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Lazy Days and Lazy Nights

12.28.03 (1:53 am) [edit]

There is one thing I noticed about living in Hawaii, that is, it is easy to be lazy.

Except for some shopping, cleaning and personal things, I am not doing much of anything. AND, I like it!

I am not getting much enthusiasm from anyone to print my labels. I pretty much gave up on one printer who is not in much of a hurry. The second printer appears not to be checking email over the holidays.

The mortgage company decided they would have an appraisal done of the house. I hope to have that scheduled soon. Then the closing should be not far behind.

Soon I should be able to start fixing up the house and clearing the land.

I went to a house blessing today. SOme fellow onliners (KonaWeb.Com) just moved in and asked for a blessing. There were at least 20 or 30 people there and my neighbors have a great house and a beautiful view of Kealakekua Bay and the Captain Cook Monument! From my house I cannot see the bay or monument, but I'll try cutting down a few more trees :D

There is a radio station here that is an attempt at a rock station, but still has a ways to go. Then again, they are playing the same music I did when I was a DJ at a small station in Kentucky in the 70's and 80's. I guess the lack of big-city stations adds to the back-home feel of the area. You can go into the post office and people know you by name. Of course, stopping by everyday to see if you have boxes helps.

After the blessing I came home and got on the internet. My dialup conencted at 36 kb tonight :( I hope I can get Earthlink to hook up DSL. Otherwise, it is Roadrunner; but I MUST have something faster than this!

I must have fallen asleep for a while because I woke up and it was dark outside. I assumed it was about 5am but seems it was only 10pm. The weatherman report called for heavy rain and thunderstorms. We are certainly getting them! I don't hear the thunder, but the rain against the leaves outside the house makes it sound like a gully-washer!. There is one break in the gutters and the water has been streaming down the outside stairway for years, causing rot. I wish someone had fixed that a long time ago, so I would not have to replace the stairs once I own the place. :(

There are no TV stations near me and I don't want cable. I'm shipping my C-Band satellite receiver and will look for a dish here soon. Thus all I have to watch on TV is old video tapes (many from over 5 years ago). Perhaps I will finally get to watch some of those things I recorded and never got to. I seem to remember lots of tapes of the Olympics... the L.A. Olympics.....

Coincidences

12.23.03 (9:21 am) [edit]

I don't know why I look for coincidences, but I do. Perhaps they find me.

I'm at Home Depot looking for a kitchen faucet, to replace the one that leaks. I flip over the box and note that the company is just a few minutes drive from where I used to live in Georgia; West Paces Ferry Road! Perhaps the explanation is that Home Depot is an Atlanta-based comapny and this is a generic labeled product of theirs.

I am trying to find a company to do my internet credit card billing. The one I found turns out to be located {drum roll} a few minutes drive from where I used to live and work in Atlanta... hmmmm

My agent gave me the name of a contractor who may be able to help me with my house. I was driving down to turn off the water the other day (so I could fix the broken pipe) and passed contractor driving into his driveway, just a few houses down from my road. I thought "this guy is closer than the other gay is, I'll bet". Then last night I am on the KonaWec.Com site chatting and a guy mentions he lives down the street from me and is a contractor. Turns out he is the one I saw the other day. He is ALSO the one my agent recommended...

I wake up this morning to yet new sounds and sights. As I look out west over the Pacific's horizon, I see what looks like a sliver of sun squashed between the clouds and the horizon. Wait! The sun to the west? Must be the moon. But it is getting bigger? I stare for a few, then put on my glasses and stare more. Know what it is? A cruise ship heading towards Kona. A boat with foreigners heading to our shores. They are bringing stories and strange customs and talking in strange toungues. All the while I am remembering the Hawaiians of pre-contact. They are well and happy, then the foreigners come and bring diseases. I wonder if I still have time to get a flu shot....

I'm in Wal-Mart the other day and laughed out loud. I had picked up a bag which was sitting near the gas grills. It was a bag of "lava rocks" which people use to line grills with. For luaus, we take giant rocks, heat them with parts of tree trunks, wrap the pig in ti leaves and burlap and stick it underground to cook. Mainlanders use a grill.

