Weather Radios & Hurricane Memories

Woke up this morning and had this one overwhelming, constant thought. "Gee, I miss the hurricane season...."

I listened to the fan blowing on me, listened to the birds outside chirping their way through some sort of fake, Florida Spring and hit the weather radio to listen to the forecast. Rain.. possible thunderstorms, possible waterspouts as a warm front moves back north over the area from the Florida Straits..

Okay, that made it worse.. I began to miss the Keys, hurricanes and even possibly Afternoon Summer Thunderstorms. Florida weather.

Okay, I don't miss the death and destruction nor do I miss the humidity and the mugginess but oh gosh do I miss hurricanes.

I've felt this coming on for the last few days... last night while watching volcanic weather reports on The Weather Channel I wondered whether you could track the ash with coordinates, daily advisories.. you know how fast the cloud is moving and in what direction. Hey, you got to be me or one of my friends to understand that but someone out there does I am sure... Yesterday, at work I said out loud really loudly (I work in a college library) to a co-worker who was teasing me about there being nothing to watch on some Dvorak Loop I said.."God, I miss Hurricanes!" The one student in the library looked up and said, "oh wow, you like hurricanes (he's new) I LOVE Hurricanes!!" Giggling... shaking my head, guess he's lived in Florida too long as he has caught the fever. Course he is young and his parents have some money and probably good hurricane shutters and insurance and he isn't worrying where to hide his newborn babies during a storm and what part of the house to hunker down in.. Ah.... youth... Ah...hurricanes........

So... here I am... it's almost April and all I can think is that for some reason it feels more like almost May. There is humidity hiding in the air here and we have had rain several times during what is usually the dry season. There is a feel in the air that severe weather may be coming and we have passed the hump of the mean season, the quiet season, the season when there are no afternoon thunderstorms, nor are there tropical storms struggling their way across the Atlantic trying to hold onto enough intensity to make it to where the water is warmer and where they can erupt into a fully grown, swirling, hurricane.

The weather radio is mumbling the following observations around the State. At Naples, mostly cloudy, 70 degrees. At Jacksonville fog was recorded, temperature 48 degrees. Gee, they got winter up there...but not down here where the AC is calling my name and I am trying to ignore it.. just as I am trying to ignore so much these days as I have no time to do all the things I need to do before Passover, before moving away, before figuring out how North Carolina Hurricanes work and how I am going to organize my hurricane stuff into "isolated funnel clouds" oh wow.............wish I had a good camera. I really, really, REALLY wish I had a good camera. I need one that has a large enough display that I can see the picture and a good zoom.. "wind gusts up to 40 or 50 mph"

Oh wow, lions and tigers and bears oh my... Twisters, Hurricanes... oh wow.

If you want to hear the following phrases in the background of your life... run right out to your local Target and buy one and you too can hear the following phrases and get warning if a possible tornado or water spot develops if you live in Florida, Jacksonville is excluded.

http://www.target.com/Midland-M-E-Weather-Emergency-Hazard/dp/B00009V2YV/sr=1-2/qid=1238500195/ref=sr_1_2/180-9130345-7486812?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=0&index=target&rh=k:weather%20radios&page=1

Or if you are a jogger...

http://www.target.com/Viatek-Quad-Flashlight-Weather-Radio/dp/B000KZCVJI/sr=1-4/qid=1238500195/ref=sr_1_4/180-9130345-7486812?ie=UTF8&frombrowse=0&index=target&rh=k:weather%20radios&page=1


"high in the mid-80s"
"showers and possibly thunderstorms will increase over ..."
"isolated funnel clouds or possible waterspouts"
"increasing instability"
"a frontal boundary will move north over Florida Bay towards the South Florida"
"a few thunderstorms could produce winds up to 40 mph"
"spotter activation may be needed"

Run, Buy, Listen ...it may save your life or your sanity, which ever comes first!

In case you have forgotten what hurricanes look like... here's a few from memory lane on my computer... mixed in, interspersed with my children, grandchildren and wedding pictures ;)

Love and kisses...and possible twisters,
Besos Bobbi



Good Wave!!



scary...



