A Dawn To Remember

 So today is the thirtieth!!! anniversary of Hurricane Andrew. I recall and write about it each year, as it was truly a milestone in our lives -- completely "mistroyed" our house as adorable 3 year old D1 said. Now she has 2 sons -- one a few months from turning three himself -- and he would probably say the same thing, heaven forbid another storm - but in Spanish - his first language.

I'm dealing with some nasty hip pain, that came about, I think, while I was playing Sunday with the aforementioned toddler. When I got out of the car from the drive home that evening, my right hip hurt a bit. Since then, it has evolved into a real pain the the high ass, so to speak. Last time this happened, several months ago, Dr. Mike, a licensed PT at my gym, was able to fix me with a single session of massage and manipulation. I'm hoping for the same this time -- if not - it'll just take time. Mike said I was lucky: though I have the normal arthritic changes of a 61 year old dude, my problems were muscular, and not structurally related to the actual joint. So hopefully I avoid the replacements several of my friends have been getting. I guess I'll find out later.

But back to Hurricane Andrew. My in laws, who seemed so old at the time, were actually Wifey's age. They made out just fine -- huddled in a closet, where I found them when I rode my bike the two miles up 107 Ave in the early morning. Their house, a well built 50s era ranch with Dade County pine tongue and groove roof decking, had all of $5K of damage. After a few nights camped at my Mom's in Delray, my in laws wanted to go back home -- even though they were without power for weeks. Richard cooked on a hibachi. I guess after you survive the Shoah, a few weeks of hot Miami nights with no AC are no big deal.

My Mom had stayed with us, since it earlier appeared that the storm was heading closer to Palm Beach. She was 72, and kept our spirits up -- reminding us that all of our ruined possessions were just tchotchkes that could be replaced. We got her home the day after the storm -- the South Dade highways were cleared out pretty quickly, and once we got north of Flagler Street, it was as if there hadn't been a storm.

And we moved to Brickell Key -- thanks to quick acting friend Linda, who grabbed an available rental unit for us, knowing we'd be homeless in the Falls. Our house could have been an object lesson is shoddy 1980s construction -- when inspectors were being paid off by builders to look the other way. Our roof deck, supposedly nailed down but merely stapled, gave away like cardboard. And the lovely interior atrium, separating a living room from our master bedroom (you could still use that term then) acted as a chimney -- imploding as the Cat 5 winds passed over us, sucking up a lot of the structure.

So it was a very eventful year -- that 1992. It started out great -- D2 was born in February -- and ended up fine, too. I had brought in my first jumbo case, and the insurance settlement in those days was yuuuuge, as Wifey says. We essentially converted knick knacks into stock holdings. Thirty years later, the shares of blue chip stocks have done better than the statues and faux antiques.

I still have one memory of the insurance adjusting process. After the Prudential guy visited our house, he asked to meet at Bennigan's -- now an Ale House. Paul was down visiting. The fellow handed me a check for $350K -- saying that ought to get us started on rebuilding. Paul was astonished -- "not every day someone hands you a check like that for tax free money." 

We rebuilt the house much bigger and nicer, paid off my student loans, and even bought my in laws' house to live in while the rebuilding took place -- they had decamped to Pembroke Pines. Yes --financially, Andrew turned out to be the literal windfall. 

Still -- it was traumatic as it happened. We huddled in a car in the garage as much of the roof collapsed. Looking back, had it just been Wifey and me, it wouldn't have been that scary, but worrying about a three year old, 6 month old, and 72 year old grandma changed the whole scene for us.

A lot has happened in the past three years. My in laws and Mom have all passed on. The Ds are grown and married. Just last weekend, we learned that neighbors Lou Jean and Manny have also left us, this year.

So I'll happily take a dawn of hip pain over what happened three years ago -- on that dawn to remember.