Yes, I’m still around!

I know I haven’t posted in ages (has it really been 3.5 years??!! geez!) No cancer recurrence, so now 7.8 years cancer-free! Just my daily dealings with my other health issues now including reumatiod arthris with flare-ups.

But good news… I’m a grandma! My grandson is almost a year old (later this month). What a cutie & looks much like my son did at that age!

Son Carl & Grandson Eli

By the way, I told you all so in regard to where our country was headed. There are finally people who are taking the lead in trying to restore a normal balance, but the power still remains in the hands of those with less than ethical values.

“Clean” coal is an oxymoron.

More money will be made by those who go green than those who stick with fossil fuels, even though currently green energy, etc is still overpriced. As more utilize it, there will be more demand & more companies competing for green business. More green resources will crop up, prices will become competitive & also become more reliable & efficient.

We’re a part of nature… let’s take care of her!

The Carlisle Group, since buying Verizon Hawaii, has been crediting their customers of the ‘new’ Hawaiian Telcom $21.95 as a ‘customer appreciation’ credit. It was written in as part of the agreement of sale. I got my credit on this month’s bill. Frankly, I figured they’d squirm their way out of this, just as had the woman who bought Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts company, but I was wrong.

I haven’t posted in awhile because I lost my phone/DSL when water got into the main connection box on the outside wall. Normally, the phone company is good about showing up the very next day to do the repairs. They promised me that it would be fixed by 7:30 pm on Thursday. It went out on the 4th. So I sat here, waiting for the repair person, rather than going to Hilo to take care of my expired license registration.

I had been in the middle of paying my bills online when the phone went out. I did what I could to fix it myself, blowing the water out of the connection, but the arcing I saw between the contacts of the modular test plug indicated to me that components within the jack were probably bad. Even though I could dial out, there was a terrible loud hum on the line, preventing me from hearing the voice menu options at the phone company. I called from my cell phone.

A lady repair technician showed up at my house finally just before noon on Friday. She replaced the modular test jack/hard-wire connections, tested the wire I used for my second phone (which was ok) & tested the DSL phone micro-filter, which turned out to be bad. No wonder I couldn’t get the 2nd phone to work while my son was still here even with a new cord after somehow accidentally cutting the old one. She gave me a new one. The first call I made was to the phone company, because of their guaranty. They’re going to credit me $25 within the next 2 bills for not making their promise.

Once I got my phone line back, I had to run into Hilo to take care of my expired license plate. I had meant to take care of it last week. I went to Honolulu last Thursday, so had no time to do it then. My plan was to take care of it on Friday. Heh… yeah, right! Best laid plans, as usual. The weather was so miserable that they were recommending no one drive anywhere unless they absolutely had to. We were under a flash-flood watch. Some of the roads in Puna & Hilo were closed down because of flooding (remnants of hurricane Kenneth). Even though I’m a good driver & have driven in conditions like that & worse, I’m getting older & don’t trust other drivers very much. A fraction of a second’s inattention can result in tragedy on the highway.

As it was, I planned to take in my old plates to replace them with Veterans plates, which turned out to be a good thing. Come to find out, the tags on my car were the wrong ones! HELLO?! Apparently, the dealership I had bought my Santa Fe from had put the tags that were registered to my car on another vehicle & that vehicle’s tags on my car! Or perhaps it’s even worse than that, since the tag number was 2 digits off. The poor lady at the counter of the DMV was flustered, never having had this happen to her before & had to ask another clerk what to do for this. I hope this doesn’t come back to haunt me, with the car with MY tag getting multiple parking violations… in MY name!!! It’s up to the DMV to find the car with my plates & clear this problem up. All I know is that my car now has legitimate plates on it, in MY name. Murphy’s Laws… Stuff like this always happens to me!

I tried to find out what type of car my tags went onto, but the clerk wouldn’t tell me.

I also took care of applying for the discount that the State gives to 100% disabled veterans. It cut my annual registration fees nearly in half. It would have been about halved, if not for the late fee. Why didn’t I do it earlier, in the month it was due? It got neglected due to my son’s move & paperwork, etc, involved with moving him & getting his financial aid for school. There’s still more yet with that, including getting him on ChampVA medical.

Having gone to the DAV meeting today, with its very disappointing turnout, it seems that I wasn’t the only one with a fucked-up week. This meeting had the least in attendance of any meeting our chapter’s held. I almost didn’t go myself, but am glad I did. It’s good to keep up with what’s going on. We’ve lost a few members recently who’ve passed on. Our Chaplain, while vacationing in Virginia, fell a couple months ago. He’s still there, in the VA hospital & one of our members went to visit with him. The report is that they don’t think he’s going to come home. George, my thoughts are with you. You’ve been a blessing to all who’ve known you. Prove them wrong! Semper fi!

Last meeting, I gave up my position as Treasurer. My performance wasn’t up-to-snuff with all the stuff I’ve been dealing with of late, so I felt that the chapter would be better served by another who’s head isn’t so messed up as mine is right now. It’s too much stress for me right now. Thanks, Kat, for taking over.

I received my new camera I bought online through Wal-Mart on Friday. The local store didn’t carry this particular model, the Canon PowerShot Pro 1. It’s along the same style as the other PowerShot models, like my G-3, which my son took with him to college (grrrrr!). He took over my G-3 when his JVC DV video camera messed up, since the PowerShot models also take video clips (though not as good quality). The PSP1 is 8 megapixel, whereas the G-3 is only 4 megapixel, so the new camera should give me even better photos.

