Friday Meanderings

Went to a Town Hall Meeting.

And it was great.

town hall meeting

Does anyone ever say that about anything political?????

County Commissioner Ron Kitchen called the meeting.  This is the third one he has held.  And we’ve been to all three.

townhallmeeting2

We’ve also been to two or three County Commission meetings.  Plus did a presentation at the TDC (Tourist Development Committee) which he is the head of.

Oh…..I should add that Ron Kitchen has come to at least two of our “Access to the River” meetings.

I am so impressed with Commissioner Kitchen.  I might not agree with everything he says but he listens to us and treats EVERY question with respect.  I’ve emailed him a few times and he has always answered.

He starts his meetings on time and ends them exactly at that ending minute.  I LOVE THAT!

Weird. Right?  This is politics!!!!!!

townhallmeeting3
In this pic I’m not sure what everyone is reaching for….Bags? Keys? Guns?

It was a great great meeting.

We are going to the Suitcase Party tonight. That is going to be so much fun.  We’ve got a designated driver.  Okay.  We liked him a lot before we found out that he doesn’t drink!

But now he’s got bonus points!

All the money goes to the Boys and Girls Club of Citrus County.

There might be photos on Monday.

Or maybe not.  Depends on how much fun everyone has!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

Friday Meanderings

rose

rose

It’s been a strange year for my garden.  Almost all of my butterfly plants have died from the surge of salt water during Hurricane Hermine.  Today I noticed that the shrimp plants were dead and a large pink salvia that I’ve had for several years is slowly withering away.  All the cosmos are just about gone and they are in a spot that didn’t get flooded.  I planted them many years ago.  Never feed or watered them but they’ve always thrived.

But the roses, alamandas, and plumerias are all bursting with blooms.  These plants spent several hours in that same flood water.  And what’s really weird is that the St. Augustine grass is thick and green and thriving.

So Hurricane Matthew will be here today.  Since this one is on the other coast, we have the opposite issue with the canal. The water is very low.  We are supposed to get a lot of wind.  Yesterday we went to Sam’s Club and it was crazy.  Seems everyone was stocking up before the storm.  Or maybe they were evacuating.  Guess they learned their lesson from Hermine!

This is what is on my calendar!

Scarecrow Festival in Heritage Village in Crystal River on Saturday, October 8th.  Wondering if that will be cancelled???

Citrus County Commissioner Ron Kitchen will be holding another town hall meeting on Thursday, October 13 at the Homosassa library from 5:30 – 7.  We’ll be there.  These meetings are always interesting.

The Suitcase Party to benefit the Boys and Girls Club is Friday, October 14th.  Better get my tickets!  We haven’t been to this event before but have heard great things.

Refuge Day is a chance to see Three Sisters Springs for free!

refuge day

The 42nd Annual Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival is November 12th and 13th.  Terry and I, along with many more volunteers, have been working overtime on getting this setup.  I’ve spent most of this week updating the website.  Last week it was working on the graphic design for the t-shirts.  And before that it was getting the advertising at the radio stations and newspapers.  My blogs have suffered from my inattention.  But it will be here in a little more than a month and I will get back to my normal life!

Oh yeah, and trying to figure out all the rules for running for office, getting signs and business cards, etc. etc. etc.  That will be over soon, too.  Yippee!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

Friday Meanderings

flood debris

flood debris

That’s the debris in front of the house three doors down from us.

And that’s what is in front of every house that is sea level on both sides of the river. And most of the entire Nature Coast.

I was at a “happy hour” last week which was more like a “get together and commiserate hour” and one of the women said, and I paraphrase, ” it could have been worse.  it’s a car.  i’m alive.”  and then she said ” but i might have lost my roses.”

My house is 8 feet above sea level.  We had minor minor minor damage.

But I did lose my purple coneflowers and blue salvias.  They don’t like to be immersed in brackish water for 12 hours.

My roses are fine.

A lot of people have “storm flu” around here.  Probably partly from exhaustion, having storm water touch bare skin, taking cold showers, total stress of losing more than you thought you would.

Just want to make one more statement before I finally get beyond this whole hurricane storm flooding total life changing fiasco.

Like I said, we lost very little.  But those that lost a lot keep hearing, “Why didn’t you prepare? Why weren’t you ready?  You live on the water.  Didn’t you know better?”

No.  We didn’t.  We watched the weather forecast that this storm was approaching for TWO WEEKS!  The day of, we got a reverse 911 call from the Sheriff’s department in the early afternoon that there would be NO mandatory evacuation.  If we were worried about flooding, that the local storm shelter was open.

Then around 8 pm, we got another reverse 911 call saying “Whoops, looks like we got a storm surge coming.  Possibly 8 feet! Sorry.  Hope you’ll be okay!”  No, that’s not verbatim, either. Totally made that up.  But that was the message.

Okay.  Like I said, last post about the storm.

Moving on…..

Terry and I have been to many meetings this week.  Getting ready for the Festival.  Monthly meetings of the groups that we are in.

But we also had a talk from the Citrus County Mosquito Board.

We mainly went because friends of ours asked us to set up the meeting at the Civic Club.  So we had to open up the building anyhow!  But it was amazingly informative!

Mosquito Control Board

Can I bore you with some facts?

There are 84 different mosquito types in Florida.  47 in Citrus County.

Zika has already been here–travel related. But, if that travel related victim is bit by a mosquito, it travels all over the place.  When they have a report of Zika, they do not know the exact location because of privacy issues.  But they do know the cross roads.

So they fog one mile around that location.

For three days. And go door to door.

There was so much interesting info.  You would not believe.  Like, all the bromeliads I have are just mosquito breeding chambers.  I have to flush them out every three days with water.

I need to put mosquito dunk thingees (yes, totally technical term) in my four rain barrels. Even though they have lids, if we don’t put silicone around the pipes and net across the top, it’s a mosquito breeding ground!

And I must scrub out my bird baths every three days.  (Okay, I already knew that and have been trying to keep on that schedule)

So….

What’s going on?

There’s a scallop festival this weekend.

Next week is the “Party with a Purpose”.  (Instead of the Homosassa River Raft Race–still don’t know why?)

But Terry and I will be at the Old Homosassa Heritage Council Booth with raffle tickets for a Golf Cart and we will have some really great t-shirts.  All money goes to painting the Old Homosassa Water Tower.

Scheesh. Everyone wants to get beyond that whole Water Tower thing. It’s been rebuilt. We need to get this thing painted so I can quit talking about that project and start on a bigger and better one.  Yeah, we have other things to save!

Okay.  That’s it for this week.

Have a great weekend!

Kathy