Friday Meanderings

I didn’t post last Friday because my network hard drive crashed.  Pieces everywhere–not really.  Very sad.  And I hadn’t backed it up since the middle of December.  Heavy sigh.  Live by PC. Die by PC.  I’ve spent some time on the phone with first level techs who told me to do everything I had already done.  (Once upon a time I was a network specialist so I’m not clueless)  Now I’m waiting for a call back from second level tech that will tell me that the drive is bad and send it back for a brand new replacement. Which I can’t do because there is data on there that I’m not sharing with our friends in India.  Heavy sigh.  Live by PC.  Die by PC.  Now I’m looking at cloud based storage.  And I had all my photos for the past few months on the card in the camera so I was able to retrieve those so it’s not a total loss!

Okay.  On to better stuff.

The squirrels are in retreat since Terry has covered up every possible spot that they could chew through.  They still run across the office roof sounding like tiny elephants in full charge.

The Old Homosassa Heritage Council has a big event coming up– “Cocktail Hour for the Tower”.  My friend Connie is running it and has it amazingly under control.  She is very detail oriented plus an experienced caterer and pulled this together in a very short time frame.  This will be FUN!  Almost all the tickets have already been sold!

Cocktail Hour

Sad News.  The Yardarm and Monkey Bar closed down on Tuesday.  Locked the doors and sent everyone home!  This 50 year old restaurant/bar had significant damage from the last hurricane plus sitting right on the Homosassa River the foundation has rotted away. The owner says that they will replace it with an outdoor structure by scallop season.  I probably haven’t been there for two years so, while I felt bad that another local landmark was being replaced, I didn’t think it would effect me.  Well.  It does.  A group of us went to the Old Mill for dinner on Wednesday and couldn’t get a seat. We ended up at the shiny new Margarita Grill.  It’s on the other side of the river–on the other side of the bridge!  Surprisingly, we got parking and a table to seat us all.  Guess 8 o’clock on Wednesday is the time to go!

Friday Meanderings
That’s Tommy Piliourous, the owner, setting something on fire.

The food was good.  Just like the old restaurant before it burnt down.  There is outside seating but it was a little chilly that night.

Mentioning the “bridge”, it’s been one lane for quite some time now. (Which has caused at least one medical emergency)  I can’t remember when it started.  Supposed to be done this month!  There was even an article in the newspaper a few weeks ago with an official quoted as saying February 2018.  Ha! Maybe February 2019. They haven’t even finished the first lane and will have to divert traffic over to it when its done and then work on the other lane.  They’ve had all kinds of issues–starting with an osprey making it’s nest on one of the cranes.  They are protected.  Just can’t move a nest!  Then the water lines burst washing out a lot of the ground around the foundation.  And they issues driving the pilings in.  More to come in the future on that subject!

The ukulele group is growing.  I was calling it the Ukulele Ladies and Laddies just because I like to say it, but someone referred to it as the Homosassa Ukers.  Funny?  So that’s who we are now! Playing uke is relatively easy–not like picking a banjo.  I just wish I could sing!

Friday Meanderings
The empty seat is mine. 14 ukers!

Last big announcement.  This is an event still in the making.  Haven’t even got the graphic done yet.  The 2nd Annual Old Homosassa Community Day!  April 7, 2018.  Put it on your calendar.  There will be a giant yard sale in the Homosassa Civic Center with all proceeds going to the Old Homosassa Heritage Council to paint the water tower.  The American Legion 166 will be having a hog roast and poker run–proceeds going towards getting a building for them.  Open mike on the stage–the ukers will be making their debut.  Gil Watson, local artist, will be setting up an artist and farmer’s market.  Our local community groups will have information booths.  The Homosassa Civic Club is sponsoring this event.

Okay.  Enough for today!

Have a great weekend.  Enjoy the commercials and halftime at the SuperBowl!

Kathy

 

Friday Meanderings

Happy Friday!

It’s been a great week!

Shrimpapalooza was last Saturday.

So much fun!

And our first time in the Shrimpapalooza Parade!

The day started with breakfast at the Old Mill–the only day of the whole year that they serve breakfast!

Breakfast at Old Mill
(yeah, breakfast and bloody marys)

Shrimpapalooza

Shrimpapalooza

By now, you might know that the Shrimpapalooza is all about celebrating everything SHRIMP!

It starts with a parade.  Since Old Homosassa is a golf cart community, there might be a few golf carts involved, or maybe 50!

OHHC golf cart

Shrimpapalooza

That looks kinda creepy but it’s SHRIMP COCKTAIL on top of a golf cart!

And friends.

Shrimpapalooza
Judy
Christine, Rhonda, and Robby
shrimpapalooza
Rosey with a hand shrimp!

Here’s a bunch of walking shrimp and monkeys from Monkey Island!

Nice outfit, Sunday!

I have no idea why there is an Ape in the Shrimpapalooza! But he was very popular!

And then there was a festival!  Lots of fun and food vendors selling SHRIMP!

Terry and I took our turn at working in the Old Homosassa Heritage Council Booth.  We have three really great raffles, new 2017 t-shirts, and THE AMAZING RACE!

Shrimpaplooza

The AMAZING RACE starts on April 23rd with a kick-off party at Village Toyota-Cadillac.  $25 and you get into the race and a free t-shirt or poster.  This is going to be FUN!  Clues will be given every week. The race ends on June 11th. The winners will be getting CASH!  And I’m not on that committee so you can’t bribe me to get the clues early!

So what else went on this week????

Terry and I went to the Citrus County Mosquito Control Board’s Open House.  Now, this sounds like a lame outing, but it was great!  I thought we’d see some displays and there’d be some handouts.  But this was a walking tour with a guide.  We got to see all the inner workings of their operation.  Even the helicopter!  This is a group that is doing a great service for our county. I’m sorry I didn’t get any photos.

Spent some time at the Learning Center.  No.  I spent a LOT OF TIME at the Learning Center.  But it was fun. We have a new little girl that came in on Wednesday to learn how to sew.  OMG!  She was so excited and listened to everything I said.  And that kid was sewing!  Her brother is in the guitar class and he is the best guitar student.

Also started our new adult “Sew Cool! Workshop”.  Faith Peix, our instructor was a bit worried about leading the class but did a great job.  We still have room for a few more sewist!  Doesn’t matter what level you are at in the sewing world, you will fit in!  Thursday, 12:30 – 3:00.  At the Learning Center.  Right across from the Homosassa Elementary School.

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