h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

September 11th, 2001... I live in Arizona, a few hours behind the Eastern Seaboard, so when there terriost attacks began, I was still sleeping. I usually don't wake up to my alarm clock, but when I heard what they were saying on the radio, I was wide awake.

At first, I couldn't figure out what they were talking about. As much as I could understand while just waking up, they were talking about my local airport, Sky Harbor International Airport. They way that they were talking, I thought that something had happened there, like an airplane crash. How wrong I was. However, some feeling inside me told me to get out of bed, instead of rolling over and going back to sleep. Well, I did get up, and as I was heading toward the bathroom, I saw my entire family on the sofa staring at the television with the mouths wide open.

Now, my family is usually gone before I wake up, so I couldn't figure out what was going on. When I got out to the living room, and turned towards the television, I was in time to see the airplane hit the second tower.

That is how I found out. Work called a few momens later and told me that they were closing for the day. I spent the rest of the day, staring at the television trying to makes sense out of all the confusion.

I was on the floor with a large tool in my hand rubbing away at some cabinet, trying to bore a hole in the back so we could reach the outlet through it.

My dad had moved out and we had just redecorated the living room. The sheer scale of the attack and the consequences took a while to sink in. I actually began laughing because I simply couldn't beleive it.

I remember seeing those huge dust clouds wafting down the streets and expected Bruce Willis to leap heroically into view. He didn't. It was real.

I kept the newspaper from the day it happened for posterity.