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Thrown into the mix

09.22.03 (6:56 am) [edit]

Just before my old Camaro went up for sale, the fuel pump went bad. I bounght a new one but opted to have a repair shop replace it rather than the dealer. That saved over $100 and paid for the fuel pump! During repair they found the sending until was bad. The unit is a variable resistor on a pivot with a float on one end. It looks like that thing that controls the water level in the toilet. When they quoted me the price of it, I went into shock! It was over $400 as I remember and I'm not going to replace it. Let the new owner guess at how much fuel is in the tank. I can't see putting a new unit in there and have no time to look for a used one.

The repair took almost a full day's worth of work, spread over 3 days. They had to drop the whole rear end of the car (which means removing lots of parts, for you non technical people). Had Chevrolet just cut one hole in the right place, this would have been an hours worth of work instead.

I won't even go into the "chicken vrs egg" routine with the car. That one involved driving the car with no registration, to get the tailpipe welded. Without the tail pipe fixed there was a chance the car would fail and thus, no registration and no valid current tags on the car, which are required to drive it to get the tailpipe fixed... I snuck it up to the emission station where the car failed, so I could get a 30 day waiver to fix it. It looks like it is just running rich and burning too much fuel. THAT I should be able to fix easily. That is, when I return from Paradise.

As for my delay on the farm, I pretty much convinced myself on option 3, "The Preview Trip", or is it "The Vacation"? I will travel to my new town, do lots of measuring and thinking and come back with a Hawaiian drivers license. I'll check out how my internet phone works out there, and if it performs poorly, have time to rethink my toll free process.

Speaking about option 3, I think all of the KonaWeb people chose that for me and all but one friend also thought it was a good idea. The friend chose "Just Move" and thinks I should have just gotten a very large dumpster at the beginning. He is probably right and has shown pretty good insight over the years. He does seem to take the road less traveled however. He is the only one who still has a Betamax VCR and yes, I admit, Beta was superior to what the rest of us have used ever since, but it was never a commercial consumer item and thus, the rest of us went with the cheaper and more readily available, VHS machine. Beta is what the television stations used and probably many still do, although pure digital should be in wide use by now.

I went online last night and found I could use my Delta frequent flier miles easily to get a ticket. I don't know why people say it is hard, unless they are very narrow with their travel choices. I picked a departure date and a return date and for the least number of miles, only had to move both dates by 1 day each to get the bargain. Because I need to travel soon, I'll book the Honolulu to Atlanta leg now, but will hold off on the return leg until I get a better idea of when the closing is.

Rather than throw out clothes, and since I need money rather than a tax writeoff, I will be selling my jeans to a local store. They pay for used jeans and they seem to pay more than you get from a yard sale!

Insert Beatles Song Title here

09.19.03 (4:05 am) [edit]

If you had to name this blog, would you choose the Beatles song "It Don't Come Easy"?

So I'm heading down the final stretch, the last 10 days here in Atlanta before "T.B.M." (the big move). I'm going crazy because there are not enough hours in the day to get things done, and I'm barely going to get finished in time. To review, the house is still not on the market, I have no close date for the new place and I have to start shipping the stuff I need to take with me. I still need to show the house to the agent here, arrange for the estate sale of furniture I'm leaving behind and I have a few items to consign to an antique shop.

I called my Kona areal Estate gent and it appears the seller had some reservations about a legal document related to his assigning the lease to me. We both want to make sure that we transfer the lease to me without either of us taking a big hit on fees and fines. Because of this, my closing has been delayed and the soonest I can close on the new property is 6-8 weeks!

Closing on the property is a formality which transfers ownership and responsibility to me. As is often done with a other types of properties, I [i]could[/i] occupy the property and just pay the seller rent until closing. However, this delay rearranges many things, regardless of how I handle it; each having plusses and minuses.

I have a 1st class, non-refundable ticket for next Sunday. I have a place I can stay for a week before I wear out my welcome and if I stay out there, would need to rent the farm or stay in a hotel for a while. I'll have a rental car out there until I buy a car.

