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!