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.

Some advice I just gave to a clove seed customer

(yes, I do have some clove seeds but I don't really have time to deal with them so if I have other orders that need to be insepected I list some on Etsy towards the end of the week. I currently tend to ship on Fridays - except for the next two which are holidays and ag inspection will be closed, so I will ship on the Thursdays preceding those)

The following is from 2 message I sent tonight:

You should first see the seed (cotyledons, really) lift off the ground, supported by the root. They always grow roots first, so going into the ground is good. Scooting a little soil up against the sides sounds like a good idea. Yes, they are a bit slow, they're trees after all, not beans. Once they are maybe 1" off the ground something will at some point start poking out upwards. I don't know anything about grow lights, I have never used one. I would make sure that they don't dry out too much.

You're not the only one who has ever contacted me several times, I can understand that you're concerned. Cloves are difficult to grow, yet, believe it or not, somewhat invasive (here). You may also have noticed that while the listing was for 10 seeds I sent you 20. That's because I never know how many die in transport, and you can believe me that I threw out another 50 or so to get together those 20. However, if you have a full grown tree it will produce thousands - when it does, which is somewhat unpredictable. I remember a time when I didn't get any in 2 years as well as a time when I got 2 harvests in one year. And, right now it is raining buckets and has been all day and I won't go to the bottom of the yard when it does that, so the seeds will drop anyway (if there are any left to drop) and sprout in place. Heads up on that: clove plants are difficult to transplant and they have tap roots too, so whenever you think that one of your plants is getting roots near the bottom of the planter, let it dry out a little bit and lift it out of the planter with as much of the dirt as will stick, disturbing the root ball as little as possible and plant into something that is deep rather than wide.

(FYI, Google: I am unable to add labels)

Adventures in rebuilding a sink drain (or "was nicht passt wird passend gemacht")

First, here is a "before" picture

that was taken by my Realtor, Wailana Herbst, who was very helpful in the last 2 years of my house-hunt (I didn't have my phone charged). It was leaking where the tailpipe (metal) is (was) connected ot the plastic parts.

Taking it all apart, which took a bench vise for 2 of the nuts (don't have a wrench that opens far enough), I figured out that the sink was misaligned with the drain by on the order of 1/16", so the existing parts couldn't be made to fit (unless, afterthought here, I might have been able to heat one of the part to soften it enough to make it fit). OK, says me, this calls for one of those flex tubes, but that has to be vertical otherwise you get too much buildup. For that the tail pipe had to come off.

Easier said than done, this is where I had to actually tighten the bench vise (glad I only have a small one) around the nut just under the sink, and that's the nut that broke. You can see the deposits on the pipe (the pipe is otherwise OK and I'll save it with the rest of my pumbing parts), and that's probably why the nut was held in place so firmly.

Next I connected the flex pipe I had bought in the meantime where the tailpipe had been and found

2 threaded parts next to one another. Take a short piece of pipe and 2 nuts and connect the two (there is a purpose to saving otherwise pretty useless plumbing parts - and keeping all your plumbing parts in one place together with the plumbing tools that have no other use, like e.g. a faucet seat wrench and your supply of teflon tape). As this made the part below the sink before the trap way too long I cut off part of what goes towards the sink. I have a Dremel that has a bit stuck in it to attach cut-off wheels to, which most of the time I find annoying, but in this case it came in handy because I didn't have to think about that part. I cut off just the right amount for the nut and slip joint washer to fit and the rest of the pipe to fully go into the sink part.

However, this still had the part coming down from the sink too long.

after which I decided I could just cut off a piece of the downward end of the slip joint tee where the second sink's drain connects and after a bit of fiddling, ogt all of it connected.

And while I left a bowl under it for the time being, I didn't see any dripping and I tested both sinks. - And, well, by the discoloration of the two (formerly white) nuts where I had to connect the two threaded parts, you can see that saved plumbing parts can be quite useful, and the piece of pipe inside in that area was a left over part as well.

Coffee seeds are starting

The coffee seeds are a bit slow this year but they are starting to come in and I have some listed. Depending on the order volume and the seeds coming in at any particular time I may run out at times. Somebody asked whether I wasn't selling seeds anymore, but I sold out of coffee seeds, the parking lot where I get most of the tiare seeds is still closed, I'm not sure I'm going to have time for clove seeds (I make about $3/hour on clove seeds, they are that much work and spoil that quickly - now you know why nobody else sells them and I sometimes don't list them even when I have them). I do have new seeds for yellow lilikoi and I'm not sure whether I'm going to get seeds from/for purple ones any time soon.