Having been in Information Technology (computers) for quite some time, I have a problem with organizing and analyzing things. Forgive me :)

Scenerio 1: MOVE NOW

I use the ticket I have and just move. I push myself to complete all tasks and just throw out stuff I have not yet decided about. I stay with friends until I can rent the farm. I buy a car as soon as I find a good one. I'm in Paradise! There are a million things to do between now and a week Sunday, but by a week Monday I have either killed myself or have finally arrived and there is no looking back!

This probably costs me $600-$1200 a month

Scenerio 2: JUST GO LATER

I pay Delta a change fee of at least $100 and pay any difference in the fare cost and reschedule my trip for a month from now, which is about $100 currently. I stay with friends a week or two and/or rent the farm. I am more relaxed here, can arrange shipping easier, but have to put up with people seeing the house while I'm still here.

This costs me $250 or so.

Scenerio 3: PREVIEW TRIP

I fly on the ticket I have and book (if possible) a round trip from hawaii to Atlanta and back on either miles or a paid ticket. I stay out there a week and a half and arrange things. This includes getting into the house and taking my own inventory of what furniture I like or need to replace. It also includes seeing just how I want to lay out the farm and getting estimates. I must endure people looking at this house while still here. I possibly lose a week and a half of having it on the market, although I already have missed the best time to have it up for sale.

This costs me 30,000 frequent flier miles if I can find flights, or about $550 if I have to pay for flights.

Any of the 3 ideas would work and I will have to decide whether the costs are more than I want to incur. I once spent a night sleeping on a bench outside the airport because I was too cheap to pay for a cab and a hotel room for 8 hours. :P

Any takers want to bet on which scenerio I decide upon? It is anyone's guess right now, because I have not decided. I am not quite as cheap as I used to be...

To slightly complicate matters, I have two big computer servers to ship there. If I want to take one of them with me on a trip there, it might save the shipping cost if it qualifies as baggage. That only works if I go directly to Kona. A friend lives on Kauai and for $70 I can stop off and help him with a computer problem he is having. If I take a computer with me AND come back, I could stop by Kauai on the return trip but not on the way out.

If I wasn't so cheap, or I had a lot of spare money to throw around, it would be a lot easier. Also, if I had a lot more stuff to ship, I would just arrange with a mover to ship a container of stuff out there.

"Tune in again tomorrow for another thrill packed adventure, where Mark reveals what he has decided!" Unless I haven't...

I hate it when that happens

09.14.03 (2:33 pm) [edit]

Last night I continued going through old bills, receipts and paperwork, and shredded most of it. I have no idea why I ended up keeping old phone bills from 20 years ago, but there they were.

When I moved between houses in Maryland, I had lots of help loading and unloading boxes of stuff, so I never went through things. Then when I moved from Maryland to Georgia, my company paid for the moving truck and all boxes got shipped here. Now that I have to pay to ship things and will have little storage room, now is the time to get rid of things. HOWEVER, I am so tired of sorting that I may just pay and ship the rest :lol:

At least, [i]I[/i] understand how this stuff works. For example, now-a-days, many email messages are probably traversing the internet, back and forth, back and forth, because both sides are blocking the message.

On another note, my old company once split in two. The other company, let's just call then NEWCO, had us run their computers fro them for a while. We USED to run them anyway, so no big deal. HOWEVER (you knew there was a however coming, didn't you?) there were specific requirements to be followed to kep the companies at arms length. Their computers were in a computer room below where the used to be. To communicate data between them, the data ended up traveling from main datacom entry point for both companies. Thus data went from Atlanta to Andover Mass to California to Atlanta to a spot about 100 feet from where it left... not very efficient was it? :)

So, back to the trash. It would be better for all concerned if I could throw things out here, rather than pay to take them with me and throw out there, but I am down to 13 days and am soooo tired and have so much more to do. Most everything is now in the garage so I can get the house listed. Most time now will be spent in the garage in front of 4 piles. "Trash", "Yard sale", "Ship via Parcel Post", "ship via media mail" and "Take with me".

