This is nothing new. Dish and in fact even my old VCR remote allowed for 30 second skips in programming by fastforwarding the tape. years ago someone created a device that could mute the TV during old movies when commercials came on. (Hint: TV stations were required to turn on the color bit in their signal during color portions, and old movies didn't have a color signal).

We consumers do a subtle dance with advertisers. They pay for items such as TV shows or online services and we use those services but try to block the commercials.

Many things are commercial sponsored. Some long distance companys gave you free LD as long as you listened to a short ad. Movie theaters advertise the snack bar and even movies and TV shows have product placements within. In fact, product placement is a big business in the movie industry.

My local TV station advertises McDonalds and they get breakfast delivered (as I understand it).

Sometimes there are commercials on non-commercial venues. Public TV and radio is "sponsored" by companies, who pay to be mentioned. I used to volunteer at a Public station that had a yearly week of commercials called a TV Auction. Companies would donate items to the station, who would describe them and the company they came from, then sell them to the highest bidder. Think Home Shopping with an auctioneer. The winning viewer got a deal, the station got the money and the donor got advertising and perhaps new customers. All the while, the FCC allowed it because it was approved by the public as a fundraising event.

When stations started ads in the lower part of the TV screen , I found the ZOOM button on my remote that allowed me to zoom the picture enough to lose the logs and pixies displayed.

Oftentimes websites and programs we use have ads and we accept it as a part of life. Consumerism is rampant and we accept that, yet try to avoid ads if possible. The advertising agencies try to come up with new ways to display ads. Many of us will continue to find ways to avoid them.

I am counting down the days until the ATV gets here and I can spray the coffee.

I aalso need to bury about 12 irrigation lines so I can drive over them. I have a pick axe and will also try using the front end loader on the tractor. However, the land is rock and difficult to get too deep. Still, I don't need to get very deep. In fact if In can't cut a little trench in the rock, I'll just cover the pipe with cement.

The event was at the Fairmont Orchid Resort north of Kona. Although we missed the business meeting (having to feed the puppies and all), however we made it in time for the buffet lunch.

A retrospective was shown where a number of members were interviewed and spoke about teh credit union. I recognized a couple of the people, living on a close-knit island as I do.

During the meal there was a great band playing, then a drawing for door prizes and the after dinner music was by Grammy Nominated Henry Kapono. Henry just played for the Dalia Lama during his trip here.

By the way, when they offer an "all-you-can-eat" buffet, I hold them to their word. I made 3 trips to the buffet line and 2 to the desert line.

Menu Lunch Buffet - Caesar Salad, Waimea Tomato Onion Salad, Buckwheat Soba & Roasted Island Shiitake Salad with Sesame Soy Dressing, Kalbi Marinated Grilled Ribs Local Style, Huli Huli Chicken with Green Onions, Grilled Catch with Fruit Salsa, Portuguese Sausage Island Style Fried Rice, Ginger & Garlic Stir Fried Island Vegetables, Guava Cream Cheese Picnic Cake, Macadamia Nut Brownies, Fresh Brewed Ice Tea or Lemonade.

Lucky we live Hawaii!

I have learned that there are two common ways of propogating fruit, grafting and layering (air layering). Grafting seems a bit more complicated than the air layering process.

Although the demonstration here is on lychee, you could do this with other fruits too. I will bet that if you garden and have not tried air layering, watching this video may encourage you to go try it. You almost don't have to take notes, it is that easy.

This video was produced here in Hawaii a few yards away from where the rest of us were watching a grafting demonstation. hen we came out and saw this process performed.

Air layering involves fooling a tree branch to grow roots. You then cut the branch off below the new roots and turn it upright and you have a new tree.

If that sounds easy enough, the video will be easy to watch.

http://tinyurl.com/6ltvzys

Enjoy!

First, the Wayback machine. It allows you to see some websites that appeared in the past. Let's say that you wonder what happened in the world on Dec 12, 2003? then just visit the Wayback Machine and enter CNN.COM and choose that date.

If a website is no longer available on the internet, you might go look it up and see if the Wayback crawled it and made a copy. I had a neighbor want t orecover a picture and his websit had been down for years. No problem I told him.

