Ocala January 2014

January - my 52nd birthday and the 2 year aniversiary of my travels.  I’m still loving it, so I guess I'll keep going.  I've seen a lot of the country, but there are still so many places I want to get to.  The first year I hopped all over the country with no real plan.  While it was fun, it was too quick and too random.  I started on the east coast, then went to Texas,  back east to Tennessee, Louisiana, then back out west to California and Oregon then cross country in a week to get back to Florida.  2013 I had more of a plan.   I worked my way up the east coast, but did venture over to Kentucky and Indiana for 2 Habitat builds. The Indiana build forced me to forgo the last month of summer in New England, so I feel like I rushed it and didn't get to everywhere I wanted to go.  This year I plan to visit fewer places and stay longer each time. This allows me to see more of an area without rushing to get to my next destination.  In addition, I can cut back on my expenses by traveling less.  I have a few Habitat builds scheduled, in Alabama, Missouri and Indiana.  The rest of the time I will spend volunteering in Arkansas as a Camp Host.  That's the plan so far, but the year is still young.

I've been in Ocala for almost 2 months and I must admit, I like the break from traveling.  I joined several hiking groups on Meetup.com and have met some great people.  I've become friends with a few of them and we have done other things like day trips to view Manatees, (we didn't see any) Cedar Key (awesome sunset) and REI (what a bunch of wild and crazy outdoor girls!), lunches and a nice bonfire.

In addition to new friends, I've reconnected with a few people from my past.  I met Judi and Steve when I worked in DC and they have relocated to Orlando.  I'm excited to get to know them better and its nice to have friends to do things with when I make the weekly trip to Kissimmee to visit my mom.  An even more fun blast from my past is Debbie.  I knew her when I was in high school in West Palm Beach, working at a horse farm.  She moved to Leesburg in my senior year and was my first room mate after I graduated from high school and ventured into the real world.  She and I were great friends and I knew her whole family, many of whom shared a huge old house with us.  One day I decided to see if I could find her on Facebook as was delighted to find she still lived in Leesburg.  She has hardly changed at all and I recognized her right off. I also got to meet her daughter, who was 5 last time I saw her.  She is now all grown up with a teenage daughter of her own, and it just so happens, they live right down the street from me!  Such a small world.

I originally planned to go back to Dade City once a week to keep building with Habitat, but the drive is longer than expected and I've only been back a few times.  2 of the guys from the Massachusetts build are wintering near by and I think I have them talked into joining me, so that should force/guilt me into being more consistent.  Once there, I'm really glad I went, its just getting out of bed at the crack of dawn.  In addition, more Care-A-Vanners I know are scheduled to be here in the coming weeks, so that too should motivate me. 

In addition to Habitat, I started volunteering at the Ocala Equine Rescue, a local farm that obviously, has rescue horses.  http://ocalaequinerescue.org/index.html There is another volunteer there, Andrea, and we get along great.  Also the owners are really nice.  I think I will learn a lot from them, and hopefully, my years of working around horses when I was younger will come back to me.  When I was in high school I used to work at a couple of local riding stables.  After graduation, I got a job here in Ocala at a farm that bred and trained thoroughbred race horses.  The owner and I have been discussing starting an equine therapy program.  She is interested in hosting foster kids and Wounded Warriors.  When I lived in Tennessee, I volunteered at an equine therapy program, but our clients were developmentally and physically impaired.   This is a little different, but I'm excited to help her get it started if I can.   I've already made contact with a Wounded Warrior staff member, now we have to present them with a proposal.  I don't know how much assistance I can be before I leave in March, but I hope I can at least help her get the ball rolling.   

This past weekend I went to the RV super show in Tampa.  In addition to drooling over what I can't have and don't need anyway, I met up with my friend Barb.  We got caught up over lunch and spent the rest of the day checking out the latest and greatest.  I also got to spend time with Bob and Cindy from the Forest River owners group.  It turned out to be an awesome day.

I made a trip back to Americus Georgia to be part of a new Habitat safety initiative.  The 30 or so Care-A-Vanners will become certified OSHA trainers and will travel to different affiliates and teach OSHA classes.  There were several people there I knew and of course lots more that I know now.  The goal of the new initiative is to ensure Habitat job site are in compliance with OSHA safety standards.  We previously had an exemption, but that was phased out.  Aside from the requirements, we have a moral obligation to make sure our workers and volunteers are working in a safe environment.  Once we've all had time to study, we will need to be checked out by the Habitat Safety expert.  This involves teaching a class while he sits in the back.  Now that I'm back home and have been studying, I'm wondering what the heck was I thinking!  I'll never learn all this!!  My class is in 2 weeks and I feel like I'll never know all the materiel.  Well, I'll just do the best I can I guess.

I mentioned Lexi in my last post, the little dog I picked up off the street.  Well, I made an appointment to get all her shots and the night before she had a seizure.  Basically she threw up, went stiff and fell over.  The episode only lasted about a minute, and when I asked the vet about it, she said it may not have been a seizure.  When a dog throws up, they can experience a drop in blood pressure and faint.  When people faint, we go limp.  A dog stiffens up.  Since it was over so quick, the vet said just monitor her.  About 2 weeks later, Lexi had another episode, this one was much worse and much longer.  The vet said it may be a seizure and put her on phenobarbital.  I never saw another seuzure, but she sure did pack on the weight  A known side effect.  About a week later, Brutus, who is almost half her weight, ate her medication.  The poor little guy staggered around like he was drunk, falling and banging into things.  A quick call to his vet and I was relieved to hear he would have no lasting negative effects once the drug wore off, in about 24 hours.  Sure enough, the next day he was back to normal.

Lexi has proven to be quite a hand full.  She is a chewer.  Mostly she would take items in the house, specifically Brutus's bed and all the blankets from a drawer and pile them in the living room floor.  If she came across any papers or cardboard, she would rip them to shreds.  At first, it was just a funny little quirk.  But then she found some important papers and chewed them all up.  She also chewed her harness right off her body.  The big problem came when she moved on to Brutus's harness.  In the process of chewing it off of him, she somehow managed to chew all the fur right off his back, neck and ears.  I came home and found him and it scared me to death.  Upon inspection, she didn't appear to hurt him at all, and he wasn't afraid of her.  I just can't believe he laid there while she scalped him.  I had not choice but to take him to the groomers and have him completely shaved.  Poor little guy, its really cold here now and he's walking around bundled up in a sweater.  Of course I couldn't take the chance that she would actually hurt him next time, so with great sadness I had to take her to the (no kill) Humane Society.  I was very relieved a week later when I got a call from a nice lady who had just adopted her.  I was able to fill her in on Lexi's medical problem and the chewing.  The lady assured me that neither was a problem and that she would have a great home.  Whew!

Other then that, I've just been doing tons of hiking and making new friends.  It might be hard to leave in March, but once on the road, I'm sure I'll be looking forward not backward.  And these people will be here when I come back in Sept.