Today’s a rough day, especially for those who were here in the NYC metro area witnessing events unfold live - no tv, no radio, nothing but watching events with their own eyes and other senses - because after the towers fell, it was the smell that pervaded the region for weeks to come.

Even now, the smell of scorched metal (from welding/deconstruction/construction sites) can set me off. That smell will forever be linked to the fires that burned at Ground Zero for weeks after the attacks.

It’s one of the reasons I write those annual writeups, as a way to heal and reconcile what’s happened.