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| Fear! |
| 04.20.04 (3:08 am) [edit] |
Fear is a humans constant companion. Some people recognize it and overcome it; some ignore it and some are paralyzed by it.We generally don't want to acknowledge our fears because it shows us to be weak and not in control. Fear comes in many shades and volumes. Here are some examples. Fear of the unknown. We back away from projects and functions which make us uncomfortable. Asking for a date, moving to a new city, taking on a new job are some examples. Generally we can overcome these. Suppose your boss asks you to start a new task and you feel that you have no idea what you are doing. You probably [i]have[/i] the skills to perform the task because the boss hired you based upon your skills. Fear of an event based upon your prior experience. We fear something because we have "been there, done that" and imagine the outcome in advance. A failed marriage might cause you to shirk from getting married again because you may relive the experience. You almost drown in a pool and shy away from swimming because you know the danger and don't accept the possibility of it happening again. Many times the same results will not occur and you may lose out because you cannot get the previous event out of your mind. The old saying tells you to get back on the horse that threw you off. Fear of an event which you have not experienced, but believe that it [i]might [/i] happen to you. You see the movie "Jaws" and believe you might be bitten if you get into the water. You see a plane crash and you think you might be a victim if you fly. many of these fears and unjustified, but seem real enough to make people not want to see how often the events occur. Fear of everything. I classify this as more than fear of the unknown. It is more a feeling of comfort and not wanting to "rock the boat" by doing anything that will change the current status quo. This fear makes many people refrain from being adventurous, for no good reason. I have to admit to experiencing many of the above to one degree or another. I love to fly but when offered the chance to actually be in a small plane with the "stick" in my hand, caused me to shudder and shake. However, I did 'pilot" the plane for a short time. Understand that this also helped me to partly overcome another gear I have. I used to think I had a fear of heights; howevere, it really is a completely different fear. The actual fear is a fear of FALLING, not of the actual height. There really is a difference. The actual height does not bother me. I used to work in a highrise. Sitting away from the window was easy, but I noticed a twinge of fear as I stood next to the window and looked down. years of doing that helped me not to care. I have had a fear of water since I almost drowned (or thought I was going to) in a pool when I was young, and when I attempted to snorkle in the Bahamas and swallowed what seemed like tons of water. it appeared to be a panic attack I had and I was thinking about that pool as I headed back to the boat. Other fears have bothered me over the years. I started watching "Jaws" and decided that I really didn't need to go swimming other than in a pool. I am not alone though. It appears that many people have been bothered by the movie and constant references to shark attacks. For relief, I offer the newly launched website which puts shark attacks (at least in Hawaii) into perspective. That sit is at http://HawaiiSharks.com Have I given up on all of my fears? NO! I have recognized most of them and that is the first step. Most of our fears or not justified and by just setting the thoughts aside and just doing the event usually proves to us that we worried needlessly. I write all of this to tell you about my newest fear, just discoveded today. It is the fear that the outcome of a recent event will not be in my favor. You see, I was away from the house for about 20 hours. Sometime during that time, my water pipe broke and water gushed out at full pressure, all over someones farm. Oh, they won't care about the water as it was raining all day anyway. However, I have no idea how long the water flowed and whether the water company will take pity on me. I can only hope! This fear is real and understandable :) |
| Good News, Bad News |
| 04.17.04 (8:25 pm) [edit] |
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Let's play "Good News, Bad News"... The good news is that I sold my home in Georgia. The bad news is that I didn't get what I wanted for it. The good news is that I am done with that mortgage and have none here yet. The bad news is that I [i]still[/i] don't own this farm yet. The good news is that I have already sold some coffee. The bad news is that I sold it for little or no profit just for the experience. The bad news is that while I was on the mainland, many mangos ripened and dropped to the ground uneaten. The good news is that there are a hundred still on the tree outside my door. The good news is that I will be saving a lot of money by not having to buy mangos anymore. The bad news is that to pick them from the tree rather than off the ground, I had to buy a fruit picker at $16.00. The good news is that I had a craving for gummy bears and bought them. The bad news is that I was at COSTCO when the craving struck. I now have something like a 42 pound bag I am trying to eat. Talk about sugar shock!!! The good news is that I will be selling lots of coffee soon. The bad news is that once I start the online store, I will not be able to take long vacations anymore, because [i]someone[/i] has to be here to ship the stuff! The bad news is that I have run out of good vrs bad news. The [i]good[/i] news is also that I have run out of good vrs bad news :D Until NEXT TIME... And by the way, you have NO idea how great it is to be back in Hawaii after a month on the mainland. The pollen count was a record high in ATlanta, something like 1400! Ah-choo! |