In these days of COVID-19

Due to the pandemic I am working from home (I'm lucky to still have a job) and one of the few reasons I leave home is to go to agriculture inspection, which I tend to do once a week unless people need things sooner and pay for (USPS) priority shipping. I usually go to have things inspected on Fridays because mail moves on weekends unless things get much worse (Oahu, where all mail goes through is bad right now). I have had orders mailed out and not getting scanned between when they left Hilo and when they arrived at the destinatong post office, like August 28, 2020, 8:03 am Arrived at Post Office LINCOLN, NE 68506 August 24, 2020 In Transit to Next Facility August 20, 2020, 5:29 pm Departed Post Office HILO, HI 96720 One of the things I receive a lot of messages about are seeds, I usually get those from a public facilities' parking lot. As the facility is closed, so is the parking lot. I check my secondary locations every so often but didn't find any ripe ones since May. It looks like I will have some clove seeds unless we get a "really stay at home" order and won't be able to go to ag inspection (HDOA for domestic orders, USDA for foreign ones (I don't do phytosanitary certificates other than for orders to Pjerto Rico and if needed to the USVI, so if you are in a country that doesn't allow shipping in, please don't even ask). FYI: I make about 1/3 of minimum wage on those. They are a lot of work and most end up not being shippablebecause they are really plantlets rather than seeds - or already dead. (Google, we need a spell checker here???)

Clove seeds available

I currently have clove seeds. I have a few listed as private listings on Etsy for people who contacted me on Etsy, sent an Ebay message to somebody who contacted me on Ebay (but haven't heard back) and listings for 10 seeds on Zibbet - 10 clove tree seeds - I hope the link works. I can do a few orders of 50 or 100, but those take some time to prepare and I prefer to send those out early in the week. I do not ship to places that require phytosanitary certificates other than to Puerto Rico (sending my prayers and best wishes for and to all of you there at this time), so please don't ask. Apologies to my waiting list, I hope you find this, I haven't had time to deal with finding all the email addresses, and I can't keep 10 seed and 20 seed orders apart at Ag inspection, so I won't list them at the same time. You may not realize this, but I have to take ever seed order out of its package to be inspected, and I hate getting contents mixed up.

Google, do you really have to make my life this complicated?

I can't be logged into my personal account and my work account at the same time and access my blog??!!

Or, let me rephrase that: I can't be logged into my work account and access my personal blog?

At least not from the same browser? At least it doesn't appear that I have to log out of my work account on all my devices ... (that would imply: including my computer at work).

The procedure is:
if you want to access your personal blog and have a gmail interface at work:
close your work email tab in your browser
edit your blog
reopen your work email tab (from the history works in Firefox)

If you leave your blogspot tab open you can still access it after reopening your work email tab but you won't get the initial access to your personal blog if you have your work email tab open

I'm pretty sure the same isn't true for Google Drive/Sheets as I do access this from my personal account all the time while having a work email tab open - so, please Google, fix this for blogger - I do want access to both of my email accounts at the same time.

What needs to be inspected by the Hawaii or US Departments of Agriculture and what doesn't - and shipping delays

I posted some of this on Facebook (it's public, you don't have to be on Facebook to read it), but I thought I might make it available to a wider audience.
I'll be trying this being away thing again next week, so if you're ordering anything that needs to go through ag inspection after today/yesterday early morning it will be delayed until next week Friday or possibly the Monday after. I can get orders out that don't need to be inspected through Sunday morning (going out Monday) and may be able to throughout (and I'll try to delete this part after I get back as well as that part of the title).

What needs to be inspected and what doesn't:

I just realized that it may not be clear what needs to be inspected and what doesn't. Obviously plant seeds need to be inspected, including Job's Tears and mgambo seeds, even if they're drilled - when going to most places, see below. I have been meaning to call the USDA whether mgambo seeds still need to be inspected if they are temporarily strung but haven't gotten around to that yet, the Hawaii Department of Agriculture guys told me that I'd have to ask the USDA - because: jewelry made with any of these seeds doesn't have to be inspected (neither does jewelry made with Job's Tears but I won't string those in the amounts that I sell by just to get around ag inspection, so please don't ask). Some seeds cannot be shipped to some states (e.g. citrus seeds cannot be shipped to Florida, though Florida is generally pretty open in what can be sent there). Orders to Puerto Rico require a phyto. This phyto is issued by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and is free but requires extra paperwork (and an extra day in most cases).

Non-propagative seeds (e.g. drilled mgambo seeds or Job's Tears) don't have to be inspected if they are staying within Hawaii. Coffee seeds cannot be shipped to destinations in Hawaii.

Orders going to Canada also don't have to be inspected here - but Canadian customs/inspection will make sure that you're not getting anything that may become invasive in Canada. As that's rather unlikely for tropical plants those seeds usually go through (I have never experienced a problem there - other than that clove seeds got frozen and didn't survive.).

Orders going to the mainland have to be inspected by the Hawaii Department of Agriculture and we have an inspection place in Hilo. They are open on weekdays only, and they are closed on State Holidays.

Orders going abroad (other than to Canada) have to be inspected by the US Department of Agriculture. Their inspection place relocated not too long ago and is much easier to get to (and the new facilities are much nicer), but they are also only open on weekdays, and they are closed on Federal Holidays. Small orders going to the EU don't require phytos and I usually don't have large orders. I don't ship to countries that require phytos for any seeds or inspection by entities approved by their government (e.g. Belize or Nigeria).

