This is for the birds...

We put up a bird feeder that my Uncle made for the kids last Christmas. We filled it with wild bird food and have really enjoyed watching the birds and the acrobatic squirrel that come and visit. The feeder can be seen easily from our sun room and I think we will enjoy watching the feeder all winter, especially when the birds are in the most need of food. I took all these great pictures of the feeder. I got awesome shots of the squirrel hanging upside down to eat and shake the feeder so more food fell to the ground. I was so excited to post and then realized this all happened without a memory stick being in the camera. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Maybe someday I will get some more fun bird shots. We have the most beautiful cardinals and blue jays that hang out in our back yard.

On a serious note today is the 8 year anniversary of 9-11. I, like all of you, remember exactly where I was when I first found out. I was working at Bedford Laboratories and my friend, Pam, called from upstairs and said that our country appeared to be under attack. When I was at work I was busy and kind of lived in a bubble. At the time we didn't have internet access but another co-worker who was on vacation had a radio so I went and got it and plugged it in. I listened to NPR all day and was in shock. Our phones were quiet, hardly anyone contacted me about business all day. Eventually someone turned on a TV in a conference room but I never went and looked. I was afraid I would it would be too overwhelming and shocking. I wanted to wait until I got home from work before I watched any TV. The radio was enough for me at the time. I remember driving home from work through a residential area and being amazed how many flags were flying on houses. It brought tears to my eyes. It was beautiful. The next day at work things started to get crazy as customers of ours in NYC and Washington started preparations for hospital to be over stocked with drugs that they might need to treat the wounded. Since there was no air flight trucking companies were brought in to move the pharmaceuticals east. It was by Thursday or Friday that we realized that all this effort was for nothing as there weren't the large amount of survivors that were anticipated. That was very sad. It felt defeating. I wasn't directly affected by losing anyone on September 11th but I do have a cousin who enlisted as a nurse in the Air Force in 2003 and she spent two tours in Iraq. I know that we have all known someone who has served time in this awful war. Today we salute you and your efforts to bring peace to this world and to keep our country safe. Regardless of how you feel about the political state of our country I think we can all be in agreement that our freedom has come at a price and it is because of this freedom that we can voice our opinions. God Bless the USA!