I like the position of the selector buttons on the Pro 1 better. Interestingly enough, the telezoom function is manual, not motorized like the other PowerShot models. One thing it makes me think is that the battery life will be longer. I haven’t noticed if it has digital zoom at all, but I don’t think it does, which means I can’t zoom as close as I did with the G-3. I think it can take a doubler though.

I used the new camera when I went to the Hilo Orchid Show on Saturday. Unfortunately, I hadn’t yet gotten another memory card, so I was limited to ‘fine’ rather than ‘super fine’ image quality so that I could get more shots on the 64 meg compact flash card that came with the camera. After the show, I went to Wal-Mart & bought a 1 gig card..

Once I get the software installed & download the pictures onto my computer, I’ll upload them into a new blog.

They had some wonderful & unusual orchids on display this year. This is the first time I’ve made it to the show. I really expected to see more venders & selections than they had there. There’s one particular very unusual one that I searched for to be able to buy, but none were available. The species is called catasetum, with the variety called “Green Apple.”

I just had to go outside & find out which of my cats fell out of a tree, landed on my roof, then slid off the drizzle coated roof onto the ground. I’m typing this just after midnight, so it’s dark out. Stupid cat! It was a young tom I named “Midget” (sometimes I call him “Menehune”). He started out undersized, but is now larger than most of my cats. He banged his upper left lip. Dumb, dumb, dumb! Hopefully, he’ll stay out of that tree from here on. At least at night, when it’s wet.

Back to the Orchid Show…

I bought several cattleya varieties in what they call “comp pots” (community pots). These are very young orchids in their first planting out of the flasks, so there are probably 10 to 15 young plants in one pot, for $10. They’re ready to be transplanted into individual 2″ pots.

I bought them primarily to send to my sister in Texas. We have a mutual friend there who has a nursery & wants to get more orchid varieties. Those he has now have been improperly taken care of, so my sister is going through what they have, one-by-one, dividing them, trimming off rotted roots & repotting them in proper planting medium. She’s also been advising them of the proper care & having them move the orchids into a better environment. They had them at first in direct sunlight, then moved them, but watered them too much. Orchids need air to their roots & mostly get their moisture as humidity from the air. Eventually, they’ll have a better greenhouse setup for the orchids.

There even was an orchid grower from Florida there, selling the more unusual varieties. I go for the more unusual, cattleyas & fragrant orchids. I like the ones that are more rare & untampered with, meaning that they’re just like they were found in the jungles, not crossed with anything or hybridized.

More on the orchid show later, with pics!

“Here comes the rain again…”

We have been inundated with rain over the past couple of weeks, until about 1.5 clear days between the 27th & 28th. This morning, I woke up to a darker-than-normal interior, darkened cloudy skies, a cool/warm feeling & anticipation/dread for the predicted weather coming my way.

I’ve been watching the tropical storm named Kenneth since its appearance near the coasts of Mexico & Baja California. Originally, it was predicted to travel west, then north, paralleling the Baja peninsula & dissipating alongside California. This storm instead paralleled the the tropics zone, where storms are born, just slightly north of that. It grew to hurricane intensity 2 or 3 times, each time losing strength again to a tropical storm.

At one point, the Central Pacific Hurricane Center reflected its forecast track as taking it south of Hawaii, then curving to the west-northwest. But Wednesday, they changed that to Kenneth making a swing north before paralleling South Point on the Big Island, bringing its forecast track in line with paralleling on the eastern coasts of all the Hawaiian Islands. The very next advisory, they changed its forecast track to crossing the Big Island over the Districts of South Hilo & Puna! At this same time, they put out flash-flood advisories for the entire state & especially the Island of Hawaii.

About an hour ago, I went outside to feed my chickens & found some minor wind damage already. A tarp I had up ripped out of its grommet on one corner, due to a 2.5″ diameter Ohia branch that had fallen on it. This is nature’s way of cleaning up the trees of their dead branches. Thank goodness that tarp was there, or the branch would have hit the back of my SUV. I retied the tarp corner in a temporary fix. I also had to pick up some of my potted plants that had been knocked down either by wind or the branch laden tarp corner. At this point, there hadn’t been much yet in the way of rain.

Just before I had gone outside, there had been gusty winds, one blowing through that was probably between 35 to 45 mph. Oddly enough, it came from the north, even though Kenneth is coming in from the east. It’s perhaps this gust that knocked that branch down.

I also cleaned a bunch of small debris off my catchment tank cover while outside. I had been looking for avocados that may have been knocked out of my tree, but found none. I guess I’m at the end of the avocados… I can only see one still hanging in my tree.

If anyone wants avocado seed from a tree that produces some of the best avocados you’ve ever had, I have quite a few. Let me know. These avocados are buttery smooth, completely stringless & have a wonderful flavor! I sent a couple to my sister last year. It sprouted with no problem, even though its outer covering was gone & she now has a small tree that will produce within a few years.

They can be grown indoors, with moderate light, & can handle temps into the 40°F outside. They require lots of moisture, but must have well-drained soil (ie: cactus potting mixture). To sprout the seed, just plant the seed halfway, keep moist & have the seed in an east-facing area where it gets morning light but shade the rest of the day. Make sure the temperature for sprouting is in the 70-85°F range. To keep the tree small, pinch the tops & ends of the branches, forcing the plant to become more bushy. My avocado produces true & makes wonderful guacamole.