| A Sad Note |
| 04.08.04 (8:07 am) [edit] |
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I just read where a surfer was attacked by a shark off Maui and the surfer died. It is not often that sharks attack people near Hawaii, but it does happen. However, this is the first death out there in a number of years. In fact, including this one, there have only been 4 attacks in the past year, the most famous was a 13 year old girl named Bethany from Kauai, who lost an arm. There was a report of a wife being killed off Maui, but there was a bit of odd story from the husband and I don't think the police were 100% sure the attack happened, but I have no specific info. I seem to remember the husband and wife kayaking very late at night and after the attack, he swam to Lanai which is further away and spent a long time finding a phone to report the incident. Even so, the waters around Hawaii are pretty safe, but you must still use some caution. I remember Daytona Beach recently being a lot worse just over a week's time! No place is truely Paradise, but some come closer than others! :) At least mine does not come with snakes like, oh I don't know... Eden...! |
| The Old Stuff |
| 04.08.04 (7:57 am) [edit] |
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A friend and I traveled high and low through Cobb and Fulton County, looking for an Antique Shop to take the remaining items I have. Little to no interest was displayed at the prices I was asking. I have a Duncan Fife table in great shape, but they will only give you a small amount towards what you want. I understand that it may stay in their shop unsold for a long time, but even so... The clock shop said my price on a German 8-day clock from the 1890's was fairly set at $400 but that for him to buy it, he would pay $200, sell it for $475 with a warrantee. He suggested my best bet was to sell via the newspaper or to send it back to Mom.. a suggestion she made if I could not get a decent price for it. That is what I will probably do on the clock and will pack it up for Saturday's trip. As for the table, I found a free listing of items that are catagorized by location, perfect for listing items like furniture and things you want someone locally to buy so you don't have to ship. The website is http://www.livedeal.com and they appear to be offereing free listing and a free photo. They also are not yet charging a percentage of the items selling cost, so it looks like listing and selling items are completely free for now. I like that deal and listed the table there last night. My friend Gary and his wife can handle the actual sale (if any) as I will be gone. As for Pat and Gary, we listed a test item on Ebay 2 days ago and it is selling. They now know how to list things and I believe that they will start listing a lot of items in the next few weeks. Gary wants to move to California and also needs to sell lots of their stuff before making the treck. The KonaWeb group agreed to move the meeting up north for me and another family to discuss our Kona/Hilo properties to the group. I know there are a lot of questions for me about how the farm is going. Well, last night I realized that the Maui Taco in Dunwoody has closed. I had to scramble to find another laid-back place to have us meet. I chose Atlanta Bread Company which is nearby and we will all meet at 6:30pm Friday to discuss the pros and cons of Paradise! I mat with some friends last night for dinner and said my final goodbye's to some people at my old office. I've done that before, saying I will never be back, and was proved wrong. However, this tip I sold my house and will have found places to leave the furniture and except for a short layover in Atlanta on the off occasion, I really do not forsee any trips back here for any reason. Let them all head my way for a change :D Other than that, I'm trying to get my items listed for sale in the AJC paper here and finish packing. My online time will be limited for the next week until I get home. With a slight rain here last night, the air appears a bit cleaner, but nothing like the air in Captain Cook on the Kona side... I can almost smell the mangoes and mac nut trees now! |
| Tumbling Along |
| 04.07.04 (8:07 am) [edit] |
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I'm just tumbling along like a tumbleweed (as the song goes), taking it as it comes. My friends and I went to Tunica Mississippi to gamble. I didn't wing anything and in fact, lost a couple hundred dollars. Many times I come back ahead, but this time the cards and machines were against me. Today I will consign the rest of the antiques and try to sell off the last of the furniture. My return trip to Kona is Tuesday morning. In the meantime, there was a great sale from the East Coast to both Honolulu and my own home town Kona. Prices were int he $330 range for travel on certain dates in April, May and June. Many people took advantage of the sale and I know they pulled the Kona deal yesterday and prices today are $857! Prices to Honolulu are $678! The difference in cost yesterday between Kona and Honolulu was in the order of $20 I think. One can book interisland through Aloha's Aloha Pass program for $59 one way! I was able to pick up a cheap flight from Atlanta to Orlando for the weekend and will fly down to visit my Mom, sister and some friends before I leave the