The difference in the shipping method is dramatic. Media mail is for things like CD's, audio tapes, video tapes, books, etc. The rate for 50 lbs to Kona is $16.84. Via Parcel Post it would cost $40.00. It is no wonder that the postal service says that they may ask you to open a media mail shipment so they can tell you are not cheating by sending non "media".

The "Take with me" box will be interesting. I guess I might actually ship most things but there are a few things I need right away (besides a change of clothes and my laptop). Because I may not be able to move into my house, I will need to have handy my router, phone terminal and the actual phone off the wall from this house. The phone on the wall has built in voicemail, the router and terminal unit allow me to receive my telephone calls and make unlimited outbound calls, without having to pay any charges like hotel fees. All I need is an internet connection. Even my toll free number rings to that phone, so literally, I can conduct business from a hotel room.

All my large computers will be packed and shipped along with everything else going. Some boxes could get there in a few days; others could take weeks I hear!

I have my PO box out there, well I THINK I have it. There was a slight confusion as to which box I was getting, but that should all be cleared up by now. Also, it looks as though the zipcode I thought I was getting is NOT the one I had written down. It's a good thing I caught that!

I have my business license and the State of Hawaii has an extra check of mine. They appear to have misplaced one and to gett the license, I had to send another. Now they cashed both. I'll work out that detail when I get there. The easiest way to address it is to drive over to Hilo to the state office and talk with them in person. I'll take a flashlight with me for the trip. Why the flashlight? I have to pass the volcano and might as well hike out to the see the lava. The best viewing is after dark, you know! :)

For current lava info, go to http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/kilaue... The rocks that are glowing red are about 2,000 degrees F. NO TOUCHING!!!!! :)

That parrot wouldn't voom...

09.11.03 (9:20 am) [edit]

There is an old Monty Python skit with a dead parrot. A customer returns a parrot for a refund and part of the conversation follows:

{quote}
Mr. Praline: Look, I took the liberty of examining that parrot when I got it home, and I discovered the only reason that it had been sitting on its perch in the f first place was that it had been NAILED there.

(pause)

Owner: Well, o'course it was nailed there! If I hadn't nailed that bird down, it would have nuzzled up to those bars, bent 'em apart with its beak, and VOOM! Feeweeweewee!

Mr. Praline: "VOOM"?!? Mate, this bird wouldn't "voom" if you put four million volts through it! 'E's bleedin' demised!
{end quote}

Yesterday, a friend stopped by to help me get my old Camaro running so I could sell it. We got it up on the jacks and started to replace the fuel filter. That is when we discovered that it would NOT be as easy as the manual suggested. A quick call to two seperate dealers assured us that it would be difficult to do and costly to have them do.

After switching to the SUV and tightening a few loose bolts, we headed down to Ryans for an all-you-can-eat buffet. We discussed the car and decided to check with a repair place called Pep Boys where we have found less expensive repairs. The repair price for the fuel pump dropped by hundreds of dollars, BUT I would have to pay $60 to have the car towed up the street for them to work on it.

As even the casual reader here will attest, I'm a bit too cheap to pay full price for anything, and decided that $60 for towing is a bit too much. An idea came to me and see what you think?

AAA (The Automobile Association of America) is always sending me a request to join their membership. AAA also has towing in the membership. Along with that perk, Aloha Airlines (one of the inter-island airlines) offes a discount to AAA members. As a note, I have not yet booked my inter-island trip...

However, upon checking, it appears my 1st year membership and the savings on the ticket would only save me about $10 to $15, and is probably not worth the hassles.

I WILL get the fuel pump replacement price and towing charge in writing and will have them replace it ASAP. I will also need to have the car insurance reinstated as I removed most coverage when I garaged the car. I think I'll have to pay for the tag sticker too :( Since they don't make IROC Camaros anymore (and have stopped making Camaros in general), I hope I can make a bit of profit from the sale of this one. I really hate to have to sell it, but it would not last in hawaii. I would be vooming into the Pacific before I knew it... :)

That parrot wouldn't voom...

