Bill is Still a Hurricane...Weekend Update on the Tropics and Life

As for Bill, I think the National Hurricane Center says it best in their 8am Advisory:

...LARGE HURRICANE BILL ACCELERATING NORTHEASTWARD...

The rest of the info is below on this link:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCPAT3+shtml/231157.shtml

Another great picture I want to share with you this morning is the Funktop version or what I call Funky Bill Finds Newfoundland!



Look at that long tail from Bill that reaches all the way down into the warm tropical waters and is caught up in an Upper Level Low that looks like the Anti-Bill it is so big like Bill is..

And, Bill is STILL a Hurricane and that is amazing and very different from most hurricanes that have already crossed over into the realm of extra tropical, elongated strange shaped storms. Bill traveled more miles than most Cape Verde Waves will ever travel and he really did it in style. Spared our shores, our cities and cruised along kicking up the surf and staying well within line of the National Hurricane Center's excellent forecasting as if he was following their travel ideas and took their advice.

Bottom line.. we lucked out.

Bottom, bottom line.. not all storms are so kind and we don't always luck out.

As for me, personally I am going to the beach today if all goes as planned. Part of my plan in this going between South Florida and North Carolina life I have right now. Want to feel the sand under my toes, look for shells, watch the sunset and rise and feel the air in my face. Would have gone yesterday to enjoy the breakers from Bill but I keep the Jewish Sabbath and that is my priority and I'll go another time to see breakers.

And, yesterday when leaving Temple to go to a friend's house I stood by the road and looked across the field of a big high school and watched the now infamous frontal boundary that pushed Bill out to sea come swooping down and take up the whole breath of the sky with clouds that I have not seen in weeks since I was last in Miami. Low, tropical clouds with hooks and updrafts visible and trailing cloud debris and colors dark and beautiful. We walked over to our friend's house for lunch and took a chance that we would get caught in the rainstorm and did... but it was beautiful and as close to being in some part of Bill as I could get. Downdrafts and wind rushing by and clouds racing overhead, you could see the punch of the front as it moved sort of NE over us... stopped under a MASSIVE Magnolia tree..two of them that join together and have big thick leaves, the rain came down and watched the raindrops sparkling and dancing in the parking lot nearby, was awesome, magical... beautiful. Romantic too. We stayed like that for a while and then took a run for it when I heard thunder, am too smart to stand under a tree with thunder somewhere nearby. Got soaked, dried off at a friend's house whose mother was visiting from L.A. and one of my oldest closest friends when I lived out on that coast another life time ago. Felt like kids playing in the rain and it continued to rain for a few hours until the front moved on.

Was great... great to see old friends, great to stand under a Magnolia Tree in the middle of all that meteorological drama and know Bill was cruising along, safely off shore, the forecast verifying and yes score one for the NHC and one for Bobbi because it was a great, magical weather moment!

On another note... Raleigh has a pretty little downtown with a great little restaurant called Mecca, old fashioned and wonderful, sit down..have a coffee or a soda (or lunch) and take it all in.. which I did while I compiled some notes for a story. No refills but I did not need refills, I needed some local color and inspiration. Pictures another time. And, to process the reality that downtown Raleigh does not have a Victoria Secrets nor a bookstore. We got to work on this guys... I asked the girl at the register in the CVS if they had a Walgreen's and she thought and said "no..." and so I asked her how bout a bookstore and she thought and said, "No....." and then I said, "so you have like no little cute stores to walk around and shop for stuff???" and she said... after much thought, "we have a pawn shop!!!!"

Help... I told her yes, I saw that... looked like such an old fashioned pawn shop... caught my attention...

Nice people, nice place but come on guys...got to have a Victoria Secrets or a bookstore to come into the 21st Century!! Museum's are awesome.

And, when I get back to Miami the first thing I am doing is going to my favorite Victoria Secrets in Bayside... both of them!! They have one for clothes and one for scents and well ... walk around the sailboats and watch them bob about in the tropical breeze.

But, for now...standing under a Magnolia tree with my guy and watching the rain come down and dance in the puddles made an absolutely perfect Saturday.. and watching Bill, still a hurricane slide past the coastal communities that could have been seriously ravaged and destroyed is a good meteorological moment of madness..

Love it...

As for what's next? Hmnnnn don't know. A wave off Africa fighting shear, some talk on local home grown brew near Florida (hmmmn don't know) and Bobbi is going to the Beach!!

Oh...and the Miami Dolphins WON last night and I got to see them on TV because they played Carolina, how good is that??

Have a great weekend... Bobbi
Peace out ;) to quote an old friend!