December 26, 2002

•      There are a few things I have left out in the last 2 blogs, because of not wanting to dampen others' spirits any more than those already may have. One thing, as mentioned earlier, is about the herbal cancer cure, since I will be seriously dissing our beloved financial institutions as well as our government. I am still working on that one, hoping that although I will be enlightening, I do not wish to cause readers to shut down to the truth, due to the inflammatory nature of the information.

  
  

        The other factor is something else I recently learned. I called the man I have been making agreement of sale payments on my house to for 5 & 1/2 years. He promised to convert the deed into a mortgaged deed in my name, with him as lien holder, after I faithfully paid on the house for 5 years. It's been about 10 months since he agreed to hold to his promise, but did nothing on his end about it until I confronted him again a few months ago. Originally, he had said he would cover the costs involved with the necessary paperwork, but when he spoke with a real estate attorney & learned what all would be involved to protect both him & me, he reneged on covering the costs... once I ran out of money!

  
  

       A few weeks ago, I ran into the realtor who handled the original agreement of sale during one of his rare visits to Pahoa. I asked him about the cost for him to draw up the necessary paperwork. He had spoken to the deed-holder previously, who had reported back to me a figure of $250, compared to the attorney's figure of $500. When I spoke to the realtor (also a friend or sorts), he told me $200 should cover the costs. He also let me know that to get the property tax homestead exemption for next the next tax cycle, the transaction must be recorded at the Bureau of Conveyances by 31 Dec 2002! Oops!

  
  

       I procrastinated (typically) about calling the deed-holder, finally calling him about 1, 1/2 weeks ago... twice. The first time, the call was forwarded to his cell voice-mail, so I didn't leave a message. Two days later, I called again & got his home answering machine. This time, I left a message. Yesterday, he finally returned my call. I let him know what the realtor had said, & that I have the money necessary to complete the process, so he said I should contact the realtor again to set it up. He would be available to the realtor for anything needed.

  
  

       Oops! Procrastination screwed me out of completing the process this year! The realtor is off-island until New Year's Eve! Shit, SHIT, SHIT!!! Damn! I'm now looking at a difference of over $150 for my property tax! To many, that may not be alot, but it is nearly 2 months' electricity for me! (Incidentally, our property tax in this district is very low. Even without the exemption, my property tax is less than one-fifth of what my sister's is in Texas!)

  
  

       On the note of my electric bill, I applied in July for the LIHEAP utility assistance (called UAP in some areas). The funds for this program come from that $1 utility assistance check box on your electric bill every month, should you participate. The money goes to needy people who apply, based upon their income, family size & average utility costs. Sometimes, the recipient opts to take the emergency help, which pays the shut-off notice amount due. This figure is usually very low, compared to what amount of credit a family might be able to get on their bill. In my situation, my shut-off notice was for about $196, which I continued to struggle to pay, opting for the credit. On Christmas Eve Day, I finally got the notice from Honolulu of the figure they were crediting on my bill (after I paid off my debt with the money I recently received; over $400!). I am getting a credit of $256! That's about $100 more than I got the last time I applied (2 years ago)!

  
  

       Honolulu was having problems with this program this year. Ordinarily, the recipient receives the notice in late August or early September, with the credit showing up on the bill in October or November. The last bill I received, for December, still doesn't reflect the credit. I personally believe the State was banking the funds, to draw interest on; a common practice with government agencies. I wonder how many lost power, waiting for Honolulu to fulfill their promise of help with these Federally subsidized monies? I nearly did, except that I kept in contact with the utility company on a monthly basis. I wish the credit had turned up when it was supposed to, so my finances wouldn't have gotten so out-of-hand (EVERYTHING was behind except the house payments!).

  
  

       Back to my conversation with the deed-holder... I asked about his health, knowing that he had surgery at Queen's in Honolulu late Spring. He informed me that he was doing fine, but that his wife recently had a heart attack! I didn't think she was very old, because she certainly doesn't look it, but he informed me that she's 62. It has been her health that caused his delay in returning my call, for which he owes me NO apology! I wished him & his wife well & am now sending White Light their way.

