Nice story REB, thanks.

I was working nights back in those days so it was customary for me to sleep until 11 am. That morning however, I awoke from a deep sleep and was wandering around the house wide awake and in a state of expectation. It was 8:45 am. It was sunny and very windy out. I thought maybe a hurricane was forming somewhere so I turned the TV on to my favorite weather station and heard that all airports all around the country were closing.

I couldn't understand it. No weather system I had ever heard of... closed down ALL the airports. So I went to CNN and saw the first tower smoldering. At first, I thought it was just news and I preceded to put the coffee on. When the second tower was hit I thought "What the hell??" and realized this was no accident. I immediately got dressed (knowing we were under attack) and headed out to my local bank where I withdrew a large amount of cash. I figured that if the attacks continued, we could have a total collapse of our electronic communications and that the only way to buy food or gas or move around would be with cash, not credit cards or electronic media.

I had an eerie feeling overcome me similiar to the one you get watching that old Sci-Fi classic "On the Beach" (Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner).
It never really went away.