Thanksgiving ... Tropics Petering Out......Winter Weather in the Wings. Missing Home While Home in Raleigh Yet... Missing Miami... Crown Heights ..Where Do I Go Next??

 

That's the freeway in LA.

It's "free" but doesn't move fast.

I lived there a long time...

Moves slow Tuesday nite before Thanksgiving.

And during Oscar Day... schools out early.

A mass exodus to LAX

People flying out...

...people hitting the road.

So where are you this Thankgiving?

I'm in Raleigh 

Never an easy decision.

My Maple Tree looks like.......

...Charlie Brown's Christmas Tree.

In the world of the NHC

A lone orange area of interest.

Moving East... out at sea.

Europe can watch it.

Azores? Portugal?

Where will it go?

Do you care?

Notice the frontal boundary....

...has the same orientation as the traffic.

In the first image.

NHC ignoring Carib

A secret it seems as most don't talk on it.

El Nino pretty much shut down the Carib.

As for me ....for a multitude of reasons I did not go to Miami. I may go down in a week or so or not. Chanukah is coming and sometimes I have responsibilities here and other times I think "let's hit the road" and then I think "wait but........"  Miami has lots of programs and little grandchidlren that need gifts, family stuff and there's a program in Savannah I'd love to go to....... as well as a concert in Charlotte I'd like to be at and Raleigh has programs I'm supposed to be at.

Tropics are dead, pretty much other than some odd surprise storm that doesn't fit into any real category. Winter is on the move. It looks positively wintry outside today; gray, a bit misty, pines are green other trees losing their leaves. Silent, more silent than the song Silent Night, barely a leaf is moving in the absense of wind. It looks like a painting of someplace in a garden in Paris that is on the edge of Winter. 

If you are on the road, drive safe, enjoy the ride or the flight (good luck with that) and hope the trip was worth it and family or friends were all happy to be together. If you stayed home and are winging it with a frozen dinner or catered meal ........you should enjoy it as you picked it out! If you are cooking, baking, redecorating...you probably are not reading this blog.

As a child growing up in Miami .... Thanksgiving was the divider between Summer and the Winter Tourist Season. Decorations in Burdines (now Macy) and Jordan Marsh and Santa was everywhere happy, smiling and grateful to have a well paying gig! In Jordan Marsh Department Store Raggedy Ann and Andy life Size dolls swung on swings from the ceiling trying to convince us we were all Babes in Toyland. There was an Ice Skating Ring at the Deauville Hotel if you lived on or near Miami Beach. That's where the Beatles played actually ... in that room. Palm trees had tinsel and decorations. Big glittery blue dreidels hung from the ceilings in stores and we knew soon the year was over and the calendar would turn the page to the next year.  A lot of "Snow Birds" began showing up everywhere and not talking the ones with feathers but heavy winter coasts because "it might get cold in January" in Miami. 

Now I'm in Raleigh and there is something incredibly reassuring about the flow of the Seasons. No matter how beastly hot it is in August the heat has an expiration date. As glorious as Fall Color is we are forced, compelled to stop and enjoy every moment as it too has an expiration date. Winter comes and we all have Winter Dreams for snow or wintry weather that sometimes we get in abundance and sometimes means it means few flakes falling from the sky. Spring appears with Dogwood and Daylillies pushing through the cold ground and we are in bliss that Sping is here.  Once we had snowflakes on Purim holiday and by the evening it was 70 degrees!!! Seasons in Raleigh are a bit Bi-Polar! Then Summer begins, the beach calls and well you get the idea. But one thing that I realized really on was it was hard to believe that Fall Color would appear and the sky would begin to show again as leaves fell onto the ground allowing us to see the moon rise and the sunset again. And, yet it did. The Seasons are beautiful, they remind you that this too shall pass and while it's happening enjoy it as it's soon going to move on to the next season.

And, when I need green trees, blue water and hot temperatures I can go down to Miami as it's always hot, balmy and breezy in the Winter.

Crown Heights in Brooklyn is calling my name. I may go there first. A trip to Monsey to see my grandson named after my father and have breakfast with my daughter at Hava Java and oh my gosh a real Chanukah Donut with some sort of cream or frosting mix you can put in it...bourbon, cream brulee... oh my goodness. The picture doesn't do it justice!

Who knows.

Time will tell.

I'm taking life these days one day at a time and enjoying the beauty of it be it weather wise or other wise.

I listen live to I24 (if you know you know) and news channels are on but on mute with closed captions so I can turn the sound up if I want. And, certain songs are stuck in my mind playing over and over on a loop in my heaqd.

Happy Thankgiving.

Be grateful for anything you can find to be thankful for... be a part of the change you want to see, spread happiness around and if you can't do that try and share a smile ... it may make someone else thankful they ran into you at the market!

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

Ps... know I know many of the people in this video and know these streets like the back of my hand. Even the Hill walking up Kingston from Montgomery to Crown Street! I miss it, as much as I miss Miami and Key West where my great grandparents lived... the old homestead ;) on Whitehead Street.

Can you really go home again?

What if home is many places.

Home is where you are?

What am I gonna do next???

Time will tell!