First off...

Thank you Steve for that wonderfully written discussion on the 2004 hurricane season. I enjoyed it a lot... immensely. Well done.

And, may I say in general regarding Joe B who I have watched and read a lot in the past. I enjoy you giving over Bastardi more than I actually enjoy Bastardi. It's easier, more amusing and you give good commentary. You are like my yellow highlighter ...highlighting what is sometimes a long wordy discussion that I don't always have the time or mindset to work my way through. I mean sometimes you get distracted at work...ya know? Seriously... thank you for giving over your thoughts and letting me know when I should stop and take a look at JB's thoughts and looking deeper into the sats than my normal staring at the water vapor loop.

Phil.. you are funny.

Thanks for not removing that line on NASCAR... took me a bit (feel real blonde here) to figure out what was so funny, long day and cracked up... some people just never learn when not to open their mouth and put their foot in it lol... well nice to know he knows the importance of NASCAR fans... just wait to see what he might say to us weather fanatics.. or whatever we call ourselves.

yes... I check at work ... I check at home, I check before i say my nightly prayers lol and giggling before I check my bank balance. Thank God Wachovia uses such different colors from flhurricane.com.

Thank you Cyclone where ever you are and you know which cyclone I am refering to because I know you are still around for forcing me to use flhurricane and Hurric for having patience waiting for me to figure out the way to use it.

Thank you SNONUT for being SNONUT and for you all to keep his link here on your HOSTED links.. like a warm safe security blanket I like knowing its here.

And..........thank you Ed... for hanging in there.

my own thoughts ...was going to go with 13-8-3 as it seems the popular numbers to use but I'm going with 14-8-3.

May I say though... I hate this game we all play or you guys play more... because the power is not in our hands and we don't make the name game rules and one thing I will agree with dear joe about is... that I think there should be better across the board rules for naming systems.

I mean... Earl gets as much attention as Opal and yet other times perfectly formed depressions out in the Atlantic way past the "lets go take a plane out there" line exists for two whole days perfectly formed before hitting a cooler pocket of water and some shear east of the leeward islands and it doesnt get named. But we know it was a system and deserved a name more than say Earl but it wasn't stuck like a bull in the china shop Gulf and wasnt about to come across the mason dixie line of brownsville texas where storms suddenly become depressions or get names one advisory short of landfall ...

So...how many times does someone call the right number in theory and in agreement here online and am sure elsewhere in govt offices where people didn't get a chance to vote or make the call on whether some system got a name or depression status and others didn't.

I mean we are talking about government bureaucracy and people they have to answer to as well... WE don't have to answer to anyone but ourselves here online.. they do.

Issue a watch or a warning or a high wind warning when some storm is nearby..its there call and the buck stops there. And, name a system based on satellite imagery as opposed to waiting for it to stick around long enough and have hurricane hunters try to find a closed circulation. How many times have we watched quickscat, visible and yet no one could find a west wind? And, that system didn't get a name and yet..it was there..

So.. the number game is sometimes won and lost on technicalities... like one more trip into a storm and finding the second center had lower pressure than the first area they were checking out or that storm they "found" in the Azores late in the year in 1997. And, if a tree falls in a forest and no one was there..not even a minicam to see it ..did it happen?

And, it may be that the worse loss of life and property this year was from an unnamed system that got over 200 post on this board and killed possibly 2000 people but never got a name.. will not be figured in to our 13-8-3 figures. See what I mean?

But................as always, I'll play along and I'll go with 14-8-3 because I think we will see a lot of storms.. and want to go to at least the N letter before stopping and because I think there will be alot of storms....think upwelling and other factors may limit the intense number to 3 ...

Think this year is a lot like 1966, 1926 even in ways... 1998 (strong highs) and 1996 in recent years... just my feeling undecided on 61.

So..........thanks for making this place one of the most enjoyable ones around. I check and like hurricanecity.com alot so hello Jim if you are reading this and not sure if I will check other boards as much this year. Will see how the year plays out and Steve... may stick with looking for your highlights if that's okay with you and sometime in August probably sign up for Joe B... time will tell.

Bobbi aka Lois