I'm back! Did you miss me? Well, it has taken this long since Wilma hit (that bitch!) to find time to do a little creative writing. I am actually at O'Hare in Chicago waiting for a connecting flight to Lansing, MI. Taking some classes at Michigan State this week.

OK, hurricane Wilma made things quite a mess. It will take quite a while to recover here. So many beautiful trees gone. A category 3 when the eye crossed my place. It was bad. Curfews. No power, water, phone. You saw the news reports. 'Nough said. I have posted a couple pictures I took but descriptions do not do her justice. You really have to live these storms. Amazing power. My most interesting observation: The beauty of the night sky. That's right. Normally the nighttime satellite images of South Florida show us lit up like a Christmas tree. Terrible light pollution. But with no power the night sky was absolutely stunning. You would have to be miles out to sea or in the middle of the everglades to see that view again.

What else has been going on? Well, I was having a cocktail at Luna Rosa on the beach and met a burly old sea captain who was a friend of Edward Sewell (I think that's the name). He was the captain of the Edmond Fitzgerald. You know, the old Gordon Lightfoot song. Well this guy had just returned from the 30th anniversary memorial service at that little chapel on Lake Superior. It was an interesting conversation.

I saw Rare Earth at the Fireman's Challenge here on the beach. Firefighters from all over compete in these arduous tests of skill and endurance. It's pretty cool watching them pass out in the heat. Rare Earth was really great. There was hardly anybody there. You could dance right in front of the stage. They are ancient now though. If you can't remember their songs do a quick Google. You would be surprised how you know them all. They were the only white band ever signed by Motown. It was fun.

I went to Art Basil at the Miami Convention Center. It's an international contemporary art exhibit. World class and highly regarded in the international art world. I saw some great stuff. Some of it so strange I do not attempt to describe it. The people were just as interesting. I liked their fashions and hair styles. London, Paris, NY, LA. Hot hot.

I watched the Christmas boat parade come down the intracoastal waterway. All the decorated boats and fireworks. A buddy had a really nice party at his house on the waterway and we all got trashed and watched it there. Top notch event. All the finest top shelf beverages, char-grilled beef tenderloins, boats and boats of the finest sushi and so on. Excellent time had by all.

For Christmas I flew my Daughter, Son and his girlfriend down here for the week and we had a blast. Photos in gallery. Sorry kids. Did all of the tourist stuff. Airboat rides through the everglades, sushi, the beach and so on but the highlight for all was going to see the Chihuly exhibit/installation at the Fairchild Tropical Botanical Gardens in Miami. Chihuly is one of the best glass artist in the world and his works are integrated into one of the finest tropical botanical gardens in the world. It's phenomenal, whimsical, like being in a Dr. Seuss book. PLEASE check out the links below!

http://www.chihuly.com/installations/fairchild/

http://www.fairchildgarden.org/

I was in a weird part of Miami the other day. Near the docks. Lots of scrap metal dealers. Very ethnic, Hispanic and Caribbean/Haitian. Driving down the street taking in the sights, sounds and smells and saw the following: A pickup truck with 55 gallon drums of dead fish carcasses that were already stripped of there fillets. No attempt to keep fresh. Looked like red snapper. Pretty stinky. Where do you think they were going with that? Looked over and saw a one legged black man riding a bike. Think of that. He did not have any special clip or harness on the pedal like you sometimes see so he had to push down and then pull up with his one leg to propel himself. He was zipping down the sidewalk honking a big old fashion squeeze bike horn and hollering at hookers to get out of his way. Pretty weird, aye?