Friday Meanderings

November 20, 2015November 20, 2015 by KTgreen

It’s Friday!

And I should have something witty or at least sarcastic to say, right?

Too tired for either right now. The Festival sucked all the energy out of my body.

Hoping I get some of it back next week!

The Old Homosassa Heritage Council held the big golf cart raffle. Golf Cart Doug and four members from OHHC delivered the cart to Marilyn LaTorre in Sugarmill Woods on Monday.

Speaking of golf carts, there is a meeting today at 3:00 at the Lecanto Government Center to discuss turning Old Homosassa into a golf cart community. After years of being a “golf cart community”, our residents have been harassed over the last year by one deputy who has decided that golf carts are BAD. We have worked very hard to get a big turnout at the meeting. Since Old Homosassa isn’t incorporated, our only elected official is our county commissioner, Ron Kitchen. Not sure if he has spent a whole lot of time down here and understands our unique village.

Hey, if the Freezer could ignore all of the rules and be allowed to be a restaurant and bar without any legal standing perhaps there is a precedent there?

Personally, I’m off to Renninger’s ANTIQUE EXTRAVANGANZA today. This is one of the few traditions that MUST NOT be messed with. Michelle, Connie and I are off in the early hours to join all of those women in their mini vans and SUVs to do treasure hunting. Terry will have to represent me at the golf cart meeting.

Here’s our selfie from last year!

Went to the Homosassa River Alliance Meeting yesterday. Gerry Mulligan, publisher of the Citrus Chronicle and numerous other small newspapers across the state, was our special speaker. He made many interesting points but the main one that if we wanted the water issues fixed we had to present the solution. That only makes sense.

I found it sad that there were only 33 people at the meeting. It was advertised in the Citrus Chronicle every day for the past few weeks plus all the local organizations sent emails out to their members. As far as I could tell, only members of the River Alliance were there, besides a couple of people that were running for office. I thought we would have more representatives from our other local groups there to support our community.

So, what’s going on??

Got me!

Oh actually, Yankeetown is having a seafood festival this weekend and Ozello is having an art show next weekend. Hope to get to both of them.

There’s a flag disposal ceremony on Saturday at the Homosassa Civic Club by American Legion 166. Starts at 3:00. If you have an American flag that’s seen better days, this is the only way to dispose of it. Seriously. There are laws!

Have a great weekend!

Kathy

2015 Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival

November 17, 2015 by KTgreen

It was a lot of work but so much fun! Here’s just a few of the hundreds of pictures I took this weekend.

“Shades of Gray” was the first entertainment.

Followed by Cat Valentine

People of all sizes love live music!

Some of the worker bees from OHHC.

This little kitty snuck up on us in the dining room.

I heard “I’m a Kitty!”

And I turned around and said “NO PETS ALLOWED!”

And then I stumbled on more kittens.

And some patriotic boys.

“I’m Batman!”

The Learning Center was giving out ducks! “Surprise Mom and Dad, got me a duck!”

Three of our volunteers taking a well deserved break.

Artwork from one of my favorite little girls at the Learning Center.

The weekend closed with “Under the Willow”, a bluegrass band from Chicago that winters in Homosassa.

After all the months of planning and all the work of actually putting it together, this was definitely the best festival EVER!

Blues ‘n Bar-B-Que

November 12, 2015 by KTgreen

“Lets Get Bluesified”

Oh yeah, I was all covered with the Blues last Saturday. Three different bands. All great.

It was the 20th Annual Blues ‘n Bar-B-Que. Always held on the first Saturday in November. Mark your calendar. This is such a GREAT EVENT! Hear really great live music under beautiful live oaks. Eat Cuban food or BBQ. Have some beer. What’s better than that.

We’ve been attending for the last three years. For some reason, every year before we had a scheduling conflict. Now we don’t have a conflict because the Blues ‘n Bar-B-Que is scheduled FIRST on our calendar. No Conflicts!

This was our first year for warm weather. Year one there was rain. Last year there was cold. Seriously cold. I took a quilt, mittens and a hat. This year we had wonderful 80 degree weather. Wow!

We got there in time to hear all three bands.

Beautiful Bobby Blackmon opened the day.

Beautiful Bobby played covers of a lot of really great Blues. He was very entertaining.

Jim Davis did the emceeing duties. Jim writes the music column for the Citrus Chronicle and reports on the local music scene. (Just in case you didn’t already know that!)

He introduced “Cool Corporate Cats”. Obviously, this was why everyone was here. To hear our own local guy, Jim “Boe” Anderson and his band.

Usually “Cool Corporate Cats” has three members. This time they expanded to seven. WOW!

Like I said, WOW! Cool Corporate Cats play their own original music. No covers. WOW!

Next up was the Albert Castiglia Band. Unfortunately A lot of the audience left. They were there for Boe and his group. Those that headed out really missed the highlight of the day. I thought Cool Corporate Cats was great but the Albert Castiglia Band was amazing. A whole different style of blues music. Hard rock working the blues. And Albert Casatiglia was funny and engaged the audience.

It was a great day. As I was sitting there soaking up all this great music, all I could think was “I live 5 minutes away. This is in my backyard. How lucky am I?”

I feel bad for all those that left before the Albert Castiglia Band took the stage. They were GREAT!

Looking forward to the event next year! Like I already said, put it on your calendar. First Saturday of November. Right here in little Old Homosassa.