9/11 Stair Climb 2015

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Today is the 14th anniversary of the attack on the Twin Towers in NYC.  Utica hosted its first annual Stair Climb in honor of that tragedy.  A tall office building in Utica was the venue for the event.  The responders included fire fighters, EMTs and law enforcement personnel.  Registration was required, and the hope was that there would be 343 volunteers to represent the 343 responders who perished that day.  

Each volunteer was encouraged to wear full gear.  Each wore a lanyard with an ID card of a fallen responder (there were about 200 volunteers, so many wore two IDs so that all the responders who perished would be represented), and each climbed the stairs in the office building as many times as necessary to simulate the 110 stories of the Twin Tower buildings.  

The event was scheduled to begin at 8:35 am, the time when the first tower was struck.  Before that there was a group photo session.  Even though I got a little lost once I got off the thruway (what a surprise), I got there in time to grab a few shots of the assembled group.  Just before they broke up, someone told them all to look up.  I'm guessing someone was on an upper floor getting a shot.  

While they were queuing for their turn (they entered the building in three groups spaced apart), I wandered around taking photos.  It was so fun talking to all the personnel, and finding out where they were from.  Everyone was super-cooperative and happy to have their photos made.  

The group below came from Odessa, Texas just for this event.

The two in the next image are in different fire departments, but they attend the same training classes.  The guy is 17, the girl a little younger.  Yay for volunteers!!

After deleting the obviously bad photos, I still had almost 100 that I like.  No way could I post them all, so I just randomly chose some for this post.

This was a truly moving tribute to the tragedy of 9/11.  I'm not going to say I can't wait till next year because that would be rushing time.  But I will say that the event is on my radar and my plan is, God willing, to attend again.

The Deck

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For the first time in many weeks I didn't have to rush out of the house first thing in the morning.  Although it's going to get pretty hot later today, right now it's a beautiful 70 degrees so I decided to do my devotional on my back deck.  

Winter will be here before we blink a few times so I want to enjoy the balmy weather as much as possible while it lasts.  I'd probably be in the hammock but it's too tricky to read, write and drink coffee while supine.  So for now, the deck it is!

It's Been a While

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I knew it had been a while since I posted to the blog, but when I checked the date of the last entry, I was totally surprised.  Wow.

See, the thing is, I recently purchased a data phone.  I get email and facebook notices on the phone, so I often scroll through them quickly and then say to myself, "there, you're done" and then I don't think about getting on the computer.  

I've been pretty busy this summer--really...can it be over already?  Didn't summer just begin a couple of weeks ago??  (sad face)

Anyway, I've been doing some hiking with my hiking friends and with my grandchildren.  I made this stream image on one of the hikes.

August is racing season at the Saratoga Race Track and I managed to get there a couple of times for the early morning workouts.  It's not as exciting as the actual races, nor as colorful, but there are more photo ops because there are more horses on the track for longer periods of time...  It's a great way to spend a morning.

Then one day my photo buddy, Trish, and I went to Renssealear to photograph some artwork on the columns of the overpasses.  Looking across the river you can see the cityscape of downtown Albany.  

So altogether it's been a busy and fun summer.  I hate to see it end.