mainland. My sister will pick me up at Orlando and that alone will save about $150 for 3 days car rentals. $150 was the cheapest I found (and I know cheap places to look). If you want to try for these types of deals, go to http://myhawaiiansite.com and click on the yellow post-it note for hints and tips on how to find cheap fares. I have not updated it recently, but most of the info is valid (except for Aloha's deal) which is not yet entered there on my page. Because of the extra trip this weekend, I am shuffling a couple of dinners with friend, coworkers and neighbors. I am having troubles getting it all done in the next couple of days. I missed a brunch last weekend and will miss it again this one. While staying at my friends home here in Atlanta, the husband cracked jokes about my boring life. As I watched, he kept switching between two TV shows, "Average Joe" and the shopping channel showing cookware. By the way, he knows all of the names of the shopping people on TV... Anyway, after kidding me about my boring life, I reminded him that his life seemed to be limited to "watching people date, and watching people cook".... I don't think he understands how bleak his life looks to me :) I shipped my two servers to Hawaii yesterday and will meet up with them when I get there. Although I have sole some coffee on this trip, I'll be in full production soon! Back home some people have started clearing part of the property I am buying, the mangoes are ripening (and dropping unpicked to the ground) and the surf continues its relentless cycle. And I'm missing it! |
| Somewhere Over the Rainbow |
| 04.03.04 (8:54 am) [edit] |
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Many people have wondered where I am and why I'm so quiet... As the IZ song goes, I'm "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". I am hiding out at a secret location in the Atlanta metropolitan area. Here are some details... I got an offer on my house in Marietta Georgia and after some negotiations, came to terms with a husband and wife who are new home buyers. In the midsts of the "give and take", I probably gave more than I got, but walked away from the sale not having to fix anything else in the house and carrying a nice tidy check to the bank. I would have prefered to have made more money from the sale, and might have been able to if I had more time to put the house in better shape. Howevere, it is water over the dam as they own the house and I own the check :) All the furniture is out of the place and either here at my secret location ready for yet another yard sale, at an auction house or at an antique shop awaiting sale. You kinda have to pick your poison with the sales. Yardsales cost you little but you generally get little for your items. You can display antiques and hope a dealer comes by and makes an offer, but I think they may pay pennies on the dollar. An auction sale could cost you 15 or 20% of the sale price and there is no telling what the sales price may be. If you get a good day and good buyers, you could make lots more than the item is worth (look at Ebay for example). Unless you set a minimum, you item will sell to the highest bidder on the auction night and you get paid pretty soon thereafter. An estate sale could offer you lots of foot traffic and you may get a decent price soon for your items, but they usually sell, are taken to an antique store or disposed of (if not) or taken elsewhere after the sale. I was quotes 30% went to the estate sale people to hold the sale at my house. Antique places gave me two options, to take the item, try to sell it and reduce the price each month until it sells (taking 35%) off the top. If the item does not sell, I would arrange to have it removed from their shop or try again. That process could take months to get a price and you may get a high price for an item. Maybe not! The other option was for the antique shop to buy the item and 1/2 the appraised price and they would try to sell it for whatever (maybe making lots of profit if it sells for alot). See why I took so long to clean stuff out of the house and decide what to do with it? See why decisions like this drive me crazy? I have some items which antique dealers quoted me prices 50% more than another. After the sale, my friends and I took their RV over to Tunica Mississippi to do some gambling. I refrained from taking the proceeds check from the house with me. However, don't think the idea didn't seem appealing to put it on an 35 to 1 spot on the roulette table and become a multi-million-dollar winner in one roll..... OR NOT! The "NOT" is more accurate! No matter how hard I tried, I could not win at any game I tried. Sitting at the $3 blackjack table at Hollywood Casino, I saw some amazingly stupid bets from people who had no clue how to play. Luckily I did not fall i9nto their trap. I cannot imagine who told them they should split 3's against a dealers 8! In the weeks I have been here I was able to go to my old office and show my old co-workers my coffee. At the last minute before taking the flight here I was able to bag and seal my first 5 pounds of coffee. The labels are not the way I want them and the text is not spaced properly, but bring them I did! I also have sold all but 1 bag of coffee. I'm holding ontot the last bag for now to show people. BY the way, on the trip to Mississsippi, we just missed the repeat of the E.R. episode in which Dr. Greene dies in Hawaii. The music played is IZ's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" Medlay. Yes, that is the same song used in the movie "Meet Joe Black", "Tempted", "Finding Forrester" and others. Quite touching. |