Weather Or Not…

With the start of July, memories come racing back concerning the rainy afternoons and hurricane seasons in Florida—even though this year the weather has reacted rather differently. The predicted rains are everywhere but the east coast of Florida.

A friend recently commented that our lack of rain could be due to the fact that there are so many trees being cut down to make way for apartment buildings being built all over our east coast.

True there is so much building being done in the central Florida area and when you look it up, you learn that it’s very possible that is at least part of what is occurring for, “The trees help in bringing rain in an indirect way through the process called transpiration. Through transpiration, trees leave the extra water through the stomata on the leaf surfaces. The water evaporates into the air and adds to the moisture of the air. So the air gets saturated faster and brings rain.”

In Henry Cuyler Bunner’s poem The Heart Of The Tree the poet says:
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain

This year, we were made aware of one hurricane, named Alex but luckily, it didn’t stop and say “hello.” We have constant weather reports from all over that show terrible winds and floods throughout our land —often in the most unlikely locations.

Many times when my dad was manager of the Seafoam Motel, he told the story of the hurricane that occurred and resulted in a whale being killed by slamming into their motel sea wall and breaking down the corner part of the wall at the beach.
In conversation with the police chief, my dad took him down to the sea wall and showed him the whale… half on the beach, half in the motel yard.

The chief reminded my dad that the town of Daytona Beach Shores was not responsible for payment for the repair of pri-vate property.
That evening, there was another fast moving attack of hurricane force winds. Next morning, there was no longer a whale at the sea wall.

Later in the day, the police chief came by and asked, “How did you do it? That whale was very heavy—hundreds of pounds. How did you move that whale from your place to mine… a half block away. Now it is in the yard at my motel!”

Of course, it got from one motel to the other the same way it came on shore.

Keep the faith, plan well, take care, stay close to friends and family!
Kitty Maiden is a staff writer for Seniors Today.