It's been six days, and I thought I should write something. Joan has her LJ to jot thoughts in when she doesn't update her own page, but I just have a few notebooks that sit in my room. Perhaps I will try to keep the momentum going.

I was at the School of Mines Monday morning, walking from my English class to my car, when the gentleman in front of me suddenly stopped, turned around, and said hi. I said hello, and he explained he was driving through the area and had decided to stop and check out this little local college. He asked me whether I was studying animal science or forestry, and I smiled and said that no, I was just here for the summer, trying to get ahead on my Physics/Mechanical Engineering degree. He had gone to a state college in his home state of Massachusetts to study animal husbandry, he replied, and used what he learned in his life as a farmer. We talked a little more, reached the parking lot, and began to part when he stopped and turned to me.

"I'm going to tell you about my son," he began. "He studied nuclear engineering in college, and perhaps you may have heard of him. He was a pilot..." The man's speech slowed.

"Last September he was flying from Boston to Los Angeles, when at (9:26?) a.m. his plane was hijacked. His was the first plane to impact the World Trade Center; we lost him that day."

"I'm so sorry..."

"Yes, we miss him very much," he started, shakily, and stopped. "Well, goodbye."

As I stood, shocked by his words, the plain-looking gentleman walked across the parking lot to a waiting van--a hulking silver Honda Odyssey with local plates, driven by a older woman, with two others in the back seat. The man stepped inside, closed the door, and together he and his family drove away. Still I stood there, trying to make sense of what had just happened. Why would he tell me this, even if his words were true? Were his words true?

It still makes no sense to me. I thought about checking Lexis-Nexis to verify his story, but never went through with it. What difference would it make if he was telling the truth or not? In his mind, his son died a tragic death; perhaps this is enough to know.

Big differential equations test tomorrow. I bombed the last one; I will explain further after work, maybe.