A writer and a tropical muse. A funky Lubavitcher who enjoys watching the weather, hurricanes, listening to music while enjoying life with a sense of humor and trying to make sense of it all!
Friday, March 28, 2008
Hello From On the Road... Somewhere in Spring...
Having a wonderful time from where ever I am on the road somewhere in the South... watching Spring unfold far away from tropical hot Miami..
I've seen every shade of dogwood imaginable. Tulips. Tulips IN the ground... daffodils, pansies, azaleas, stuff I don't even know what it is..
Pansies smell by the way.. like sweet springtime heaven...
Went to the beach, watched waves... felt the wind and the sun...
Drove through miles of pine forests with a friend, just relaxing... like kids. Feels good to feel like a kid.
As for my kids... gosh I love them, each of them.. all of them and they are amazing. Interesting... smart, brilliant, creative and charismatic. They should all be themselves, I would never tell them what they should be or love them based on being some doctor or lawyer or Indian chief. And, hey I know some Native Americans and they rock big time. Better than some doctors I know.
Saw my old best friend from high school and his wife.. had one of the most amazing dinners ever.
Watching the sun go down and getting ready for shabbos... as baseball segues into the time of the year when tropical waves begin beating their little hearts westward towards our part of the Atlantic Basin... I study, I research, I have things to write and so much to read (never knew hurricane researchers spend sooo much time in email chatting ... giggle) and... I give thanks for this beautiful vacation so PERFECTLY timed and my friends, my kids and nature which always rocks and never disappoints.
Hi.. okay, I've been a little out of it lately. Taking a sort of sabbatical or a small vacation from regular writing here on the blog. It's that time of year between football ending and the hurricane season starting... sort of Miami Doldrums.
A few cool fronts have worked their way down but I can smell summer coming on fast. We've had more rain than usual for this time of year and I wonder whether that will extend into the hurricane season and provide an early season of small wet June storms.. or even late May.
But...today is a day for celebration because... it's the Red Sox Season opener... and even if it's far away in Japan, the Red Sox are starting their season... and life goes on and soon we will be watching those Yankee and Tampa Bay games they play in Miami or a rare ESPN.
Spent a nice Purim with my best friend Malka, having a meal at her house. Even had a friend there who does storm chasing so got to talk about hurricanes while sipping some really good Shiraz and eating Hamentaschen!
Working on an article on the 1926 Hurricane. It's sort of a finish it or forget it thing so.. will be working on that for the next few weeks as it is a storm not to ever be forgotten.
Also, doing some research in ways on North Carolina Hurricanes, an area I don't know as much about as Deep Southern Canes... Caribbean Cruisers or Cape Verde storms bound for South Florida and Louisianna, west nort west... towards the Gulf States.
So.... a lot may have changed in my life but... I'm still watching and rooting for the Red Sox!
Go Sox!!
Besos Boston.. Bobbi Ps... Okay..wearing the Red Sox charm and (rolling eyes) the Red Sox socks (rolling eyes) giggle
The Jimmy Buffett I remember.. wasn't he "cute" :)
Windy here tonight... sounds almost like a tropical storm at times... only at times, but it takes you places to the past and to the future... to dreams caught in the wind like tumbleweed rolling down Interstate 10 on it's way from Phoenix to Tucson and places in between.
A car riding through the desert at night and the stars twinkling bright in constellations that configure the sky with neon fantasies like glitter tossed into the air by a muse to inspire the simple poet driving along from point A to point to B and wondering about point D.
Sitting, huddled behind the Newport with Sharon being sandblasted by salt spray and sand blown in our faces by Floyd, racing past us on it's way towards destiny with another lover in another land who didn't want him any more than Miami did..
Driving back across the 79th Street Causeway, after some prom... flying through the night swerving with the road..
So many roads...
Driving fast with Yaffa across 126th while listening to Herman's Hermits while I kept trying to remember Peter's name but he had no name.. it was Noone, no one, just Peter, Peter singing Herman's Hermits and little ole me thinking "oh lord, they aren't watching the road but watching me.. " and still wondering how we didn't crash that day while I stared with writer's eyes and giggled and for once was quiet alone with my thoughts and no one just Yaffa ... swung right onto Biscayne Blvd, one of the greatest roads ever ...
An argument on a rainy, wet beach with Australian Pine Trees standing tall like guards watching over lost lovers and tears flowing down someone's face but they weren't mine... I just stood with writer's eyes watching the moment partially detached and partially in it.. the way I spend most of my life in the most important of moments, picturing it like a scene I will write over and over from different angles while the rain poured down faster than the tears fell from his eyes but he saw the future and that was why he was crying... but all I saw was his eyes filled with tears.
Biscayne Bay from 15th Road with my cousin on his bike, riding double, the wind tugging at the bike and living in the moment .. or driving up and down Main Highway with the same cousin, late at night, fast, taking the curve around the bend down Old Cutler Road...or another night when Leslie said she didn't even know there was a New Cutler Road and we laughed and drove on towards Cocoplum.
Windy memories sprayed across the pages of my life...