  
  

       They are wonderful people. She is his second wife. His first died from breast cancer more than 20 years ago, so he has been very understanding of my situation when I've asked for tolerance with delays in repaying him on property taxes & association dues (the former was something else I was behind on until recently) without charging me a late fee of $25 each month I'm behind!

  
  

       There are alot of people around me needing prayers right now, for health reasons, like my neighbor with laryngeal cancer, mentioned in the last blog. I learned what another neighbor is now dealing with. I once dissed him royally in a blog in the Fall of 2001 because of his attitude concerning the association making available hot water for showers (among other things, which he ordered discontinued, & wanted to discontinue availability of drinking & cooking water to those of us on catchment... though HE would most certainly continue to draw from the community's water supply!). I confronted him with the idea of one of his family members facing surgery for cancer & not having access to hot water (which I didn't the night before my surgery, because I ran out of propane right then & the water heater was shut off in the community center!).

  
  

       I learned from my former boss when I worked at the community center that this man has cancer! She told me several months ago, but the information was refuted by another community member (a neighborhood patrol member, working under the other, who's the captain of the patrol). I heard from my son, whom he gave a ride home to once, that yes, he has prostate cancer & was going where I had, about the same time (Tripler) for surgery. He is also a US Navy Veteran, who learned about the extension of VA health care services (to all former military members who served 180 consecutive days & received either an Honorable or General Discharge) from... ME!!!

  
  

       The last time I ran into him (at the community center water spigot, no less!), I asked him about his health myself. The other neighbor, who refuted the gossip about that neighbor having cancer was also right there, drawing water for his family. I learned that the former is going back to Tripler for another biopsy (that was all they did for his surgery last time, verifying the malignancy). They want to find out if the malignancy is metastasizing & fill him in on additional treatments.

  
  

       Was I being prophetic? I don't know. I did believe his wife (born & raised in Hawaii, like me, so possibly exposed to chemical agents testing, like I was) might turn up with cancer. I didn't think it would be him. Did I cause his condition through an unintended curse? God, I hope not! Because what goes around comes around, & what is sent forth is returned 3-(or 7, depending upon one's belief system) fold. It did take me a long time to forgive him for his actions... & he's a member of the Baha'i faith (supposedly a Christian faith). He certainly doesn't follow his faith's teachings about being loving & giving to neighbors (& I told him in the argument that he wasn't a Christian!). I still berate his actions, knowing that he continued to keep the water heater shut off & had the shower water re-directed from the bathhouse to an outdoor shower head (because of bad pipes under the concrete slabs), rather than having the pipes properly repaired.

  
  

       Incidentally, the burst pipes is another argument I had with him, since he believed people from outside of the subdivision were coming in & filling huge tanks of water to sell to others, causing our water bill to go so high. I PROVED my case with the burst pipes, which he still refuted.

  
  

       I also PROVED that the electric bill savings was not much after he first had the water heater shut off, which he also refuted. Now, few want to use the community swimming pool, because there's no hot water for the shower that people are MANDATED to take before entering the pool, to rid the body of excess bacteria that might contaminate other swimmers. Of those who do still use the pool, most won't shower first at all, waiting until the rec attendant isn't paying attention, so they can slip into the pool unshowered (I've watched them do so!). Also, a brief, cold rinse-off (actually just a wet-down), does NOTHING to rid a person of bacterial agents on the skin! So the cold rinse is a true waste of community water & swimmers' time.

  
  

       Anyway, Joe, I'm sending healing White Light your way. You may not be much of a Christian neighbor, but no one deserves the battles with cancer. I did tell him about the herbal cancer cure I recently learned about, which is a hell of alot more than he ever did for me!

  
  

   

  
  

  
  

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       One thing that continues to bother me since talking to my sister a couple weeks ago is the restrictions her husband has put on her use of her own money (we all received the same amount)! I learned that he has said no to her using some of her money to buy a new computer (hers is about 4 years old & the original monitor broke & there are other hardware problems going on with it). My brother-in-law has other plans for my sister's money. He wants a 'new' (used) truck.

