In spite of that nagging flashing envelope, I decided to change my routine tonight and make this post first - then catch up on the PMs.

I guess that I could have done a better job with my post yesterday evening, but Steve, LI Phil and Bobbi did pick up on my real intent. This Board is not for the pros, although I'm glad that a few of them pay this place a visit every now and then. This Board is not for the avid amateur either or even for the novice - I don't like to 'classify' people. The Board is for anyone (make that ANYONE) who is a tropical weather enthusiast.

Of course intuition may be all that you have to go on - although something intangible probably inspired that intuition. Sometimes thats all I have to go on - can't explain it, but its there. Intuition is fine, because sometimes thats all that there is.

The real purpose was to squelch the Anon poster that throws out a one-liner with the intent of stirring the pot. Awhile back there was an infamous User who would make a controversial post, log off, log back on as an Anonymous user and then post a direct attack against someone or even argue with his own previous post - and then log on again and watch the havoc evolve. A real basket case! To the rest of you, it seemed like two different users, but Administrators and Moderators can detect this type of activity. Yesterday I had some concerns regarding some of the Anon posts that had no purpose other than to incite controversy without explaination. There certainly is no place for that here.

Weather enthusiats seem to be a 'sensitive' bunch with a desire to make a good forecast (Steve nailed that one). Sorry that a few of you were upset - it was not intended and you were not the real targets of my message. When I first started to post - its been a few years now - I did not post too often because I did not want to influence what I felt was an excellent tropiical site - and I still feel that way. Every evening when I review your posts, I am flooded with memories - good memories - of a younger man in an earlier time (way before internet and computers) that was eager to consume any scrap of weather information from the radio (TV came later). Memories of waiting eagerly for the postman to deliver my daily weather map from the Weather Bureau in Washington, D.C. Well I guess that I've violated my own rules and this was a bit off topic, so I'll let the other Moderators clean it up if they wish to do so. No, this site is for you, not me, but I have many enjoyable reasons for being here - and I will not allow the malicious intent of a few oddballs to interfere with the good dialogue that exists on this site.

As LI Phil would say:
Peace,
ED

(P.S. Forgive me for this, but I am REALLY glad that Bobbi was feeling kindly today

)