Friday Meanderings

And the beat goes on….

My apologies.

I thought I’d get to put some “photo of the day” here all week from Project 365 but it didn’t happen.  My life isn’t my own.  Just spent 2 hours on the phone with a reporter.  And that’s the way every day is. Perhaps not a reporter but some kind of flux.

Except not really.

We are trying to make a difference but perhaps we are WAY OVER OUR HEADS!

Election

Homosassa Civic Club turmoil

Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival

Tent City in Old Homosassa

Along with my typical every day disarray.

Reporter says the article will be in the paper on Friday.

Could be ugly.

But we will go on.

Karma.  Will. Bite. Some. Ass.

Something fun I did get to do this week is go to Crystal River and get a tour of the Kings Bay Restoration Project by Gator Dredging.  They are cleaning up the canals.  Have several more years before it’s done but they are making a difference.

The tour was requested by the “Access to the River” Committee.  We need to get this done on the Homosassa River but it takes a lot of money.  Crystal River has a lot of rich donars and a lot of funding from the state.

Here’s some photos in no particular order.2016_11_01swiftmudsm 2016_11_01safetyfirstsm 2016_11_01lyngbyasm 2016_11_01kingsbayrestorationproject1sm 2016_11_01groupphoto2sm 2016_11_01groupphoto1sm 2016_11_01dredge2sm 2016_11_01dredge1sm 2016_11_01demo2sm 2016_11_01demo1sm

So. Are you thinking.  All those old people.  What can they do?

Good People doing Good Things.  Put that in your calendar or diary or whatever you mark stuff down in.

We still got at least 20 years.  We will do A LOT!

It was a really great tour.  And then several us went to Crackers to have dinner. Because I am all about fun!

I got a Grouper Reuben.  No photo but it had sauerkraut on it.  (in case you don’t know, some places use coleslaw–what??? but I still eat them.  Cause I still love fish and I still love a reuben and I gained 3POUNDS from that bit of late night dining!)

This weekend is jammed packed with festivals!  The Blues and BBQ will be at the Homosassa Civic Club festival grounds.  Stone Crab Jam is in Crystal River.  Inverness is having a fine arts event.  So much to do!

Next week is the Homosassa Arts, Crafts, and Seafood Festival.  Nothing else is going on anywhere in the county.  Or perhaps anywhere in the state.  Be there!  Not too late to volunteer!

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

Sarasota Slim at MacRae’s

Sarasota Slim

Stopped by the The Shed at MacRae’s on Sunday afternoon.

Sarasota Slim

Because Sarasota Slim was there.

One of our favorite bands.

Sarasota Slim

And they were good, as usual.

Sarasota Slim at MacRae's

Sarasota Slim is a huge local favorite.  Usually there’s no parking, no place to sit, and long lines at the bar.

Sarasota Slim at MacRae's

Not so this time.  We usually ride our bikes but it was 91 degrees.  Even too hot for me.  Took the Jeep and immediately found good parking.

And a picnic table to sit at.

Sarasota Slim at MacRae's

Sarasota Slim at MacRae's

Most of the patrons must have rode motorcycles because there were a lot of those! But still not as many as usual on a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon.  With a great band.

Sarasota Slim at MacRae's

Sarasota Slim at MacRae's

The river wasn’t even busy and it’s still scallop season!

Sarasota Slim at MacRae's

Terry and I think that the masses must believe that Old Homosassa is closed due to the hurricane damage.  There’s been a lot of coverage in the newspaper and on TV.

Riverside is completely closed down and some of MacRae’s motel units are under repair.

But The Shed and the Bait House is open.  Old Mill Tavern is still serving drinks and food.  Haven’t been by the Freezer but I’m assuming it’s up and running.

Just wanted to let everyone know that most of Old Homosassa is still open for business!