneling on the walls that we had primed to prepare for painting. Three walls were to be tan (and I believe I had already finished those three walls but am not 100% sure) and one wall was to be a fun lavender shade. I took a 1 inch trim brush and started to paint the lavender in the cuts in the paneling that wouldn't cover easily with the roller.

I couldn't stop. Several hours later I had painted the entire wall with a 1 inch brush.

We opened the church that evening. A few, but not too many, people came by for prayer. We kept a TV going in the corner the whole time.

That's what I was doing that day.

Thanks for reading,

Jeff