Let ‘er Rip!

Let ‘er Rip! was Originally Posted on December 13, 2005 by lavarock

It has been a busy couple of weeks.

I had received a summons for jury duty over a 4-week period. Because it covered Thanksgiving period, I was able to skate through for 3 weeks unscathed. This is the first time in my life I had been called.

I was the host for the KonaWeb party this first Friday of the month and it went smoothly. It was a bit smaller crowd that in the past, but certainly an enjoyable time.

I found someone to help me cut down trees on the farm and he toyed with the idea of moving here to Hawaii. With a 2 week round-trip ticket in hand, he appeared on island on December 3rd. However, within 5 minutes of stepping off the plane, this guy had a tentative job offer for a permanent job. A few days later it was changed to an official job offer and he accepted. 4 days after stepping off that same plane, he was able to find a room in a house a short walk from his new job. Not everyone finds work that easily, but Hawaii has the distinction of having the lowest unemployment rate in the U.S., which makes finding work fairly easy. With that said however, you might find yourself doing something different from what you have in the past.

Obviously being a tourist destination, employment here tends towards supporting locals and visitors. Many of the jobs are in the hospitality industry. In his case he is now a maintenance man at a local condo, but he could have just as easily been employed as a reservation taker at a local helicopter company or helped people get their scuba or snorkel gear on for a cruise company.

The reason I mention him is that today is his return flight to the mainland. He only took about a day or two to ensure that this is where he would like to live, so at 10pm or so tonight, he is thinking of being at the airport, having his picture taken as he tears up the return portion of his ticket. Kinda cutting the last tie to his life on the mainland (at least for now). J

I have been watering the freshly planted coffee beans in the bags and hope to see their shoots in a few more weeks. I still need to get thousands more ready, and will do that over the next couple of weeks.

I had a tire going bad so I put on the spare. I am finding that even though the truck is fairly common here, the particular tires and rims here on this thing may not be common. COSTCO told me it would be 6 weeks to get in replacement tires and then, they would be over $180 each! Ouch! I am investigating cheaper alternatives but have to keep in mind that there is sharp lava here and I have to ensure the tires are rugged enough.

I put up an Ebay sale and offered free shipping, plus a number of orders came in recently. I am almost out of Medium roast and have had a few requests for Dark. I think I’ll go ahead and get some dark roast done and have 1 more sale before Christmas. I still have a few days to be able to ship and have the items received by Christmas. Some day I’ll have my own roaster and can better supply coffee as ordered, then to roast one way and hope everyone looking for coffee that week likes that roast.

I personally like the medium and it won the taste award, but then again, I’ve never submitted the dark for competition and many people prefer a bolder taste in the coffee. In neither case does it remind people of the stuff that passes for coffee in the office or local overpriced coffee spot. This is NOT liquid charcoal J

I have been very busy with Coffee Council business the past month or two. We are cleaning up the membership lists, preparing for our January Annual Meeting where we elect new officers and I am working with the Website Committee to move our old website to a new home with new graphics, etc. It will be a very nice site when we are done.

I got a call from a carpenter I was hoping to redo my kitchen. “Call me in 3 months” was his answer. We are still in the building boom here and everyone is busy building. If you are a carpenter and thinking of moving to Hawaii, call me first! I may have a deal for you… There is nothing better than being able to rip up a return airplane ticket and be happy about it J