Classic and Unforgettable:

Southernmost Point Guest House in Key West - E. H. Gato, Jr. House

This is a photo blog today of my trip on Sunday down to old Key West so I could watch the sun rise out of the sea..to paraphrase a great song.

There is no place like Key West and I have been to a lot of places. I've watched the sunset from Santa Monica Pier and watched the sunrise in Miami but nowhere does it rise finer or more majestically than in Key West. And, sometimes...often..on those cloudy mornings it rises in some sort of cloaked, muted manner. Like a Monet painting... quietly a cloudy sky turns colors only seen painted by God or the masters of the Impressionist period in Art.

Key West is all about impressions.. colors, scents all combine and tantalize the senses.

A man sitting and eating with friends at the Kosher Restaurant Mam's Best Food on Petronia described Key West to a friend as "Gritty grubby slimy insane and yet beautiful" and he was so right. Depends on what street you are on and only the native pretend want to be Conchs get to see the grimy and gritty usually. I'm part Conch so I know where all the hidden hideaways are that the tourists on Duval Street never seem to see. I mean seriously you can get drunk anywhere, there is so much more to do in Key West.

So... understand.. part of the trip is in the getting there. The drive across the ocean, down through towards the Florida Straits ..south towards Cuba, halfway between Havana and the Main Land. If you like to look at water... it's an orgasmic view.

It was dark, windy and wet..just the way I like Key West best.. at it's most moodiest! Soon the sun came out, it always does in Key West.. just got to wait a few hours at the most.

Checked in at Mona's incredible Bed and Breakfast. Pays to have good friends in good places and Mona is a good friend and a woman who has lived life well and richly. She has loved, she has worked hard and she is one of the most amazing women I ever met. I interviewed her for a story and she has been one of my Key West Guardian Angels ever since.

http://www.southernmostpoint.com/rooms.htm

Check it out... she gave me the Hemingway room... duh ;) as she had a cancellation and had it available to let me use... unreal. I floated in the large Jacuzzi pool and stared up at the butterflies flying about next door at the beautiful, but over priced butterfly museum place.

So..enjoy the pics..they tell the story. I needed a day away before I started really getting down and dirty and cleaning up for Passover. My husband is in Raleigh this week so it really didn't matter if I was alone in Miami or Key West and hoping we get to go down in a few weeks when he comes back. Mam's won't be open for Passover this year she said but she will before and after...stop and sit under an umbrella covered Table tucked away on Petronia and have a snack or a steak or just an Israeli Fruit Juice and feel the breeze and the beauty of old Key West.

You get the idea... I'll post a link maybe to my facebook account with more pics later but for now..this was and is Key West.

Gotta go to see my Aunt who is ill in the hospital place and get to work on South Beach which is beautiful but NOT Key West ;) Nothing is...

Love and kisses...Besos Bobbi

http://www.southernmostpoint.com/index.htm

















Mam's Best Food of Key West 405 Petronia Street Key West, FL 33040

If you are walking down to Blue Heaven you'll pass it. If you get to Blue Heaven and they are nasty, make you sit too long in the garden waiting for a table and want to try some heavenly food...give Mam's a chance. It's quite affordable, quite delicious and like nothing you have ever had unless you frequent Israeli Steakhouses..with any main course she will bring you little dishes filled with freshly made Israeli salads and pita bread while your main course is being prepared.

One Last Pic of the Shuttle

Forgot to put up the eerie one..where the cloud just hovered for the longest time.

Warm and humid in Miami tonight, not much air moving except the fan blowing on me.

Anyways... look at the picture below and notice how it has gotten noticeably darker outside and yet the cloud still hung there glowing in the night. I actually went inside to check CNN to make sure everything was okay.

Space Shuttle Sunday Night At Sundown

Strange time for the shuttle to take off and an official "night launch" but it was really just after sunset. Because of the angle of the sun ...it lit up the vapor trail and provided an amazingly beautiful launch visible across most of Florida on a clear, dry, Sunday night with a strong high hanging tight over the State.