  
  

       Sure, his current truck is old (older than his previous one), but he has his OWN inheritance money that he won't let my sister touch, even for the kids! That money was immediately put into CDs (Certificates of Deposit), which he continues to roll-over when they mature. He received the inheritance about 20 years ago or more. In the beginning, it was worthwhile doing so, because interest rates were in the double-digits. Now, they barely bring 5%. It is the dividends he received over the years that he used to pay his previous truck notes with, using the CDs as collateral (that sounds dumb to me, since they already hold the title of the truck as collateral, since he makes installment payments on it!).

  
  

       I know my sister isn't very frugal with money (our mom taught me how to be careful with money, letting me know that my desires were above our budget, but gave my sister whatever she wanted). But doesn't she have the right to spend her own gift money for her wants or needs? Her husband certainly does with his! What stops her is the years of violence at his hands & threats of resumption of that violence, which she excuses to his diabetes/insulin levels. To me, there's NO EXCUSE FOR VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN!

  
  

       She hasn't been the only recipient of his loss of temper, since I witnessed one blatantly abusive attack against their oldest son, just prior to my move to Hawaii. This was right before my sister begged me to leave my son with them until I got settled in. Yeah, RIGHT! My son is very head-strong & independent. As much as my brother-in-law loves my son, his tolerance level would have been reached quickly!

  
  

       I have NO love for my brother-in-law. He's a poor excuse for a man. My sister finally admitted to me a few years ago that a blue mark I saw on her oldest son's back, in the shape of a thumb print, when he was 6 months old, WAS a direct result of manhandling by his father! Abuse of another family member is something I CANNOT forgive! I lived with it too long myself.

  
  

       Since I couldn't reach my sister on Christmas Day, I will try again today. Unfortunately, it won't be part of my free nights & weekends time with my cell phone (my Christmas gift to myself, to help me keep up with my son & provide another phone access to keep him from forcing me offline when I'm in the middle of something on the Internet, like Xanga or research). I can still utilize the airtime in my 600 monthly free anytime minutes. Since I got the phone, between my calls, my son's & those made by his friends, I have logged less than 3 hours of the 10 allowed, & some of that time has already rolled off my first bill for a partial month.

  
  

       The cell phone, a Nokia 1260, is serviced by AT&T. They are the only ones with fairly reliable service in the area I live in. The former Voice Stream, now T-Mobile, does not recommend acquiring their service if living in lower Puna right now. Their availability is very spotty here at best, since the locals in the Kapoho/Kalapana region blocked the construction of an antenna as unsightly & they haven't come up with another site that would work. The saddest thing about that is that many in that area do not have phone service at all (off-power, so no utility poles to run the phone lines on)!

  
  

       Both companies had similar plans, so I opted for AT&T. The drawback with AT&T is that outside of a 4-state area, I will be responsible for roaming & airtime for long distance calls. Fortunately, at this point, I have no desire to travel (no money for such either).

  
  

       There is a specific reason for wanting to get in touch with my sister today. It is my niece's birthday... her 27th if I'm not mistaken. She was born at 6:01 AM in Texas, the day after Christmas. My sister had gone into labor Christmas Day.

  
  

       I have never seen my niece. Even my sister was forbidden to look at her daughter (although she did see her briefly before she was whisked away, enough to know she had red hair, just like her later 2 sons!), because she & the father (her current husband) were convinced to give up their child by his folks. I offered to raise her daughter until she felt capable. So did my dad's oldest sister, as well as my dad. Those options were unsuitable to his parents though. So the girl was given over into the adoption process of the Lutheran Ministries.

  
  

       Wherever you are, dear niece (the ONLY female offspring of any of us siblings!), HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope your life has been blissful. Please know that we all love you, & someday hope to have you rejoin our family! I know your mom is hoping you're looking for her, because she told me so. She's just afraid  of your dad's reaction. And you have 2 FULL brothers who would be ecstatic to meet you (once they are filled in about their sister)!

  • 5:54 am
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