Snow.... White Christmas. Music. Memories.Who Wants Snow? I do.... Who is getting it? Not me ... Maybe You?

If you are here for the weather.........

.... this says it all.

Nothing in the tropics.

No December hurricanes.

Not much snow either but ...

...graphics above show where the snow will be..

And a special Merry Christmas to Mike.

Good guy... good friend... food father/husband.

He knows how to enjoy life.

Good for him!

The rest of this will discuss snow.

Or more specifically who gets a White Christmas..

..or who does not.

And why do we want one so badly...??

I bet you get cards like this still...

...or you see them in Hallmark Stores.

Hallmark Stores in the Carolinas are the size of...

...small Walmarts. Honest.

Or scenes like this dance in your brain...

And it bubbles up from deep down inside....

"I want snow for Christmas"

"Just like the ones I used to know.."

You can blame it on Irving Berlin...

...or Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye.

The power of music is amazing in that it conjures up memories that sometimes you never actually ever had happen and yet the songs you love can convince you otherwise. Take White Christmas for instance? It's one of those Christmas songs we love since our childhood. It was written by Irving Berlin who was born Yisroel which translates into English as Israel. He was born in Russia so he probably did have a snow for months out of the year as the region where he was born was practically Siberia. Yet he writes he's dreaming of a White Christmas with all the details as if he was born and raised in Maine or Montana, his creativity flowing fast and beautiful into an iconic song we all love. Somehow I feel deprived in North Carolina if I don't get a White Christmas just like the ones I used to know. Reality check here... I grew up in Miami and I'm Jewish and my mother didn't allow no Christmas Tree in our house even if some called it a Holiday Bush and we didn't get no snow either unless it came out of spray can you spray on the windows to make them look frosty; she didn't allow that either but the stores in downtown Miami did that often. I grew up in a Miami Vice Art Deco colored world with twinkling lights wrapped around palm trees and yet in my mind I grew up with an Irving Berlin White Christmas.

Music does that to us really. It takes us places we have never been and we feel we have been there as we have listened to the songs for hours on end. I feel like I've been to South America because I'v watched Madonna dance in Evita so many times.

I've never been there....

...but I've danced to this tune for years.

Stand back.... whatcha gonna get in me?

Not your usual weather blog.

I can't deliver snow to those who want it...

...or transport those who don't want it to Miami.

Today I'm in a Miami Beach mood.

Maybe I should have gone....

.... maybe I should go to Myrtle Beach.

Both MB....

Hmnnnn.....

If you want snow...

Go North 

My brother is gonna be in Rio.

Long story.

I'm very happy for him.

Life is short.

Gotta get out there and enjoy it.

He's my youngest brother...

...if not now when?

!!

Nice pic from the Catskills.

My husband is from North of there.

Looks normal to him I supposed.

He took skis to high school...

...so he could ski after school.

Definitely not Florida.

Thanking Allan for the retweet.

Really I want to be in Seattle...

...but it's expensive to go.

And such a long trip.

You gotta stay a while when you go.

I did go to LA once for a fast weekend.

It was Oscar Weekend. 

Nice trip.

Great trip :)

So what are your memories?

Did you really experience them?

Or are they merely a musical memory?

I didn't have a fireplace growing up ....

I had one in Long Beach California.

I'd sit and listen to old love songs.

Stare into the fire and remember.

Music..... gotta love it.

In ways maybe we should hate it.

Love hate thing ya know...

But it is what it is......it's music!

My husband loves Oldie Goldie songs, he is one of those people who doesn't keep up with current music and though he knows who sang "all about the base" he doesn't remember she also sang "Dear Future Husband" so he thinks she was a one hit wonder.... I told him she was not. He did take me to see Evita on stage in Durham one year for a present so we will forgive him for being stuck in the late 1970s and not understanding why I love Country Music because he puts it on the car for me even though I know he doesn't get what the big deal is... but he's a Yankee. To be honest before his family came over from Bialystock and became anarchists and vegetarians (he converted to meat in his 20s) and went upstate New York and opened a hotel his ancestors probably knew snow well but he was raised "Up North" as my Mother would say and has a Yankee perspective and he's a Baby Boomer so they just rock on forever stuck in the 1970s. I prefer not listening to 1970s music and yet I can watch "White Christmas" forever and ever. 

