Saturday, January 25, 2014

An emotional day in my world

Today has been marked by a couple of horrific events that have overshadowed the rest of the day.

At about 11:15 this morning, someone fatally shot two people and then himself at the shopping mall in Columbia, Maryland, less than 40 miles southwest of my house in a place in Maryland called Forest Hill. I have an aunt and uncle who live in Clarksville, just west of Columbia. I also have a few friends who live in Columbia. So the news of the shooting really shocked me.

Later this afternoon, the Rolex 24, a 24-hour endurance race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, started at 2:10 pm local time. I've been watching small parts of it because I'm a big auto racing fan. I thought it would get my mind off the shooting, but then another horrible event took place. Just before 5:00, slightly under three hours into the race, a violent crash occurred between two cars, sending both drivers to the nearby hospital. One of them had to be cut out of his car. It caused the race to be red-flagged (stopped) for an hour while everything was taken care of.

These two events happening less than six hours apart today has really made me sad. I'm wishing the best for everyone who has been affected by these unfortunate incidents. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for me, the people of Columbia, and the drivers at Daytona, where the 24-hour race is set to finish just after 2:00 in the afternoon. And those are my thoughts about today.

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