Spectrum internet TV interaction with VPN

I just posted this on Facebook, but I'm going to post it here as well:

Here's something I just learned: As somebody who sometimes watches TV on the computer because Spectrum doesn't carry e.g. the Science Channel or the Weather Channel here, I every so often look at Spectrum's online TV guide. Yesterday I noticed that some of the channels were kinda grayed out, saying I'd have to connect to Spectrum Internet to see those (Spectrum is my Internet provider, so I am on Spectrum Internet).
As one of my jobs requires a VPN, which I only got to work yesterday (or maybe the day before), that is what apparently causes this to happen - as Spectrum can't see through the VPN and doesn't know anymore that you're on Spectrum Internet.
I found this out from a very nice (and obviously VPN knowledgeable) Spectrum tech support person on the phone.
I don't have the same grayed out TV channels on my Chromebook where I don't have a VPN - but I don't remember whether they were grayed out there too when the VPN was running on my Windows notebook, but to get those back on my Windows notebook I'll have to reboot it.
I'm not going to restart the VPN at this point because I don't want to have to call Spectrum again if it takes those channels away on my Chromebook.
I'm glad one of the channels I watch quite a bit, Story Channel (338), that is grayed out with the VPN, is available on TV here (I take binge watching things I'm interested in over waiting a week for the next episode just about any time)

Hale O Laau Hua on Facebook

For those on Facebook, the Hale O Laau Hua Facebook page is usually a bit more up to date than this blog. It can be found here: Hale O Laau Hua on Facebook.

Last winter I found that at the top of the yard there is a distant ocean viev

What is in the kitchen at Hale O Laau Hua

As somebody asked earlier about what is in the kitchen I took some pictures - and whatever there is in way of e.g. herbs and spices is free to use.

There also is a gas stove and oven, fridge with top freezer, toaster, coffee maker (does not shut off when the pot is pulled out I have been told), blender (is what I can think of right now).

Update on Hale O Laau Hua

Hale O Laau Hua was rented for a while in 2021 as well is in 2022 but is currently vacant again. A few updates: a large part of the back yard is now usable and the fruit trees are accessible - any fruit is included in the rent, but it is somewhat seasonal, right now there are some tangerines - and the bridge is still in a state where I wouldn't rely on the rails. I changed the living room courtains

and the living room now has a futon couch:

Some beds were changed around, pictures on that later.

Hale O Laau Hua - vacation rental house

This is Hale O Laau Ola (house of fruit trees), a (my) vacation rental house in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawaii, lower Kaumana, about 3 miles uphill from Downtown Hilo.
It is the house where I fixed the sink drain that I wrote an earlier blog post about and the louvre windows, and there is still some work left to be done.
Behind the house (in the picture) you can see the 3 lychee trees. There also are a few volunteer Surinam cherry trees in the front yard, but I think those are going to go in the long run because there is a really pretty one in the back yard that was full of fruit just a few weeks ago. In the back yard there also are some tangerine trees, jaboticaba (aka jabuticaba) and a bit further up some banana plants.

There may be others that I haven't found yet as a large part of the back yard is still well over knee-deep in weeds and some of those weeds are pretty vicious. The ti plants obviously are not weeds, but that gives some idea of the size of the weeds.
Longer term I'm planning on adding a mountain apple tree, avocado and quite possibly a starfruit. And I hope to be able to grow papayas again.

You can find Hale O Laau Hua on Facebook (only so far)

Redoing louvre windows - and: this is a vacation rental in the works

At the house I just bought some of the louvre windows were missing the glass panels - and some were also missing rails.
I started with the bathroom window because it at least had both rails, but they were both stuck. With some WD40 and a hammer I got them both going, and thanks again to Wailana Herbst I got at least frosted glass - where I have to say that I would prefer the upper half to be clear, just for light. Part way through:

and at the end open:

and closed

Then came the kitchen windows which were missing 3 of 4 rails, there are 2 windows side by side:

. Calling around and going places to check and none of the re-use or recycling places having any of those I sent out email on a not work related email list at work and somebody (thanks John!) replied "Did you try Alumside?" I had not but as the pandemic, while not quite cured me off it, made it much easier to deal with my phone phobia (dialing, not answering, if caller ID doesn't work on your phone and I don't know who you are by phone number or you have a blocked number you're not very likely to get me to answer the phone, it's all robo calls anyway). I did a web search first, said "Wow those are expensive", called Alumside and found that not only did they have them in stock in just the size I needed but they are also less expensive than buying them online (for once, there's something available cheaper locally than online - and you can bet that I saved them the credit card processing fees). One rail half in it now looks like this:

Unfortunately I only found frosted 28" glass panels at the re-use center at the dump on Saturday, and while I can see doing the lower half frosted I'd prefer to have all of it clear, so I guess I'll call Alumside again tomorrow (they don't only have the rails, they have the glass too).

While the house and yard are not fully functional at this time, I do have a short term vacation rental permit for it that I just applied for renewal for, and a this time I would rent it at a discount. There are 4 bedrooms and 1 1/2 bathrooms upstairs (which is the vacation rental as the downstairs is only permitted as an unfinished basement because the ceiling height is too low for legal living quarters, but there is another 1/2 bathroom downstairs too). Cable TV and broadband internet is in the works,i.e. I haven't connected everything yet.

What happened to my fridge

No pictures in this one, sorry.

A day after I was told that I may have been exposed to COVID I realised that my fridge was getting close to room temperature. However, the freezer was working.
Hilo is not well stocked for refrigerators, I already knew that because I had researched it for the other house (see the blog post about the sink drain). However, I did manage to find a small fridge/freezer (with separate doors for fridge part od freezer part) in stock which my line manager at work got for me and delivered to my house. I found a spot outside that's perfect for it and while it is definitely not ideal it could be made to work, especially as the freezer of the old one was still working.

Got through quarantine with no symptoms (and a negative test), got busy doing other stuff (work, among them - of course I also worked through quarantine as well as we have been working from home since March) and finally remembered to call about maintenance for the fridge (it is on a Sears maintenance contract) earlier this week and got an appointment for Christmas Eve.
The technician called and I had just about unpacked the freezer when he came, so this worked out well. He took the drawer out and found that there was a lot of ice int he pack - the result of something falling behind one of the drawers and the drawer not shutting completely until I noticed that it had done that and got what had fallen behind out and closed it. As it is auto-defrosting I thought it would eventually get the frost and ice out but it didn't, and instead the fridge part failed.

The ice inside had clogged it to the point that the fan that blows the cold air up to the fridge part was completely blocked and the fan blade had fallen off. The technician blew out the ice, put the fan blade back on, then found that a relay had failed, so he replaced that too. And I have a working fridge again.

A thank you to Emil from Sears Maintenance, you made my Christmas.

I can now buy yogurt in 2 lb tubs again and make popsicles rather than having to give away all the lilikoi.