I stopped by the office in Bertram, before I headed into Austin to make my usual rounds of all the projects.

I walked out and got in my truck and headed East, with the radio on and tuned to MSNBC

In those days I watched MSNBC each and every weekday morning. I would start out watching the Don Imus Show at 5:00 AM. When it was time to leave out I’d pick it up on XM Radio and listen. I pretty much hung on everything word coming from that show. To say I was a Imus junkie would be putting it mildly.

If I stopped by the office, I’d catch a station break, so I didn’t miss anything, Of course if I missed part of the show, I recorded it and would watch it when I got in that afternoon.

I heard that the first tower was hit. Something eerily strange struck me about the reporting. Warner Wolf, the legendary sportscaster was on with Imus. He had a long standing relationship with the show, but that morning he was watching from his apartment window as the first plane hit and was bringing us all a play by play in real time.

I knew this was big, real big. I turned around before I even got out of town and headed back home. I continued to listen. I parked in my driveway and rushed inside, so as to not miss anything. I turned the TV on, apprised Madeline of what was happening. We both had a keen sense about the Twin Towers. We had been to New York City in February of that same year with my brother Kenny and his wife, Carol. We had gone up and looked out over the city from one of the Towers.

I no more than took a seat on the couch when a second plane struck the other Tower.

There were no break aways for commercials. I continued to watch the various news stations. Then there was the reporting that another plane hit the Pentagon. Another plane was hijacked and eventually went down in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

I don’t remember getting up from that place on the couch all day. I couldn’t move. As the regular news people finally took over, I starting switching around to all the other stations. I stayed glued to the TV all that day and night and the next day. I surely slept, but it was just for short spurts. It didn’t seem like the right time to rest.

This was how my 911 and September 12, 2001 went.

Each year on 911, as long as Imus was on the air, he would replay the phone conversation with Warner Wolf, giving his gut wrenching play by play of what he was seeing.

I mourned this entire episode, just like of 280 million other Americans did. I know you did too.