Thursday morning I took photos of everything in its very spit-spot condition at work, as well as some of my co-workers. I’ve put these up on the web here About 2 MB of QuickTime movie, exported from iPhoto

The first real wintery storm of the year. Of course, after most of a week of April-like weather, no one remembers how to drive in the snow. Driving to work this morning was reasonable. Of course the visit from our regional manager was a non-reality. So we had the pleasure of spending a very quiet day in the store – a very clean and spit-spot store at that.

I don’t get all het up about driving in snow and I know that as time passes, roads are in better shape at least where I live. My only regret is thinking of all the time I could have spent today with the new quilt. Instead I spent time at a computer learning some about Quicktime Virtual Reality and other fun things.

All things change. Today we put aside our very long standing email address and waved bye-bye to the concept of albany.net. Albany.net was a GREAT company – enthusiastic founders who worked hard to provide fabulous services. After they sold the business to mybizz.net things started changing and not for the better. Plus we’d signed on with our local phone company for DSL so were in fact supporting two ISP’s for awhile. Now we’re down to one. Most people won’t notice my changed email addresses since I’ve been using my domain names for awhile. Still – I’ll think fondly back to Albany.net days.

Oh, I just remembered the reason why it was ME who took the bull by the horns and signed up for albany.net and cancelled the aol accounts of our internet “youth” days…. It was because AOL had screwed up my (and many many other) email accounts for like three days and were totally unresponsive about a)there is a problem and b) when it will be fixed and c) where is my mail???? As the friendly AOL voice says – Good-bye! The guys at albany.net talked me through setting up Eudora and we didn’t look back.

Ah yes, the early days on the net…..

I’m not alone in my thoughts about the attacks of September 11. I read about others’ thoughts on their web pages and talk with others about what they’re thinking and doing. The attacks aren’t constantly on my mind, but it seems the ideas and emotions surrounding them are always nearby. Sometimes they push me to keep away news and new information. Sometimes I seek out new photos and progress. For instance in the year end photos published at the nytimes. Or the special edition put out by Time magazine. Some of these photos are new, some I’d seen before and yet I found myself studying them closely and seeing especially the humanity in them – the people effected. Those killed, those witnessing, those left behind to endure.

I think it’s important to remember that we’re not alone in our thoughts and emotions these months later. We’re all processing and holding it together and trying to make sense of this senseless thing. I’ll post again a link about the very normal process of dealing with stress and trauma. Do talk to others about what you’re feeling, if only to admit it to yourself and possibly to help them know that others are thinking similar thoughts. I especially liked this part under “common thoughts”:

— Preoccupation with the event/difficulty thinking about other things. This is our way of trying to absorb the enormity of the event, little by little, at a pace we can handle.
— Thinking of the event over and over, being riveted to television, radio, and web reports. This is our way of trying to re-establish some sense of understanding and control.

For BornFamous and other quote lovers: moments of zen 2000. No holds barred, somewhat topical, to the point.