Knowing that it is bad luck to take lava from the island, I turn to bag over to look which part of the big island they come from. My first guess is Kau District but I am wrong. It is a small town in... {yet another drum roll...} Columbus Georgia! So this island, this rock, this 14,000 foot high, 90 mile by 90 mile island in the middle of the Pacific, created by Pele's volcano, made almost entirely of lava rocks, is IMPORTING more? That appears to be the stupidest thing I heard in quite some time. Yet people buy them. How stupid that?

Coincidences. They are all around you, if you look!

Things that go Bump in the night

12.21.03 (11:43 am) [edit]

The other side of paradise begins to rear its head. As I have mentioned in previous writings, Hawaii has many plusses, which move it above the other states. Just yesterday I was doing my laundry and met a young man from the Midwest. He told me he loved the Kona area and Hawaii in general. It seems that our idea that people from the Midwest are friendly is not what he has found. He said that Kona has his home beat, hands down.

All of our activities are within a few minutes walk to a few hours drive away. Fishing, scuba, horseback riding, hiking, mountain climbing and even snow skiing can be found here. Not every island can boast that.

Some of our stores charge mainland prices and most of what you need, can be found here. Possibly more so here than other places, it pays to shop around and get to know what is on sale. Stocking up on sale priced items can help cut overall costs. An extra freezer might also come in handy for food items.

Over at the Hotel Manago restaurant last night, my friends had fish and I had the famous pork chop. It was good, but I think the way I make mine is better. Along with dinner came a big bowl of rice, potato salad and a bowl of what I think were rice noodles. Chop sticks were available for the asking.

The lure of warm weather brings many people here. After moving here you may find the “gotcha”. As with other locations, the temperatures reported online and on TV come from weather reporting equipment at the airport. It turns out there is no airport near where I moved! The airport temperature appears to have dropped to 70 overnight; however, here in Captain Cook it plummeted to 60! So you are laughing and thinking “Yeah, so in the East they have inches and feet of snow. What is YOUR problem with 60 degree temperatures?” Well, it would not be a big problem IF I had heat, or long pants or a sweatshirt or blankets…

The owner of the house appears to have trying to sell it for a while. I understand from a neighbor that it stood empty for years, and then had two separate renters. When my offer was accepted, the last renter moved out 6 months ago. The renter left the house in pretty good condition but I can see that there was no maintenance done on the house anytime recently. The kitchen faucets leak badly. Both toilets upstairs don’t work properly. The lanai railing needs to be replaced along with both sets of stairs outside.

Two rafters need repair, and some other items; still, the place has great possibilities and I think I got a good price for the land and house.

The house sits up off the ground by a story and part of the house is enclosed on the first level.; however, it is open to the elements. It is also open to animals. I may have some mice down there and will need to take care of them. I also have an ongoing battle with geckos getting in the house. They eat bugs but leave droppings. It also is disconcerting to see little green things running across ledges and walls. Sometimes they make sounds and that might be in the middle of the night. Speaking of bugs, I may also invest in a bug zapper. There are a few mosquitoes here that have targets on their backs…

I would love to rip out the two bathrooms and the kitchen and have them redone. I must wait until I own the house and that could still be “another 4 to 6 weeks”.

Twice I shooed a cat off my lanai and it dove under the house. That may not be a bad thing, because if it does its job, I may start feeding it.

So, I’m very cold overnight (all scrunched up trying to keep warm), I hear scratching in the walls, and I have small green lizards scampering around. I’m lying on an air mattress in front of a picture window where there is normally a view of the Pacific. Instead, I look up at a night filled with stars and drift off to sleep.

Only to be awakened at 7 am by what sounded like either ½ the house falling down or a shotgun being fired. I’m thinking it is the latter and that there is now 1 less turkey running through the neighborhood. Did I mention the wandering turkeys? I think we may have quail too, but am not sure.

As I say, it IS paradise, but to fully experience it, you have to go with the flow. You cannot cut people off in traffic nor use your horn. It just is not polite. Six o’clock may mean six thirty or seven or possibly not at all.

