Hurricane Harbor: Katia is born. Jimmy Dies. I Guess We All Saw That Coming But Still.... He Made a Whole Lot of People Happy. As For THE WAVE ..EURO Still LIkes It.

Idalia gone, but not totally.

Katia is on the board.

NHC says Katia is "overachieving"

But not expected to last........

...they sound annoyed...

As for Idalia, gone but not forgotten.

Idalia is gone but she still has a Cone..

As for THE WAVE

EURO still has it... will see tomorrow.

I'm pretty sure Jimmy had a better life, but who knows.... but I like to think he did, he definitely didn't let his life slip away. He sure made us all very happy, whether it was his music, his personification of the good life in the Tropics, a passtion for sailing be in by boat or in his Seaplane and his legacy his huge for many of us and I think the best way to remember him is to have a Margaritta, listen to his music and pay it forward and try and make others smile. He was impressive ... a student of words and history and he wove history with his words into his songs and most of the depth of his songs went way over the head of most of those listening to his songs on the radio or YouTube or whatever you use to do music personally these days. I had this Album but I sent it to a friend, but don't worry somewhere here I have another one that I bought at a Thrift Shop and kept on my dresser for a while.

Jimmy was an enigma and an open book all at once. Do you realize how many of his songs are about a famous book or author? Maybe some of you do, others not and either way does it matter? As a writer we write for the public and we write for ourselves to get the words out of our head sometimes.

"Trouble on the Horizon" by Jimmy Bufett.

And as I've said he was the Patron Saint of Tropical Storm Chasers and the Wall Street Journal of all pubications quoted me saying that in an article titled "voices worth listening to" regarding an upcomming hurricane season. But, Jimmy knew that St. Barbara was the Patron Saint of Lightning, Storms and ironically electricians tho not sure FPL and a lot of them are Parrot Heads. Many Parrot Heads are sad today and listening to their favorite songs. I doubt the FPL guys have St. Barbara decals on their Bucket Trucks but it would totally make sense, not Christopher is also a patron saint of storms. Jimmy knew about St. Barbara as he was a student of History as much as he was a student of Literature and he studied both for his degree from University of Southern Mississippi. Jimmy was a writer, he was a singer and one of the last real troubadours as well as a real trooper when it came to playing on the road. When they canceled the rescheduled concert he missed when he first fell ill ... I saw the writing on the wall and I wasn't surprised. Though I really thought Willie would go before Jimmy, but I was wrong and after living 3/4 of a century Jimmy passed away September 1st leaving us all a bit sad, but very glad that he gave us so much music and happiness.

Part of the story of my life is interwoven with the life of Jimmy Buffett and I'm not sure I want to tell it really as it really dates me. When I was a young girl, probably wearing a cute mini skirt, high heels and most likely a low cut blouse I was sitting with my boyfriend the first time I ever heard Jimmy Buffett sing at a place called The FLICK near the UM Campus. Turns out that was the same day that was the first day that Jimmy had ever been to Key West. Jimmy was cute, he looked a lot like Donovan with long hair holding his guitar singing a song. I was a bit distracted by my boyfriend who looked like he was in a trance and I asked what he was thinking and he said "he's good, he's going to really make it" and I trusted that statement as he knew music well, though I probably didn't think much on it and he was right. A while later I was walking through Burdines in Miami and suddenly this song came on with a familiar sound to it. I was probably shopping for shoes or a cute skirt and at the end of the song they said that the song was sang by Jimmy Buffett... the song was Margarittaville. I smiled. I giggled. And, over the years I have spent a whole lot of money and time in Margaritaville in Key West or Myrtle Beach. I actually have a salt shaker on my table that says "searching for my lost shaker of salt" ...

The funny part of this story is that I was reading his book "A Pirate Turns 50" and Jimmy wrote in the book that the first time he was in Key West was only because he had a gig in Coral Gables at a coffee house and turns out he got there a day early by accident, so since he had extra day to play he called a friend who took him downt to Key West and the following night when he sang at the FLICK he mentioned he had just gotten back from Key West and I realized "oh my gosh I saw Jimmy Buffett play for the first time and it was the first time he had ever been to Key West! Honestly KW is a place that many think of synonymously when they hear his name. Go figure. It figures. Life is like that sometimes with me, kind of karmic and that blew me away. I had another friend, an older guy I hung out with a lot named Stuart who I stayed by him Key West often, sometimes he'd show up at my house in Miami tell me to pack some clothes and drive back with him to Key West to keep him company for the ride and I could "wake up in Key West" and I did... faster than you can say to your older kids living with you "I'm going to Key West with Stuart, I'll be back tomorrow night" lol and why I'm mentioning it is because at one point Stuart lived in the same apartment building on Waddell around the corner from Louie's Backyard, a block from where I used to stay by our mutual friend Tom on Alberta near where I'd go watch the sunrise often at the end of Alberta Street. Stuart was surprised he made it so big, but in Key West Jimmy was just another guy and that's the beauty of Key West. Life is funny how interwoven lives can be when you're looking back.

It's sad, not gonna lie. But I'm not surprised, as his illness was obviously serious as I said the writing was on the wall and as a writer I knew the statement that he wasn't going to make the rescheduled appearance recently was foreshadowing and it was only a matter of time.

So, yes it's sad. But I'm glad we had Jimmy. I've always measured the value of a person by the old saying "leave the world a better place than you found it" and Jimmy did that indeed. That's pretty much the best good deed you can do in this world and if so than Jimmy did a whole lot of good deeds and made a whole lotta people smile.

All writers have their secrets, if you have read this blog long enough you'll know that you've probably seen a few in a movie somewhere lol or wondered what I was writing about when it was February and the tropics were dead and I lived in Miami raising a whole slew of kids and obviously pissed off with someone or on another day I wanted to make that same someone smile. Writers are like that... everything we write comes from somewhere, or someone near by who said it and didn't expect to see it put into a movie script or a book but I digress it's all good.........because it made a whole lotta of people happy.

I'll update on the tropics tomorrow morning. Idalia going to Nova Scotia?? Will THE WAVE get across the ocean or slide up up the middle like the last several that rolled off Africa.

So listen to the music, enjoy his songs as I'm gonna keep playing them and know that while life goes on, it only goes on better because we have his music, we have his words and we know he'd say "but I had a good life all the way........

Sweet Tropical Dreams,

Jimmy Dreams... another of my favorite songs.

BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter and Instagram.