Then, if you tire of old websites, what about reading material. There are many text books available for free. Click on TEXT and enter a name such as "Isabella Bird". Her books are available online for free, yet a printed copy is sold on Amazon. Her story about Six Months in the Sandwich Islands is very interesting. Here is a link to the actual book http://tinyurl.com/cwff65h.

Want some free music or radio shows? They are available in the Audio tab. There are also concerts that bands have allowed to be put up online to be downloaded for free.

Can you imagine the Grateful dead doing "Dancing In The Streets"? Flash on back to the Fillmore in 1966 http://tinyurl.com/7tpjlv2 look for cut 20.

Yes, Alice in Wonderland 1903 version is there, but much later movies are too. Five Minutes to Live stars Johnny cash, Ron Howard and Merle Travis.

Yes, old TV shows like Andy Griffith and Zane Grey Theater. Along the way you will find old commercials and a bit of Groucho.

There are podcasts too. Lots of audio stuff to put on a player for those long trips.

When you think of yesterday, think Archive.Org.

We are fighting a coffee borer out here that can devastate the coffee crop. One solution is to spray the trees with a solution amde up of mostly water and a small amount of expensive material. Because of the high amount of water needed, it is not effective to use a backpack sprayer.

I already own a large towable sprayer but need something to tow it with. Thus, the ATV. It will amke the process a lot more efficient and ensure it gets done.

Although I have a tractor, I would have to remove the mower and making turns would be difficult to maneuver. I also would not be able to maneuver the truch around between the coffee rows, because it is too wide.

A few years ago I traded a riding mower for some work on the farm and now regret not keeping it. It would have been a pretty good choice for spraying, even though the mower part of it was less than useful.

I looked for a used ATV and did not find one that would do. A used one had mechanical problems and I don't want to start out fixing things.

At the dealership I found a Honda Recon but it had a manual transmission, making spraying and driving and shifting difficult. For a couple hundred more there is a similar ATV arriving about the 20th of the month. It has an electronic shift, similar to the type I use when I run the dogs at a friends farm. It will amke the process a lot easier.

The ATV is agricultural equipmet and will be used for the crops. It will be depreciated along with the tractor and mower and most everything else here.

The only part of the $4400 cost that is a bit bright is that $3200 of the cost is what could be called "free money". I invested in some Apple stock a few months ago, and although it lost a few hundred dollars before I decided to sell, I did make $3200 profit on the deal.

By the way, the ATV I'm getting will be bright red, just like an apple!

As you may know, pineapples are named as such because they resemble a pine cone. The fruit can flower up to 200 flowers which then merge to create the single fruit.

Dole and then DelMonte started growing pineapples in Hawaii in the early 1900's.

Once picked, pineapples doe not ripen any more. Storage is 2 t o4 days, or up to a week if kept cool. Thus, pineapples are often cored and canned with a preservative.

Canners here have grown many varieties; some chosen because their size, once cored, fit into the right-sized can.

Pineapples are part of the bromilliad family. The fruit grows on top of the plant. The very top can be twisted off and can propogate another pineapple. Yes, you can grow a pineapple at home very easily. If you have lots of room outdoors with the right kind of weather, you too can have your own plantation.

I could hire a crew to help, but it would cost many hundreds of dollars, which I just don't have to spare at the moment. Still, I may have to bite the bullet.

I am also looking to purchase an ATV that I REALLY don't have tohe money to spend on. I have to spray the coffee to eliminate a beetle that has been devastating our crops recently. Using a backpack sprayer woudl ensure that this never gets done, as we need to flood the crops with as much water as we can, along with a small about of the fungus we are approved to use.

I still have lemons and the rest of the citrus has eben fertilized and is greening up. I see some limes starting again, but am not sure those trees are fully mature enough for real fruit. The lemons surprised me as very prolific even with thin branches.

The return of the rains also brought back the coqui frogs and their incessant noise. A neighbor and I hit a tree with baking soda and got a few of the guys but will have to go back and try again in a few days. I am starting to hear more frogs across the neighborhood and am fearful that we will be knee deep in them and never get ahead. This problem of frogs can all be traced back t oa tree that was imported from South America that was not fumigated properly. Our ecosystem is that fragile out here.

