UPDATED! Tropical Storm ---Subtropical Storm Oscar in the Atlantic Forecast to be Tropical Storm Oscar Anger & Hate, Mail Bombers, Pittsburgh Shooting. October...

Quick Midnight Update.

Red Sox beat the Dodgers.

Oh you probably knew that.

What you probably don't know is...

...I had an Uncle named Oscar.

And he was one of my all time favorite people..

 I find it a big amusing to have a Tropical Storm Oscar.

WSW at 20.

Seems Oscar is misbehaving.

Cone still shows the big curve out to sea.

Eventually.

What the NHC says on the WSW at 20 MPH.

https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/text/refresh/MIATCDAT1+shtml/280237.shtml?

My uncle Oscar gave me a strong sense of myself and more so a belief in my own abilities. He insisted I could do anything I wanted. I was smart and beautiful and anything I wanted to achieve I could. He was basically a 2nd father as we lived next door to my Aunt, Uncle, Grandmother and partner in crime my cousin Brian. Wow did we get in trouble when we were little. Good times. Uncle Oscar could play the guitar, sing beautifully and talk on history and politics. He was a successful lawyer, head of the steering committee for the Democratic Party (so I grew up literally in political meetings being babysat) and he just had the best essence of almost anyone I knew growing up though I was also a bit partial to my Aunt Ada. He was an Old Florida Boy meaning he went to the University of Florida but more so he knew weather in an intrinsic way as he went fishing, grew tomatoes and knew when the wind was going to blow like a hurricane. He was a small child in the 1926 hurricane and remembered how they clustered together waiting out the storm. The story I tell of the people who rode out the 1926 Hurricane in a Funeral Home built up on on a hill (yes a hill in Miami... it wasn't much of a hill but it had elevation) and people made it through the storm safe. Except the few who insisted in driving across the bridge into downtown to check on businesses and friends who were swept away in a storm surge. Old Florida boys know hurricanes have a second act... an eye but most of the newcomers to Florida didn't know that. When Uncle Oscar told a story you could hear the wind blowing the way it did in a hurricane. He and his father were President of Beth David Synagogue in Miami; some of my earliest memories are watching him in the Synagogue speaking on stage. In my darkest moments when life seemed impossible and there was no way out of bad situations I could always hear Uncle Oscar telling me that I could do anything I really wanted to...   if only I could turn back time. But alas time marches on but the memories remain.

He'd sing Granada ... the UF Fight Song and he'd sing Blue Spanish Eyes.. 

So congratulations Tropical Storm Oscar for becoming a real Tropical Storm.

Most of all I remember when he came back from a case in New York excited because he saw Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof. He bought the soundtrack and he'd sing and move in my mind way better than anyone named Zero could ever sing. Years later I found out on some DNA website I'm distantly related to Sholom Aleichem which makes total sense in ways I don't want to explain here and now. So here's to Uncle Oscar... and the beauty of music to transcend any sad news or bad times. 

If I could use a time machine he's one of the few people I'd want to go back to... a few others. 

Update tomorrow on Tropical Storm Oscar and worth mentioning that... the flow from the GOM is still strong so if any front flops out and falls apart it needs to be watched.

* * *

Cone...

Discussion interesting.

It treats the quick Westward movement as an oddity.

Short term issue. 

Time will tell on that one.

Forecast to be Hurricane Oscar as of now.

Here's a satellite view below.

I wanted to show this image below.

It's from the MIMIC loop I love so much.

You can see the swirl that is Oscar.

You can also see the tropical moisture...

..funneled up towards New England.

Where atmospheric issues collide.

Cold wet rain and sleet.

Some snow in Maine.

Wind and high tides.

Not your normal Nor'easter...

..or Coastal Storm.

Kind of normal for late. October.

http://tropic.ssec.wisc.edu/real-time/mimic-tpw/natl/anim/latest72hrs.gif

I'm glad to be able to write about Subtropical Storm Oscar out in the Atlantic not threatening anyone but threatening to become Tropical Storm Oscar soon. He's fun to watch out there spinning, evolving as all the atmospheric powers that be fight for control in the Atlantic in October.  Cold fronts are on the move and yet the tropics aren't finished. When you add tropical heat into an explosive set up you end up with sometimes larger than expected hurricanes in odd places or Cold Fronts that have tropical moist energy connecting from the Gulf of Mexico across the Gulf Stream and up into New England. In a little while I'm going to watch the World Series. Kind of happy to have missed last night's 18 Inning Game I'd have been exhausted. I was offline for the Jewish Sabbath, asleep in my bed dreaming of hurricanes and snowstorms. I'm teasing. I rarely dream of hurricanes; sometimes but rarely.

Some thoughts on what happened today in Pittsburgh and the Mail Bomber from Miami. Several people have asked me on my thoughts so these are my thoughts. Feel free to ignore them and check back tomorrow when I'll be talking on weather again.

