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| The Best Laid Plans |
| 02.26.05 (12:53 am) [edit] |
I had planned to go into town this weekend to get a refrigerator but I had a visit yesterday from the man whose family picks my orchard. He wondered if he could come pick macadamia nuts soon and Saturday would be the best for me. I have to use the backpack blower to clear away the laves so his family can easily find the treasure. They get paid per bag picked, so it is only right that I make it as easy as I can for them.In a quirk of fate, I found myself with some extra Full City Plus (Dark Roast). That means it is DISCOUNT TIME over at my ItsKona.Com website. If you ever wanted to try it, now is a great time :-) I keep thinking that I should start selling in stores. Ther are a couple here that do not requite a UPC code, and since I may have a few extra bags of coffee available... Did you see my photo of me up on Mauna Kea in the snow? If you missed the slideshow, it is at http://snow.itskona.com Today was a hectec day. I blew the leaves off part of the property and then headed north. After a stop at the post office, where I received a nice check, I heade to the hotel to say "hi" to some frineds and drop off two avocados. I ran by the printer to pick up my new "Blue Ribbon Award" stickers for my coffee bags. Then to COSTCO for gas and lunch. I also bought a pair of shorts that was on sale. Heading back south, I went to Radio Shack for a small equipment fan, the ATM for some cash to pay the pickers, then to Wal-Mart for an extension cord and some screws. Then next door to Safeway for water and soda. I was going to buy some beets (I like beets is why), but the price was a bit too high for me. I stopped across the street from Safeway and Wal-Mart at the Lowes to look at refrigerators and buy a piece of wood for a project. Then heading towards home it was a quick stop by Subway. I chatted with the girls there for a few minutes. Then a quick stop by Ace Hardware for a couple things and next door to Choice Mart for some frozen dinenrs. Finally I arrived back at the house and made a couple phone calls and finally had 1/2 the sub for dinner. The only reason I mention all this is because SOME PEOPLE think all I do is sit around the house. While that is true most days, I HAVE to at least LOOK like it is not true :-) Well, as I said, tomorrow is mac nut picking day. I need to sign off and get some sleep as the morning will come quick enough and I have to stop by the Post Office before 11am to drop off some coffee shipments. |
| 14,000 feet without a plane |
| 02.10.05 (11:24 pm) [edit] |
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My Trip to Mauna Kea Summit to see Hawaiian Snow The photos and descriptions at Snow.ItsKona.Com http://snow.itskona.com tell only part of the story of my trek up to the summit of Mauna Kea to see the snow. In the year I have lived here, I had not yet been up there. Friends in Waikoloa told me that the summit looked clear Saturday morning, so I decided to fetch them and head up to see the snow and take some photos. That sounds easy enough, doesn't it? I didn't leave my home until late in the morning because I was getting my camera ready and also had to gather a few bags of coffee for the photos. Then it was off to COSTCO to fill up on gas and grab something to eat. I opted for the chicken Caesar salad rather than the hot dog and sauerkraut for personal reasons. Then it was up to Waikoloa to get my friends. Soon we were off to adventure! First we went across Saddle Road towards Hilo and as we got most of the way to Hilo we made the left onto the Mauna Kea access road. At that point you are already about 7,000 feet above sea level. You drive over a cattle guard (pipes on the road) which allow people and vehicles to cross, but cows find unsteady and refuse to cross. Signs warn you that you are in a free range area for animals and need to take care. That is the first of many varied warnings. At about the 10,000 foot mark is the visitors center where you are highly encouraged to stop and acclimate yourself to the altitude. Since you will be soon 14,000 feet above sea level, your body will not do well unless it gets used to the altitude. You would get headaches, become confused and worse. At the center they were giving a presentation in one room and there was complimentary coffee (donation) in another area. Outside there was a telescope set up for public viewing. The most welcome site is indoor restrooms! On the road we saw many trucks coming down from the summit; their beds filled with snow. At the visitors center a woman was calling AAA because her brakes were not working. My belief is that they had experienced fade due to her hauling a full bed of snow down the mountain with her foot on the brakes. I was not as worried as I was not going to be hauling snow. I used to live in the North East US and I know what snow is like :-) After half hour to 45 minutes we ascended. Some of the road is paved and some is just cinders. This is NOT a trip for a normal vehicle and you should have a 4-wheel drive (and know how to use it). The mountain is not a visitors area really and there are no creature comforts except for the center below. We stopped further up and took some photos (people skiing and a snowman). We stopped at a small paved “parking lot” to take my coffee photos. There were perhaps 