Bits and Pieces

Friday Meanderings

August 31, 2018 by KTgreen

I’m back!

It’s the last day of August! Zowie, the summer has flown by!

No soap box this week.

Although……

Terry’s been in the paper a bit recently. The Sheriff’s office raised the security rate by 40% for the Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival. (Terry’s the chairperson of the festival) So he was on the front page of the Chronicle. He was also part of the whole park debacle that was discussed in the paper. There was an editorial this week about the park and the writer did not have his facts right. The basic premise was correct and the writer agreed that Old Homosassa needs a waterfront park. And said that it would help tourism.

But that’s not soap box stuff. Hey it was in the newspaper!

Primary elections are over. Yay! But now we get to enjoy all the political nonsense for the general election.

Monday is Labor Day! The unofficial start of Fall. Or I like to call it the REAL beginning of Hurricane Season. And stop wearing white! Except for your underwear. That’s okay!

Old Homosassa Learning Center Update!!!!

The local paper, Citrus County Chronicle, published the adult schedule. Not for the first time—but this time it made an impact!

Zumba Gold is REALLY popular. Women came out in the rain Wednesday night to join in. Old Homosassa gets serious floods when we have a minor rainstorm so I’m sure they had to wade in! I’m not going yet. Still waiting for a few more weeks for my foot to heal.

Yoga continues and is WONDERFUL!

But the ukulele class. The schedule said that we had “beginning uke” at 10:30. CRAZY CAKES! So many of our community want to learn ukulele! And we have our volunteer Anita that wants to bring them along.

The Sew Cool Workshop brings new people in every week. But not from Old Homosassa. The coach and I are the only members that actually live here. We have women from Sugarmill Woods, Crystal River, Citrus Hills, and Beverly Hills. Even an occasional tourist pops in to sew. That’s okay. Meeting fun new people that share a craft.

We are working on the kid schedule for the learning center. Already have the Girl Scouts meeting in there on Thursdays and have two other enrichment programs starting the week of September 10th. Very excited about our new format. I’ll tell you more in weeks to come!

Okay. Now I’m going to talk about deep stuff. (Not on a soapbox,just deep thoughts)

For the last two years, the whole after school program has been difficult. My personal mission is to help the kids. But it’s not that easy. I don’t want the learning center to be an after school free daycare center. And that’s what it has been since it started.

And I have worked very hard to reach out to people to make the after school program work. But it didn’t. And it won’t. It was a difficult lesson for me.

Time for a reboot. And time for me to listen to the universe.

What we were doing is not working. Stay calm. Just wait for the answer. It will come.

I continue to make kids my own personal mission. And the mission of the Learning Center.

It. Will. Come.

Actually. It. Is. Here.

More info in the weeks to come!!!!

Have a great weekend and holiday!

Kathy

Friday Meanderings

August 24, 2018 by KTgreen

I keep saying that I’m going to post more and then I skip a whole week!

Sorry.

I went on vacation to North Dakota. Usually I just schedule one of my rambling Friday posts before I leave but just ran out of time. Like Terry always says to me, I try to put 10 pounds in a 5 pound sack. Married to such a wise man!

Good news. I’m allowed to remove that boot from my fractured foot. But. The first day I had it off, by the end of a couple hours there was some pain. So now I’m using it at home and wearing very sturdy sneakers when I’m out and about. Yes. Next thing I’ll be getting some of those orthopedic looking footware. And wearing house dresses to the store. And those big dark glasses. Oh yes, the joys of aging!

Okay. That’s never going to happen. And I’m not planning on getting hurt again. I’ll be hiring strong people to do my heavy yard work. And I bought some fun new tools to help me out in the house. I will soon be a lady of leisure.

Okay. So what’s happening.

I was in ND. TSA pre-check on the way up. Not on the way back. Told me I had to take my boot off or get patted down. Okay. I took my boot off. Still patted me down. Our flights were delayed in Chicago on the way up and in Bismarck on the way back. Flew United. But other than the pat down and the delays, it was a very good trip.