We are so removed from the rest of the world, that bugs and spores and so on usually have to travel on something other than the wind to get here.

The island people were quite healthy until the foreign ship such as Captain Cook's brought disease. The island people had no immunity to smallpox, whooping cough, measles and so on. Major illnesses killed a large perentage of the population in a very short time.

New residents to the islands are not allowed t ojust bring their pets with them, until they undergo a precise set of shots. We do not have rabies here and are careful to not get it. Australia and New Zealand are in similar mode and thus we have a fairly easy way to import animals from there, although they are a bit more careful than we are and do not as readily accept Hawaiian animals as we accept theirs. Still, between these countries it is a lot easier than from the US mainland or other countries.

Speaking of pets, I am waiting to see if O`Lena is pregnant. I hope she has a nice litter which will bring me some needed income. I named the kennel "Kona Labradors" but may not incorporate it as a part of the farm for taxes. There can be some concerns if you only have a couple of litters a year whether you are an agricultural breeder or not and I don't want to make this a large business. I ahve too many other things going on here at the moment.

One way to try to stop calls like this is to subscribe for free at DONOTCALL.GOV. However that will not stop the calls in many cases and unless a company is really horrible, the government won't even go after them. Supposedly, the government (FTC) says they will evaluate complaints but you know with hudnreds of callers or more, they just are not going to go after the smaller callers. You could always call your local police and report harassment. Perhaps you find the calls sexually stimulating? How can a telemarketer in court prove that you don't get excited listening to offer of free cruises and "politicians"? You KNOW a jury would love to stick it to a telephone spammer!

So, what can you do to stop constant calls to your telephone number?

First, don't give it out to just anyone. Don't put it on survey forms or giveaways in those fishbowls at the beauty parlor or supermarket. Many places sell those numbers and email addresses.

Your local phone company and cellphone company has the ability to stop those calls in their tracks. Many of those numbers are very well-known scammers and companies that most people will never do business with. I constantly get calls from a tool company that will not stop calling. However, your phone company will not block these numbers for free. They will allow you to block numbers but you pay.

Ever answer the phone and hear quiet. Then you say "Hello" and it takes a couple seconds before someone answers. If you hang up too quickly, you will get another call back in a while. In order to get the most answers per hour, companies use autodialers. They call blocks of numbers and when they detect someone answers, it transfers the call to a person who is free t otake the call. That transfer takes a second or two. If the caller gets the call and you have hung up, the call gets marked and redialed as they know someone is there.

Some people let all calls go to voicemail or an answering machine. The autodialers detect a longer answer "Hello, this is Mark. I'm not..." and assumes it is an an answering machine. They will mark the number for redial at perhaps a different time of day. After "x" number of calls with no human, they may mark your number as bad and not call again (until next time).

Radio Shack used to sell a device that sent a SIT tone to an autodialer. When you got calls that were these autodialers, you would press the button and the caller would hear "Bee Boop Bop" as in "The number you dialed is no longer in service". The amchines calling would cross off that number and not call again. After many people got these, the machines were programmed not to be asfooled by this.

So what can YOU do to stop or slow these calls?

Signup at DONOTCALL.GOV and report information when you get these calls.

Try an answering machine.

Buy call block if you feel the need to pay.

Perhaps a service like GoogleVoice would work for you. It allows grouping numbers together, such as "friends" or "family" and forward their calls to your home number. If a telemarketer calls, you can press a button during the call and Google will mark it as a spammer and never allow them to use that number to call you again. They get the SIT tones from then on. Although this does not eliminate people calling your home number, it may help reduce calls because you wont be giving out your home number to anyone. GoogleVoice also allows you to pass along one of two numbers to your home phone. The fvirst is the callers ID so you can see who is calling. The alternative is what number they dialed (in this case, your Google number). That would tell you that the person called Google and Google checked their number against your lists. You can also have calls screened by having the person say their name and then you get a ring and "You have a call from MARK, press 1 to answer, press 2 to send to voicemail".