09.11.03 (9:19 am) [edit]

Are You Confused Yet?

09.10.03 (7:36 am) [edit]

I am moving near the town of Kailua, but because there is a Kailua on Oahu, they call this town Kailua-Kona to avoid confusion. To futher avoid confusion, we just call it Kona.

Speaking of confusion, you will hear people say they are going to "Hawaii" and they come back telling tales of traffic jams and the like. Well, there is somewhat of a misunderstanding many people have about the state and the islands. Let me [i]try[/i] to explain.

Hawaii is the 50th of the United States. It did not come willingly (but that is another story for another time, and I am not the best person to try to explain it all). The state of Hawaii is NOT just one island, but rather consists of something like 132 islands and atolls stretching across 1600 miles of the Pacific Ocean! The islands most familiar to visitors are Oahu, Molokai, Lanai, Hawaii, Kauai, Niihau and Maui.

Most visitors travelling to the state arrive at Honolulu (the capitol of the state) on the island of Oahu. Also well known on the island is Pearl Harbor, Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head.

A neighbor island to Oahu is actually called "Hawaii" and is the one with the active volcano. It is also known as the county of Hawaii. Most islands are their own county. Because of the size of the island and to avoid confusion, people call this island called Hawaii by the name "the Big Island". You may be familiar with a few of the well known places on this big island, the Kona side (Kailua-Kona) where the Kona Coffee grows. The other side has the town of Hilo with waterfalls and orchids. Many of the Hawaiian macadamia nuts you eat come from this island. There is the active volcano and Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea on this island.

So people who say they are going to "Hawaii", may mean they are going to the state, the county or the island, not necessarily all the same place. It really depends on where they are at the time, I guess.

If you are on the mainland, going to Hawaii probably means they are going to the STATE of Hawaii and may be anyone's guess as to which island they will end up on.

If you are already within the state of Hawaii, saying you are going to "Hawaii" probably means that you are going to the "Big Island", although it would be better to just say you are going to the big island.

If someone says they are going to Kailua, it MAY mean they are going to Oahu or the Big Island, but you can bet that if they are on the mainland and say they are going to Kailua, they will be going to Hawaii, you just don't know which Hawaii they mean! :-)

If they narrow it down and say they are going to Kona, they probably mean the town Kailua-Kona on the big island of Hawaii. But did I mention that "kona" also means "leeward" which means "on or toward the side to which the wind is blowing", so every island kinda has a kona (leeward) side...

Out in the middle of nowhere, and you could classify the middle of the Paciic as nowhere, the directions of "north" and "south" just don't have much meaning. These island have a few things in common, a mountain and an ocean, thus from anywhere on most islands you can see the mountain or ocean. Thus if you say "mauka" you are talking about going towards the mountain, or "makai" being towards the sea. On some islands, a common landmark tells you which direction [i]around[/i] the island to go. On Oahu, "Diamond Head" means to go towards the big crater which is almost always visable, or Ewa (which means towards the town of Ewa) which is away from Diamond Head.

On Maui, "Hana" is a town and a popular drive is to take the "Road to Hana". To avoid confusion, do NOT confuse this trip with the Crosby/Hope movies which were called "The Road to Zanzibar" and the like. "Hana" means "work", so the road to Hana, might refer to heading to work. However, to avoid confusion, I should note that "pau" means "done or complete", so "pau hana" means done with work, which is what they say in the song "Aloha Friday". "It's Aloha Friday, pau hana, no work till Monday". Of course, can living and doing things in paradise really be classified as "work"? Thus, someone maight say "I'm working down at the luau tonight". Let's see? Dancing, singing, eating... that's work?

People living on one island and who leave, are said to be "off island", as in "He is off-island at the moment, can I have him call you when he gets back?

