Last Day of the 2017 Hurricane Season

Palm trees grow back fast in South Florida.

Battered palm fronds hang down...

...while bright green growth grows back.

Life in the Miami after the 2017 Hurricane Season.

Coconut Grove to be specific.

So much to say and so little time ....  To explain I am in South Florida visiting my children and I was waiting for my daughter to give birth. First I attended a beach wedding a week or so ago for my son and  new daughter-in-law on St. George Island. Then I waited and waited for my daughter to give birth to a beautiful baby boy a few days ago. Sunday I'm involved in a baby shower for another baby who is due in January sometime (am I ever gonna leave Florida this winter I wonder?) and catching up with my South Florida kids. I'm short on time and far from the normal life of TWC and FOX/CNN back home in North Carolina. My younger kids use HULU, Netlfix and Roku so I it's been a long, long while since I saw Jim Cantore do a Water Vapor Loop....

I've spent much time interviewing various people from St. George to South Florida on how Hurricane Irma (and other storms) affected them as well as how the "hurricane season" in general affected them and how they will deal with the next hurricane season. Many have cleaned up and life is almost normal. Many are still arguing with insurance companies and trying to clean up trashed lawns, homes and lives. As always it's a matter of perspective. If you lost your prized oak tree that stretched across your whole yard and was witness to parties, BBQs and life you feel you lost a treasured friend and everything is so bright and nothing looks normal. If you had to remove a tree you disliked and prune the bushes life went on faster. Down in the Keys life is going on a bit slower.  Up in St. George I head some great stories I will talk on another time about how high the tide came in and how they just roll with the tide that usually flows under their elevated homes.

Ya... from SnapChat ;)

The other day after visiting my grandson in the hospital I went down to Coconut Grove with my son Levi to spend some of the day with him. I was specifically worried about him during Irma as Coconut Grove is prone to flooding and it's possible to have a sailboat land in your waterfront office. As his house is only a few blocks inland he could have lost his office and his house. Irma pushed the sailboats mostly towards the South and there was only minor damage in the parking lot. His office is awesome as Compass Realty offices usually are as they are modern, friendly and always busy with the ebb and flow of buying and selling homes any person would be lucky to own. The Real Estate Market takes a minor hit for a month or two and then bounces back fast; then again others are always looking to get deals on waterfront homes someone wants to sell. That's life.

That is life in South Florida. On the way to the hospital the other day I saw crews cutting old dead palm fronds from trees so that everything would look tropical, beautiful and as if most of South Florida wasn't terrified they would lose everything from a direct hit from a Category 5 Hurricane. Here and there you see a blue tarp on a roof or an empty space in a yard where a huge ficus tree was torn down. There are still some huge massive trees still down in Hollywood Florida on side streets ...though the main streets the tourists use are picture perfect.

Seems we are back to worrying on escaped American Crocodiles who decide to take swim on Hollywood Beach rather than a newly named land falling hurricane. In Texas some are still displaced from homes flooded by Harvey and the Florida Keys are open for business but still cleaning up where Irma did her worst redecorating on Big Pine Key and some other nearby keys. Marathon is still cleaning up; Key Largo is looking better. The same goes for Naples.

The 2017 Hurricane Season has taught us a few things. For one... the predictions for a busy season were spot on and came true even though many doubted it was just a lot of hype. Next year many will take the Hurricane Season a lot more seriously and prepare in ways they never thought they would. In general to be honest life goes on in South Florida. The horribly hot summer has given way to balmy nights and tropical breezes. Music flows in the air along side walk cafes where a Russian plays beautiful music in front of restaurant more famous for it's chocolate desserts. Last night I saw a man playing the Accordian in a Dollar Tree Parking lot and to be honest he had more money in his Tupperware container than the guy at the upscale restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard. The ironies of life. To be honest the guy sitting on the milk cartoon in front of the Dollar Tree store played the most beautiful music I've heard in a long time.

And that's South Florida....... it surprises you. Like babies who come early or babies who come late... like an impulsive drive down to Coconut Grove or an incredible surprise dinner at Brickell Centre after wandering with my younger kids through the Pamm Art Museum in Miami. The storm surge that was shown running through the streets of Miami is gone and it appears as if it was an illusion on the TV ... special effects or something. In Houston you can tell as there are scars everywhere from the flooding.

And everyone wonders the same thing...

What will the 2018 Hurricane Season bring us.... more of the same or worse? We will retire many names this year but Miami, as always, got lucky and Maria slammed into the Islands and Irma went South into Cuba before bouncing off the coast into the Lower Keys. What will the 2018 Hurricane Season bring?

Something to think on...

Besos BobbiStorm

Ps... give me a few days to get back to normal and I'll be back to daily blogs again!!