Friday Meanderings

Friday Meanderings

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OKAY!  I’m back!

I took an entire month off from posting here.  Sorry.  Needed a break.

Hope you are back, too.

I still have some issues with the design of this blog.  I changed it up a couple months ago because it was so slow.  Pared down to the bare minimum and now need to get it back to pretty. Thought maybe if I waited long enough it would fix itself. Didn’t happen!

So where did I go and what have I been doing and how have I been?

Volunteering at the Old Homosassa Learning Center and helping out at the Festival is kicking my butt.  I swear, I could just sit at my desk all day and just respond to FB messages and questions about the festival. Then there are the websites. And there’s always something at the learning center. Besides working with the kids, we’ve got a new yoga day and trying to get a beginnng ukulele together.

Today I arrived at the learning center after working on the festival grounds with my hair all in disarray, dirt on my old tshirt and shoes, and munching on my lunch which was a small bag of Fritos and a cookie.  Ruth, the coordinator, asked “are you going to do this next year?”

of course!  This is what I do! Love it!

I’m pretty sure that if I hold still too long I’ll remember how old I am and start thinking about my joints and that twinge in my back and wonder if I should really be wearing tights with a blue dress and knee high boots.

keep moving keep doing keep learning

I didn’t post on my DIY blog this week.  I was sewing. A lot. But it was a skirt for the new festival stage.  That’s not very interesting and it ate up all of my sewing time! But it looks really cool. I went to take a picture of it on the new stage and a couple of the volunteers were sitting on the edge of the stage. With. Their. Feet. On. That. Skirt.

Deep breath.

It’s only fabric.

And they are people giving up there time to make this world a better place.

Also didn’t get any time to write on the NatureCoaster.com blog.  Sorry Diane.  I’ll be back!

Anyhow….

It’s Friday!

What’s going on?

The 43RD ANNUAL HOMOSASSA ARTS, CRAFTS, AND SEAFOOD FESTIVAL.

Where will you be this weekend?????

Stop by and say hi!  I’ll have an orange shirt on!

(And I thought I’d put a snap of my orange shirt here but it might be in the washer at this moment!)

Anyhow, here’s your dog of the Day…..

Wagster’s super power is that he can touch his nose with his tongue!

Wagster

Friday Meanderings

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Today I’m using my iPad which is using my iPhone for a hotspot. Very thankful for tech that I don’t quite understand.

Heavy sigh.

Having said that, there may be auto corrects and other weird pagination because I’m using the iPad. No photos today because I use my desktop for pics and it has no energy right now.

Kind of like me.

Okay.

I keep a mental “things to be thankful for” list.

Since last Monday, the day of the beginning of the mass evacuation to who knows where for people running from Irma, I’ve added my little Publix on Halls River Road to that list. Because I never had to actually enter the manic drivers on their exodus on US-19. And then after five days hearing that there was no water or soup on the shelves and we will all die from starvation and dehydration and storm surge–my Publix was fully stocked last Friday!

When I was gleefully pushing my cart full of produce and beer to my car last Friday, I received the first mandatory evacuation notice from the county. Kind of put a damper on my joyous mood.

That was the first of many notices and that was followed by numerous storm surge warnings. Yes. According to the sheriff’s department, the end was imminent. The sheriff himself even made a video showing what the storm surge would be like. Possible 6 ft at least 3 miles from the coast.

I turned the sound off on my phone. Couldn’t handle that emergency blaring any more. Yes, I know. I’m going to die. From something. Eventually.

Happy to say that none of that happened. Irma did rip into our little fishing village and we’ve been without power and cable since Sunday at 8:30 pm. I do not know what the wind speed was when it hit us but numerous huge trees were ripped up. Toppled over. Onto the lines. Onto houses. Onto roads. But no storm surge. Seriously, that’s the killer.

I’m not surprised that the power isn’t up yet for everyone. We are still down but many of our neighbors have AC again! Yippee! We are next. Any minute!

So last Friday I was whining about the propane delivery but might have forgotten then to mention that we needed the propane for the water heater, the stove top, and the automatic generator. The generator takes care of most of the first floor. That includes the AC in the master bedroom. Which we gave to Terry’s 92 year old mother. We have it better than most.

