Shuffling

Shuffling was Originally Posted on December 5, 2003 by lavarock

The past few days have involved a bit of shuffling around.

People told me that Hilo gets rain, but I seemed to have driven through more than my share of it. The heave rains that hit the islands have stopped and things dried up. I just got very tired of driving to Hilo, car shopping, in it.

My trip on Wednesday was via bus. A pleasurable ride across the island, but the bus was a bit cool. There was also no restroom on it, but we did have a 25 minute rest stop at the Parker Ranch, and not a minute too soon! While waiting to reboard the bus, I spoke with two gentlemen from Japan who were visiting the island. They had been to Oahu and now were looking at the opposite side of Hawaii. They could not believe that land was so inexpensive here. I remember hearing that years ago, Japenese golfers would fly to Hawaii to play golf and actually save money over playing back home. A game cost over a thousand dollars and the Hawaii trip and a FEW games still cost less!

I spoke with the Credit Union yesterday and yes, it appears that they had no access to my retirement accounts and the funds there. I made a call to the investment part of the CU and they faxed a statement over. Within an hour or so I saw the used car loan show up in my list of accounts online. As I say, once you prove that you don’t need to borrow the money…..

Since I had my truck AND a rental car, I had to shuffle them around to get both here to the hotel and transfer my “day after Thanksgiving” purchases to the truck and then eventually to the hotel room. I also had a few boxes of personal items securely stored in the hotel that are now in my room.

Yesterday I moved hotel rooms to a smaller one next door. It is a long story why, but I am fine with the switch. I moved the internet connection with me, so I still have my internet phone from Packet8.Net running, and my internet connection.

I took the rental car back to the airport and turned it in. The price for them to gas up the car (if you buy that option) is actually pretty reasonable. It is cheaper than the local gas station, but not as cheap as COSTCO. Speaking of gas, there is a move underfoot to drop gas prices here in the island. We are now paying over $2 a gallon at COSTCO and maybe $2.30 at other stations on parts of this island. Of course with my truck having a 4 liter engine and a big gas tank, you can imagine the sticker shock when I fill up!

I will try to find the mortgage company representative today to redo my paperwork. Seems they can’t find the originals. This loan was applied for back in maybe March or so and three people now have had the account within the company. They say that this reapplying will not effect the time to close. They also did not lock in the rate this whole time, so the load I requested at 5% will now be about 5.6% I think. I don’t think they will be getting a lot of free coffee from me this Christmas..

My friend Gary called me multiple times yesterday. He is coordinating my house back there so it can get on the market. Over the past weeks or so, he has had the termite inspectors in, people looking at the air conditioning, the gas company, been cleaning up the house and so on. Yesterday he was able to sell my big TV to one of the trades people and coordinate someone to give me an estimate on my antiques. So it looks as though gary has been doing some shuffling too.

Since I cannot live at the hotel until closing I’ll have to decide where I’ll stay. The farm has no utilities and needs work before I move in.

There is a KonaWeb Party here tonight at the old airport. Perhaps someone here has a place for rent down close to where I will be moving. If not, I have an offer far up to the north, but it really is too far to drive down to where I need to be.

No sign of any of the boxes yet. I was told to expect them a few weeks after I shipped them, and then, a few boxes a day rather than the rate at which I dropped them off back in Georgia. I hope they make it in good shape. I fear they won’t. I have heard stories…

One thing about Hawaii and especially here on the Big Island; we get cruise ships and visitors. Here in Kailua-Kona, Ali’i Drive goes right next to the water and visitors, well most visitors, use the crosswalks to get from the sea wall to the mauka (mountain) side of the street where the shops are. Drivers honestly stop and let these people cross, and sometimes the visitors are in no hurry at all. I rarely see any car try to zoom past to beat the pedestrian. This is a far cry from other places where pedestrians and cars share the road! I don’t know how much money each visitor spends each day theye are on the island, but without then, the economy hurts us. Perhaps that is why we stop and wave and smile?

When I talk to people in Daytona Beach, all I hear is grumbling about the visitors and traffic. We are starting to get traffic here and some grumbling about having to actually wait at the few traffic lights we have. So far, I don’t hear grumbling about the visitors.

Finally, because we get international visitors AND have residents here with international roots, many of the stores here have sections on vadied foods and snacks. Sushi is widely available as is other cultural foods. Japanese items are common and I have noticed that there are a lot of snack foods which contain plum and wasabi. However, one item seems to really stand out and I guess I just never knew that cuttlefish became a snack food…

You live and learn I guess!