My mother had a sign in her bedroom pasted onto her wall near her desk and it said "Music has no age it is timeless" and she told me once while dancing that music was the love of her life and added music will never disappoint you. She was an opera singer when young and she sang a lot of Big Band music and danced with soldiers... some she loved and one I know she loved more than the others as they shared the love of music. My father liked Willie Nelson and Ann Miller and well.... life went on and he was good to her. His motto was basically if she was happy we were all happy; so true, smart Daddy.

So here we are.... it's gonna be a wet, wet Christmas for most of the people in the lower 48 and especially in the Deep South and whether you are Jewish or Christian or Baptist or Episcopalian or even an Atheist (God Forbid..) if you are dreaming of a White Christmas you should have gone to Asheville! Laughing.... or chuckling or giggling. I love the holidays and the fact that our emphasis tends to be on good cheer, presents, love and salvation and a better place or the promise of a better place where it snows on Christmas and then the snow melts fast and doesn't turn dark or get dirty like it does in NYC but they never show it in the movies and you can run between the raindrops in a sappy commercial and never actually get wet and you can eat a chocolate a day for at least the next 150 plus days. 

To all those I love and there are many... all sides and faces of them .... to those who have put up with me, loved me, adored me, stolen words I said and put them into works of art (you know who you are) and to those who thought we were merely ships passing in the night in high school or on AOL.... I still love ya....still crazy after all these years.

May you have the weather you want and if you don't want it... figure out a way to love it and when you have the chance go to where the weather you love and party like it's 2019!

I'm going shopping... oddly that is how I connect. I wander through the mall and look at decorations and listen to music and buy marked down presents for my kids, my grandkids and my friends and maybe just something for me. I have some Chanukah gift cards still and a few birthday present cards from DressBarn and Victoria's Secrets as my birthday is December 30th so I am in a holiday... birthday state of mind. And, hope to watch White Christmas some time soon. When I was young in Drama my best friend Linda and I did an onstage dance routine to this song and she died when I was very young but as my mother said music has no age and is forever. She's with me always... if only in my dreams. Oh... I had odd dreams last night and no Linda was not in them. Hmnnn 

Just being me... anyone send me pics of snow you are enjoying I'll post them ;)

Besos BobbiStorm

@bobbistorm on Twitter

Ps...Sorry for the run on rambling blog today but who really reads it deep in December? And.. I needed to write....   did you really think I was gonna put up a Carpenters Song or "buttercup" or Herman's Hermits? Nah...........  nope............ but those songs are with me forever and luckily I wasn't killed in that road trip on Biscayne Blvd while trying to remember the name of that stupid song... rolling eyes.

Miami Monsoons Arrive a Bit Late .. June After a Dry May. Hurricane Season Can't Be Far Away. Localized Street Flooding and a Possible Area of Interest in the Gulf of Mexico.

Put it in motion....

Result....rain.........

Not 40 nights and 40 days.

But over the next 5 days...

Keep using watching the weather..

Nothing much to add to previous blog posts concerning the rain over South Florida. There is an area of tropical moisture left over from the remnants of Beatriz an Epac named storm. Moisture from the depth of the Caribbean as well as moisture that is congregating in the Gulf of Mexico is pumping up huge, heavy amounts of moisture over Florida. There is some localized flooding so if you live in an area prone to flooding there be puddles in the usual locations. I was of course teased that I was dawdling and playing in the puddles. In a way I was as that's what we did growing up in South Florida when it rained.

I know because I got caught in a puddle on the way to Temple on Saturday in the Grove near CocoWalk. I wove my way from my hotel room through soggy streets, strewn with pink bougainvillea blossoms lying upside down in puddles. I was in heaven as I was back in my element and doing just fine until I finally got a to a puddle that I could not jump over, walk around or find my way past. As I was wading through the water that was up to my ankles and a friend drove by they rolled down their window and took a picture and sent it to me. Waves made from cars going by were washing into local stores. Understand the Grove has streets littered with leaves, huge banyan and Chinese Almond Tree leaves that clog up the sewers that in reality just take the water out to the bay a block away. There is much to worry on regarding Sea Level Rise but this is not that as much as poor planning, clogged drains, lack of drains, monsoonal rains and over population of what was once a distant resort town down the road from Miami. When Miami went through Booms the Grove went through it's share of murder, intrigue and at a time in the 1960s when it was the Haight Ashbury of the South. A look back over time is in the link below, however currently there is building boom of beautiful, modern construction reaching high into the sky for breathtaking views. The streets wind their way about, it's hard for the water to get out. But...it does eventually. And, then the sun comes out and it is glorious!