In case you’re interested in watching what’s going on in the Central Pacific region, here’s the link to the Central Pacific GOES satellite:  http://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/TROP/DATA/RT/cpac-ir4-loop.html  Look carefully; you’ll notice what appears to be a hurricane with an eye near the tip of Baja California. This is hurricane Otis. It looks as though this one’s going to go straight up Baja California. I feel badly for those who invested in Time-Share properties about 10 years ago (I had received a tempting & cheap offer myself). This hurricane appears as though it might just wipe them out.

The Weather Channel doesn’t seem to be reporting on our local weather. They’re too concerned with reporting on the rich people’s fire threats in the Los Angeles & Malibu regions. I have little sympathy for them. It was good to see, however, that one lady’s collection of exotic birds have survived okay. In my opinion, it was stupid of the woman to evacuate in front of the fire threat without seeing to it that the birds, stuck in cages, weren’t evacuated as well! It would have been pure torture for those birds had the fire/smoke enveloped them. If someone has a collection such as her’s, they should make arrangements ahead of time for any potential disaster to get their animals to safety.

Our rains have started, but where I am, the rain isn’t very bad. Most of the wind gusts have diminished & the rain is relatively light & steady… Until the next squall, that is. What I’ve been seeing on the local radar is a bit scary though, with an occasional red dot that may indicate a waterspout. Hopefully, the storm won’t generate one on land, as a tornado, as has happened on Oahu a couple times in the last couple of years.

Among the early watches, I was in the air between Hilo & Honolulu. I went there for the day yesterday to go to the VA dental. I wasn’t very sure that the bad weather wouldn’t come in before I got back home. I had planned to go to the Hilo Orchid Show today, but am sitting here, watching my satellite reception come & go as this tropical depression moves onto the island. I’m also awaiting the delivery of my new camera, a Canon PowerShot Pro 1, since my son took my G-3 to Colorado with him. The new camera is 8 megapixel, vs the 4 megapixel of the G-3. I’m hoping that the new one takes the same lenses, although I’ll have to find someone to clean them, since stuff has grown in between the lenses glasses. I contemplated getting the Canon Rebel XT, since it’s 8 megapixel & takes conventional lenses, but it does not take video & yet costs nearly double, at about $1k. I want more programmable functionality that the Pro 1 offers.

Dr Yamashita at the VA dental in Honolulu is working on my teeth, that have gotten bad again since the work that I had done during the time of my cancer surgeries, which resulted in a partial. Dr Yamashita wants to give me crowns, since the previous local dentist left my roots. He’s going to replace the existing pins with larger ones to accommodate crowns, but he’s been fixing some deep cavities first. My next visit will be to fix the smaller cavities. Hopefully, once the cavities are fixed, I will only have one or two more trips to get my crowns. I can’t eat with the partials, because they wobble in such a way that denture adhesive won’t prevent, causing the partials to pop loose as I bite down. I can’t whistle with them in either & tend to suck on them. At least with the existing pins in the roots the previous dentist left, not only can I bite off pieces of meat, but can chew easily. My upper front teeth look a bit like a Ferengi’s, since the dentist also coated them with enamel so they wouldn’t be so sharp.

Dr Yamashita says I’m too young to have to resort to partials. I guess he doesn’t realize that my teeth have always been bad. Besides my neglect of them over the years, my mom took an anti-nausea drug while pregnant with me (& my sister, who already has several crowns in place) that causes weakened enamel in the newborn’s teeth. Do I appreciate pharmaceutical companies? HELL, NO!!! My mom also took a drug to prevent miscarriages (she had 4 between 4 live births) that the FDA has linked to some women’s cancers. She & we daughters would have been much better off had she taken herbal remedies, like red raspberry leaves, that don’t have those so-called ‘side’-effects.

It’s pouring right now. I’m going to call Fed-Ex to see if they’re delivering for sure today. If so, I’m going to watch a DVD on my computer or read, since I don’t have TV right now. If not, I’m going back to sleep. This is good weather for it.

“The Bitemark; Justice for Eglena”

It happened in 1992, in the small town in Texas where I then lived. It took 10 years to solve her murder. This investigation was profiled last night, 27 September 2005 on A&E’s “Cold Case Files.”

I knew back then that the perpetrator was a local, amid rumors that it wasn’t. How I knew, I can’t say… just a ‘gut feeling.’

Did I know her? No. But people I did business with did, like my insurance agent, whose family was close to Eglena DeLeon’s family.

Young Eglena was taken away forcefully from a street fair that was being put on in downtown Seguin to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, a celebration of the independence of Mexico from Spain.

The street festival was a gay scene, with good eats, beverages, dancing & carnival fun. Eglena’s murder, which took place in a church courtyard not even a block away, became a blight to the small community & its future celebrations.

As I watched the episode, I saw many familiar locations. I don’t really miss the area much. There are too many bad memories connected with that city, like the murdering of several of my kitties by a neighbor family. I also never liked the oppressive heat & humidity of the region… 60% average humidity & temps in the 90° range for nearly 6 months out of the year & winters, still with high humidity, but temps often dropping 20 – 40° within an hour with the passing of cold fronts, from mid 70° to 80°. This is what makes people ill, along with them wearing outerwear (heavy coats & jackets) while indoors, for example while shopping.

