Going into the weekend with no news.....

Nope..nothing. Nada. Just a lot of fantasy.

People playing fantasy games online and off believing what they want to believe.
Seeing what they want to see.
Patting themselves on the back for being so smart.

Some want to give up.
Some are not optimists but just the opposite. Worse..they aren't even really players.
They sit on the sidelines, on the fence like Desperado waiting to make up his mind and yet telling himself all the time that it ...it isn't yet time.

Then...when someone who is playing the game.. wins the game they will be upset but secretly relieved because they didn't lose anything. Of course...neither did they win.

Nothing lost.. nothing ventured.. nothing gained.

A cuban working in a cigar store in Key West in Mallory Square told me once that if you don't play.. you can't win the game. He had taken a raft with others and set sail in the gulfstream, praying to God to get him safely to America.. taking the chance, playing the game.. a big, big gamble to cross those Straits in just a few tied together tires.. bobbing on choppy waves and riding the current. But...he wanted to come to America. He wanted off the Castro infested island of Cuba. He wanted a chance. He wanted a life.

So...by the grace of God and the winds of fate he made it safely to the Keys. And, somehow got a job selling souveniers in Mallory Square at that great restaurant where people dine and dance on the patio watching the sun go down. There is paradise.. where I want to live one day. He took the chance.. to live and be happy another day.. somewhere.. a free man.

A gamble.
He won.

I'm happy for him.

What does this have to do with tropical weather (giggling) ummmmmmmmmm well Cuba is in the tropics and so is Key West. But, if this was just about tropical weather then I could have posted it on flhurricane.com but didn't want to rile the weather Gods or upset Ed after I promised to be good. Right Phil?

So.......tropical weather is about possibilities that turn passionately intense suddenly and life beginning to swirl in circles tightly .. forced wind gradients and moisture and updrafts and downdrafts and eddies that swirl within the bands of storms. It's about the unpredictable and the very predictable. And, people tracking and watching from eyes high up in the sky to watch what happens far down below.. and making predictions (and some around here, not me because I make bets) on what will happen.

And..sometimes you get it right..and sometimes you don't.

And.. if you want to live in Key West, work where you can watch the sun go down in freedom then you have to swim the river to get to the other side.

No Tropical Storms.. No Depressions even.. No Hurricanes.

Not yet. Soon.

Watch the wave off of Africa.. it's fun to watch even if some (most) say it won't develop.

Or...go to HurricaneCity.com and read up on some of the storms that  have formed and learn more about tropical weather.

Or.............go to Key West and watch the sun go down.

If you can't do that.. get a great Jimmy Buffett CD and close your eyes.

Good Shabbos .. Have a great weekend. Thank God Its Friday!