Andrew Memories & Danielle holding Baby Brother's hand... and moving more west than forecast originally

Tropical Post....
Danielle continues to progress more west than she was supposed to and although she put on quite a performance this morning she is having problems holding it together and probably won't make Cat 3 today... might even be demoted to Cat 1 at 11 but time will tell and it will be time real soon. Further East the wave known as "Almost Earl" is almost here and looks wonderfully healthy despite some earlier model predictions about it's total demise in the wake of Danielle. And, there is a possibility of some home grown brew and I don't mean blueberry beer...

Personal post

So...while these tropical elements come together and the tracks adjust to the left and you begin to hear that it can't be ruled out that one of them might affect the East Coast...choose your coast even though "all the models are in complete agreement" I'm going to post a little bit about Andrew....while it rains in Oklahoma City, Orlando and in Raleigh where I am sitting in bed, knees up and laptop leaning against them staring out at the rain fall on the green carpet of grass next door and listening to the flash flood warning scrolling on the bottom of the TV. I just put up purple eye peas...in some sort of made up at the last minute vegetarian stew for dinner in the crock pot. Lord knows what I am having for lunch... probably sushi but having stew for dinner with some sort of designer beer popular up here in these parts... possibly blueberry flavored Sea Dog from Maine.

Basically I am hiding from my kids while watching loops on the television and the computer while writing on the laptop and wishing I had an Ipad like Levi and Moe.

Boy it's a tough life... and trying to figure out what I am doing for the Jewish New Year in Miami...where to go ...what to do... when to eat at my friend Malka's house and when to be with my my kids and family at the Schwartz Family Bed and Breakfast as my brother calls it.

And.... mostly thinking on the fact that 18 years ago I was worrying if there was water downstairs on the first floor of my house or if it was safe to go take a look around.

I could hear the sound of waves far off in the distance from the ocean as the house buffeted with each blow of the wind. The old 1926 Wood Frame Stucco house that had been built during the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 took Andrew pretty good for being an old wood frame stucco Roaring 20s sort of mini-mansion.

I stood for a while with my husband looking out the big picture window to the south that was not boarded up and watched transformers popping turning the sky into shades of purple not seen in a box of crayola crayons.

I put all the younger kids to sleep upstairs in the little alcove by the stairs that was protected on most sides and felt pretty safe. We lay on mattresses like we were at a slumber party with a dark, somber soundtrack and the sound of wind piercing and shrieking and howling through the pine trees on Pine Tree Drive a block away and beyond that the roar of the surf and it was exciting... it was crazy.. it was wild. The night before my ex-husband and I drove around the boarded up streets of Miami Beach, South Beach, my beach watching as the sweet old bag lady pushed her cart along Collins Avenue and 13th Street and we had the windows down, the steady breeze blowing through the windows... was like the set for Miami Vice was shut up for the night and we were the only ones driving on it the way we used to go take a drive over to the old 20th Century Fox lot and park and talk in the old days in LA. Was a strange, not normal surreal view of South Beach and for months nothing was normal again on Miami Beach or further south where I grew up. Further south where we decided not to spend the storm as we had always planned to spend a storm with friends in Palmetto which was good as their house was pretty much blown apart.

Being Lubavitch and strictly Lubavitch back then the Lubavitcher Rebbe had been consulted via the fax phone and we were faxed back and answer to stay put and we would be safe. I know... not advice I would give most people but I'm not the Lubavitcher Rebbe and well you live the life to quote a friend and we did and we stayed put. Had we gone south to what seemed like a safe haven from the storm Lord only knows what would have happened in a house which had windows blown out and furniture rearranged and not enough closets to hide in for us and all our kids. A friend in Homestead told me after the storm that he left and went to friends in North Miami Beach as he also faxed in and was told to go ahead and evacuate. Was a long time ago.... we did what we did and because we did we were safe ironically and we heard the ocean waves, we heard the wind, we felt the house shake but it held safe just like it held safe in 1926. A great house... really a great house.. you could close your eyes and see what it looked like it in the 20s... fireplace, keystone trim around the fireplace, sconces and detail you don't see in homes today... must have been so beautiful in the 20s... it's beautiful today still.