In an even more technical solution, you can switch to VOIP (Voice Over IP) and let the VOIP service block your calls. I have a number of VOIP numbers and forward some telemarketer calls to their companys main number :-) or to a recording that tells them their call is very important to us and they need to hold on. That recording will continue for hours with no way for a human to answer their call. They eventually hang up. Another call might be forwarded to a number that echos what they say, or perhaps is a dial-a-prayer recording.

Companies like Broadvoice or other VOIP services have lists you can maintain to block callers.

Although the government has now made it illegal to spoof your callerID, that will not stop these calls and the spoofing of numbers. The best way to not deal with these callers is to take action yourself.

Two kids are shown staring into the freezer while Mom says "No, you are not DYING, you are just hungry!" I mean, kids nowadays can't tell the difference between a fatal disease and hunger?

So Mom directs them (by remote control) that there are Tortino Pizzas in the top left side of the freezer, directly in front of the clueless kids.

When the one kid actually finds the box, he lays the cordless phone down inside the freezer and walks off.

How clueless do these kids have to be?

Speaking of dogs, O`lena has been in season and I have had her on a lead to ensure she doesn't meet any other dogs in the neighborhood. Last night I let her loose because she should not be breedable any more. She immediately bolted to the neighbors property with Koa following. I heard some commotion and minutes later she came back with something in her mouth. I assumed it was an avocado because that is what they head over there for. Unfortunately she held a small chicken and would not bring it to me. It was obviously dead and O`lena was carrying it, looking for a place to hide it. She hides avocados too.

To my knowledge, this is the first time she has grabbed something like this and I scolded her quite a bit. I hope she learns. For the moment, she is in the dog house and won't be bailed out anytime soon.

If the mating took, she will be delivering puppies in another 8 weeks. They would be black and chocolate Labs with no EIC. EIC is exercise induced collapse and has been recentlt diagnosed in labs. If I had bred her with a different male, one who had the gene, I would then have to test the pups and work with the owners to ensure they knew about the issue and how it might effect their dog. Responsible breeders do that.

Speaking of breeding, my friend has just 4 of the 10 red poodles left. Because they are over 8 weeks old, she is a bit concerned that they have not been purchased yet. I am not that worried myself, but then again, they are not my puppies and that seems to make a difference.

It has been cool here and it looks as though our rain has returned. I have turned my back and now have grass and weeds very high again. When the teres get tall enough I can attack the weeds without getting weed killer on any of the leaves on my trees.

It is also time to spray for CBB (the beetle effecting coffee). Years ago I bought a $1,500 riding mower but traded it for labor a year or two later. It was not sturdy enough to cut the grass here and I ended up buying a $15,000 tractor and a $5,000 mower attachment. I should have kept the riding mower and taken the mowing deck off of it. The resulting unit may have been sufficient to tow the mobile sprayer needed now to kill weeds and spray for the beetle. Backpack sprayers just don't cut it.

So now I am looking at an ATV to do the job. I cannot use a backpack sprayer for any length of time, so it is an ATV or another riding mower or hire people.

When I bought the riding mower my thinking was that I was spending many hundreds to cut the grass on the farm. The mower paid for itself compared to paying someone to bring his tractor and mower here. I was also able to write off the depreciation. I was just fixing it too often because it was not up to the job.

Hiring people is usually not the best solution as there can be issues with insurance, potential theft and so on. At least with equipment I can write off and depreciate the item. It would make it easier and cheaper than the truck or tractor to cart parts around the property and to get back and forth.

The one drawback si that used ATVs here are going for $3,000+ and they may be 10 years old. A new one is about $4,400. That is $4,400 I don't really have.

Well, I do have about $3,300 today I didn't have a few weeks ago. I reinvested in Apple stock a few months ago and then when it continued to go up, I threw many thousands of dollars into it. I watched it closely and when the stock dropped a few days in a row, I sold out, taking my profit with me. The stock got too volitle for me. In 3 days I lost $800 of profit but yesterday, had I been back in the stock, would have made that back. Now today it is back down again. See why I got out? Until the other week, it just constantly increased in value and people who invested a year or more ago made lots of money. Just since the beginning of the year the stock had increased 45% and a $10,000 investment would have brought you $5,000 in profit in 3 months. THAT IS, until a few weeks ago :-)

So I took my profit and ran, and had it earmarked for paying bills. I can use it for an ATV or bills. Hmmm. Using the ATV to spray the crops can bring higher yields of products and save me lots of time. But then again, perhaps there is a government paymnent for loss of production and I should wait.

