A Long Time

A Long Time was Originally Posted on October 26, 2007 by lavarock

I received a message from a friend that it has been a long time since my last blog. That is an understatement, as sometimes I would post 2 blogs in one day.

I actually was thinking about posting last night, but fell asleep at 10-pm and woke up at 9am.

Last night, Sandra treated me to a play at the Aloha Theater as a thank you for feeding the dogs while she is away. The play was “Little Shop of Horrors” and quite appropriate as we near Halloween. I met one of the actors a few days ago and it was fun to see him on stage. As the stage is quite small, the crew must move scenery often and did an excellent job with the lights down.

The last time I was at the theater, they had a surf week with lots of surf-related movies.

Speaking of surfers, after my High School graduation, a few of us went from up north to Virginia Beach. I think all but me were surfers and I sat on the beach while the rest were in the water. One of those guys called me the other day. He wanted to escape the smoke and fires on the west coast and head to the Big Island. I’ll meet him today after many years. I believe the last time I saw him was at a reunion.

Koa (the guard dog) is doing well. On my recent birthday I took him down to the Place of Refuge and tried to get him into the water. “Like father like son” comes to mind as he would not. The waves lightly tapped the shore, but it was his first time on sand and rocks and I’m sure he needs a bit more time. After all, he IS a water dog!

My Mom has been fighting a mysterious high blood pressure problem where it spike high and then comes down. She is not enjoying the 9 prescriptions she is on. Hopefully the doctors will find the reason for her discomfort.

I still fight with trying to find someone who can inexpensively install my water tanks. I may have an idea for getting holes punched in the rock for a few acres of coffee, but need to do a bit more research. I WILL have an acre of new coffee by the end of the year. It WILL happen, I’m just not quite sure how and when J

Speaking of coffee, I have been selling a bit back at my part-time job. I serve my Kona at the island orientation on Mondays and often sell a few pounds during the week. This means I have to be more careful how much coffee I get roasted and when, as I hate to store coffee for long after it is roasted. Since I don’t do the roasting myself, I have to work my stock around the roasting days.

Speaking of roasting, I got a call last night from someone who wants a bit of green to roast herself. Not everyone wants it already roasted.

My organization worked with many others to object to the Ironman disaster. As you may know, Kona hosts the big Ironman race (swimming, bicycling and running). It’s an all day event that pretty much affects the whole west side of our island. Roads and stores are closed; people can’t get to and from the airport without having to drive all over the place, etc. So just before the race, Ironman officials announced that because there was not enough quality coffee around, the official Ironman coffee is from Guatemala!

Imagine the revolt that started here. It is as though the official cola of the Atlanta Olympics was announced as Pepsi (Atlanta is the home of Coke). It took no less than 2 days for the officials to offer full-page apologies and radio ads.

Our coffee organization has submitted entries for our coffee label and website to the Kona Coffee Festival contest. It would be great if we win. Last year we won prizes for our float and donkey.

We also have a new handout, bumper stickers and a DVD we will be displaying to visitors. That is in addition to the t-shirts, caps and items we already have.

I just purchased 2 TVs, which we will use to display the DVD. I have to find the best way to hook them together so that the same DVD plays on both on alternate sides of the table.

Working with a local environmental organization, I will be offering an award-winning cookbook with gift baskets this holiday season, so keep those credit cards out and ready!

Speaking of gifts, on my ItsKona.Com website on the shopping tab, you may notice a new ad which allows you to get a discount for Hawaii’s Best Attraction Passes “Go Card”. It will show at the top of the page along with other sponsored ads and offers discounts on Oahu.

My friends Ginnie and Dick are moving to Alaska and have sold their farm to a recent resident from Carolina. I will be personalizing the website to his specifications over the next few weeks and will help him run it. The new owner knows construction and I have this old kitchen and bathrooms I want to fix up. Perhaps we can make some kind of deal J

I hope that this update keeps you busy fro a while. It is a busy time here in Kona, and the fun is just beginning (or is it continuing, I always get those two confused) J