Thorpe!

There are days that the whole country remembers. Most everyone can tell you where they were on September 11, 2001 or what they were doing when they heard that the Challenger exploded. Some dates don't matter to everyone, though. For me, several of my friends and a small town in Northern California January 10, 2001 is one of those unforgettable days.

I'm not going to explain it all here. The short version is a crazy guy with a gun killed a bunch of people in a little town which made it very exciting (and sometimes scary) to work at that little town's newspaper. If you want to know more, go here.

I spend a little time ever January 10th thinking of that day and I imagine that most of the great people I worked with at the paper do, too. It's interesting thinking of all of us scattered all around the country remembering an event that was pretty small in the whole scheme of things. But I think it had a pretty big impact on our lives. So here's a tip of the hat and clink of the glass to everyone at The Union that day. You did some good work.

On a side note, I also consider January 10th, 2001 as the day I met my friend Josh. I'd actually met him before but he'd only been working a couple days when the shooting happened (it's sort of how I consider October 31, 1999 as the day I met Shawn - it's just the first time I really got to talk to him). Anyway, that means we've known each other for five years now. It's strange because it feels like I've been putting up with him for a lot longer than that.