Crickets sang where 87,000 Union soldiers battled 40,000 Confederates from dawn until dusk on Sept 17, 1862, and swallows darted over the sunken farm lanes where soldiers perished by the hundreds. The death toll was 3, 654 (over 17,000 wounded) which, until Sept 11, was the deadliest day ever on U.S soil.

Park rangers pointed out that just as there is a kind of media saturation surrounding 9/11's tragedy, Antietam was a media sensation in its day: Photographer Alexander Gardner's grisly photos taken a few days after the battle were the first ever to show the U.S. public the horrors of war. Families wandered from field to field seeking missing relatives.

The people there would have thought at the time: "It's changed America forever. It'll never be the same. We will never recover from the death." Everything you hear now after the 9/11 attacks, you'd have heard right after this. "This country will be different forever."

With hindsight, you can see that the country was better after it. We can look back now and say, "Why were you worried?" Maybe in a hundred years someone will look back on today and say, "It all ended OK. The world became a better place, starting Sept. 11, 2001." My spirits are uplifted every time I think of what grew out of the bloodshed of the civil war. Peace IS possible through war. Freedom is not always free.

Things continue to be weird, traffic wise, here in DC. (From the Washington Post) "Commuters said yesterday that 20 minute car trips were stretching into three hours because of closed roads. Drivers who left early were stuck in traffic starting at 5:30 am." The Pentagon is also a metro station - but more importantly, it is the bus station as well. As a result, this is a major transportation hub for Northern VA. You've got 25 thousand people that work at the Pentagon (and a TON of parking for them) the metro and buses, and then the thriving "Slug" community (which is the hitchhiking that I do to get into work every day.) So when they shut down that station to non-military people, well it's an absolute disaster. People that want to park in the lots can't, because they are being used for the recovery effort and FBI evidence collection, so they are on the road backing up the highway; the military are checking IDs of everyone coming in, which takes forever; and the slugs are being re-routed. What a nightmare.

With the roads being so awful, you can imagine the crush on Metro. The paper said that, on the Metro, 4,342 people took advantage of the system's new 5am opening. (Think about what time you have to be up in order to be parked and on the platform at 5am. Ouch.) But riders said that also meant that the station parking lots filled up even earlier than usual. Also Metrorail is handing out flyers showing how to get a hold of the driver in case of emergency, how to open emergency exits, and how to evacuate trains while in tunnels (*IE, do NOT step on electric rail.) Yes, makes me want to ride public transportation!!

Anway, I'm still trying to "slug" like once a week to see if it's working yet. But every time I do "slug" again to get into work - It's awful. Left at 6:50 and got in at 8:10. So I guess I'll go back to taking the train. What is so annoying is that - like every single morning - I am reminded again of the attack. I have to really plan my mornings out so I get a train - so every morning I am again reminded, "your life is different, once there was peace and then there was an attack." It's emotionally stressful as much as anything. I know that everyone has been affected by the attacks and horror. But I have this ever-present reminder by the fact that I have the added stress of not being able to easily get to work. It's not bad - it's just not what I used to do. And today taking the HOV lanes, which are incredibly backed up, I again got a front row view of the damage to the Pentagon. And there are like 5 very obvious policemen on every metro station platform. I said to my aunt "I want my life back" and she was like, "we all want our lives back" and I just had to laugh - has YOUR life changed on a day to day basis? What, tee-off delayed by 15 minutes? Hubby and I have an added 2 hours of commuting time, and lots of rather young, jumpy, heavily armed marines at every turn, barbed wire and nonsense.

As a result, I'm taking the train. (Which I hate.) The train itself is very very cool. Love being on the train where I just get on, sit down and then don't think again until I pull into Union Station (where I work.) The bad thing is I have to plan my morning around how to catch the damn train. And it's taking me like 30 and hour to go 3 miles on Route 1 because it is backed up so bad. And now the train parking lots are filling up - which NEVER happens. On Tuesday I got the very last spot - so then I had to leave even earlier on Wed. However, it was full when I got there, and as I sat trying to decide what to do at the very top of the parking structure of course the train came. So I parked illegally, and then helped a fellow stuck commuter with a small car (remember, I've got the huge minivan!) also park illegally. Apparently there was a "riot" (this is the word the newspaper used - I am NOT making this up) at the train station last Wed (Sept 19). When people arrived at 7:45 only to find the lot full . . .well I don't know what happened as I had already parked illegally and moved on. Only that paper said that "The police had to be called." What fun!! People were double and triple parked on the grass!

Even more fun -- Guess what!! I was on the top level of the train when a tornado (which wasn't on the ground yet) went over the Franconia/Springfield station! I'm looking out the window thinking - that big black moving cloud? That can't be right? And when I got into the car they were talking about how the tornado had passed over Springfield and was heading to the Pentagon. Bizarre! There have never been tornadoes here before in the last 10 years, and this is the second one that's hit our area in the past 3 months. Just a few weeks ago we had to take shelter in our basement because a tornado hit Montclair (just to our south - where we take Pumpkin swimming.) Of course, what is weirder is that I had a plan. I mean, I actually think ALL the time about what I would do if there were a Toronto. Hubby was pretty shocked that I had a plan. I mean, I sit and weigh the pros and cons of "should we get into the tub in the basement bathroom" or "would it be safer in the storage area under the stairs?" We decided to clear space in the storage area under the stairs and drag lots of pillows down. So if we heard a freight train noise that is what we can do. So Hubby is having fun making fun of me for being a dork. Hello? Jule, you can't put gas in your car but have a long thought out plan for tornadoes - which never happen in Virginia? I'm a dork and proud.

So that's the news in DC. At some point I'll write to you about the kids again. :+)