Up and down the Intracoastal.. Up and down Pacific Coast Highway from Long Beach to LA Up and over Signal Hill and back.. Up and down Biscayne Boulevard at night in the 80s, around the Miami Marina and back across the Venetian Causeway, fast through the decal lane.. Out Coral Way watching the sun dance in and out of the Oak Trees... Ventura Highway in the moonlight.. Mulholland Drive, any time, any day, any night.. Coldwater Canyon, taking the turn.. Up and down A1A All the roads of my life...
And, music playing somewhere on a radio, an 8 track, a CD player or an Ipod..
Windy nights... Jimmy looked a lot like this the first time I really saw him... and then, driving back from the Gables after a late night dinner somewhere out on US1.
Listening to the wind and wondering where it will take me down the road.. Miami... a beautiful city, seen from the Venetian Causeway, another road I've traveled, all purple and lit up and twinkling in the night.. Could I leave it? Of course, don't be silly... just don't look back and keep on going, new roads, new highways... new memories.. Only the dead stand still, life is about living and traveling new roads and making new memories.
Besos Bobbi
Ps.. I remember a time when the bay there was filled with shrimpers shrimping in the full moon over Miami.. memories wafting through time on a tropical breeze in the middle of the night..
I love weather people... Great Hurricane Music Video
Amazing pictures from England where a storm is lashing Cornwall with waves you would normally read about in Gothic Romance Novels.
Here in Florida.. Jim Williams has been busy over.. Smiling... Jim has done an amazing job over at The City with a great music video about a 1929 Hurricane in the Bahamas.
Check it out..
http://www.hurricanecity.com/city/1929.html
And........looking for some good water vapor loop sites of that wild storm in England.
Check it out:
Amazing picture looking down at the wound up system.
In a day when Weather was the biggest news in town... I came across this gem of footage from Betsy and a great jazz/blues singer..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFFTElfYIy4
Enjoy...
Good link on Drudge to a story on the possible problems down the road this Spring.. http://www.usatoday.com/weather/climate/2008-03-06-winter_N.htm
Thought this was worth sharing... 1959. Many of the records for this winter in Florida that were broken or the year most like this year seems to have been 1959. Some other years mentioned but over and over the high temps in the winter for this month.. since record keeping began were... 1959.
Thought it might be worth a trip down memory lane.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:1959_Atlantic_hurricane_season_map.png
To all my friends... sorry I have been a bit AWOL these days but I am busy with work and some family issues... some good, some sad (my sister-in-law lost her mother who was like family to us and been busy with shiva...) and life... and gosh I miss football and gosh I miss hurricanes.
This is the quiet time... you read up on other things, lead a semi-normal life and know that soon May sneaks up on you and you get that fever ...the real fever, hurricane fever that is trust me WORSE than Fever Pitch fever and that is pretty bad and things get crazy. Sort of for now I look and act like a sort of normal person and then the season starts... batter up, first advisory and everything gets nuts all over again.
Wherever you live in Hurricane Country... your eyes turn towards the south, east south east and you watch every wave.
Unfortunately there are no waves to watch right now but there is a lot of really bad news out of Israel and watching websites filled with blood soaked bodies, clothes, prayer books and garments ripped with bullets stained red that belonged to young boys learning biblical texts. Not biblical texts of hate but texts that teach a world of laws that apply to how man treats his fellow man or woman. This is the legacy of Torah... the idea that you treat your fellow man or woman the way you would want them to treat you, to treat their belongings with the same respect (do not steal) and protect boundaries our society needs. God by any name ... even a great spirit in the sky and people here on earth who are either respectful towards others or not, those who respect life and all it's beauty and those who don't and only respect those who live the way they do... pray the way they do.
We all have choices in life..how we live our life and what we respect.
Some who are like terrorists lash out at whoever gets in their way and break up people's lives, shatter their dreams and then they move on.. respecting no boundaries except their boundaries and what they need in their life or what they want... seeing things from their own point of view, like a terrorist who bombs a school or building of God and learning... or a bomber who bombs a building just to make the evening news and bring attention to his cause or...........someone who is hurt, vengeful and does something that hurts someone else because he is hurt...
The Torah.. the Bible.... they teach us to respect others and not to break their things, destroy their lives and to respect boundaries, respect people and to let the will of God.. karma work it's way out.
As Fitzgerald said so well in The Great Gatsby, "they were careless people, Tom and Daisy--they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..."
Always wonder on couples who stay together who don't really love each other but seem bonded by money or misery who are anal and do not wish to give up what they hold in their hands to reach out to get something else and yet are envious of those who try to do so..
So.. in the spirit of the day I am asking anyone reading this to please think twice before you invade someone else's personal space, their lives, their belongings and BACK OFF because when people do that.. in the end it comes back to bite them in the ass and they gain only a Pyrrhic victory... you win the battle and you will lose the war.
Big weather going on today... somewhere there are talks on football trades, spring training, new projects, spring, life... and what will be will be..
Besos Bobbi Please I am begging... let things work out as they are meant to be and do not harm .. let life flow.
Location: Miami, Raleigh, Crown Heights, Florida, United States
Weather Historian. Studied meteorology and geography at FIU. Been quoted in Wall Street Journal, Washington Post & everywhere else... Lecturer, stormchaser, writer, dancer. If it's tropical it's topical ... covering the weather & musing on life. Follow me on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/#!/BobbiStorm