There are a few good memories of the area, but those are far outweighed by the bad. I’m relatively happier here in Hawaii, where the people are less judgmental & much more tolerant of differences (natural to the fact that everyone’s different than anyone else). Our violent crime rate here is also much lower than that Texas region, with their weekly drive-by shootings, child abductions & rapes, monthly murders, home invasions & burglaries. The community of Seguin, Texas (Guadalupe County) has approximately the same number of people as the Hilo District here on the Big Island of Hawaii. I find nothing in Seguin of value in my life other than my sister, who still (unhappily) lives there with her husband & second son.

We’re watching hurricane Jova (pronounced hoe-vah) here in the Central Pacific. Like the latest in the Atlantic, Jova’s been traveling slowly, at 7 mph. Currently, its forward motion, without any changes, will bring it right into the state of Hawaii. At this time, it’s still approximately 800 miles east-southeast of the Big Island. All the Civil Defense notices on the radio about it state that they believe that once it hits the cooler ocean waters nearer the island, it will diminish in strength. Its sustained winds at this time are about 115 mph, with hurricane force winds extending about 35 miles from the center & tropical force winds about 120 miles. They do say that even if it diminishes, we are in for some heavy winds & rains. We really don’t need those right now, since we’ve been deluged for the last 2 weeks or so! That is, here on the Big Island. The other islands are still quite dry, almost drought-like!

What irritates me is that The Weather Channel says NOTHING about Hawaii’s weather! They act like we’re a foreign country, not requiring mention. I’m sure that those of you who’re in Alaska notice the same about your state with them. I even noticed that WeatherBug didn’t carry watches & warnings for Hawaii when I had it installed on my computer. I no longer have that program, not only because of that, but primarily because it became spyware that loaded a browser search hijacker on my computer. It took uninstalling WeatherBug & more to dump the browser hijacker. I don’t even trust The Weather Channel’s desktop weather program, since I know their website is loaded with third-party cookies & numerous ads.

Hmmm… we now have THREE hurricanes in the Pacific. Besides Jova, in the Central Pacific, there are also Kenneth & Max. Some people aren’t taking any chances & are stocking up on hurricane survival kit stuff on Oahu. I really don’t blame them. During my last DAV meeting, our quest speaker was the local director of the Red Cross. He told us we don’t have enough shelters for people during hurricane weather. We do have places for people to go after a major storm, like my subdivision’s community center. We’re sorta SOL otherwise.

My son was packing some of his stuff today to ship out via UPS, so he’ll have it in Colorado in time for his move-in to the college’s apartments. I tried to tell him how to pack his computer to protect the monitor. As usual, he thinks I’m talking out my ass with my suggestions, so did it his way. When we got to UPS in Hilo, I noticed their sign about how to pack computers & other electronic stuff. They’re even more picky than I am! They want at least 3″ of bubble wrap around the monitor! My son was primarily using clothes as protection for the monitor. We went ahead & shipped his second box (which I had tried to convince him to check in as baggage on the plane) of 54 pounds, at a cost of over $80. The guy told us that getting prices by phone (they had told my son about $55) & ‘doing it ourselves’ by getting the price online & printing out the shipping label would have saved us about $30. Damn corporate crap… price-gouging! The kid at UPS was sitting around, doing nothing until we showed up. One other customer came in shortly after we showed up.

The computer is still sitting in my car right now. We went to a packaging supply store, but they’re closed on Mondays. Lame! Then we went to an independent packaging/shipping store (like Mailboxes, Etc) to find out what they charge to package & ship a computer. The girl said she had a guy who shipped his computer to California for $500! He bought the supplies & packaged it himself, but shipped it through them. Is that insane, or what?! Just the cost through them to ship is at least $200! At UPS, at the weight the box currently is, it would be $106. That store doubles the price. Forget them!

We then went to Wal-Mart & bought more bubble wrap. The girl at the shipping place said they double box the monitors. That’s a good idea. In fact, I asked my son if there was a stuffed animal he wouldn’t mind sending to Colorado. That would make an excellent buffer for the front of a monitor. One thing I’ve also used to take up space without adding much weight at all are empty plastic soda bottles. They prevent items from shifting, can be partially filled with air so they can be somewhat shaped. Personally, I think they work better than many of the expensive packing materials used in shipping items. Both places also suggested styrofoam, even though neither had that.

This would have been so much easier if he’d just backup his main hard drive onto his slave hard drive, remove the secondary hard drive to take with him, & buy a new computer once he gets to Colorado. DUH! That makes too much sense.

I dropped my son off at the grocery store he used to work at, because he wanted to buy his Arizona Green Tea. From there, he planned to skate & hang with a friend who lives in Hilo. It’s past 10:00 pm now & he’s still not home. When I asked how he’d get home, he said, “I don’t know.” GRRR! I hate that.

On my way home, I checked for sturdy boxes to put the monitor in. No luck. But I did accidentally notice something that I feel would be perfect as a buffer for the monitor. I bought the last 3 ‘Noodles’ pool floatation toys at Pahoa Cash & Carry. These are similar to the molded foam pipe insulators… the kind that have a slit their entire length so you can just pop them over exposed hot water pipes. The Noodles don’t have the slit. I imagine the pipe insulators would be cheaper than the toys, which were $2.19 each. Still, these weren’t bad for that price. If need be, we can even slit them in half, so there would be a flat surface to mount against the monitor, taping them onto the bubble wrap. Going by what UPS requires, I figure we can fold the bubble wrap thick enough just over the glass & wrapping one or two layers around the whole monitor. That should be adequate.

