WAMALUG: Meeting: September 16, 2001

Christina made the original announcement of the meeting in the 8136th message to the mailing list and announced the meeting again on lugnet.org.us.wamalug.

September 11, 2001 was local for members of WAMALUG. Jennifer was able to see the smoke in the sky from the Pentagon from her residence as she waited for Dan to ride the subway and return home. She worried about Stephen who she thought might be working there (he was home in Fredericksburg trying to buy a house but he did usually work in L’Enfant Plaza just across the river from the site of the attack). Jeff’s commute stretched to 1½ hours as federal offices and other employers closed their doors and told people to go home. Kevin listened in on the scanner frequencies to unusual conversations between F16 pilots and the air traffic control as aviation across America was halted, stranding Christina in the midwest. It was supposed to be Richard’s last day at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland—not just yet, Rich.

For some, the prospect of meeting for the purpose of enjoying the hobby of LEGO® was too much. For others, they were expected back at work the next day, having dinner with friends, going to the movies past the concrete barriers newly surrounding military facilities, mowing the lawn, and such like, and the opportunity to gather with like-minded individuals about some subject other than the attack was welcome. The meeting was held as scheduled. Christina was said to be jet-lagged.

There was a box of K8 (loose LEGO® parts) on the floor. Roy brought a three story hospital and HO scale vehicles. Bob had a 4-4-2 locomotive made with metal sleeves around genuine LEGO® wheels as the driving wheels. Constantine’s locomotive deserved at least a trial run, so trucks were hastily affixed (Bob even took apart his tender to get the necessary parts) so it could negotiate the oval of track. Jeff had a lot of Toys R Us specials on hand. Claudia had tag-team MindStorms™ robot tractors. Greg reported in the 2129th message to the members-only mailing list that a quorum was not achieved until three o’clock (well after guests had arrived) so no business was conducted.

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