homosassa – Page 15

Friday Meanderings

August 25, 2017August 25, 2017 by KTgreen

We’ve been traveling.

Here’s Maggie in her car seat!

maggie

Doesn’t look very happy does she?

She did pretty well for a 17 1/2 year old dog. But I think that’s the last road trip for her. (Mostly because Terry and I are worn out from all that driving!) It’s flying for me next time!

Had fun. If you follow me on Instagram you may have already seen some of these snaps. But, just in case you didn’t….

Friday Meanderings — Aunt Jes arrived for a week long visit!

Adley waiting for her guests! Such a good little hostess. She greeted everyone with a hug and a kiss!

And we were gone! Back to Homosassa! Miss them all!

Got to correct some statements from last week’s meanderings.

First, the Fall After School session at the Old Homosassa Learning Center will begin on September 11th. We thought we could get it all together by the 5th but we have a lot to do! The new coordinator, Ruth Toner-Hatfield, met with the principal at the elementary school this week. The plan was to meet much earlier but the beginning of a new school year is a busy time and that’s the first time Mrs. Harrell had available. We are very excited to have Ruth running the program. She’s a retired educator and has great ideas to make learning fun for the kids. Last year when I was trying to coordinate everything I knew I was in way over my head! It takes a special person with a special skill set to be a teacher. That’s not me!

Besides perfecting this year’s school program, we also have some cleaning, organizing and painting to do in the learning center building.

The second correction is on the yoga program. After a lot of discussion with Tiffany, our yoga teacher, and many of the students, there is a new schedule. Continuing Yoga for all levels on Tuesday from 5:30 – 6:30, Wednesday and Saturday from 10 am – 11 am, a new class has been added on Wednesday mornings from 9 am – 9:45 am. This is a yin/restorative session meant for beginning students.

Got more stuff going on. Like the Old Homosassa Heritage Park. Don’t have details yet but will share as soon as I have some.

And just gotta say, haters gotta hate. They are still out there on social media spreading their lies and innuendos. The community here in Homosassa is stronger than ever. We have over 90 members in the Civic Club now. Many of them active members ready to help when the call goes out! From adversity grows strength!

The Homosassa Arts, Crafts and Seafood festival committee is pulling everything together. This festival brings the money into the civic club that in turn gives it back to youth groups, veterans organizations, and our community.

So what’s going on for us this weekend? Jes and Andrew are coming to visit! There might be some….Scalloping. Eating. Drinking, Dancing. Celebrating!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

Friday Meanderings

July 28, 2017 by KTgreen

It’s HOT! And HUMID!

Florida in July.

What else should we expect? Right?

I tried to escape from all that temperature by heading to Spedwell, Tennessee.

With my besties.

Here’s a pic of us at McCloud Mountain Restaurant.

From the left, me, Yvonne, Sherri, Barb, and Donna

We all worked at the same company. All at different locations. And in some cases different times.

I was at the Moore McCormick office in Brooksville. 1984????? I was the marketing secretary. Donna, Yvonne and Sherri were was at the Florida Mining & Materials cement plant in Brooksville which was owned by Moore McCormick. Barb was at a cement plant in Ohio with SouthDown which eventually bought Moore McCormick.I moved to the Tampa office when that happened.

Somehow, we all got to be besties over the years. Even though I left SouthDown back in 1990.

And it was STILL HOT but not quite as humid in Speedwell, TN. But they have a boat on a lake with no alligators! So we made the best of it!

And I made a new friend while I was there.

I’m back!

Today is the last day of the Summer Program at the Old Homosassa Learning Center. The Fall Program starts on September 5th. We have a new coordinator on board to run the program. The learning center will be open from 3:30 – 5:30 everyday that the Citrus County school system is open. There will be a different theme each day. Our yoga teacher will be teaching yoga to the kids for half an hour on Tuesdays. Our sewing coach will be helping the kids make costumes for Halloween on Thursdays. And the guitar classes will continue on Wednesday.

First we have to do a MAJOR cleanup of the building. Smells like sweaty kids!

Speaking of sweaty, Terry and I are doing the parking on Saturday for the scallopers. Money goes to the learning center. We need two new doors, a refrigerator, and a projector. We’ll be working a lot of Saturdays!

Not much else going on around here. Because it’s HOT! Oh yeah, I think I already mentioned that!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

Old Homosassa in July……

July 21, 2017 by KTgreen

and August….. and even September…..

Okay, if you follow me on Naturecoaster.com, you’ve already read something about this.

But, I cleaned it up for Naturecoaster. None of my pithy comments or wry personal observations.

There are a couple of big draws back here for visitors to Old Homosassa. (besides the Freezer, of course.)

The first is manatee season. No, you can’t catch and eat a manatee. But we do get a lot of tourists back here in the winter that want to swim with the manatees. Or kayak with them. Or touch them. Or ride them. (both of those last two are illegal)

And the other big event is scallop season.

Such a fun time in Old Homosassa for all those that get out into the Gulf and scoop those future delicious morsels out of the sea grass.

Also a boon for our local businesses which is a very good thing for Old Homosassa because they are owned by our friends and neighbors who in turn employ people from our community. No chain restaurants or stores in Old Homosassa!

But everything isn’t sunshine and roses for the local residents.

This pic is from a traffic back up last year. All the way back to the Homosassa Elementary School. This year at 7:30 in the morning on opening day, traffic was backed up all the way to Kevin Jenkins art studio. And vehicles were driving in the wrong lane to get around the jam while other vehicles were heading out of Homosassa. Very scary.

Several years ago Citrus County started having employees from the Parks and Recreation department direct traffic at the county boat ramp in Old Homosassa on the weekends. This alleviated a lot of the congestion and some of the arguing at the boat ramp as visitors attempted to put their boats into the river or pull them out. Kind of made it boring for Terry and I because we used to bike down there on Saturday mornings just to watch the launch battles!

But there were still too many trucks and trailers to park in the county parking lot. A few businesses and several home owners with large yards allow trucks and trailers to park for a fee.

But still, not enough parking on any Saturday during scallop season.

This is supposed to be a two-lane road. Not during scallop season! Wondering how a fire truck would maneuver around these obstacles plus dealing with oncoming traffic if there was an emergency.

And if the fire truck got through? The fire hydrant is blocked! Along with the gates into the elementary school. And they are parked on our SIDEWALK! We don’t have many and they aren’t supposed to be used as a parking lot!

Here’s another one on the sidewalk.

Note the “No Parking Here to Corner”. The corner is where that stop sign is. Two boats and trailers!

The board of directors of the Homosassa Civic Club decided that it was time to come up with a solution for this ongoing problem. After talking with owners of some of the local businesses and a meeting with Sheriff Prendergast, the board decided that part of the civic club property could be used for parking.

Our first youth group benefiting from helping out with the parking is the “Unstoppable Student Ministries” from the First Baptist Church of Homosassa. This Saturday will be their third time–they are raising funds to go to camp next year! They should already be pretty close to their goal!

Terry and I worked the parking lot on one Sunday. One guy, in his $40,000 truck and $30,000 boat objected very loudly to paying $10 to park so went and parked at the school in front of the fire hydrant. Really.

Streets clear, local youth groups earning money for their causes, and the smart scallopers won’t be getting tickets!

Win-Win-Win!