Hey, I'm not complaining mind you, I love the color and it's not like I need to do anything to any of these things. I have my hands full with things I HAVE planted!

Along with every other coffee growing area in the world, we now have the beetle and are trying to fight it. We need help.

The pay appears to be small and it may be expensive to move here, but hey, the weather is great, the farmers easy t owork with and I think we can offer for free, all the Kona Coffee the guy can drink.

I think we might even be able to build a monument to the entomologist if desired.

Contact any Kona Coffee farmer for an application.

Many people experience pain day in and day out. I have pain and headaches but don't have much indication of causation except poor posture or tension.

My major problem though does not involve pain, rather I have tinnitus, which is a constant ringing in my ears. The cause is not well understood and the cure is even more elusive.

It is thought that tinnitus is caused by very loud noises (like a gunshot near the ear) or perhaps constantly loud music in the ears. Caffeine intake may also make it worse.

For many of us there is no cure or reduction in the sound. Years ago you could put your ear next to a TV set (with a big tube screen) and hear a similar high pitched singing. If you don't have the problem, you cannot imagine how annoying this is.

One forum I visited called tinnitus "T" because they felt they were on a first-name basis with the problem. I can also call it by the nickname, as I have had the problem for decades. Day in and day out I hear a whine in both ears. I have tried many different things to see if I can make the noise less, to no avail.

The funny thing is that my hearing otherwise is pretty good. I often hear far away sounds that other people don't hear as easily. Yet I also have to have people repeat things because the buzz covers it up.

I am hopefull that at some point, someone will find a way t otreat this, but many of the proposed or reported cures effect some people and not everyone.

It was cold here and I was under blankets, but that happens anytime the overnight temps drop below 70. While many of you snicker, remember that many houses out here (mine included) have no insulation or storm windows. In fact, my bedroom windows are Jalousie windows, those horizontal slats of glass that open out and upward. They allow the windows to be left open in the rain but offer no real security or the ability to tightly seal the window from drafts.

Another issue is that if I forget to open the windows in the morning, the temperature in the room can vary from below 70 to above 90 later in the day when the sun shines brightly and heats things up.

So, I'm not complaining, just mentioning that our issues here are different from other places.

You certainly don't need any details, briefly though, they did not mate yesterday but did today. I was there to ensure there was no injury. I'll wait one day and they try for a second mating.

If everything workes right, I expect a litter of black and chocolate Labradors on or about June 20th (9 weeks from today). If this doesn't take, then I can try again in October.

I have attended many deliveries, but this one would be a bit special, for obvious reasons!

I too will encourage owners to feed their puppy a raw meat diet as both its parents have been raised on. It is really simple to do and is the best food for a puppy or dog. cats thrive on raw diets too. I am happy to direct people to feeding information if they are interested.

So for now I await O'lenas progress and in a few weeks I should know if the breeding took. In the meantime, O'Lena is basking in the afterglow!

Years ago I was in charge of supplying security reports to my coworkers, who needed to fix them. These coworkers would get a report with perhaps thousands of errors and be overwhelmed with the work. How could they fix thousands of errors quickly?

In reality, I was unable to get through to them how to attack the problem. I told them that many errors were the same error and making a small change could eliminate many errors.

Without getting too technical, assume a hotel with one door into it. Imagine inside the hotel, many rooms each with a door. Imagine that inside the hotel, there is not an issue with people going from one room to another and causing problems, just the threat from outside the hotel.

Now imagine hiring a security firm to check the hotel. Their lengthly reports show that each room has no lock on the door. They also report that the front door to the hotel has no lock.

If you didn't know any bettter, you would be ordering locks for each room AND the front door, when all you really needed to do as address the front door issue. Once locked, the inside doors are not an issue. One fix can solve many issues.