I know I am rambling but I have rambling memories of the summer of 1992.

My high school held a reunion at the Marriott on the Bay just weeks before Andrew and for the first time in 20 years I saw some old friends who I was obviously sort of hiding from lol which looking back was probably smart but was also smart to go. Publix donated all the food and underwrote the reunion because in typical Miami fashion the girl who was put in charge of making the reunion ran off with the money and her boyfriend who seems to maybe have had some sort of drug problem..(not going into it in detail) but Publix stepped in after hearing about it on CNN (my life always plays like a movie... then again art imitates life doesn't it) and Publix saved the day. Had fun... saw old friends, even some who were catatonic ... possibly from too much wine and stood by the bay looking out at the beautiful city thinking what a beautiful city Miami is... how beautiful Venetians Islands always are and how wonderful it is to stand around watching sailboats bob in the breeze.

And, then................the BIG BREEZE came named Andrew and it blew all the sailboats away.

I don't remember much of what was on the radio in the summer of 92, I seem to have missed most of the songs on the top 40 for September as we listened to post storm coverage and Brian Norcross 24/7 even as he continued to speak with laryngitis we listened and well the cable was gone, blown away by the storm and 100s of old mango trees and ficus trees on Miami Beach that were tossed up onto lawns taking with them most of the sidewalks and water mains.... no I don't remember much from the Fall of 1992... it was a blur of broken tree limbs and tossed out ruined furniture piled high on the swail like some strange ring around the fortress and it stunk and it smelled as everything got moldy in the hot September sun. But... we didn't really worry on that much ... we watched as teams of lineman came to town and one by one houses got electric back on in a patchwork, hopscotch manner. We had six phones lines in our house before Andrew, after Andrew we somehow had a fax line that still worked and every family around came to use it as it was the only working phone around it seemed.

So.. I googled August and September of 1992 and found that I barely remember any of the names of the songs. No Cable... no MTV or VH1 and no TWC. I hung out with Sharon and Malka ...my best friends ...and the kids and my ex and our friends waiting for life to get normal again. We played in the rain instead of taking showers, swam in the ocean instead of taking baths and made coffee on small sterno stoves.

Here's a song from that time period... trust me in Miami we were very happy to have November rain and the cable back.



As far as we were concerned after Andrew... no one got hurt except my son Levi who we insisted on moving him for his own safety out of the bedroom facing the East. Well, we were worried the window would blow out despite being boarded up and the wind was howling and he had fallen asleep on the floor and refused to move and is the heaviest sleeper in the world... so I had both his older sisters take one leg and we pulled him feet first through the door out of the bedroom where he slept into the safety of the upstairs hallway ... which would have been find but his head hit the little nice wooden lip of the doorway and he let out a strong set of curse words in his sleep and well Levi I owe you a big apology. Sorry. But ....looking back I would have done it again... the boards on the window DID come off and they went down and hit the nice little Firebird that received a dent :( and we were just trying to keep you safe :)
I mean even my ex listened to me and left the realty tv light show and came into the safe room while we listened to Brian Norcross on the radio talk to us and keep us sane throughout the storm. The house had no damage... houses down the block had a lot of damage. Got to love those old 1926 Miami Homes :)

Fast forward to 2010 and the tropics... I still got this stuck in my head, love the stupid lyrics lol......so much truth, so much truth and what a difficult task child rearing is and trust me it's usually done best from the back bedroom with the door shut and playing CDs from stalker friend and not paying too close attention. Being a parent is truly frustrating and an illusion of control. Some kids.... you just wish you could lock them up when they are young and not let them out until they are at least 30... not mine of course ;) Mine are great... mine are troopers... hurricane tested and approved and they know what to do in a storm. Which of course means those living in luxury condos on the 18th floor ... never ever stay in a condo in a hurricane!!



Danielle and Earl playing in the storm yard while some mama somewhere is going to worry on her kids, her family because this is far from over...

Be back later...

Besos Bobbi