Continued the tradition of donuts on Adley’s birthday

Back home.

The Old Homosassa Heritage Park. Been working on that for THREE years. County has done everything possible to throw road blocks in our way. Finally had a little win at the Board of County Commissioners meeting this week. I do the posting on FB for the Old Homosassa Heritage Park and the Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival. I share the job with another administrator for the Old Homosassa Heritage Council, Old Homosassa Civic Club, and the Old Homosassa Learning Center.

So I posted the newspaper article on a few of those FB pages. And then got some nasty responses from a local resident. Accusing the civic club of hiding that meeting. A meeting we didn’t set up plus we never publicize any of the board meetings. An article about the meeting was also on the front page of the local paper. I finally quit responding to her toxic comments. As adminstrator, I can delete her comments. But I really want FB readers to know what kind of person she is. A FB bully and troll. There are a lot of them out there.

I don’t understand why residents of Old Homosassa that do not belong to any of the non-profit groups nor help anyone in the area in any way at all has the right to be so angry. Not only do they not come to the meetings, they don’t let Terry or I know that they have a problem. They go to other community members and complain. And it gets back to us. If these cohorts have issues, they should join some of these groups or at least go to meetings and discuss them. The majority of the people here want the park. Unfortunately, some people feel that being a bully on FB is acceptable. That is why I seldom post anything personal there anymore. It is a bully pulpit.

Oh gosh, off my soap box now!

Things are going great here in Old Homosassa. Here’s a little montage I put together from photos that Cindy at the Homosassa Special Water District sent me. The first one is mine. Cindy was taking photos every day during the paint job and sent me over 30 snaps. Everyone at the water district is really excited about the new “old” look.

From the beginning to the end!

Went to Two Pops Sandwich Shop last Sunday. Our friends Lynn and Paul Ritli just opened the cafe at River Safaris. Go around to the back door. The cafe is right there. We had breakfast sandwiches. Yum. Only $5! Looking forward to going back for lunch. Lynn does the advertising for the festival. She had just moved here last year from the Keys and jumped right into volunteering.

Took our breakfast sandwiches home so we could enjoy the view and our bloody marys!

Okay. I think that’s it!

Later,

Kathy

Friday Meanderings

August 10, 2018 by KTgreen

We don’t get them very often….

Alligator

Cause we live on brackish water and they are supposed to prefer fresh….

alligator

But, here’s a wee alligator in our back yard!

alligator

He scared the bejesus out of grandson Jack a few weeks ago while we were kayaking. (I just looked that bejesus word up after I typed it just to make sure I was using the right term. “an exclamation traditionally attributed to the Irish, used to express surprise or for emphasis.” And Jack’s Irish. Or at least a quarter Irish. So it’s appropriate!)

I used to have nightmares about Maggie getting eaten by an alligator. But now that Maggie’s gone, it’s kind of cool to watch him cruise by very slowly. As long as he stays wee! If he’s still here when he gets bigger, I’ll call FWC to get him removed. Just too many kids and dogs around here to risk having a gator in the back yard!

In other news, went out looking for Gil Watson the other day. Heard he was working on an amazing wood sculpture.

Gil Watson

Three cedar trees. One blew down in last year’s hurricane and knocked the tops off of the other two. So Gil was called in!

He’s almost done.

Gil watered down the two end pieces so we could see what they’ll look like when he is finished. The colors are amazing!

Gil Watson

Gil Watson art

Saved the best for last!

The OLD HOMOSASSA WATER TOWER IS PAINTED!!!!!!!

Woo Hoo!

Took over four years but a team of dedicated volunteers along with numerous donations and help from everywhere, we were able to raise over $60,000 to get it restructured, repaired, and painted. Next up–native landscaping and we have already had a local business offering to take that over! Woo Hoo! Then it’s lighting and new fencing.

And on to our next project!!!!!

Have a great weekend! It’s going to be hot. Everywhere!

Kathy