I guess George Burns summed it all up in the movie “Oh God” when he was asked why there is bad in the world. His answer was that good and bad balance each other. Without bad there would be no good. There would be nothing to compare “good” to. A common expression here is that without the rain, there would be no rainbows. And the world needs rainbows!

Wow!

12.18.03 (11:59 pm) [edit]

I had a breakfast buffet in the morning and later tried to help on a computer problem, but found that I was stumped.

I bought a few supplies and headed to the farm. There I started scrubbing the deck chairs on the lanai (porch). They are pretty dirty and I used a bit of Oxiclean on them.

My mistake of the day was to try to cut down some trees which were blocking my view of the Pacific. No, I didn't get hit by falling lumber, rather, when I was done, I walked on and broke my water line!

On the mainland where it freezes, people use heavy duty water lines and bury them below the frost line. Here the frost line is up at say 10,000 feet! With all the lava on the ground in my area, we use plastic PVC pipe and just lay it on top of the ground. I can tell you that is a great idea. In Georgia I had to dig up my water line once and I was without water for over a week as I repaired and then re-repaired the line. Here my repair will take about an hour to fix and 2 hours to ensure the glue is dry before pressurizing the line again. Since all of my farm will be PVC and drip irrigation, I will stockpile lots of spare parts.

My Mom sent me a Christmas card. On the back were a few stickers, one of which was Santa, holding a candy cane in one hand and a cup in the other. Mom drew an arrow poiting towards the cup and wrote "Kona Coffee?" I had a good laugh over that!

Tonight for dinner I opted to go back to the Big Island Grill, where I first visited a week ago. I again got the rosemary chicken and again could only finish half. I told the chef that they might as well just serve the dinners in a takeout tray because most people end up not finishing their dinner and have to take it home :-) My dinner plud drink and tip was $10.00. Absolutely a great place to eat.

As I was nearing the door, I heard someone say "she" was going to sing for us. I did not hear who the singer was, but it appears most people in the restaurant knew her or knew of her. There were only about 18 people in the place and 10 of them were at her tabvle. They might have been family, but i do not know. In the Big Island Grill, it seems almost everybody is family (one way or the other)!

As she began to sing "I believe the children are our future..." the room hushed and you could hear a pin drop. It was a moving and delightful moment in time, and certainly something that rarely happens elsewhere.

As I got into my car and started back to the hotel, I was jarred back to reality. The lyrics being sung on the radio station... "I don't know, I don't know, I don't know where I'ma gonna go when the volcano blows..."

Party Time!

12.17.03 (12:28 am) [edit]

Today I finished shampooing my carpets at the house and the phone line is enabled. Actually, I ordered selective ringing on the line which gives me 2 inbound numbers ringing on the same phone line. The telephone I bought can handle 2 lines like that and give seperate announcements for each.

Speaking of phones, it was with that phone (and a drink or two in me) that last nigbht I went to call one friend and mistakenly dialed another. The first one was awake, the one I reached was not. OOPS!

My local radio station (and I mean LOCAL as it is just up the road from me) plays oldies. One show they import is called "Dave's Diner". I used to listen to the show on my satellite dish back in Atlanta. I think it used to be broadcast on the audio channels of Jones Cable systems. I even called in once to answer a trivia question.

In other coincidences, the current trial on Court TV is from Fulton County, right next to where I moved from a month ago.

I have been helping the hotel here by finding some music for their Christmas party and 35th anniversary party. I was invited to the the party as a guest and knew many of the people there. I was even introduced as "da computer guy" who roams the halls, fixing things :)

The presentation was a big sucess and it involved nphotos of peopl,e who started with the hotel all those years ago and I saw a few tears and lots of laughs from people who saw themselves and others in the older photos. I'm sure many of the people have changed quite a bit.

We also had a guest commedian who is quite well known in the islands, Frank Delima. Some of Frank's humor involves the ethnicity of the island residents, and no nationality is spared. In the islands, people are proud of their ethnic background and it is quite common for people to declare thier roots when asked. They also seem to be able to laugh at themselves and their customs, as long as it is not joked in a bad way. It really is refreshing to see people so comfortable with themselves and their neighbors.

