I will be away for a few days as I head back down to Florida to check on my mother and father. My mother is doing well after her stroke. She's back home and I want to make sure that both she and my father are settled into a routine that they can handle and that they have adequate care and assistance.
I hear that a storm is brewing there, the first tropical storm of the season. Not a hurricane, yet; but a reminder of why I was so happy to leave "the Sunshine State," where there's sometimes more annual rainfall than Seattle. And it's stormier and nastier - hey it's really a tropical rainforest down there.
Ok, it's sunny and beautiful lots of times. And no, I don't complain about the gorgeous Florida weather when I make my semi-annual escape there in February. It's preferable to icy Washington, DC then. But winter isn't their rainy season. Now is. June 1 begins hurricane season in Florida And as Miami Herald writer and novelist Carl Hiassen once pointed out, in the novel Stormy Weather, "hurricanes are God's eviction notice."
Like many who care about Florida's fragile environment, I agree with Hiassen that it would be better if a few others decided they had enough of the storms, heeded the eviction notice and left the overcrowded and resource-challenged penninsula. Hey, I did my part.
Except for now. I do have to head back to see my folks, who went there long before the natural resources got so strained. I think they're entitled to stay, and I pray they'll be safe for as long as they do.
See you all soon.
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