A little less than an hour ago, my 5,000^th visitor arrived at this journal. And stayed for 8 pages and 36 minutes. A nice milestone, and well timed.

While they were enjoying (presumably) my words, I was reading words by someone else. I don't often fill this space with quotes from other writers, but this is better than what I had in mind.

From tobias23:

the n & r trains that used to run under the wtc went back into service today. i rode the train to work, reading the sports page and the funnies. in the subway car were the usual noises. the hysterical squealings of teenagers who find the weirdest things amusing. the rustle of newspapers being read and coffee being slurped. the quiet murmur of people engaged in conversation. life went on pretty much as usual until we got to courtlandt street, or as it is more commonly known today-ground zero. the conductor announced that we would be bypassing the station for the obvious reason that above us was only rubble. where once stood 2 of the tallest buildings in the world, there was now only millions of tons of rubble and the lifeless bodies of 5,000 people. all noise stopped in the car as the train rolled silently past the silent station. its empty platform and the feeling of thousands of dead, the only witnesses to our rush hour passage. up until reaching courtlandt street i had been thinking of the world series, a wedding i was going to in a few weeks and how many days to the harry potter movie. but, riding under all that death made all of it, seem so incredibly insignificant. and then we were past the stop and the sounds slowly returned to our car. and 20 minutes later i was in my office sipping coffee and booting my computer. but, i think, that the normal routine of life in the city will not come again.