5 cars there when I got out of the car. I was wearing shorts and a Hawaiian Shirt at the time. Unlike others in shorts, I also brought a pair of jeans in case it got cold. I had to laugh because here I was in shorts and the people across the lot were all bundled up in a parka and wearing a pair of skis. It was not very cold and only after 20 or 30 minutes out there did my back begin to get a bit chilled. I didn't realize it at the time, but because of the bright sun and lack of atmosphere, I was squinting in every photo! Oh well. We took a few photos, one where I sat on a rock holding a bag of coffee and another where I am drinking some of my Pele's Passion Kona. I think I should use that photo as an advertisement for Iced Coffee! We drove up to the summit and found many people had the same idea. Cars were all over the road and people were playing in the snow and taking photos. It got a bit difficult to determine which observatory was which and there were a few roads which branched off the main road. At one point the paved road became a gravel/cinder road and I doubled back thinking it was going to be a dead end. As the weather had started to close in and the hour was getting late, we opted to leave. You do NOT want to get stuck up there and the road would be treacherous on the way down. As we took the last of the photos and headed down the mountain, I noticed that when I stepped on the brakes, my foot went all the way down to the floor! This was NOT goode. I pumped the pedal a few times and began looking for a snowdrift, in case we could not stop. The vehicle stopped but I found that the pedal would soon floor out again. At the time I began thinking of all the causes and cures. Perhaps the altitude was causing problems, or perhaps I has some gelling of the fluid or something else having to do with the unique location we were at (close to freezing, little oxygen, high altitude). My mind kept going back to a time in South West Virginia many years ago when my brakes went out as I approached a hairpin turn on a mountainous back road. It was also snowy and icy at the time. Unlike Virginia, at least here people were passing nearby as they descended and we could get help if needed. I thought I had things under control until we got to a larger area I could pull off the road and investigate. The brakes, although somewhat hot, were not overheated. The fluid looked fine and I had no clue. I was able to regain some control over the brakes and decided that we would chance it on the way down. I went into low gear with low 4-wheel drive and had already practiced using the emergency brake to stop if needed. We averaged about 15 miles per hour down the mountain. You have to understand that this road is very twisty and windy and 2 cars can barely pass each other at some points. There is no guard rails and in many places, going over the side involves many hundreds of feet drop across sharp rocks. After a wait at the Visitors Center (and a build up to my courage) we opted to keep going. The brakes were generally working and I felt the need to continuously test them to be sure they were working. We arrived back in Waikoloa in one piece, but I can tell you that although the trip is very memorable, it was not as thoroughly enjoyable as it could have been! |
| Out with the bad |
| 02.09.05 (5:21 am) [edit] |
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Out with the bad and in with the new. They used that expression when trying to revive someone and it has to do with a breath of fresh air. Well, this week two breaths of fresh air were taken. The first will be detailed here in a day or so. A few of us went up to the summit of Mauna Kea (14,000 feet above sea level), just so that I could take some photos. While 14,000 feet may be a good climb for many, we drove. It only took a couple hours to get to the summit from where we were. There the oxygen is scarcer and you can’t stay there too long without troubles. And TROUBLES we had! But I hate to spoil the story, so stay tuned… The second breath of fresh air involves my old company, Hewlett Packard. For many years the new CEO, Carly Fiorina has been at the helm and many of us were ready to rename HP the Titanic. Employee morale was at the lowest ever and HP dropped from a revered company that people wanted to join, to a shell of its former self. The employees and stockholders failed to grasp what she was trying to do, and my guess is that the only way she was able to “make her numbers” was to keep letting people go. After-hours trading showed the stock up 11%… and I expect the stock to continue to go up until shareholders realize what her severance package will contain… So HP’ers and shareholders alike, breathe deeply and let the fresh air in! -- A correction to a previous blog: The accounting software I spoke of is at freeaccountingsoftware.net not .com (and I thought I veried each link. Sorry). |
| Work or not |
| 02.01.05 (8:57 am) [edit] |