In Hilo today, I decided I’d scope out their gas prices. Not good. They’re still between $3.659 & $3.679/gallon. I checked the prices out in Pahoa & was shocked to find that our newest gas station is already down to $3.189/gallon, yet Paul’s is now $3.679/gallon, up 2¢ from last week’s price. That surprises me, because Paul’s is usually the cheapest gas on the entire island! I’d have to assume that his is still up there because people just aren’t buying much gas lately. Paul’s not one to price-gouge, with anything. He’s usually the last to go up in gas price.

I’ve been patting myself for not having bought gas at over $3.00/gallon. The last time I bought any, I paid $2.849/gallon. That was in late August. I just don’t drive much anymore. Also, what I’m now driving is an SUV… a Hyundai Santa Fe, with a 6-cylinder engine. It gets 18-22 mpg. My son claims the Elantra’s been getting him over 30 mpg. Hopefully, since I just had an oil change done on the Santa Fe, it’ll get even better gas mileage. The oil they took out was black. Normally, that’s one of the first things I do when I buy a used car. I’ve just been putting off doing so this time. I know better.

I’m still watching Ophelia. She’s fortunately moved more to the east, tracking further offshore as she heads northward. For those in Massachusetts, Maine & Nova Scotia, she can still be a threat. As long as she doesn’t track back to the west any, they’ll be fine.

I finally got my cable channels back late morning, so switched over to The Weather Channel. They were showing shots of some of the devastation in North Carolina. Some of the buildings they showed surely didn’t look very well. Fortunately for them, FEMA seems to be better on track to assist Ophelia’s victims.

I don’t know why my cable channels didn’t come back sooner, since the heavy rainfall had stopped overnight. When I checked the local radar, there wasn’t the clustering of squalls directly to the east of Hilo that are typical when these channels are knocked out, which had been amassing for the past couple of days. I was about to call DISH & asked my son to turn on his TV to see if his was okay & that it might just be my wire from the antenna or my receiver that was causing the problem. As soon as he turned his on, getting all the usual channels, I tried mine again & they all came in for me. Was it his turning his system on that helped? Who knows. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Strange, though, since a neighbor’s had been working earlier in the morning when mine still wasn’t.

We’re back to our typical weather here, meaning occasional showers. But we’re keeping an eye on 2 hurricanes in the Eastern Pacific, named Jova & Kenneth. They’re predicted to lessen in strength before reaching the Central Pacific, because of our colder waters, but you never know for sure. I hope the steering air currents keep them at bay at least, but expect that we’ll get the remnants as squalls, meaning more heavy rains & some high winds. I’d rather we have our normal trade showers every evening.

I like the rain… that’s why I live on this side of the island. Rains mean cooler temperatures & a better growing environment for plants. And I love my plants! Especially orchids (particularly catalayas). Those who live on the Kona side can keep their Texas-like heat & humidity. I like the cooling trade winds & showers! As a kid, I loved playing outside in the rain… stomping in puddles in the grass was delightful! The only thing I don’t like about the rain is my glasses lenses getting all spotted up. I’m picky about them being clean & clear & when one’s clothes are wet, it’s difficult to dry the lenses.

This afternoon, my son & I headed into Hilo to drop off the car for shipping. We ran into a snag though. BT Auto Transport hadn’t paid Matson for their part of the shipping, even though I paid the entire charge over the phone on Monday. Matson wouldn’t take the car without their portion paid ($899… to the West Coast) & I could only get the voice mail of BT Auto (they close at 6:30 PM, CT & we’re 5 hours behind). It was late afternoon by the time we took the car to the port, since I couldn’t get my son going in the morning, like I wanted. I had to plunk down another $899 on one of my credit cards, so his car could go out on the ship leaving tomorrow (Saturday), heading straight for LA.  When BT Auto finally pays Matson, they’ll reimburse my card. Believe me, it’s at the top of my list to call them & bitch them out for not having this taken care of BEFORE dropping the car off, since the drop-off date was set on Monday!

The car is expected to arrive in LA by the 26th or 28th, where BT Auto will pick it up & load it on a ‘piggy-back’ transport bound for Denver. How much longer that will take will depend on how quickly BT Auto gets a truck there for it. Hopefully, they’ll have one available within a day or 2 of the ship’s arrival. That would mean the car would be in Denver before his school starts on October 3rd. His move-in date at the college’s apartments is the 28th, so he’ll be without a car there for a few days. Since he leaves here next Thursday, he’s now without a car here for the rest of the time before he leaves. He’s bummed about that, since it’ll cut out his skateboarding activities with his friends (they’re all without wheels right now… he’d been their transportation for the most part). And no, I’m NOT letting him take my SUV! I’m sick of him leaving me stranded!

Besides, I have some projects for him to do here before he leaves, like weed-whacking the yard, trimming the tree that overhangs my roof & cleaning the gutters. We also need to bag up & dispose of trash that has collected under the house & in his room. I would like to be able to use his old room once he’s gone, so I can get my house in general straightened up & cleaned up. Maybe I can get my house relatively uncluttered before my new house gets built!

