IT TAKES A HURRICANE

       In Miami it can take a hurricane to build a community.  Big storms force us to abandon our  un-air conditioned houses and build fallen branch trash piles with rarely seen neighbors. Spoiling food is heaped on roadside grills and the cook-outs become festive post-hurricane parties.         The Argentinians did the grilling last Sunday

      We had such a party in my neighborhood last Sunday, seven days after Hurricane Irma gave us a whoopin'. Over sixty people gathered in the little South Grove park across from Charlie's Woods, as the invitation said, "to continue the neighborly ways of the past week".

      Most of those attending were strangers who quickly got to know one another. Many times they told me, "This is great!  It's too bad it took a hurricane to make it happen".

Our new Brazilian friend showed us how to eat jackfruit,


And, we learned a new smart phone app.
 
      


Coconut Grove is blanketed with trees and  many of them fell in the storm. We spent many days after dragging their branches to trash piles.  
They came in handy for 





our party's drag-a-branch relay race.


                      







Meeting the neighbors felt so good. I hope these gatherings are happening wherever the hurricane hit. We're already making plans for another Palmetto/Plaza event next month.  It would be lunacy to wait until the next big storm. 
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  Our Trees Reconfigured
      Two weeks after Irma blew through we still have trees blocking

and "bridging" the roads near our house.
 





Some are even providing shade in new, unexpected ways.