This is not unlike what we are considering when we talk about the massive cost of our gevernment. We have massive bills to pay and not enough money. We have a choice to do one of three things; raise more money, spend less or both.

In the above example it appears that a small change would make a world of difference in the outcome. I don't think this works for finances of our country.

The Democrats would like to tax the millionaires (the "HAVES"). Why? Well, they have the money and can "afford it". Whether they SHOULD afford it or not is an important question. It is a quick and easy thing to do, but weeks later, we still have the same problem. We continue to spend and run up debt.

It is easy to pick a few thousand out of our population and charge them. But why? Well an important reason is that the majority of those not in the millionaire category cannot afford to be taxed more. Why tax most everyone else when you can single out a few "evil" millionaires and make them pay for all the inequality in the world. If the majority of the public had their taxes raised, there would be more politicians thrown out of office. What difference does the lack of a few thousand votes cost vrs half of the rest of the population.

We spend millions of hours each year doing taxes, trying to save some money. We fight lawyers and politicians who make and enforce the rules. Did you know that government pensions pay out earlier than your and mine do? Did you realize that although your state gets earmarks to help do things, that the government filters all that money from you to them and back? I ask people, name some efficient government agencies. Go ahead, start thinking. Think of all the waste. It starts with pride. We take great pride in our Capitol. Ever wonder what is costs to heat that damn thing? How many stories is that dome? Heat travels up. You may say, that is not a big expense, yet it is another nail in the coffin of our costs and ability to pay it back.

Califonia is proposing to NOT continue to get reports on what the slaughter rate on Australian Kangaroos is. REALLY? How long have they needed that info and why?

The Jones Act (Merchant Marines Act of 1920) is another example. Look it up. Cruise ships between the Hawaiian Islands, if not on a US flagged ship, must go thousands of miles south each cruise to touch a foreign port. HUH? That is still being enforced.

Getting rid of silly or unuseable laws can make things simpler and start to save us money; but we won't do that.

These are simple examples and won't solve our crisis. We don't look int othe thousands of things to cut costs, becaues some want to just rais more money and patch a flawed system.

We want to take the easy way and tax millionaires. I say come up with a flat tax, a sales tax that taxes everyone equally. Get rid of the IRS as it stands. In 2010 they had 106,000 employees to count your money! All for an act that was passed over a century and a half ago. The Revenue Act of 1862 was passed as an emergency and temporary war-time tax during the Civil War! With those IRS people will go lots of tax consultants, tax offices, froms, paperwork and deductions. With that will also go many of those loopholes people are so worried about.

If you don't know by now, once a law is passed that brings in money, it expands and almost never goes away. Look at cigarette taxes. look at gasoline taxes. Look at all the Federal, state and local taxes and tax offices and you know why we are being taxes to death. We can clean this whole mess up without taxing one class of citizen. We are all responsible and should pay our fair share and not force some to accept all the burdeon.

The American idea is that we should be able to start a business, enjoy our life, make money and I suggest all without the government touching every part of every thing we do.

Our country was created with the idea that all men are created equally. They are just not taxed equally, and I suggest they should be.

I found what I was looking for and at a good price delivered and bought it on Amazon on Sunday. Hours later it said it was SHIPPED! On a Sunday someone was working? I don't even work during the week...

I also am fighting with my mortgage company, who has not been paying a small part of the bill from my lessor. Turns out it may not be all the mortgage companys fault and I may have cleared up the problem.

Turns out when I found who I was talking with at the Leasholders office, I knew we had met. Also in our chatting she mentioned a bag of coffee in their breakroom from my friend (the one with the Labradors).

Also, I am days away from breeding my Yellow Lab female. I am still not sure which of two boys I will breed her with. Either would give good puppies. I have to decide soon, unless she decides for me. lucky me to have a backup stud dog in case my female and I don't agree on 1st choice!

We ahve had a lot of rain recently and I was hoping to get the fruit trees fertilized but every time I start to head out, it rains. I'm not compalining but I still need to do that.

Plus, I'm STILL working on taxes (and not THIS year for those who are wondering). The taxes for farms can be a bit difficult especially when you get "Govment" money and some people tell you it is taxable and others tell you it isn't. The government agency with said money is careful not to give ANY tax advice.