Not being a certified nursery (you won't believe the paperwork required for that) I cannot ship plants out of State, but I can ship within Hawaii, or could the last time I asked. Plants still have to be inspected (think little fire ants and the like. We do have them here, and you seriously don't want them), and as they're usually bulky the postage is going to be quite a bit.

Having written this, I know it contradicts the signs you see at the post offices. What they are saying is that you can't just put it in the mail, you have to comply with the inspection regulations before you do so.

State Agriculture inspection (for domestic orders) will be closed on Thursday, June 11, 2015 for Kamehameha Day.

Just another update

This update has been sitting in the drafts for a year. Most of the things in the included treasury are probably in the sold or expired forever in the meantime (but I do have both unsorted and mixed Job's Tears available - white and brown will take a while longer).

Publishing, just to get it out of my drafts folder.

'Subtle Tones' by gregorgrace

Crochet Peter Pan Collar bei... polixeni19 $20	bokeh photography abstract w... mylittlepixels $25
Geometric Flowers - Digital ... AldariArt $18	Paris rooftops, Early mornin... rebeccaplotnic... $30
Grecian Fruit Bowl - Flower ... NewDayPottery $95	Polymer Clay Beads - 8 Rusti... shipwreckdandy... $16
Felt wool boots Gray size EU... WoolenClogs $155	Vintage Photo Greeting Card ... Luluscardsandp... $3.5
Beige Hand Knit Vest Modern ... LidiArt $70	Organic Gender Neutral Black... SugarPlumLaneB... $34
Votive Candleholder Made fro... BobsBarrelArt $50	SALE Covered Jar Wood Fired... JohnMcCoyPotte... $175
Mixed natural color Job'... hilobeads $18	photography, La Jolla photo,... MyanSoffia $32
House Pillow, Tooth Fairy Co... AppleWhite $24	Fiber Art Brooch needle fel... artmixter $8

Sponsored by send bulk email from excel.

A day of use-it-or-lose-it leave

Please keep in mind that in reality I wrote this in October :)

I have a job. It really is a bit more than full time job (overtime exempt, so I'm not getting paid extra in case people think that). Each year towards the end of the year comes the time to count one's left over vacation hours because we can only carry over 80 hours into the next year. Some time in September I counted up the hours and realized that I have to take a minimum of 9 days off because by the end of the year I will have accumulated 19 days left over in total. I could take all 19 days but I very much doubt there will be time for that. - I wrote this in October, and believe it or not, I didn't officially lose any vacation time, but I did work during some of it LOL

Made in Hawaii

Whether grown , designed or crafted by hand, these featured items are made right here in the great state of Hawaii

Bed of Roses - Botanical Perfume - Sumptuous Rose with Champaca, Violet, Carnation, Angelica and more - 15 ml glass bottle PhoenixBotanicals $110.00	DREAMCATCHER BRACELET made with genuine leather and a moonstone LOVEARTC Sold
Girls Hawaiian Tunic Dress Muu Muu Pink Pua Lei 6mos to 12 HotLavaClothing $32.00	Clove tree seeds (10) - syzygium aromaticum - grown in Hilo, Hawaii hilobeads $8.00
Homegrown Organic Loofah Sponge for cleaning bath or pet toy use! WildGoosePaperCo $5.00	Gold Shell Bangle Bracelet Hawaiian Bracelet Hawaiian Jewelry Beach Bangle Beach Jewelry Shell Bracelet Puka Shell Bangle Hawaii Seashell 02 DRaeDesigns $9.00
Radish Mania Hydroponic Microgreen Grow Your Own Kit, grow 3 crops of organic Non GMO Radish, USDA organic certified compostable grow mats MicrogreenFarm $10.00	Burlap Drawstring Backpack. Repurposed Coffee Bag. Handmade in Hawaii. ManilaExtract $50.00
Made in Maui, 100% hand stitched, applique Hawaiian Quilts HulaLaAloha $300.00	Flip Flops- Kyla Rose Mermaid . Artwork by Candace Lee. Made in Hawaii with Aloha VisionsoftheTropics $39.95
Reusable Organic Cotton Coffee Filters Cone Style Size 1 Eco Friendly – All Organic Cotton Fabric & Thread, Set of 2 NaturalLinens $5.50	Kuliouou - Hawaiian Knee Drum KukahiliDesignCrafts $125.00
Good Luck Elephant Leather Wrap Bracelet on Premium Distressed Greek Leather. Beach Fashion Jewelry CraeVita $34.00	Customizable Feather Mohawk / Headdress - "Pele's Passion" michellecuriel $899.99
Hand Painted Large Silk Scarf, Hawaiian Rainbow Flowers. Charmeuse Silk Shawl Scarf. Multicolor Floral Scarf, Approx 22x90 inches. SilkScarvesTakuyo $210.00

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