The Waning Days of Summer in Miami

The focus has changed from surviving the oppressive heat to looking forward to the end of summer. MY friend Mike just called from his US 1 commute, lamenting the nearing end of lighter, no Dade County School in session traffic. That's probably the only good thing about summer here.

The collective loins of my close friends are stirring, as our beloved Hurricanes begin practice. The first game is less than 30 days away, and we're optimistic about their prospects this season. The top high school player in America backed out of his commit to USC, and is now with the Canes. There's a picture of him in today's paper. He's a monster, and now he's OUR monster...

I poached a FB friend from my friend Norman --a former law school mate named Benita. We've reconnected. She's become a minister, and lives in California. I look forward to hearing about her last 24 years --sounds like they've been very different from mine.

I keep gettnig back to this gratitude thing. Yesterday, my partner Paul's best college friend Frank called me. We spent the wedding weekend together, and I gave him a suggestion for a resort near NYC --Mohonk. He was calling me to thank me for the tip --he and his wife had a "glorious" stay there.

Frank's a very succesful foot doc in LA, but never talks about his profession. It's all about his family, and friends. He effused about my Ds, who he had never met. As he said "Dave --your girls have "success in life" written all over them.

Frank has 2 winner girls, too. One is a lawyer for Disney in LA, and the other just got a Masters in Education from Harvard, and is looking for her first teaching job.

Frank is so thankful for all his life has brought him. He has misery, of course --he lost his parents, and was calling on his way to visit a terminally ill dear friend. But his focus is on the good, the celebratory.

It's no wonder I always seek out his company when he visits South Florida, which he does often, to SCUBA dive. And, I told him I'd be taking a California trip sooner than later, and we'd meet in LA...

So the summer vacations and camp are drawing to a close. My roommate Brian is headed to FLL today to fetch his 2 returning campers, and my friend Jeff, the world's OLDEST summer camper, got home from Georgia last night.

The OTHER hurricanes, the pesky storms that annoy the crap out of us, and occasionally wreck our homes and put us in deadly peril, are fortunately quiet.

I have my Ds together here until 8/17, when we leave to take D2 to Gainesville. The season of our life will, as always, change...