I'll be occupying the farm permanently soon, even though it looks like yet another snag has occured in the process. At least I can ship coffee soon, that is, if I even get my labels.... Perhaps I'll just go to the local printer and have a few hundred made up to tide me over.

Mundane Tasks

12.16.03 (12:33 am) [edit]

I checked Wal-Mart, K-Mart, COSTCO and Home Depot and ended up buying a $114 or there-abouts shampooer. Today I shampooed about 1/2 the carpet in the house.

The phone in the house was "hot", which means it had a dialtone and you can use it to order service. I had already been on the Verizon website and knew what service I would be wanting. When I picked up the phone to order, they had no idea what number I was calling from. I had to find the name of the previous tenent and use that. If I could not get them that info, they would have to send a tech out to the house, NEXT MONTH; so I did the leg work and should have telephone service in a day or two.

The phone rate is quite reasonable. I am getting local (this island only) dialing, number and name caller ID, call forwarding and selective ring (which is a second telephone number to ring to the same phone) all for $32 a month. On that phone line I'll put my phone that uses selective ringing. It will answer the phone differently depending on which number people called.

The number will qualify for DSL and although I think Roadrunner may work better for me, I'll try DSL from Earthlink. My reasoning is that I already host my websites there and have my primary email at Earthlink (Mindspring). Thus I should be able to just upgrade my account and keep everything I have.

The coffee bags and clips to hold the bags closes and the heat sealer all came today. Now if I just had labels.....

Rest of the Story

12.16.03 (12:22 am) [edit]

Have you ever wondered where they find those people who stand at the airport and hand out leis.... well, now you will hear the REST of the story...

I have been helping at the Royal Kona Resort and a manager asked me if I had some extra time. He said he needed to go to the airport and greet some people. Did I have long pants? I put on my best duds and went with him.

It turns out that yesterday was the inaugural flight of Air Canada to Kona. The Big Island Visitors Bureau and others set up tables near Aloha baggage claim, there were hula dancers there and someone went to meet the plane to hand out leis. On the tables were a sewing kit, some chocolate, hand lotion, postcards and so on.

As the lei-draped visitors exit the restricted area of the airport, what is the first thing they see? Me! I'm standing there saying "Air Canada passengers, Aloha, welcome to our island. Please visit step over here for a welcome gift..."

OUR ISLAND! Imagine! I've been a resident HOW LONG? :)

So now you know where they find these greeters... it seems, anywhere they can! :)

And now you know the REST of the story!

It may snow...

12.13.03 (8:37 pm) [edit]

As I was strolling through stores today (and it was in the 80's outside), I was going to humorously say to people that it smells like we may get some snow. However, I decided not to.

A quick trip to the post office turned up 3 boxes, which went into storage. I went to the farm and decided to spend a while outside clearing the driveway. The driveway is cinder, rocks and packed dirt, but hanging branches get in the way of driving. Now the branches are gone and it is smooth sailing! A few more trips down the driveway and I'll start losing weight. The driveway is about 1200 feet from house to street. It gradually drops as you go from street to house, but I don't know how much. perhaps someone will stop by and have a GPS unit and I can see.

I have been chasing geckos from the house. They seem to slip in all the time. Although they eat bugs, they leave dropping, so I'd prefer to close up all the cracks and let them find another place to live. They say geckos are good luck. Then again they also say crickets are good luck. Crickets come indoors because it is warm; thus, if your house has crickets during the winter, you must have heat; thus you are employed... maybe :) The geckos just seem to come in to annoy me :)

We had two cruise ships in port today, but they missed the fun. As they were heading out the annual Kailua-Kona Christmas Parade went from the hotel here, down Alii Road. People were standing shoulder to shoulder on both sides of the street. It truely was a neat local parade with fire trucks all decked with lights, dogs with antlers (or were they really reindeer?) and even Santa made it for the show. Some of the island kids sang Christmas songs as they walked along.

As the parade ended I glanced up towards the mountain and thought to myself, yes, it does seem like snow!

Cleaning and buying

12.13.03 (10:40 am) [edit]

I am taking early occupancy of my farm in Captain Cook and, I and a friend, have already been there 2 days cleaning.

