At about this point 13 years ago, I was prying my daughter away from Pokemon on TV to eat her breakfast and get dressed for kindergarten. Froot Loops and orange slices, IIRC.
From there, a 20-minute drive to work and a morning split between the usual stuff: rehash a pretty lackluster win over Wofford and discuss the upcoming win over Duke.
I'm still trying to remember who had the first posting, a little before 9 a.m., of a plane crash into a skyscraper in New York City. But within minutes, how we did against Wofford seemed not to matter much.
Sept. 11, 2001 was, in a way, the finest moment of Tigernet. The snark and sarcasm that's part of a balanced breakfast here was set aside in a shared community of sorrow and anger. There were no pumpers, no dumpers, just a family trying to make sense of the senseless.
And that day is one of the reasons many of us stick around. Despite the proliferation of other Web sites and networks, this remains one of the great communities in college sports.
It saddens me that so many people who were part of that day 13 years ago have left as internecine sniping and the weary drumbeat of flogging dead horses overcomes them.
Or perhaps, unlike me, they have real lives.
But if you were here on that day, take a minute and reflect on those events and what this place meant to you. And if you're among those who view Tigernet as the Devil's Playground, I'd ask that you see what some of us Silverbacks still see.
Tigernet is family. And family is what you make it.
If you use your family as a collective roll of Internet toilet paper, you get what you give. If you want to use it to mask your own insecurities with a spewing steam of belittling of others, you get dysfunction.
I can't change how you live your life on the Web. I'm way too old to try. But I can tell you that 13 years ago today, this place was an anchor for many shaking souls.
It truly deserves a bit more respect than it seems to enjoy today.