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Is This the Worst Hurricane Season Ever? Here’s How it Compares 2017 Atlantic storm season churns up record devastation This year’s U.S. Atlantic hurricane season is officially the most expensive ever, racking up $202.6 billion in damages since the formal start on June 1. The costs tallied by disaster modelers Chuck Watson and Mark Johnson surpass anything they’ve seen in previous years. That shouldn’t come as a complete surprise: In late August, Hurricane Harvey slammed into the Gulf Coast, wreaking havoc upon the heart of America’s energy sector. Then Irma struck Florida, devastating the Caribbean islands on the way. Hurricane Maria followed shortly after, wiping out power to all of Puerto Rico. And the season’s not over yet: It officially ends Thursday. “Given our infrastructure today, the question is: Was 2017 unusual? I think we answered that pretty well,” said Watson, a modeler at Enki Research. “2017 wins no matter what you do.” As this devastating season draws to ...

Radio, TV & DJ Journeys I made some mistakes as a DJ and on TV. While on the air and on the dance floor. Here are a few of them... When I first came to New York it was to be a disc jockey on WBLS. It was a big station at the time and I was part of a team in the morning, the other half being E.J. Crummey. So we're on the air one day, about to play Street Fighting Man by the Rolling Stones, and I say, "You know, there isn't an electric guitar in this song. It's all acoustic guitar." Why I said that I don't know and E.J. was incredulous. That's not true was followed by yes it is and then we played the song. For a while I was right and then... Here it came, an electric guitar along with the mud on my face. Go listen and see. You'll hear I was wrong. It's one thing to be wrong in front of one person, it's another being wrong in front of thousands of them. You want more? I'd just gotten to Detroit and was jazzed to be in a market th...

Lyrics There are songs that are just songs but some times songs have words that touch your heart. These are some that touch mine. This is the story of my life. I found a love for me Darling just dive right in, and follow my lead Well I found a girl, beautiful and sweet I never knew you were the someone waiting for me Cause we were just kids when we fell in love Not knowing what it was, I will not give you up this time But darling just kiss me slow, your heart is all I own And in your eyes you're holding mine Baby, I'm dancing in the dark, with you between my arms Barefoot on the grass, listening to our favorite song When you said you looked a mess, I whispered underneath my breath But you heard it, darling you look perfect tonight Well I found a woman, stronger than anyone I know and She shares my dreams, I hope that someday I'll share her home I found a love, to carry more than just my secrets To carry love, to carry children of our own We are still ki...

Sitting With The Girls I found my 6th & 7th grade report cards and it took me back to my Wonder Bread years. When I was younger I used to hold forth or hold court in class. Back then I would blurt out stuff to get a laugh and the teacher would say, "If you don't stop it I'll make you sit with the girls." Really? Cool. That was like putting the fox in the hen house. I spent more time in the girls' section of the class which is right where I wanted to be. I'm a lover not a fighter... I noticed that there a lot of Cs, I noticed three Ds, and lastly I noticed an E. My son asked me what an E was. I had to tell him that's what my school called an 'F.' All the As are in Gym, Math, Art and Photography. Also I took another look, there are numbers around the bad grades. Here's what the numbers mean. * 9-Is frequently inattentive. * 14-Shows little effort. * 12-Displays poor conduct in classroom. * 13-Has poor work habits. All a...

Thanksgiving And NOT Being Sick It was Thanksgiving 2017. For the first time in a long time the big dinner was not going to be at our house. My wife's sister, sweet Michelle, ma belle has two twin children, Scott, Scottie, Kim and Kimmy. Scott is married to Jane and they have a new baby daughter, Evangeline. We were off to Jacksonville for Jane's first foray into hosting a family Thanksgiving dinner. Maybe this will be a tradition. My brother and his wife does the same thing every year in New England and then again for Xmas. There was just one thing. I had been NOT sick, or bedridden, feeling like @%$#, thank god or ....whatever you want to call it, since the previous Wednesday. I was the DayQuil/NyQuil kid in an effort to shake that off. My wife had even slept upstairs refusing to come near me. I have to admit at first it was kinda nice, that being alone thing. Married people will know what I'm talking about. That ended pretty quick and I missed her in bed next to me....

Hurricane Harvey - Irma This was printed in The Orlando Sentinel September 8, 2017. I have to admit to something. Something awful. When you live in the land of hurricanes when one hits and the another back to back, somewhere else I breath a sigh of relief. That's awful but true. Before we go any further the pictures out of Houston tear your heart apart. What I've seen I wouldn't wish on anyone. Did you see the mother, in a shelter, on CNN? Talk about real. She was so shaken up by the ordeal, so shaken up about having her world turned upside down by Harvey, so shaken up by having to save her kids, her kids, that she cursed on live TV. It was the first time I'd seen that since the tragedy of 9-11. They cut away and went to commercial, fast, but I'll bet I wasn't alone in not being outraged by it. I imagined heads everywhere solemnly nodding up and down. The storm there was so bad that if I just say Harvey you know exactly what I'm talking about. We...

Harvey Part Two - Irma In the words of Tom Petty, "The waiting is the hardest part." We've been waiting for Hurricane Irma for like forever and finally here she comes. Our house looks like a hoarder's house, there is outside stuff everywhere. From pool furniture, to big umbrellas to chimes to plants. There's even a cricket in one of the plants who is now indoors chirping happily. We've gone through our check list. Ice, check. Water, check. Lanterns, check. Batteries, check. Every check you can think of. I drove around earlier and it's a ghost town. Everything is closed including 7-11 and I'll be honest, I've never seen them not open. It started to rain and I parked my truck at the nearest Fairfield Inn parking lot and waited. We had filled up trash bags with dirt to make our own sand bags to help with possible flooding and under the sliding doors they went. Imagine this scene: me and my wife in our yard, in the spitting rain, me with a sh...