5:05 AM Wednesday

A bomb estimated by the local authorities at around 3 kilograms of explosives, detonated around 30 meters from the front of our apartment building here yesterday at 5:05 AM. It blew most of our windows out and the pressure wave leaving the apartment blew our living room windows "outward". The building shook, Cassie screamed, I remember saying out loud, "that was a bomb", and years of military training took over as I moved my family deeper into our apartment away from the windows which fortunately were covered by long drapes which protected us from what might have been a lethal shower of glass from the windows.

I can say with certainty now that during the initial milliseconds following the blast I thought we might all die if the building collapsed. It took about 5 minutes to make sure that all in our apartment were safe and unharmed and to comfort Cassie as much as I could. I then headed into our 3rd floor hallway start checking on the other residents in our building. I ran into a man who we usually refer to as "the count" who's for the most part an insufferable twit but even he had to endure being checked out by me. He was surprised but offered no resistance and nodded as he entered the apartment next to ours that he owns which is currently vacant. I took the elevator up to the top floor (5th) and started ringing door bells and then worked my way down all the way to the ground floor. Everyone was alright though terrified and disoriented. Many very old folks live in our building and I think they were glad to see the younger crazy American during a crisis..... Hahahahahahaha.......* Everyone's windows had been blown in or destroyed.

It should be noted that the pompiers (firemen) didn't come around to check on folks for another 2 hours........ Someone somewhere needs to address that later here but I can't speak to that.

As soon as the dust began to settle, a hoard of police, firemen, investigators, and other crime scene folk descended on our street closing it and we weren't allowed out of our building for the rest of the morning.

Long story short as this has already been rehashed too many times. Our return to the US has been moved up to April 6th which is a little over 2 weeks from now. Cassie has finally had enough of her Paris adventure and this event ensured her resolve to leave this place. Other than a conversation we both had yesterday that there will be no more living in large cities for our family. In an ant hill like Paris everyone living here just presents too many targets for crazy people.

Will write more later when I feel like it.

Love to all everywhere.......* We're alright and ready to see everyone at home again very very soon.....

Sid