So.... usually a night launch just provides us with a glimpse of a bright light vanishing fast into the heavens and... daytime launches are only visible on TV from here but this launch... was just perfect for viewing across the area.

We watched on the TV and one daughter stood on the front porch that faces north and screamed when she saw it and we all ran out and watched it for what seemed a really long time before it disappeared into the far heavens above. But...the vapor trail became illuminated by the sun turning pink and coral and then lavender. One big burst shot off a large white round ball that the winds began to disperse and that cloud just hung there glowing in the dark night as if the moon was behind it but the moon was nowhere to be seen.

Spectacular!

One of those you had to be there in the right spot at the right time with just the right weather to be able to view it..and we did. And, it seemed so close to North Miami as if it was just up in Ft. Lauderdale or was shot off from Port Everglades or West Palm Beach. Hard to believe that we could see so much of it from so far away.

Otherwise... we have Comcast hooked up again at the house. Our internet was out. Took days, weeks...to get them to fix it. We still don't have the network up and running but hopefully tomorrow. So... owe ya'll some great pics of Pear trees in bloom from Raleigh where I spent Purim and am back in the land of mangoes growing big out on the tree in the backyard and thinking it's gonna be a Passover when we can have avocado salad dressing and mango ice cream!

Listening to Today's Country and trying to catch up with paperwork and life.

Some Purim Silliness... enjoy

www.crownheights.info

Pester Rebbe Press conference..cute!!


if you can figure out the words ;)of the shtick

see you later.. gypsy bobbi is going for a walk

Purim In Raleigh In the Spring

There is the most beautiful white pear tree blooming early outside my window and I am wishing the dogwood was in bloom as well. I feel sad, like I came 2 weeks too early but this is when Purim is on the calendar and when my new step children are in town for vacation so... listening to the birds chirp, a psychotic woodpecker peck and will have to come back soon to see the dogwood. :)

Purim is a great Jewish Holiday. It commemorates our victorious salvation over a King in Persia years ago who was going to destroy the Jews who were living in his empire as slaves. Yes, we were slaves a few times... a nation in exile after the Fall of the now infamous Temple in Jerusalem. A woman named Queen Esther saved the day and we remember the day by reading "the Book of Esther" in Temple and dressing up in costumes and giving each other treats... and some people have a custom to imbibe so much so that you can't remember which is the hero or the villain of the story. Rock stars also commemorate becoming Jewish by taking on the name of the woman who the holiday is for.. Queen Esther ;)

My daughter Esther Shayna is married and living in Ottawa with her husband. He is a Rabbi for Chabad. This is what a Rabbi looks like on Purim when the world is turned upside down and everyone celebrates together as a community.



My daughter wore a pirate hat and big, enormous round hoop earrings. Pirates seemed to be the day...why I am not sure.. I guess the movies..

As for me.. I dressed as a gypsy... long, ruffled skirt with little shimmery gold threads and sequins and beads from my mardi gras wedding lol.

Yes.. Purim is like Halloween meets Fat Tuesday and St. Paddys Day except vodka is not colored green for the day.

Weather wise... the weather rarely interferes... unless there is a late snowstorm or early outbreak of tornadoes.. the weather is usually Spring like and everyone goes about taking little baskets of snacks to friends and giving charity to the poor.

Aren't holidays fun ;) My husband....(wow, I can say that lol) ...dressed up as the chef he is or was way back when and is cooking the Purim Dinner Party. I am lounging in bed, listening to the birds chirp and watching The Weather Channel in North Carolina and going to work a bit on my novel.

My novel life indeed.

Happy Purim...where ever you are..whatever your weather..enjoy this day and may it bring miracles to you..both large and small...and may you be happy .. always.

Besos Bobbi ... reporting in from the Carolinas..

Ps..Burns wins this one..the woodpeckers sound a lot more annoying than Woody!!

Cool Nights, Filled With Memories and Thoughts...

Would call this Tropical Thursday except there isn't much tropical about this Thursday. It's cool in Miami this March... 60s, brrrr...sweater weather!

