Tragic Memories

18 years ago, a tragic act of terrorism affected us and millions of others too.

Vince and I were having a argument, he thought I was burning breakfast...cause the smell of the first tower burning, of the Twin Towers, was that strong inside our apartment in Brooklyn, NY. He had just got home from work, working the first shift Midnight to 8 AM. I kept saying I was not burning anything, but he kept insisting he could smell that I was. Then I just got mad, and turned the tv on to ignore him, and seen about the first building hit by the first airplane. It was on every single channel. I told Vincent to come look. We both commented on how nice and clear it was outside, how did that happen. Just then the second plane hit the second tower, and he said oh no, we're under attack! A few seconds later his mother called to see if we were home, and told us she had thankfully stayed home from work that day or she would have been down there too. Then Vince got called in mandated work at ground zero...for several days. It was terrible because not long after him getting called in to work, the towers fell and no more phone or tv service in NYC, because the antennas for both TV and cell phones were on the towers. And of course home phone land lines were completely tied up and shut down from so many calls being made. Back then we had dial up internet, you had to use your phone line to dial onto the internet. I had a application that would keep on automatically dialing the internet til it would go through, it took hours but I was able to get the computer to get online with my autodialing program. And I was able to tell friends and family we were ok.

I remember being so relieved when I could finally speak to my mom, dad, and my grandma Martha.

It was one of the scariest things we lived through at the time. Thankfully we have the hope of the New System of Jehovah's Kingdom to put all these tragedies behind us to never occur again.

Vincent to the far end, and his three co-workers at ground zero, helping the rescue work.

State Fair

Went to the state fair yesterday. Had a great time. We got up early, and ate breakfast at Carriage Crossing, because that's what Vince wanted to eat. Thankfully the weather was nice too, not too hot. It's usually incredibly hot this time of year. Then we got to the fair, and were able to see the pig races first which we always do. Then we we looked around outside exhibits, then of course headed to the indoor exhibits. I was able to get some products from Watkins that are being discontinued, my favorites of course! Also while I was in one of the buildings, I witnessed a lady stealing one of the vendors display products. I told the vendor and the vendor took off after the lady. Apparently the lady had stolen even more stuff then I had seen! And the vendor came back with a lot of stuff the lady stole! And to thank me the vendor actually gave me products she was selling. So sad though that people would do that. There was also a witness booth there, and man I forgot to get pictures, hopefully I will remember next year! Then we met up with Gracie and had her come with us the rest of the day. We tried fried cheese curds, and moinkballs. The cheese curds were great, the moinkballs were incredible dry. Won't get them again. We had bought Dillon's ticket sheets before the fair started, so the kids rode rides for several hours. Then we had fried chicken dinners at Carriage Crossing on the way home again. All in all it was a great time, but I am pretty sure I got mastitis. Poor little Dee was pretty fussy and I am incredibly engorged. UGH!

Last year a brother had taken a photo of Sofia at the Pratt congregation end of Summer Pool Party. And entered it into the fair last year. This is a photo of the entry.