Some visitors from the mainland are very confused because they will be heard to say "well, back in the STATES..." when they really mean "back on the mainland...". Hawaii has been a state and although some residents would prefer they were NOT a state, they are legally a state and take offense that you don't yet understand that. You have had 50 years to get used to the fact :-) In the title of the TV show Hawaii-50, the 50 was not a street address, it refered to Hawaii being the 50th state. Much similar to the 49'ers being people in Alaska. I will NOT get into a discussion as to whether there really are 50 states or not (the reader may wish to read up on whether a commonwealth is really a state), because we have a number of commonwealths on the mainland.

While on the subject of Hawaii-50, ever notice where Steve McGarret's office was? In the upper right-hand room of that old building? That "old building" was the Iolani Palace, a royal palace where the last reigning monarch of the independent country lived. That is, until she was imprisoned in that very room while her country was taken away from her (yet another story).

You may not know the name of the Queen (Queen Liliuokalani), nor how to pronounce her name, but you have heard some of her writings, as she was an accomplished musician. She wrote Aloha Oe, the beautiful song of love.

Speaking of love, it is said that if you throw a lei into the water and it comes back to shore, you will return to the islands. [b]However[/b], if you take a lava rock from the islands, you may [i]never[/i] be healthy enough to return. 'nuff said!

So now if you hear someone say "I'm going to the Kona luau on Hawaii when I'm pau hana, and I hope to hear Aloha Oe, unless there are some mauka showers that come along", you may very well understand completely! Then again, you may not! :)

We now return you to your regularly scheduled BLOG, already in progress.....

Yesterday... All My Troubles Seemed So Far Away

09.10.03 (6:59 am) [edit]

Speaking of troubles, My friend Gary was supposed to be by here yesterday to help me get my old Camaro running so I could sell it. Some kind of "golf emergency" came up I think :-) We [i]should[/i] be working on it today. Seems that days before I was ready to sell it, the fuel pump went out :(

Over the years I have owned my share of Camaros. I got my 1st (a 1967 model) in 1969, and my college buddies taught me how to drive. Then I traded that in for a 1976 model, then upgraded to a 1982 and 85 IROC and finally, this 1990 IROC. For quite some time I owned both the 85 and the 90 IROC's! Life was SWEET!

When I got into gold prospecting I bought a supplimental vehicle, a Honda Passport, so I wouldn't destroy the Camaro driving through streams and so on. Somehow, the thought of carrying buckets of dirt in the trunk of the Camaro did not sit well with me :) That Passport became my primary vehicle and the Camaro sat in the garage for quite some time. It was too easy to get tickets with it, what with all the interstates here!

This move will mark the end of an era. Since 1969 I have owned a Camaro of one type or another and now will be "Camaro-less". This one does 0-60 mph in something like 5.5 seconds which means that even on an island the size of the Big Island, about 3 seconds into that acceleration would put me into the Pacific!

On the farm I will no doubt need a truck or 4-wheel drive vehicle as I expect to have to pull down a tree or two and also carry fertilizer and supplies all over the place. That vehicle may or may not be the same one I drive around the island. Gas prices there are guite high, but I can save a lot by buying gas at COSTCO, the warehouse club in the Kona.

Tholian Web

09.08.03 (12:00 pm) [edit]

There is a Star Trek episode where the Enterprise is being surrounded by what is know an energy field known as the Tholian Web. I use this spider web analogy often as a way to say things are "meshing" and twhen they do, all heck breaks loose!

A number of events yesterday show that the web is closing in...

The first, I was flipping channels and saw the movie "Fire Down Below", part of which appears to have been filmed just yards (many yards, but yards just the same) from the radio station where I used to work. The car chase was filmed right where the new interstate goes over Pine Mountain and if the camera had panned 180 degrees up towards the top of the mountain, there would have been the radio station tower which transmitted my voice to the masses!

Secondly, I was cleaning out boxes of "treasures" minutes later and there was a photo of my old 67 Camaro, at that same radio station!

A bit later last night was the movie on 9-11 in Washington DC and was on the phone with a friend who works for the Senate and his boss was portrayed in the movie. Also in the movie, the part of the Secretary of Transportation was played by George Takei. who blog readers here will note had his photo taken with me last weekend, while we talked about Hawaii and that is why I was going throught the boxes and found the Camaro picture.