* * *

On a personal level obviously I am Jewish and I did hear about an "Active Shooter in Pittsburgh" today as I left the house to walk over to the synagogue. My first thought was the Rabbi in our synagogue who is from Pittsburgh would probably be upset when he heard as he has many family members there and he is one of the world's biggest Pittsburgh Steeler fans. Much later in the day I found out from someone that the shooting had been at a synagogue during a Bris where a baby is named and I didn't mention it to my husband so he could keep his peace of calm mind until sundown and the news would come on and we'd hear the details. A bris for a family is what a Christening is to most people who are Christian and have that custom; it is one of the biggest, happiest moments in the family's life regarding a newborn, baby boy. Girl's have their own naming in a synagogue and then a big party is held to celebrate the new life. So there were so many layers of horror to this story beyond just the regular hate filled man who runs into a church or a synagogue thinking he's taking matters into his hands and decides to kill. As horrible as it was in Charleston for me to think of people sitting at a table in a bible class with a stranger they let in and welcomed and then he turned his anger onto them using a gun. In Pittsburgh the bris was in process, the family gathered around a newborn baby swaddled in blankets to be entered officially into the covenant of the Jewish People and some Nazi loving, Jew hating man runs in with hate and a gun.

This is not about guns. I'm sorry but it's about hate. I studied history in depth and a whole lot of depressing Jewish history though my degree is in International Relations which sadly is rife with hate and way before they had rifles they took Jews and chased them into the town's synagogue with torches and set the the synagogue on fire burning down the synagogue and the Jews both babies and their grandparents. Be it blood libels or the Crusades or just some Cossacks who got drunk and decided to go have "fun" with the Jews and start a Pogrom. Hate isn't just about Jews as Belfast Ireland was rocked for years with hate between religious groups and Americans systematically killed off the Native Americans to move across the nation and make it their own nation. Sorry to get political here but it's true; yes I know they fought back but as we know from F Troop the White Man eventually beat out the Indians.  In Africa and China and every country on the Planet someone has fought someone from another tribe for whatever reason be it access to the better farmland or to kill off their young warriors. Hate and anger kill.

And this is NOT a Pro Trump comment but he was ostracized for saying there should be guns or a guard but in many synagogues I know there are men who are designated gun carriers in case there is a problem. And kudos to the police who got to the Temple in ONE MINUTE. Wow.

What bothers me most is that 3 days ago in Cary North Carolina a suburb not far from Raleigh someone plasted a neighborhood with flyers from a Nazi group looking for new recruits and specifically mentioning "immigrants" and the Jews and apparently the shooter was obsessed with that exact language over the last few days before deciding to take matters into his own hands. I find it hard to believe it's a coincidence and not a fire that was flamed with hate by materials read online by this same organization pushing their agenda under the guise of Freedom of Speech.

https://abc11.com/cary-police-investigating-anti-semitic-fliers-distributed-in-neighborhood-/4555901

So sorry for a political discussion tonight but many of my friends have asked me on my thoughts. My daughter's best friend recently moved to Pittsburgh and his niece's teacher was going to the Bris and they had thought of joining her. They heard before they left about the shooting. My Rabbi who grew up 2 blocks from that synagogue is probably in shock and heartbroken. My daughter who has been there says it's one of the most beautiful synagogues she's ever been in and she's been in a lot. Yes, I'm Jewish. My daughter-in-law Kristin is not Jewish and we are close and we talk a lot. We actually talked quietly once on the reality that my beautiful granddaughter Olivia could be in danger if some synagogue or Jewish school was attacked as it was just after some terrorist attack at a Jewish place for no other reason than.. it was a Jewish place. She expressed the fact that it had occurred to her in a sad tone that inherent threat is always there. Scary huh? To have to think on these things. Sad but true. A part of life.  I'm not shocked, but I'm sad and I'd rather write on weather and Oscar.

The green by Mar-Len is NMB High School.

His house was by the r in Mar.

The house he grew up in...

Most crazy is that the mail bomber in Miami was raised and grew up in a house directly across the street from my best friend, actually both my best friends lived on that block. I know that house, that block like the back of my hand. He played soccer on the field at the end of the block by the high school. He attended North Miami Beach High School where one of my son's graduated from and several of my kids attended as he did JFK Middle School where four of my kids attended school before I moved them back to a Jewish Day School on Miami beach that after 911 kept a police car outside in front of the school all year as the school was seen as a target. The mail bomb suspect attended elementary school in the elementary school where I used to substitute teach Sabal Palm Elementary. You can see all the schools I mentioned there. In Miami we joke that all stories have a Florida angle. Not sure if the one in Pittsburgh does but the mail bomber story did for sure and it was very close to home for me.

Why are some people so filled with hate?
Hate comes in Pro Trump and Anti Trump packages.
Hate comes in liberal venues and conservative venues.
Hate is projected at people for color, race, religion and political persuasion.
I'm tired of hate.

Study International Relations .......trust me it's all about hate. Or about the desire to have better farming regions or a warm water port.

Glad I'm obsessed with weather and sports and astrology and dance and music and all the things that keep my world spinning. And, yeah a break once a week on the Jewish Sabbath is always nice but sadly when that bubble is broken you often come out to hear about something not so happy. Years ago I'd always be afraid to turn on CNN just after Shabbos to see if a plane fell out of a sky or an earthquake destroyed California while I was in my happy bubble of calm and peace.

Today people celebrating a baby's birth in a place of worship in what should have been a peaceful, happy bubble had their peace destroyed. I was in the Synagogue with friends celebrating a friend's birthday together with others.

Hope and pray your world is not shattered by crazy mail bombers or people grabbing a gun to shoot your loved ones and may you be safe from crazy, hate filled people who decide to drive over people with a truck at a carnival or a bike rally. Stay safe, safe well and stay happy.

Besos Bobbistorm
@bobbistorm on Twitter.

Ps. Yes I am Jewish but I'm actually a Jewish Conch as my family lived in Key West back in the late 1800s. We go way back in Florida before the City of Miami even existed. So I'll leave this with their favorite saying.