I got the electric and water turned on, but then found both bathrooms upstairs leaked. I had a minor flood which I cleaned up.

The two days I was there, there was little breeze and I am hoping that is not the norm. I seem to remember a breeze the days I looked at the place. If there is not enough airflow, I'll certainly be getting a large box fan, until I can get acclimated. It still is better than spening hundreds of dollars a month for heat back in Atlanta.

I don't know what I'll do with the furniture there. It looks ok, but really needs cleaning and I may opt to just buy new. I am not expecting to get a lot, since it will be just me and an occasional guest. The matresses will be the first to be replaced though :) I will be using an air matress in the meantine.

I was hoping to get the TV special they had for a vacujum and shampooer at Home Depot, but it looks like it is a HomeDepot.Com online special and they don't ship to Hawaii. I'll have to visit my local store and see what they hav e. I waill also visit K-Mart, Wal-Mart and COSTCO, etc. I really want to shampoo the carpets next.

My next step will be to get internet. I met a neighbor outside the Big Island Grill the other night and he told me I can get RoadRunner. I'll check the price. If I can get DSL speed, I'll have my internet (Packet8.Net) phone hooked up in a second. I then may also just get a cell phone, rather than a local phone. I really feel I need a cell and the local phones come with so many extra charges and fees that it is not a viable choice anymore.

As an aside, there are three things that irk me. Years ago the phone company came up with touchtone. It was touted as more reliable and easier than dialing. Although they didn't mention it, it also would save the telephone company a lot of money. They could get away from the old relays and mechanical switches and go with computers. For the convenience of this, you paid to upgrade to the premium service by paying a "touchtone fee". So why then, what? 30 years later, are we STILL paying a touchtone fee??? The majority of people are using touchtone and I would think the phone companies whould want to charge people who wanted to use rotary dial, because they must still support that translation for those people.

Also, decades ago, people had to RENT their phone from the phone company for a couple dollars a month. Then, there was a law suit (I think it was the Carterphone decision, if memory serves me), that allowed companies to sell you a phone and the phone company was required to allow you to connect it. Well, some people never bought a phone. If you know of an elderly couple who has lived in their same house for decades, do them a favor and look at their bill. Some people have been found to have paid thousands of dollars since then to rent a telephone worth a few dollars! If you find such charges, holler and scream. Call the Public Service Commission, etc.

Finally, many people pay an "inside wiring maintenence" fee, which I think is a horrible charge. Most families got 50 years and never have telephone wiring problem inside their house. Why not save the money and then, if you have a problem, pay somebody to fix the wires? Unless you have a wall fall down or take a chain saw to the place, why would the wires come apart inside the walls? The normal telephone circuit is either 2 or 4 wires, but the phone only uses 2 wires (exception is the old Princess phone with 2 wires powering the light in the dial). Hook the two wires up backwards and touchtones won't work. That pesky rotary dial would work with the wires correct or reversed.

Just a few thoughts for you to save a buck or two.

And faster yet

12.11.03 (1:17 am) [edit]

In anticipation of starting to move tomorrow, I made a swoop through Wal-Mart, K-Mart and COSTCO, picking up necessaries. I grabbed paper towels, big trash bags, cleaning rags, bleach, a bucket and a cleaner I like, Simple Green. I finally figured out that Simple Green smells like limes...

I had to sign up for regular water rates for now. To get agricultural rates, I have to have a special flow control valve installed and inspected. This valve insures than any farm who might use fertilizer in their irrigation water, will not allow that water to re-enter the water system. I don't know if there is a valve on my property yet, but they would have not let me use the water until the valve was checked anyway, and I want water tomorrow.

I am borrowing a few things wich include a vacuum and an air matress. I am not sure what shape the beds are in as there were renters in the house. It looks as though they cleaned it up nicely before they left though.

I don't know what I will do about the internet or a phone line. I'll have withdrawal sysmptoms starting soon I'm sure. That should force me into getting something almost instantly. I'll also have to start moving out of the hotel soon. I sure will miss the maid service! :wink:

Fast and Furious

12.10.03 (1:21 pm) [edit]

Things are starting to move pretty fast now.

The mortgage company could not find my original paperwork, so I have to fill it out again. No big deal as they say it will not slow the process.

