Three million people can tell you where they were and what they were doing, that Tuesday in the late afternoon.  At 4:53 PM they were on motorcycles and soccer fields and in their houses or their businesses when the earth began rolling and walls began moving and a terrifying noise somewhat… Read full post »

On Mondays I go through the New York City ritual of moving my car to another location for an hour and a half while the street sweeper cruises down the side of the street where I usually park.  I’m lucky.  About seven or eight blocks away there is… Read full post »

Park in Forest Hills, New York

Until five years ago, I had lived my entire life in the Midwest.  I consider myself fairly savvy about weather and storms.  Savvy enough to be watching yesterday afternoon while an ominous red line of storms marched across the radar, heading fo… Read full post »

This year, as I have in the past, I will be volunteering at the September 11th Commemoration Ceremony at the World Trade Center site.

For years now the final destination for the Manhattan-bound E train coming from Queens has been a place that no longer exists.  I don’t think of… Read full post »

I remember it very clearly.

I had an early morning flight from Minneapolis to New York.  I remember the drive to the airport, all the deep purple shadows and slanting golden autumn sunlight lighting the edges of everything on fire.

I… Read full post »

There were a few places in New Orleans that everyone seemed to have seen, famous in their own way among the disaster response and relief teams, the government workers, and the military who were the only people in the city in early October 2005, six weeks after Hurricane Katrina.

One… Read full post »

Sunday, August 29, 2010: Fifth Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, LA

"It is time," the preacher was saying.  "Time to put all your worries, all your fears, all the bad things about Katrina away.  Put them all here, in this coffin, and finally bury the memory of Katrina."… Read full post »

They began to arrive in the afternoon, groups of families and friends, toting coolers and blankets and lawn chairs and canopies and plenty of food.  Some brought expensive wine and cheese, others soda and chips.  Along the river they chatted and dozed and waited, watching the… Read full post »

Our tour starts at Rockefeller Center, where there is always an ever-changing garden surrounding the fountains. 

This is New York City.  You have to work hard to stand out.  Even if you're a tulip.

Because the city never sleeps, visit the… Read full post »

An office building in Chicago.

I push the button for the elevator and idly listen for its swooshing sound.

Several other people are waiting too.  The elevator arrives.

The doors open and a man steps in.  As he does, a hammer falls… Read full post »

Tracks of tornadoes generated during the 1974 Super Outbreak.  Public Domain Image from the National Weather Service, courtesy of Ted Fujita (actual image link)

I remember it was a Wednesday evening.  I was with the family dog, Butterscotch, watching the Sonny… Read full post »

Good Friday, 1981 (April 17, 1981)

I woke to the sound of sirens.  It wasn’t all that unusual.  I lived in a dorm, over 1200 freshmen and sophomores learning to conduct their lives independently of their families.  They got drunk a lot and did stupid things.  On Fri… Read full post »

Look Mommy!  Look Daddy!  See my Easter egg?  It's so pretty!  It has my name on it!

It's so beautiful.  I am very very careful.  See how I hold it just right?  I do what I am told.  I am a good girl.  A good girl posing with… Read full post »

Had I been paid, I would not have taken the job.  It was, frankly, tedious tiresome work, open the copier, detach a check from its accompanying paperwork, place the check face down on the glass, press copy, retrieve the check and place in a stack, retrieve the copy and… Read full post »

The story was told in my school that once upon a time, a girl came from Sweden as an exchange student.  Who she was and when she came was something that had been lost to all but the oldest teachers in the school who still remembered her.  But she left behind… Read full post »

I was a Red Cross volunteer in New Orleans six weeks after Hurricane Katrina in October 2005.

The windows across the street from where… Read full post »

Ever since I moved here, four and a half years ago, I've wanted to take pictures of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree in the snow.  With a huge snowstorm barrelling up the East Coast, Saturday evening was my chance.

 It was just starting to snow heavily when I arrived.… Read full post »

One of the things that I like best about living in New York City is the chance to catch glimpses of what goes on behind the scenes, that the rest of the country doesn't get to see.  Some things have even become their own event, such as the inflation of the… Read full post »

This was September 10, 2001.

I boarded the first flight out of Minneapolis to LaGuardia.  This was before I learned of the danger of early morning flights and that passenger jets could also be flying bombs of jet fuel.  A man trying to stuff a too-big bag into the overhead/… Read full post »