I'd wear boots but I sent my suede boots up to Carolina with my husband when he drove back a few days ago. I will there for Purim, a happy Jewish holiday where we party, enjoy life and live.

Living is the issue here.. living and living well. Enjoying every memory made, everything thought that takes us down a new path or just the sound of the train in the distance.

A little over a month ago a young man died who had barely aged and yet he lived life with gusto and passion and any other such word you can find in the thesaurus that would explain he squeezed as much life as he could out of his 19 years on this Planet Earth and left this place a better place for being in it. A few days ago his mother and brother catered my wedding. Well, that is what they do and they do it well.

At his Shloshim, an event we do after 30 days has passed...another one of his brothers spoke on his amazing life and ended his speech with "Seize the Day" and that phrase has been reverberating in my mind all the time of late. I have heard a few people say it recently.

We spend so much time in life regretting things we never did or fretting on the things we know we will never do and yet we forget to just enjoy the life we are living, the minutes, the simple pleasures, the birds soaring overhead or the wind blowing through the trees or the laughter of friends whose friendship knows no bounds.

It's a cool night, a beautiful night and I can't fall asleep as I have songs stuck in my head and I can't stop thinking. That's who I am .. ya know? yeah, you know. What don't cha know? I sure don't know.

Singing songs and rhymes in 3/4 time tonight.

Music is universal. It's like a good curry (which I discovered late in life after always denying I would ever like it... I found out I love it.. well mild curry anyways).. it has taste, flavor and it moves the spirit inside. A good song is a good song. I have a Rabbi friend who told me once he liked gospel music. Well, I have a lot of strange friends so this seemed normal to me. We wandered our way one day through a used book store in Key West that sells old CDs and tapes. He laughed with joy as he found a Sandi Patty tape he didn't have in his collection. I laughed, he wasn't kidding. He loves the way she sings of the Lord. Seems Jewish groups have yet been able to have a good English vocalist sing about God the way Carrie Underwood can or Sandi Patty can.

Well, we have some great male singers but it's complicated and not going to even try and explain but... just remembering a great walk through the streets of Key West that was like a walk out of another lifetime with lessons learned for this one.

So... posting a link to a Carrie song... at the end and posting a link to a great song with a great message... and a song by Michael W. Smith that is hauntingly beautiful and filled with a great message...

1... This is Your Time
2... Believe..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blQrlj1cJSU

This is Your Time, This is My Time...This is Our Time... to live, to love, to laugh and to remember. A song for Cassie Bernall who was killed at Columbine who died way too young too...

So, next time you see a sunrise or a leaf fall down slowly onto the ground..savor every moment, give thanks ...for life, for love and for friendship..Seize the Day!

Serve the Lord With Joy...

And don't Forget to Remember Me..

Sweet Dreams..Bobbi




http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carrie_Underwood

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandi_Patty

http://spiritualrejuvenationcenter.com/Yisroel.html

Windy Weather and Whether to Wear Boots!!!

Went to a program yesterday given by two of my closest friends on spirituality and creativity and it included workshops, dinner (organic, vegetarian) and drummin and dancing...

Walked in around 2pm and it was hot and sunny... came out at 11pm and the front had pushed through it was cold, windy and everything had changed weather wise!

So...will probably wear the boots today as I go back to work after my Wedding Holiday!

Had a wonderful honeymoon going back to the past... spent the day Friday at the nicest, most tropical place in all of Miami... a place only us people from the Deep Southwest Miami know about it seems.. Matheson Hammock! Spent my honeymoon in the Grove in the Gables and by the water. And, yes have some color and only a little bit of a sunburn.

But..don't worry, everything's gonna be alright... anytime you can stop on Miracle Mile for coffee at a Starbucks you are in Coral Gables Heaven on the Mile!

So... take care and enjoy the cold weather because before you know it .. it will be Hurricane Season again...




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX-xjXqMOAY

Pics from Sunny Days in Southwest Miami ;)





the Real Biltmore ;)





Besos Bobbi

Pics from my future home... Raleigh, NC!!

http://www.wral.com/weather/image_gallery/4643132/

Jamaica... Miami... far from the snow..for now ;)