I was one of the people, along with some Ham friends, who drove down the alternate runway at Dulles (in my fast Camaro) to see the first shuttle, Enterprise come in that way. The Enterprise, named after the Star Trek ship, never actually flew in space. Rather it was a test vehicle. I have a photo I took of the Enterprise atop a 747 the the Concorde taking off in the background.

I attended the first and third shuttle launches and took lots of photos.

One side event of the Shuttles was the ability of school kids to talk viia Ham radio directly to Astronauts in space. They were all licensed Hams. What a great learning experience! remember back at the beginning, it was a wonder to be able to have a car phone!

Farewell Shuttles!

A couple days ago I had a molar pulled and because I was not completely numb, I had the dentist give me another shot. After the surgery I was taking penicillin and a Vicodin. The doses were not very high, based upon my research and I tested the pain killer with 1/2 a dose the first time and found no side effects.

A day or so later I noticed a lowgrade headache and looked at my blood pressure. It was high, but my BP seems to vary a bit anyway. When I checked in on Friday morning it was higher yet. On my return from Waikoloa I checked it again. It was still higher.

I called my medical provider, Kaiser, and the after-hours nurse suggested I go right away to the emergency room. Having just bought lots of frozen food and not yet fed the dogs all day, I opted to go home first. I quickly fed and let them out as I changed into clean clothes. I was trying not to get too excited or raise my BP any higher. By now my systolic reading was 170!

Becase they may keep me for a while, I took the dogs and drove past the hospital, put them in a kennal at my friends house and got to the hospital. At the checkin at the ER my pressure was not 185. I was admitted and put in a gown and given my own cubicle (so to speak).

On the official testing machine I showed 188 or so, but my respose to the their questions was still, no, I have no chest paind, just a headache and a bit of pain in my neck.

I gave the doctor the history of the past few days and he gave me something to lower my BP. When it did not, he gave me something else; then a third medication that didn't work. I was still in good spirits, but resisted the urge to ask if it was time yet to ask Doctor House to consult? This was probably not the time to make too many jokes, as they are concerned that I could have a stroke. I did comment that a stroke would probably ruin the rest of my day.

Finally, after briefly hitting a systolic reading of 200, it receded with the latest medicine he tried. Soon I was down to like 135 and probably headed lower. I have been down around 125 recently.

So, 4 hours after being admitted, I was let go and headed home. I have to admit to being tired and a bit blurry vision, but made it home. Being tired is partly based on the medicine but I think a lot of had to do with being wide awake the 4 hours I was in the ER. It seems the ER staff was intent upon discussing their contract (they are union) and where they hoped to be deployed if they want to move states.

Also there was a woman whose voice was very load and I could hear every word she spoke. I would think that being in an ER, it would be helpful to have it somewhat quieter so some of us could sleep. In my case every 15 minutes the BP machine came to life and squeezed the heck out of my arm; a lot tighter than the machines in the stores do.

The doctors guess was the last shot I got caused the problem. My guess was the pain killer because certain drugs have raised my BP before.

In the meantime I will have my regualr doctor adjust my medicines again although they may not need to do much. I just have to stay away from the big shot.

Without the dogs at home, I was able to get a bit of sleep. Starting at 2am when I got home, I slept 6 hours, then got up for the call to Kaiser to get the appointment for Monday, then back to bed from 9am to 2pm, did some email and then slept from 4pm to 4:30pm when the phone rang. I have ben up ever since :-) I still am a bit tired but am increasing my caffeine. Since the tooth extraction I have been eating very lightly, consuming water, soups and then very soft foods like pasta and rice.

I'm sure I was a bit weak and my sugar level was low also. yesterday I actually started eating more, stopping for an Arbys roast beef combo and then later a COSTCO hotdog and soda.

I'm not really hungry at the moment, but did manage to eat a few spoonfuls of Kona Coffee ice cream. The Meadow Gold version used 100% real Kona Coffee. If you are going to start eating after an illness, this is the product to start with :-)

My investments over at Prosper have also paid off pretty well, except one guy paid off his loan early so that cut into my profits. Still, none of the 4 loans I helped fund, has had a late payment. Prosper is not a major money maker for me as I carefully invested and only had $50 at risk in each of the 4 loans. Still, my return is about 8%. Not as great as Apple stock, still lots betetr than banks or credit unions.