I also bought new wiper blades for his car & installed them before dropping it off. The old ones were dragging on the windshield, crying out loudly to be replaced. I know they wouldn’t work well in the upcoming cold climate with snow & ice there in Denver for very long. The ones I bought are the Triple Edge® brand silicon wipers, which are lifetime guaranteed & don’t harden with the cold. Right now, they seem a bit stiff, but I figure that they’ll soften with use.

Besides the phone call on Monday, my son is planning to ship out his personal items, including his computer. There goes another couple hundred bucks out of my pocket! He claims he’s going to pay me back, once he gets his student loan money. We’ll see…

I know this will sound lame, in light of hurricane Ophelia hanging off the coast of the Carolinas for at least 3 days now. The Big Island of Hawaii is under a flash-flood warning today. For the entire time Ophelia’s been hanging off the Carolinas, we’ve also been dealing with nearly constant rain, with occasional heavy rains.

With these constant rains, those of us using the DISH Network to receive TV are mostly unable to watch satellite channels & even lose local channels at times. Since I’m not a soap fan, it leaves me with very little to watch during the day. Today, I’ve been watching the court shows. I normally have movies or stuff on SPIKE TV on. I’m also keeping track of the weather through the Internet on NOAA, instead of using the Weather Channel on TV.

It’s good to see that Ophelia is finally beginning to move away from the shoreline, but its forward motion is back down to 3mph. I can imagine what North Carolinians are having to deal with. Storm surge, heavy horizontal rainfall & constant high winds have to be making the residents weary, at the very least. I empathize with you all.

With the heavy rains here, some of my plans for the day have been postponed. We need to ready my son’s car for shipping, dropping it off at the docks tomorrow. I’m buying a new set of tires, because the front 2 have poor tread (front wheel drive). I bought it that way, in case you’re thinking he’s been burning it off.  He only recently figured out how to do that & has been with the thought in mind that he’s getting new tires.  I’ve already read him the riot act for that. I told him it was lame for him to do, since anyone can, especially uphill, on wet roads. If he could do it downhill, on dry pavement, then I’d think he had talent. My late husband could, with Michelin radials, in the 1970s, in 2nd & 3rd gears!

Another reason he needs new tires is because what’s on there now are low-profile. Those are absolutely stupid, since they cut gas mileage. How so? Because the smaller the height of the tire, the more revolutions it has to make to travel the same distance, causing the engine/drivetrain to have to work harder to accomplish the same thing, so therefore having to use more gas to travel the same distance. I hope I’ve explained that clearly enough.

Since I’m getting the tires in Pahoa, about 5 miles away, I don’t have an issue with going after them today. Who knows, maybe they won’t be very busy, since most will be staying indoors & off the streets, so we won’t have to wait long. I’m waiting for my son to finish washing his 2nd load, so I can drop him & his wet clothes off at the laundromat to dry them while I get the tires. He’ll have to wait awhile once his laundry’s done, but tough! I’m paying for the tires for him, so he can be a tad inconvenienced.

Tomorrow, I have to follow him into Hilo. First, we’ll stop at Wal-Mart, so he can get some new boxers (why he needs more right now, after I bought him some just a few months ago, I don’t know) & new wiper blades. The ones on his car are hard, so scream when first turned on & don’t clear the windshield very well. I’m going to get silicon ‘lifetime warranted’ ones… possibly the triple-edge ones. He doesn’t need to be driving the car at all in the “Mile-High City” at all with poor tires & bad wipers. Oops… the car also needs an oil-change, but I don’t know if we can get that done at the same time as the tires! Just called them. They said, “No problem!” Cool!

Incidentally, the car is actually mine. I bought it, it’s in my name, & I’ll be carrying the insurance on it, since for him to get his own would cost over twice what I’m paying for both cars! At one point, we looked into him buying a NEW Hyundai Elantra in Denver, for under $14k. Unfortunately, I’d have to co-sign the loan. Also, the cost for the insurance would be in excess of $3.8k for 6 months! If he missed a payment, it would fuck up my credit rating. It would also make him ineligible for the ‘no credit’ student loans. Again, this would mean I’d either have to co-sign, or take out a ‘Parent-Plus’ loan that I’D have to repay (not him). All of this would fuck up my loan potentials for my construction loan & mortgage loan for my new house. NO WAY!!! I want my new house! I’ve waited way to long for that.

My son’s already been pre-approved for $22k for this school year through Sallie-Mae. Unfortunately, the interest rate is higher than the regular school loans, but there’re ways to fix that when he’s close to graduating. One way is to consolidate them, getting a fixed rate at 9%. That’s what I did. Also, to make payments against the interest instead of deferring. Hopefully, the financial counselors there will be especially helpful in his situation.

It’s not that I don’t want to help him… I’m just not rich. Even though my income has gone well up from what we’ve been living on all these years, I’m still limited as to what I can afford & don’t want to get myself into financial trouble again. Besides, because I’m a 100% permanently disabled Veteran, my son qualifies for cash assistance for school, in the current amount of $803/month. Besides the the Federal Financial Aid (PELL grants), Stafford loans & the student loan, he should have more than enough to finance his school & cover his living expenses. I counseled him in putting the student loan money into a separate savings account, to only use if he REALLY needs it. If he’s good at budgeting his spending, he shouldn’t have to apply for a student loan every year. After all, that’s money he’ll have to pay back. He’ll just have to think each time he buys something for himself that he doesn’t really need whether he’s willing to have the long-term expense for having that item, that may end up costing him (with finance charges) 2 to 3 times what he paid for it!