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Saturday I decided to drive up into Kailua-Kona and park down the street from COSTCO. It’s a popular parking place right off the main road. Businessmen trying to make a few dollars… I parked next to the fish guy and the corn guy and displayed my coffee. Based upon your product and signage, you may get a lot of business and then again, you may not. It was a “may not” day for me. Still, it beats staying home and cleaning :) When I was back in Georgia, I rarely heard people were getting “let go”, but recently many of my friends nationwide have been or still are out of work. Without naming names, the guy who used to work at the “modem company” was out of work for a while but finally got a good job. Other than that, the guy who worked at the hotel is out of work and the guy who used to work for the ‘government’ is still looking. A co-worker from Georgia who used to work with me is still looking and a few people I know, if they don’t work harder, may also be looking soon :) As for me, I have found a few customers who are repeat customers! I am about ready to start a coffee club whereby I automatically ship coffee to people on a schedule. I’ll look for some software to manage it, but in the meantime, I’ll use my trusty index cards or my spreadsheet software! Speaking of software, I like seven separate packages/programs and will mention them briefly here. They are all Free. 1) & nbsp; OSCommerce (Oscommerce.com). This is an open source online shopping cart. I use it and so do thousands of other stores worldwide. 2) & nbsp; Thunderbird (Mozilla.Org). This is a free email program with built-in spam control (it learns what YOU consider to be SPAM). When enabled, it assumes all your mail is spam and you have to say each time, This is NOT spam. After a few days, your spam will diminish considerably as it listens to you and learns. It also is fairly immune from viruses and other “Outlook” attacks. It will install alongside any other browser and can also read in your configurations and mail from other programs. Just be sure that until you feel comfortable (or don’t need to simultaneously access your email by a web browser) that you set the configuration to LEAVE A COPY ON THE SERVER. I did this by configuring the connection to the server for my email and then unchecking the box that said something like “Download Now”. Then I went in to the server configuration and checked the LEAVE A COPY ON THE SERVER” box. 3) & nbsp; Firefox (Mozilla.Org). This free web browser is gaining in popularity against “Internet Explorer” and also is fairly immune from hacks. This browser can also be loaded alongside other browsers and will load favorites and links and accounts from your other browsers. You MAY have to uninstall Mozilla browsers first, but if you already use Mozilla products then you know how. 4) & nbsp; Apache (Apache.Org). This is the open-source web server that is (surprise!) fairly immune to “IIS” attacks. Versions will run under windows too and installation was simple. However, unlike unix conventions, I immediately added “.htm” as the default webpage standard :) Non technical users might be able to start up the server easily, but changing the configuration is not as simple. Luckily, it runs fine right out of the box for most people. Running a website is not a trivial undertaking (most of the time) so know the pros and cons first. 5) & nbsp; FreeAccountingSoftware (freeaccountingsoftware.net). I have just begun looking at this and it looks to be a replacement for QuickBooks. While not as full featured yet as QB, the price of FREE certainly makes it worth a look. I had problems installing it on one box, but the problems all seemed to be due to that box never making the full upgrade to SP2. I had someone with accounting background look at this and he was impressed. 6) & nbsp; StarOffice (OpenOffice.Org). This free suite of products takes on Microsoft in the office software arena. It includes software to write (Word), draw (Draw), calc (Excel) and even do multimedia presentations! It will replace the most popular parts of Microsoft Office. 7) & nbsp; MySQL (MySQL.Com). Having never really used SQL here in the PC, I can’t tell you how close to SQL this product is. I CAN tell you that many of the open-source applications make use of it. The free database program is especially easy to use when you access it with PHPMyAdmin. As you run programs on your computer, you might investigate alternatives; especially if they are free. I know it is a daunting task to load things, but read the descriptions and look at the demos and photos on these sites. You may well become an advocate of these programs. Note that some of these products are in development and may contain bugs. With OpenSource program especially, there are people worldwide involved in the development and they encourage you to make suggestions and report bugs. Even though you may find a bug and have to get an update, it is a great feeling NOT to have to install security patches for these products every day or so. I think the only reason Microsoft started delivering patches weekly was that admins were getting tired of the daily patches! :) Anyway, reply to the blog if you tried any of these programs and if they worked for you. Blatant Plugs: If you are hankering for 100% Kona Coffee, visit my website at http://ItsKona.Com" title="http://ItsKona.Com" target="_blank"http://ItsKona.Com and use the TBLOG checkout discount code for 10% off most roasted coffee 8oz and up. At some point I have to stop discounting the stuff, but for now, go for it :) If you want unlimited long distance (VOIP) for $20 a month, sign up for Packet8 at http://Packet8.Net" title="http://Packet8.Net" target="_blank"http://Packet8.Net and use the code LAVAROCK Until next time, I wish you ALOHA! |