I Remember...

Mesmerizing blue sky.

I walked over to the grocery store early this morning. The air was cool; the sun was bright, making crisp, distinct shadows through the trees above the sidewalk. It was a perfect, nearly-autumn morning.

And then I looked up.

I remember this sky.

It's blue. A blue we don't see all that often. Crystal clear. Not a cloud as far as the eye can see. Not even the wisp of a high, icy cirrus cloud or the hint of haze. Just pure blue. Pilots call it a "severe clear."

It was just like this nine years ago tomorrow.

I remember walking home from the transit station that morning, schlepping my luggage, looking at the sky. Marveling. It was beautiful. At the time, we knew our flights had been cancelled and we'd been sent home from the airport because of "an incident" in New York.  It wasn't until a little later that we found out just how horrible a morning it had been.

That sky is seared into my memory.

It was a sky just like this morning's.