Fire & Rain Seaside NJ & Boulder CO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwugjyeSKx4



Sometimes life just doesn't work out the way you thought it would. It happens. People dream and wish on a star and it just doesn't work out the way they hoped and prayed it would. It is one of the biggest commonalities of humanity that we have all had dreams deferred or dreams denied.

An icon is an icon. People cry when the old oak tree burns down after getting hit by lighting and when lighthouses get smashed in hurricanes. We lose people we love both to life choices made poorly and to disease and death and we cry. We sigh. We want to say "it's not fair" and "it's not supposed to be this way" and yet things like this happen every day.

At the Jersey Shore last night an ice cream parlor burned out of control and took with it parts of the boardwalk that had survived Hurricane Sandy less than a year ago. People felt victorious that something remained and rebuilt what was broken as best as they could. The boardwalk opened for the summer.. a sense of life goes on and sunny blessings were felt by everyone.

Who doesn't love a carousel?




http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/13/nyregion/fire-ravages-jersey-shore-boardwalk-rebuilt-after-hurricane-sandy.html?_r=0

From the article above...

"Funtown Pier, nearly destroyed by the hurricane, collapsed in flames. And nearby, the fire appeared to have ruined a historic carousel that had been painstakingly restored after the storm and reopened just months ago. In all, about 20 businesses over a six-block stretch were almost completely destroyed, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said at a news conference. Local officials suggested that number was too low."

And, the memories go round and round... 

A friend of mine who LOVES the Jersey Shore remembered trips there with his daughter last summer...before Sandy. 

For many who loved the boardwalk in Long Beach NY or Seaside NJ... everything in their life is now about before and after Sandy. 

http://www.app.com/article/20130912/NJNEWS/309120150/

The fire may be over... the memories remain and the pain lingers over everyone as summer fades to an endless winter or rebuilding and remembering and trying to understand that eternal question "WHY?"

I have a writer friend :) named Hesh.. he really loves the beaches of the Jersey Shore and Long Island ...and LA. Loves the Jersey Shore like I love Key West.  

He posted that when he heard about the fire... 

That fires breaking a lot of people's hearts and more so their spirit, because after the Phoenix rises..

it's not supposed to crash and burn in a fire

:(

Hesh made a CD called Soul in Exile. Sort of fits the feeling after the fire.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/heshinc 

He has an unfinished novel that he needs to finish as I do mine.

If you never were there... Eddie and the Cruisers made it seem real...

we all have had that special person..

that special place

that special summer

for a good part of the NE.. The Jersey Shore was and is and remains that sort of place...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3IbNTLy9WM

As for rain......................it rained in Colorado and it rained in Colorado and it kept on raining.

And, after the rain came the floods and it's still flooded and it's a horrible mess. 

People died in the floods as they did in the fire in NJ. And, people are afraid of Tropical Storms and Hurricanes? You can prepare for a hurricane. You can hunker down with your family and loved ones. You can't do that in a flood or a fire.. 

I'm going to take a page from Drudge on the floods.. literally.

This is what I woke up to this morning... 

Sort of hits you in the gut. The flood.. not Matt. A lot of people wake up to Drudge... not just me. Even my super, duper liberal son Levi reads Drudge.. (well on Twitter...) and Mister Drudge loves a lot of things like icons and history and the romance of history and the irony of the drama of news.  A boardwalk that survived a hurricane succumbs to a raging fire less than a year later. And in the middle of the hurricane season we are writing about a flood in Colorado that washed people's lives away.

Earlier he had this headline up... Funtown Burns. Sort of looks like a cover to a Stephen King novel.

How many people go to sleep and check Drudge & wake up and check Drudge?

I know I do.. sort of...

I stare at models... weather models and the loops of the Atlantic and I say goodnight to people I love

There is nothing really big going on in the tropics today..

Humberto is so far away...

Gabrielle is important if you live in Canada

Tropical Depression 10 is trying to be Ingrid.

A wayward, west bound wave is struggling to stay alive west of PR.. 

Models show development in late September 

near Florida 

maybe near Carolina

Atlantic Storm.. Hurricane Maybe.

Maybe the real thing... 

Today is a time to remember what was and what isn't and to appreciate what is..

How many people thought "wouldn't it be nice Alice to drive out to the Jersey Shore and go to that there boardwalk they rebuilt at Seaside Beach?"

And, Alice is playing online games or putting up jam and says "maybe next year" and poor Ralph goes out with Ed to shoot some pool and you know what???? 

There is no next year maybe ... 

Yes, they will rebuild.. probably and but it won't be the same and next year some random hurricane may tear it down again before you get in the car and go take a look yourself.

That is weather darlings... 

That is what weather teaches us...

The frailness's of life.. 

You can sit around in your room dreaming all you want or wishing on a stars but unless you get out in your car or on a plane or a train you let the moments of life get away.

What do you love?

Who do you love?

What makes you smile?

Enjoy it!

Embrace it!

It could all be washed away tomorrow... by fire or rain or a hurricane.

Besos Bobbi

Ps...

Another friend of mine pushed me to go for broke and go down to Key West while in Miami last month. I could have waited until November when I'll be back.. but something could come up and might not have gotten there and so I listened to him... smart man... and I'm glad I did. 

Love Key West... 

I watched the sunrise.. I watched it set and I said goodnight to the people I love and went to bed smiling.

Beauty is eternal.  Memories are forever. Make memories... and make more memories. Embrace what you love...where you love....who you love.. Always.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSqT_PeiV0U