I hope I laid the groundwork well in his up-bringing. Only time will tell.

Reading another’s blog today, whom I’ve not had contact with in ages, I learned that Katrina victims have moved into her area. Now they’re facing another storm only 2 weeks later (Carolinas).

The effects of the disaster wrought by Katrina will be felt for many years to come. Not only are our fuel prices going up, but this will have a ‘trickle-down’ effect, because so much of what IS America is connected to fossil fuels.

However, let me enlighten some newer readers to something I’ve been harping on for years… concerning oil & greed.

• Oil ‘shortages’ take 6 months to have a REAL impact on price & availability. This is because of the refining process & available fuels already refined & stored at the refineries & holding tanks.
  
• Media has been harping on the per-barrel prices of crude over the last few years, threatening in recent months that “…they could get up to $75/barrel soon at this rate (BEFORE Katrina).” Hell, I bought my first car in 1974… a high-performance gas hog (10-15 mpg) & was filling it with Premium at 35.9¢/gallon. I remember hearing the price of crude jumping to $75/barrel in the EIGHTIES (with the supposed gas-shortage), but the price at the pump then jumped to $1.199/gallon. The price of crude lately has NOT hit that mark, yet, but the price at the pump has been higher than that for years (since 9-11)!
  
• I said “supposed shortage” because no real shortage of refined fuels actually existed. This is a ploy in the corporate world, called “The Law of Supply & Demand.” You see, if they tell their consumers they’re short of the product, they then have the means to raise the price of the commodity. How many of you are old enough to remember the paper shortage, which caused the price of toilet paper to go nuts? Shortage, my ASS (pun intended)! This fuel shortage falls along the same lines.
  
• Proof? I have a friend in Texas who owned a high-volume well that was capped off in the 1980′s, at the time of that decade’s ‘gas shortage.’ I also met a former tanker truck driver (you know, the guys who deliver fuel from the refineries to the gas stations) who was ordered to drive truck loadS of refined diesel to the desert & pumped the diesel into the sand! WTF??? He did this just prior to the media announcing the diesel shortage & the price jumped from 25.9¢/gallon to $1.259/gallon! Why had the shortage occurred? Because people were tired of getting hit in the wallet at the gasoline pumps, so many were buying diesel-powered vehicles, so the oil industry hit another profit crunch & created the diesel ‘shortage’ to open the doors to increasing the price of diesel at the pumps. Also, I ran a local gas station in Texas in the late 1970′s. We sold 3 grades of gasoline & diesel. Station owners/managers do NOT make a profit on fuel. They get 5-10¢/gallon for each gallon pumped. This isn’t enough to pay overhead costs. They make money on the other stuff they do &/or sell there. Prices at the pumps are set by corporate headquarters. If individual stations charge more, they are violating corporate policies & Federal laws. Also, Saturday, I spoke to a fellow DAV member who worked in the oil industry for over 20 years. He confirmed everything I’m telling you here in this blog.
  
• Incidentally, diesel is a BY-PRODUCT of refining crude for gasoline. So why did it take so long after the ‘gasoline shortage’ for the ‘diesel shortage’ (much more than 6 months!) to materialize?
  
• It is illegal by Federal laws to price-gouge. Unfortunately, with those in political power lining their pockets with the increased profit margin on the prices of wholesale commodities, do you really think they’d step in to stop it? The worst are the ones we’ve ‘given’ our nation to! “The Iraqi War isn’t about the oil,” as I was continuously told when Bush first proposed attacking Iraq. YEAH, RIGHT!!! Get your heads out of your asses, fools! Those in power are making $billions, at taxpayers’ expense with the costs of that war. Bush stated at the end of “Shock & Awe,” “Iraqi oil is for the Iraqi people.” If that’s true, Mr Bush, why aren’t THEY making the profits on the oil from THEIR country (instead of the US using its profits to rebuild what WE destroyed)? Also, why doesn’t American oil belong to the American people, not just the elite few connected with the oil industries? Why aren’t ALL Americans profiting from the extraction of crude within our nation & our national ocean waters?
  
• Why has Haliburton (VP Dick Cheyney still a major shareholder!) increased the manufacturer’s suggested retail selling price of the hydrogen from water-powered vehicle, after securing the patent rights upon the scandal of ENRON? Whereas ENRON planned to sell this vehicle (base price) at $35k, Haliburton jumped the MSRP to $125k! HELLO??!!! Could this be a way to keep it out of the general consumers market, forcing people to yet rely on FOSSIL FUEL-powered vehicles? DAMN, RIGHT!!
  