I asked the agent to see if I can take early occupancy to the property. The owner said "yes".

I just called to get insurance on the property, the electric will be turned on tomorrow and it looks as though the water will also. I have to head to the water department today and pay up front and they will install a meter.

I will have to see about a phone, but for now, the water and electric will let me start cleaning up the house. My agent said he can help me fix one set of outside stairs (which need to be replaced/rebuilt).

Day before yesterday I cut down some trees which were rubbing against the house and tangling themselves in the overhead wires. I also started cutting down vines starting to grow across the driveway.

Is is Ketchup or Catsup?

12.07.03 (5:26 pm) [edit]

Let us catch up a bit on where things are :)

Thursday: A friend and I went to the Kona Brewing Company and had a Captain Cook pizza and some beer. I had a pint of whatever was on sale... but both were great!

Friday: I attended the KonaWeb online community get-together at the old airport. We had a great pot-luck dinner and I took COSTCO ribs and chicken (because I still am not in my house yet). I met a couple who now live about 5 miles from the town I USED to live in when I was in New Jersey.

Saturday: I stopped by the post office and 15 of my boxes were there! I rented a stroage unit not far away and started filling it up.

I also noticed that Safeway had Marie Collanders frozen dinners on sale for less than what I had been paying in Georgia. I wish I had a freezer and I would stock up...

Sunday: I went to the storage area and left some things I had been holding at bthe hotel; then went down to the property and looked around. I am considering staying there, but would have to do lots of cleaning and would need to have water and electric and phone turned on. Also, I would have to get DSL somehow. I'll consider it.

That is about it until the next update. That was pretty quick, wasn't it?

Snow in Hawaii

12.05.03 (9:45 am) [edit]

Many people don't understand that we get snow in Hawaii.

Mauna Kea (white mountain) is reported to be the tallest mountain in the world. It comes up 14,000 feet from ocean bottom to sea level, then another 14,000 feet up to the summit. We can only drive up that last 14,000 feet :D

Here are a few links:

http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/JAClocal/cgi-bin/irtv id" title="http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/JAClocal/cgi-bin/irtv id" target="_blank"http://www.jach.hawaii.edu/JA...
http://skihawaii.com" title="http://skihawaii.com" target="_blank"http://skihawaii.com
http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/HawaiianStarlight" title="http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/HawaiianStarlight" target="_blank"http://www.cfht.hawaii.edu/Ha...

Of course, you have to travel up 14,000 feet to get to it.

For more Hawaii webcams, go to http://MyHawaiianSite.com and click on the WEB CAMS button.

Snow in Hawaii

12.05.03 (9:24 am) [edit]

Shuffling

12.05.03 (8:49 am) [edit]

The past few days have involved a bit of shuffling around.

People told me that Hilo gets rain, but I seemed to have driven through more than my share of it. The heave rains that hit the islands have stopped and things dried up. I just got very tired of driving to Hilo, car shopping, in it.

My trip on Wednesday was via bus. A pleasurable ride across the island, but the bus was a bit cool. There was also no restroom on it, but we did have a 25 minute rest stop at the Parker Ranch, and not a minute too soon! While waiting to reboard the bus, I spoke with two gentlemen from Japan who were visiting the island. They had been to Oahu and now were looking at the opposite side of Hawaii. They could not believe that land was so inexpensive here. I remember hearing that years ago, Japenese golfers would fly to Hawaii to play golf and actually save money over playing back home. A game cost over a thousand dollars and the Hawaii trip and a FEW games still cost less!

I spoke with the Credit Union yesterday and yes, it appears that they had no access to my retirement accounts and the funds there. I made a call to the investment part of the CU and they faxed a statement over. Within an hour or so I saw the used car loan show up in my list of accounts online. As I say, once you prove that you don't need to borrow the money..... :-)

Since I had my truck AND a rental car, I had to shuffle them around to get both here to the hotel and transfer my "day after Thanksgiving" purchases to the truck and then eventually to the hotel room. I also had a few boxes of personal items securely stored in the hotel that are now in my room.

