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| Moving Slowly... |
| 06.27.03 (10:48 pm) [edit] |
I am almost finished fixing up the outside of my current house by replacing trim, painting and doing shutters. With all the rain we had last week, then a few dry days in a row, I was on a roll. That was, until today (Friday). The forecast called for rain Friday and I even checked the Regional RADAR, and yup, it was almost here, so I stayed in. Paint doesn't dry well once it gets wet :-) The problem is, it never rained! I wasted a day and I don't have many free days left to finish up. I [i]was[/i] able to sucessfully add mine and my Mom's phone number to the U.S. National Do Not Call list. That should stop the majority of telemarketers calls. Since I am moving soon, I don't really care about my current number, but added it just "because I can"! :-) To add yours, go to http://www.donotcall.gov. If they call you after the list is active, the company gets fined something like $11,000 per call! I heard a story about telemarketers that is supposed to be true. They were having a convention in a hotel and one guy found out which floor they were staying on. At like 3am he proceeded to call each room. When the sleeping telemarketer complained that he woke them up, the caller said "Now you know how WE feel"! If the story is not true, it is a shame :-) In a few hours I am off to a computer show (not that I need anything, but it will be my last computer show on the mainland). The Big Island has few consumer computers, let alone, roaming computer shows going town to town (like the circus)! After the show I'll head down near my old office to have dinner with friends. Many of us left the old company a year ago and decided to get together and have a few drinks and some food. I may not see many of these people again either. It does get a bit sad to think about that, but I have moved every few years, all my life. I'm used to leaving and then only talking to people a few times on the phone, or maybe getting a card. There have been many times people have said "We will keep in touch", yet they forget or lose the information. The internet makes it somewhat easier to find people though, so I look and sometimes find. Here is a thought: If people really could travel through time to the past, and our future was further out than say, 20 years from now, we would currently be overrun with time travelers. I cannot believe that many people would be able to keep time travel a secret and we would all know about it now. Thus, time travel to the past in NOT possible. Your mileage may differ :-) |
| Fixing Up |
| 06.25.03 (8:49 pm) [edit] |
|
I have been very busy in the past few weeks, setting up the web site, getting a toll-free telephone number, making business cards, designing coffee labels and other items directly related to the selling of coffee. Yet to be done are such mundane things as getting a post office box, a business license, registering the farm and coffee names and getting credit card billing in place. It is indeed, quite a job! I am awaiting the date for closing on the farm and will have my current house in Georgia on the market fairly soon I hope. The farm needs some work, both on the property and on the house and I have promised the Bishop Trust (the Leaseholder of this particular property) that I would perform this work immediately after taking possession.. There is some weeding and grading to be done and I want to remove 2 acres of macadamia nut trees to make room for coffee. The house also needs a couple of items brought up to code. I have had some requests for green (unroasted) beans and that is an easy request to fulfill. Farms can always sell unroasted beans if they want. I also have been thinking about what roast would be good for the beans I'll be selling. There are a number of roasts which are popular and I will experiment to see which ones bring the most repeat business. Naturally, a large order can be roasted to the buyers' taste! Those who know me, know that this journey to Hawaii has been my dream for quite some time! There are stories of people who "hear the calling" of the islands and want to come back. Then there are those like me, who become obsessed with going back and every waking moment is spent thinking or dreaming about the islands. As you can see at my site MyHawaiianSite, I really do love the islands! |
| The Dream |
| 06.25.03 (8:46 pm) [edit] |
|
[b]The dream is becoming a reality![/b] Six years ago I traveled to the Hawaiian Islands and decided that is where I wanted to live. Now I am able to make the move. I am purchasing 8.72 acres in the Kona district of the Big Island of Hawaii and as you know, the main product of that region is Kona Coffee. My farm will produce both macadamia nuts and coffee. I will plant coffee, some fruit trees and fix up the existing house (which needs some work). I will also be building some equipment so that I can do some of the bean processing on site and keep the costs down. Currently I am designing coffee labels, getting my business license, tax forms and property paperwork in line and hope to settle in the next couple of months. Soon thereafter, I can begin offering the first range of products. The toll-free number is installed and tested and as you can see, the domain, http://www.itskona.com is in place. I hope to have items for sale in the next few months. Thank goodness I no longer have a full-time job! :-) The hard part of this whole process is selling everything I own (well, all but my servers and Hawaiian shirts)! It costs so much to ship things from Atlanta to California, THEN put them in a container onboard ship to send to Hawaii, then offload them onto another moving van and send them to my farm. Thus, I will sell it all before I go. It turns out that the house I am getting, already has furniture in it, although it is pretty well worn. At least I have a bed an TV until I can redecorate :-) |