And Amerigas didn’t deliver on Monday but did show up on Tuesday. When Terry told the driver that we were sheltering Terry’s mom the driver made sure we got the full tank.

Thank you driver at Amerigas. Maybe I won’t change companies after all.

We are VERY fortunate. As Irma drunkenly stumbled up the coast she could have made a turn to the west. But she chose to make a more easterly path. We were spared.

But. My friends are still looking for gas. And ice. And power. And cable.

Next week. Back to normal.

Or as normal as we can be!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

Friday Meanderings

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So how has your week been going?

If you live in one of several southern states your week has probably been spent with eyes glued to the TV watching spaghetti models. Or maybe standing in despair at Publix looking at the empty shelves that formerly held water or soup or other necessary goods.  Or checking out gasbuddy to find a gas station that actually had gas. Or waiting in line for sandbags. Or maybe on the road in bumper to bumper traffic.

I did the watching of the spaghetti models but was fortunate to have plenty of peanut butter, water I can get from the tap, full gas tanks because I treat half a tank of gas as empty, the house is high enough that if I need sand bags we are in a whole heap of trouble, and after one trip on US-19 on Wednesday I declared that I’m not leaving Old Homosassa again.

Only potential problem is that Amerigas–who declares that customer service is #1 on their phone message–refused to deliver any propane gas.  I called on Tuesday because it was a holiday on Monday. And the response from customer service–after I called several times and didn’t get an answer and listened to their message that customer service is #1–Sorry.  Next week maybe.  That was when Hurricane Irma was shown as wiping out the entire state of Florida and Governor Scott had declared a state emergency. But Amerigas, where customer service is #1, didn’t feel it was necessary to deliver gas even though I had signed a contract back in 2005 that they would deliver every month. Since then they only come if I call. And then they are always pissy about it.  The last time I called they said no, two weeks, and then they pulled up to the house across the street and filled their propane tank and went on their merry way.  I’m stuck with them because I have an underground tank and rent it from them–which they convinced me during installation that would be the best thing to do. It would be very expensive to have that tank dug up and replaced. But. If we run out during this Irma adventure, I do believe that might happen.

Ok.  Off of my soap box.

Things are looking bad for everyone in Florida and all the way up to the Carolinas.  We have voluntary evacuation now.  If they order mandatory evacuation, where does one go?  We have three shelters in Citrus County and only one is dog-friendly.  Terry’s 92-year-old mother will be with us along with our geriatric dog.  Neither would be very happy in the shelter sleeping on a cot. The traffic is bumper to bumper on all the major roadways from Miami to Georgia.  There is no guarantee of gas on that trip north.  All of the hotels are booked. And as we drive north, Irma is right behind us.

Governor Scott has been out there telling people to get the hell out of Miami and the Keys.  He claims to have called all the oil companies and gas is on the way.  I have never seen the governor on TV so much. Or being so concerned.  Wondering if this response is because the people of Houston were not encouraged to evacuate and he saw the negative response after Harvey wiped out so many people.  Because, after all, he is planning to run for the US Senate Seat against Senator Bill Nelson, wouldn’t want to look bad. Oh geeeeeze, I’m on my soap box again!

But in reality.  Did the good governor cause a little extra drama?

Most of the predictions are that Irma is going up the east coast of Florida.  Very bad for that side.  But rather than a storm surge–which is what happened in Hurricane Hermine last Labor Day–the water should be pulled away on the west side. But Irma could still turn.

I’m being optimistic on this one.  Old Homosassa will be spared.

But…..hurricane season goes until November.  We had a REALLY mild winter which makes the Gulf water warmer which in turn makes these monster storms.   If Irma doesn’t get us….will the next one?

We’ve lived in the south for almost four decades.  Been through many hurricanes.  This is just our reality. Just like those in the west live through mud slides and fires and those in the middle of the country deal with tornadoes.

Okay.  Now I have to give you a funny.

Jessica texted us a picture of a spider.  She lives in DC.  Guess she was wanting guidance and Terry said

“When I was in NAM…I got bit by a spider in Pleiku, yuk, and a spider bit my eye. Couldn’t see out of that eye for two days. Can you imagine shooting a M -16 with only one eye, probably not, but kill the sucker!!”

Is that funny?  Or have I watched too many spaghetti models?

I hope you have a great weekend.  We’ll be hunkering down!

Kathy