I tried loading my PBX software on an old computer last night, but the disk is bad. I'll try again next time I get some time.

In the meantime, I am looking to be a reseller of VOIP services. VOIP is the ability to send telephone calls over the internet and break free from the phone company.

Many people are already on VOIP if they get a package deal that includes telephone from their cable company. Others are using Vonage or Packet8.

Some people use Skype or Google Voice service which rely upon their computer being up. If configured for it, Google Voice (GV) can be accessed for outgoing calls if you telephone into your own number and make a call that way.

Another option is to run a PBX or PBX software on a computer. That hardware then connects to a VOIP provider to make and receive calls.

Then there are the standalone devices such as the new OBI100 and OBI110 systems. It combines a telephoen line, a phone, Google Voice and perhaps another VOIP provider to handle your calls. It is essentually a PBX in itself. OOMA makes a VOIP device too.

Then there are devices like the SPA-2102 that are configured and tied t oa company such as one out here, 808NetFone. They supply a box (SPA-2102) with two phone ports. They supply VOIP service for local or long distance and their particular service is an unlimited service. For their service they have various rates, local calls, state-wide, USA-wide, Asia and Europe, etc. Their service can be a lot cheaper than a telephone from the phone company. For example, afetr the $45 installation charge, the US-wide calling plan is $28 a month and includes lots of extras like voicemail and call waiting, etc. That also includes a telephone number.

Some people (including the tech guys) prefer to roll their own service. I have a neighbor who uses his cellphone for most all calls. However, often when calling customer service of a company (a toll free number), he is on the phone for hours and his cellphone runs out of juice. I came up with a solution for him. Since he did not need his current VOIP service and telephone number, I configured a box to allow him to call only toll-free numbers from the device. He plugs a phone into the box and uses that to call out. He has no inbound number for that service and his outbound calls go directly to the internet. I configured the service to show his cellphone as the calling number.

So I decided to resell the service. The easy part was setting up an account. The hard part is coming up with plans that solve needs and make me a couple of dollars.

The easiest service for people to understand is one where they port their phone number away from their provider, drop their present telephone service and get a box (or phone) that does VOIP and connects to their high-speed internet. Then the telephone number is assigned to the new service. A calling plan is added to allow them to call out. Many of these boxes can be hooked up to all phones in the house, very easily.

The problem for me has been to design calling plans that save people money. There are a number of options that all come into play and effect pricing. They include whether there is an inbound number or not. If so, is the number ported in or purchased in the persons town (perhaps they never had a home phone number or want one somewhere in the world. There are two types of call providers, one more reliable and expensive than the other. The cheap one may suffice for most people.

Then there is the isue of "pay per call" or "unlimited". In this case,, unlimited is unlimited inbound.

As you can see, it can start to get confusing, which is why most people don't go directly t othe source and rather buy a package from someone else.

Still, there are savings if you can gauge your calling patterns. For example, a service with a new telephone number and 600 minutes of "airtime" might cost only $8 to set up and then cost only $10 a month. Extra minutes might be charged at a penny and a half a minute. Having a plan where people call in alot and getting 3500 minutes inbound and 300 minutes out might cost $13 a month.

Of course to put another wrinkle in the mix is calling Hawaii, Alaska or internationally. It turns out that Hawaii is not much more to call but calling Alaska numbers were so high that I won't offer them. Still, the service would work great for those living in Alaska to call out to non-Alaska numbers.

Another oddity is that calling London is cheaper for me than to call Maryland.

So for the past couple of days I have played with spreadsheets trying to design a couple packages that are cheap, make me a buck or two and are very understandable to the general public.

The reason the unlimited in and outbound services are priced high is that they hope you will pay and not use all the minutes they assigned. Those minutes are not carried over to a new month. With this service I am designing, you pre pay and use minutes, then replenish when you start getting low.

Time will tell if I really sell these plans, but I already have the domain name and part of the website set up!