Another sad anniversary of one of our nation’s darkest days, the September 11 attack on the United States, has again passed.

Much has been written about those who gave their lives in New York, Shanksville and Washington. There are so many stories of heroism and sacrifice. On Wednesday, we honored them again.

On September 11, 2001, I lived in Northern Virginia, 20 miles south of the Pentagon, where we had lived for many years. As I left for work that morning, I noticed how incredibly blue the sky was. It was almost like a painting. It was stunning. It was the same clear blue sky in New York, according to newscasters there.

The last hijacked plane, Flight 77, crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37 a.m. Lives everywhere in our area were changed immediately. Everyone seemed to know someone at the Pentagon who did not survive or was injured.

One friend knew someone on Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon. Our receptionist at work had a neighbor at the Pentagon, who was not too far from the impact. She had crawled through the smoke and loose wires that served as a makeshift guide to lead people to safety. A White House network correspondent friend of mine had just walked into the West Wing.

Alarms were going off and Secret Service agents were running everywhere. It was total pandemonium. There are so many more stories.

For my family, my daughters will never forget where they were at the time of the crashes. My oldest daughter lived in an apartment building perilously close to the Pentagon. She heard the crash. She soon saw helicopters flying by her 14th floor window, so close you could see the pilots’ faces. I told her to get on I-95 and get home. She didn’t even make it one mile in four hours. She gave up and went back to her apartment.

My middle daughter was a freshman at UT. She heard about the hijackings. Her father happened to be at the Pentagon that day. She was so upset that her history teacher excused her from class. She was able to reach her father, and all was well. He was in an opposite “ring” of the Pentagon from the plane’s impact.

Because the situation was so unknown and volatile, my youngest daughter was in lockdown at her northern Virginia high school.

We lived about a mile (the way the crow flies) from the Potomac River in Woodbridge, Virginia. At all hours, it was normal to hear planes approaching and taking off from Reagan National Airport. We were on the flight path.

Suddenly, after 9:37 a.m. the sounds of commercial aircraft stopped. We heard new sounds coming from the skies. Military jets scrambled and regularly patrolled the Potomac River corridor. They were from everywhere – Andrews AFB (now called Joint Base Andrews), Langley AFB and bases in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. They were so close the house rumbled. It sounded like a war zone. Sometimes there were helicopters. This went on for about three weeks.

On 9-11 and for days afterward, the sky remained unusually blue and clear.

Melanie Staten is a public relations consultant with her husband, Vince.

It’s not a surprise to many the Washington Nationals are going to miss the playoffs again.

The current state they’re in as a franchise has been self-imposed, opting to start a rebuild when they couldn’t defend their World Series title and failed to lock up Juan Soto to a massive contract extension.

That has caused the organization, and fans, to exercise patience when it comes to the future state of this franchise, something that has been difficult to do when watching the Atlanta Braves dominate the regular season and the Philadelphia Phillies make deep playoff runs after spending large sums of money.

So, with under three weeks until this campaign comes to an end, the Nationals will be sitting at home watching the playoffs for the fifth straight year.

During the offseason, Washington’s ownership group and front office will have some important decisions to make.

They can decided to speed up this process by bringing in some high-profile free agents to boost this roster, or they can continue to let things ride and see how their multiple star prospects develop at the Major League level.

One thing seems certain, though, CJ Abrams will be a building block of the future.

Acquired as a center piece of the Soto deal with the San Diego Padres, the Nationals have allowed him to mature in the MLB where many of his flaws and struggles have been on full display the past three season.

However, the 23-year-old has put together the best campaign of his career by earning his first All-Star Game selection and slashing .239/.306/.426 with 20 homers, 65 RBI and an OPS of 107 entering Thursday’s game that’s above the league average for the first time.

Abrams has certainly struggled at times, but his talent is clearly there.

And with his 420-foot blast to center field on Wednesday, the young shortstop also became only the fifth member in franchise history to record a 20/20 season.

Alfonso Soriano was the first player to hit 20 homers and steal 20 bases in a singular campaign with Washington back in 2006 when he actually joined the rare 40/40 club, but Abrams did this at an age that only phenom Bryce Harper had previously done in a Nationals jersey.

“That’s a heck of an accomplishment for a young player. I’m really proud of him. He’s been battling every day. To get that out of the way, maybe he can relax a little bit and finish the season up strong,” manager Dave Martinez said per Mark Zuckerman of MASN.

Much of the credit has to be given to the skipper and his staff, as they have worked with the young hitter whenever he is in a slump to help him get his swing right again.

“He’s really trying to stay behind the ball a little better, use his hands and use his legs more. That swing [Wednesday] was awesome. I told him if you had to take a picture of a swing, take the picture of that and instill it in your memory. Because that was a good swing,” Martinez added.

With 28 stolen bases on the year, Abrams is already eyeing the next step to putting his name in the Major League history books by becoming a 30/30 player at some point in his career.

Ideally for him and Washington, that comes in 2025.

A 3-year-old Washington boy died Sunday after falling into his neighbor’s septic tank, according to local authorities.

The incident happened in Lakewood, Washington, about 40 miles southwest of Seattle.

The 3-year-old was in the backyard playing with his 4-year-old brother and a 6-year-old neighbor on Sunday, said Sgt. Darren Moss Jr. from the sheriff’s office in Pierce County.

Moss said in the statement that “an adult was in and out of the house with” the children.

At some point, the 3-year-old removed the lid to a neighbor’s septic tank and fell in. His brother, the 4-year-old, went inside and told their grandmother, who called 911, the sheriff’s office confirmed to USA TODAY.

Firefighters and deputies responded to the scene at 2:21 p.m. that day and about 45 minutes later, the child was taken out of the septic tank and pronounced dead, the sheriff’s office said.

According to Moss, from the sheriff’s office, the fire department had to pump the tank, which measures 7 feet deep and was about 4 to 5 feet full when the boy fell in. Once the tank had been pumped, the boy was pulled out.

When asked about potential charges, the sheriff’s office said no charges have been referred to prosecutors. 

The medical examiner will give the child’s official cause of death, but the office wrote that the child likely drowned.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Follow her on Twitter at @SaleenMartin or email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.