That I went to the Chevy dealer today to get a fuel pump for said Camaro, is NOT that much extra of a coincidence, so I'll spare you the analogy on that one :-)

Yesterday, on an internet newsgroup, I posted a list of electronic equipment I want to dispose of (errr, SELL) before I move. The stuff is too costly to ship and I won't have time for that hobby anyway.

One item I was originally going to give away, but Ebay browsing got the better of me and I discoved the item is worth $150 on the auctions. I decided to "go for the gold" and sell it instead.

Speaking of selling things, I have a sluice box, pump and prospecting equipment available, should you want to "go for the gold" yourself!!! That is another enjoyable hobby I'll be giving up.

Speaking of movies, therre was a sci fi movie years ago where a limited number of people would leave the earth in a spaceship before disaster struck. Everyone was working hard and only hours before the ship takes off, would people know for sure if they were in the small group of lucky travelers. While the disaster aproached, countdown clocks were shown and people saw the signs and heard the announcements, "hurry hurry, rush rush".

Today is T Minus 19 days and counting... (tick, tock, tick, tock)

Tholian Web

09.08.03 (12:00 pm) [edit]

Things that go THUMP in the night...

09.05.03 (7:03 am) [edit]

Last night I drove up to the Kroger store and there nearby, is a dumpster for magazines. The thing has a horrible appetite.. it eat every magazine I fed it, and I fed it good! "A luau of learning". A luau is defined as "An elaborate Hawaiian feast featuring traditional foods and entertainment". For a dumpster, traditional food is things you don't want, and I guess I really wanted these magazines, but it was time for us to part.

I had been hoarding copies of Popular Electronics and Radio Electronics for maybe 10 or 15 tears. (THUMP) Also into the metal box went copies of Readers Digest... (THUMP, THUMP). Yes, I guess I could have found a place to donate them so others could enjoy the reading, but (THUMP), being perhaps the most widely read (THUMP) magazine in the free world, (THUMP), the dumpster gets my copies.

None of these magazines bring much on the open Ebay market, but other book, which I almost threw out, seem to carry a high premium!

I am a gold prospector and part of my membership is a book of areas where there is gold. You must be a member of the club to use these areas, but someone was willing to pay $26 for a copy of this years book! I also have a service manual for my 1990 Camaro that appears to be worth over $10. I was going to donate that to the buyer of my car, but now I have second thoughts.

I seem to be making a bit better progress on the house, but still have at least a week before I can call the agent. I "say" a week, when I probably mean two or more, but sometimes I like to fool myself, just for the amusement :-)

You know, when I post these blogs, I must choose a category for them. I choose BUSINESS, because this is supposed to be about me moving to Hawaii to start a coffee farm. However, lately, all I talk about is packing, and that seems more like a HOBBY. A hobby has ALSO been defined as "A subject or plan upon which one is constantly setting off; a favorite and ever-recurring theme of discourse, thought, or effort; that which occupies one's attention unduly, or to the weariness of others; a ruling passion." Perhaps it is time for a re-classification?

I spit on your robot...

09.02.03 (4:11 pm) [edit]

One of the neatest things that was showcased at the convention was the robot wars. Both kids and adults would build robots and place them in a ring to "battle". On TV I think the show is called "Battle Bots". This version is a bit tamer as the hotel would not be all that enthused if these robots had flamethrowers...

I have some pictures but have not yet pulled them out of the camera, so unfortunately you will just have to take my word for this whole thing. I'll try to add a link later.

I have been cleaning out the garage today and planted a bit more grass seed to cover the bare spots.

I hear the hurricane did not do much damage on the Big Island, but prior to the rain they were talking about a drought...

For those of you who just HAVE to know where I'm moving, go here [url=]http://www.geckofarms.com/haw...[/url] then click on WEST HAWAII and look at where page 55 covers. That is it!

Yes, some astute reader amy notice that right near me is immortalized in the old Hawaiian song "My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua Hawaii". How I wish I was there now!