Where were you at 9/11?
From my favourite daytime radio talk show to newspapers and TV stations – everybody tries to make people to remember where they were and what they did on that tragic 9/11 day.
As long as I have this website, for me it will always be very easy to remember. That’s exactly the day when I registered this domain and signed up for a hosting package with the company where it is hosted. Every year, a few weeks before that day I begin getting warning email messages about the coming renewal date… Your domain will expire on Sept. 11.
I remember I have been searching for a decent hosting company with good support and affordable prices and, in the same time, I was trying to come up with a unique domain name for my future website. Well, it is unique, although I am not convinced – now – that it was the best choice. But even in the case of a domain name, we have to live with the consequences of our decisions. I know this is an unpopular opinion: blaming anybody else but ourselves for any mistakes we make is becoming a national “sport”. A day before, on Sept. 10, I made the final decision about the domain and about the hosting company but it was too late, and I decided to proceed the next morning.
At that time I lived in Hamilton, ON, alone in an apartment. Got up in the morning and registered the domain and started the process for buying the hosting package. The phone rang. It was my sister: Turn on the TV, she said, knowing I never watch TV during the day. Why, what happened?
- Bombs, explosion, New York, terrorists… these were the first words that I filtered out from her sentences.
Then I turned on the TV, switched to some news channels (I really don’t remember which one) and the burning tower was there in my room, too. I still had to finish the credit card transaction for my domain and hosting, so I went back to my computer and finished the registration. When I was done, swtiched to different channels, to see if anybody knew more details. Not at that time. Later on I called my son at his workplace in Toronto, they already knew about it and were watching the news. For a while we were contemplating whether this is the start of the WW-III or not. To be honest, I am not sure about this even today…
This is the story of my domain registered on 9/11.
I was in Orlando Florida airport.
My flight was immediately cancelled and I had to take the Greyhound bus back to Regina, SK
That was a 4 day trip.
It was terrifying the whole way.
I was working at Subway (!) in Edinburgh when customers started coming in to tell me. I look gullible, but after the third person I started taking the reports seriously…
Great story, I just love the way that u put it in words.