Yesterday I moved hotel rooms to a smaller one next door. It is a long story why, but I am fine with the switch. I moved the internet connection with me, so I still have my internet phone from Packet8.Net running, and my internet connection.

I took the rental car back to the airport and turned it in. The price for them to gas up the car (if you buy that option) is actually pretty reasonable. It is cheaper than the local gas station, but not as cheap as COSTCO. Speaking of gas, there is a move underfoot to drop gas prices here in the island. We are now paying over $2 a gallon at COSTCO and maybe $2.30 at other stations on parts of this island. Of course with my truck having a 4 liter engine and a big gas tank, you can imagine the sticker shock when I fill up!

I will try to find the mortgage company representative today to redo my paperwork. Seems they can't find the originals. This loan was applied for back in maybe March or so and three people now have had the account within the company. They say that this reapplying will not effect the time to close. They also did not lock in the rate this whole time, so the load I requested at 5% will now be about 5.6% I think. I don't think they will be getting a lot of free coffee from me this Christmas.. :-)

My friend Gary called me multiple times yesterday. He is coordinating my house back there so it can get on the market. Over the past weeks or so, he has had the termite inspectors in, people looking at the air conditioning, the gas company, been cleaning up the house and so on. Yesterday he was able to sell my big TV to one of the trades people and coordinate someone to give me an estimate on my antiques. So it looks as though gary has been doing some shuffling too.

Since I cannot live at the hotel until closing I'll have to decide where I'll stay. The farm has no utilities and needs work before I move in.

There is a KonaWeb Party here tonight at the old airport. Perhaps someone here has a place for rent down close to where I will be moving. If not, I have an offer far up to the north, but it really is too far to drive down to where I need to be.

No sign of any of the boxes yet. I was told to expect them a few weeks after I shipped them, and then, a few boxes a day rather than the rate at which I dropped them off back in Georgia. I hope they make it in good shape. I fear they won't. I have heard stories...

One thing about Hawaii and especially here on the Big Island; we get cruise ships and visitors. Here in Kailua-Kona, Ali'i Drive goes right next to the water and visitors, well most visitors, use the crosswalks to get from the sea wall to the mauka (mountain) side of the street where the shops are. Drivers honestly stop and let these people cross, and sometimes the visitors are in no hurry at all. I rarely see any car try to zoom past to beat the pedestrian. This is a far cry from other places where pedestrians and cars share the road! I don't know how much money each visitor spends each day theye are on the island, but without then, the economy hurts us. Perhaps that is why we stop and wave and smile?

When I talk to people in Daytona Beach, all I hear is grumbling about the visitors and traffic. We are starting to get traffic here and some grumbling about having to actually wait at the few traffic lights we have. So far, I don't hear grumbling about the visitors.

Finally, because we get international visitors AND have residents here with international roots, many of the stores here have sections on vadied foods and snacks. Sushi is widely available as is other cultural foods. Japanese items are common and I have noticed that there are a lot of snack foods which contain plum and wasabi. However, one item seems to really stand out and I guess I just never knew that cuttlefish became a snack food...

You live and learn I guess!

Shuffling

12.05.03 (8:47 am) [edit]

No Sigh of Relief

12.04.03 (12:06 pm) [edit]

SO, I'm waiting for my closing date on the farm. The mortgage company says they can't find the original paperwork, so will have to re do some of it....

My house is ALMOST up for sale, back in Georgia.

Something funny struck me.

I have a house that I'm paying mortgage on, and not living in. I'm trying to get a new place and put a mortgage on it. I'm living in a hotel.

In Goergia, I have two vehicles that I will be selling. Yesterday I just bought a used truck and drove it to the hotel. I also have a rental car.

I have lots of money in the bank that I don't want to use to pay for the car, because I will need cash for buying the farm. I could cash in CD's but why? It would cost me next to nothing to finance this used truck for a couple months until my old house sells.

So I apply for a car loan and they were concerned to loan me money because I have no income.... seems they didn't look at the cash on hand part of the application, only the income part... Perhaps if I told them I have no money, they would lend me some... I guess I'll just pay cash for the truck and be done with it.

Wasn't there a saying about retiring and making your life easier? I think I missed the details of that!