https://www.coconutgrove.com/coconut-groves-historic-timeline/

The area in the Gulf of Mexico has a small chance to do something, a window of opportunity to get our interest. It is not the real deal as much as part and parcel of the beginning of the Hurricane Season. I met a few really nice people yesterday who it seems read my blog. They all go online and look when there is "something out there" but in truth this is when they should be thinking on Hurricanes and reading how to prepare. You need a lesson in how to shop in Publix when you get to the store when there is no more water, beer or toilet paper. Now is the time to think on what you might do if and when and to start putting away some basics you may need while waiting a week or two to get your power back on. I met a man, a very smart man, who owns property here and flew back into Miami to see for himself what a hurricane feels like. He flew in before Wilma, he wanted to see it up close and personal. In truth if you own land in Florida or live here you really need to know because it's hard to explain. It's not about standing on the beach like Jim does as the surf is pounding behind you. It's about knowing what kind of damage you will have from a Category 1 or a Category 2 storm as the pictures you generally see of total destruction are from Major Hurricanes.

If a Summer rain storm of the monsoonal kind can leave this much flooding in some areas without the addition of wind and trees coming down crashing through your sky light then imagine what a real Category 1 Hurricane would do.

http://www.publix.com/pages/publix-storm-basics

As for me I'm involved in some heavy family dynamics. My son is having a 3rd birthday party for my grandson today that is an epic birthday in Orthodox Jewish circles as we "cut his hair" for the first time. His hair is long, it ripples in curls when let down and that will change soon. There's pizza involved and the local Chabad House is decorated like a Fire Station. Balloon house and Pizza, you get the idea. Later today we have a family reunion of sorts for my husband's family as cousins come in for the funeral tomorrow for his father. Such is life, enjoy the good times!

Yes, I know the local channels are playing up the possibilities however small they may be as is TWC but hey that's what they do; that's why we watch. I'll update with any information should the NHC declare an Invest or start running their own models on the area in the GOM. For now it's just rain, rain from the tropics, blessed rain for a drought stricken state and an answer to prayers by many as it was a very, very dry May.

More later, while playing in the rain please stock up on supplies as this hurricane season is forecast by the experts to be a busy one. And, many forecast tracks similar to last year when Matthew just barely missed Miami and a few had problems keeping their mojo going. This year we may not have such luck and we may have problems to think on beyond complaining the Hurricane missed us and slid up the coastline. From the Keys to the Florida Georgia Line we are all in play and cities along the GOM coastline may be in the cross hairs.

This is video online of a Miami Monsoon sort of rain. Understand we go months without heavy rain and pray for rain. It pours for a month or so in May or June and then we go back to normal. No snow, you don't need to dig out your car and scrap off the ice and we rarely get tornadoes. You can go 25 years without having a hurricane and watch them slide by and slam into North Carolina as it sticks out a bit too far into the Gulfstream. But, you always need to know how to prepare just in case. Bigger things to worry on today than a tropical landfall. Have a wonderful day! Install an App just in case you need to know if an Invest develops and I talk about it here in the blog.
http://www.hurrtracker.com/

Besos BobbiStorm
@Bobbistorm on Twitter. Follow me and give me your thoughts.

Ps If you want to buy some land here in paradise he's the best at knowing Miami as a native as he is I believe 5th generation Floridian who is in the Real Estate business. Be it Key West, Miami or is Great Great Uncle who was selling Holmes Beach in the 1920s during the Boom.... he knows the business from inside out and knows how to broker a deal when others cannot.

https://www.compass.com/agents/miami/levi-meyer/

From lots along the water to high in the sky condos to regular houses on cute little palm lined streets he's the best. I believe the highest priced rental in Coral Gables history was his a year or two back. He gets the job done! Best part of his job may be the view from the Compass Realty offices in Coconut Grove looking out on sailboats and yachts at Dinner Key. He is so definitely my son.