• The Katrina disaster in the oil corridor fit right in with oil magnates’ goals. Another excuse to price-gouge (which has shown up IMMEDIATELY, not 6 months later as it should)! This is going to affect EVERY aspect of Americans’ lives, because the cost of fuel has a direct effect on every product or service we so heavily rely on. It costs employees more to get to work, so they need higher salaries to cover that, which the employer passes on to their consumers (wholesale), who pass it on to the stores, who pass it on to the general consumer. Additionally, it has a double-fold effect, since it costs each part in the producer to consumer chain more to get it there. Perhaps even more than that! This will also affect consumers in heating/cooling/powering their homes, since the ‘overhead’ costs of the suppliers goes up, so they pass it on to the consumer. This becomes a vicious cycle, which has increased the national cost of living over 10k% in my lifetime, with it going up about 1k% in just my son’s. I’m basing this upon the price of things needed for survival (food, clothing & shelter). I’m probably off in my figures, but I know I can’t trust the ‘official’ statistics of the GNP. I do know what it costs just to make it from one day to the next, without much in the way of ‘luxuries’ (luxuries includes, by public assistance calculations, owning a car!).

It would be very difficult, indeed, to find even ONE thing in the lives of Americans that won’t be touched by the corporate greed of the oil industry. If you can think of one, please let me know. I haven’t come up with anything, short of sitting at home, doing absolutely NOTHING, with no power. But still, one has to eat, & this will even affect the price of a packet of vegetable seeds. Besides, how many people can WALK to get them? You need shoes & clothes, which will also be affected. HELP!!!

• If you don’t believe me, do your own financial research on the profit levels of the corporations involved with fossil fuels. Very few, even going back 30 years or more (except those run by GW & a few others who’re poor money-managers) haven’t shown a sizeable profit in all that time.

Time to get our walking shoes on or do more ride-sharing, or perhaps get a horse & cart/buggy?!

“The blame game is just spin words,” as Chris Mathews stated on MSNBC Saturday morning, referencing the verbal criticisms from the general public & media in response to the late-arriving aid for hurricane Katrina victims. However, I see what the current Administration says about terrorism along the same light… spin words, or as I like to call them, ‘buzz words, invoking emotional responses among those who hear them.’

I agree totally with his assay of the removal of Michael Brown from the Katrina disaster relief with FEMA. He stated that VP Cheney showed up in the region just Wednesday & Friday, Brown was removed. Politically correct? Sure. More so, I believe, because of the ineffectiveness of his command in this disaster. It was also highlighted that Brown had no real experience in disaster aid, as reported in a recent Washington Post article. He had worked as the assistant to the City Manager in Edmond, Oklahoma. Some other past jobs include, as quoted in the 09 Sep 05 article, are:

“… a rocky tenure as commissioner of a horse sporting group by former FEMA director Joe M. Allbaugh, the 2000 Bush campaign manager and a college friend of Brown’s.” [I think there's a misprint of Brown's name at the end of this quote. I believe they meant "Rhode's" or even "Bush's" since the way it's written in the complete paragraph (which is about Brown) that he'd then be a friend of himself. While being one's own friend is always good, it's ineffectual in this instance.]

An MSNBC article states this:

“A former mayor of Edmond, Randel Shadid, confirmed Friday that Brown was an assistant to the city manager. Shadid told The Associated Press that Brown had never been an assistant city manager, though.”

Read that paragraph c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y. An assistant to the city manager is someone who’s basically a go-fer, sort of like a secretary. An assistant city manager is one who performs the functions of the city manager in case the city manager is unavailable (illness, vacation, etc) or more than one function is taking place at the same time. A prime example of the latter is in the case of a local disaster & there are multiple sites needing the direction of a high city representative with adequate skills in that position.

Brown had none of that experience. What is his profession? A L-A-W-Y-E-R! Basically, a ‘paper-pusher’ with verbiage as his skill. NOT emergency services. If you paid close attention to what his jobs had been just prior to FEMA, you’d see that he’s a Bush crony… one who’s rubbed elbows with the Commander in Chief for years.

What I found enlightening is the mention in one of the 2 above listed articles that several upper management positions have recently been vacated. The allusion in the article is that the cause may have been due to the ineffectiveness of those above them. A scenario I’m VERY familiar with. One which I myself have taken when I could no longer do my job well because those I directly reported to refused to follow local, state or Federal laws, at the expense of people I worked with or the health & well being of consumers. As I’ve stated many times… inept keep the jobs while either firing or forcing the adept into quitting. A scenario played out in way too many government & corporate workplaces.

Basically, what I’m seeing is that a supposedly Democratic society, which is supposed to provide equal opportunity to its citizens, is far from doing so. True opportunity only exists for those of means. There are few genuine & legitimate reasons why our country should have failed to respond adequately & in a timely manner to this latest disaster. We’re so technologically advanced that this should never have become as bad as it has on the human level.

What’s most shocking to me, & I do give Bush credit here (as much as I dislike the man & his principles), is that Bush declared the states of Louisiana & Mississippi disaster areas 2 days BEFORE Katrina hit our coastline, opening the doors to FEMA & other agencies to go in to assist victims. Obviously, there was a serious breakdown between Bush’s proclamation & getting the assistance there in a timely manner & providing necessary aid to the victims. I think alot has to do with the added bureaucracy of the Administration having moved FEMA away from autonomy to the umbrella organization of Homeland Security. It might have worked well if they had allowed FEMA to act as it was set up to… the disaster relief agency, instead of forcing them to focus on terrorism response. They shirked the hurricane scenario that was presented to them just this year, scoffing at what the program had sited as a possible situation. Ironically, “Hurricane Pam,” as it was called, was nearly identical to what hurricane Katrina did to the Gulf Coast. The ‘powers that be,’ laughed at it, saying it’d never happen.

How wrong they were!

Remember this, friends (& enemies ), “There, but by the grace of God, am I.”