It would appear that this is my 200th column. What better way to celebrate this meaningless milestone than catching up on some of the stories-in-progress from recent columns!
Joulee the Free Salvage Tesla
Joulee the Free Salvage Tesla is still in limbo. She thinks she’s parked at the Tesla Service Center near the Big Port. The Tesla Service Center says she’s at the Big Port. The towing company says they picked up the car at Tesla and took it to the Big Port. Matson, the port operator, isn’t returning our calls or emails (nothing new there) and our moving company who acted as broker also isn’t returning calls (a dramatic change in behavior).
our mainland trashtreasures
Our household goods have apparently been on our island for a while, but stuck waiting for the container to be unshipped. That happened, and the container was released to our moving company who now has to unpack it (it’s shared among multiple shipments) and truck it up the mountain to us. We got dangerously close to meeting my somewhat facetious prediction that things would arrive yesterday. Instead, though, they’re apparently coming tomorrow, so I was only off by two days. I’m excited to get:
- my tools that I miss every day while trying to make repairs and improvements to our 110 year old house
- OUR BED!!! because we’re both really tired of the old, damp, moldy, lumpy mattress on the floor
- our espresso machine, because we’re first-world whiners
- our full-size refrigerator because we’re currently trying to get by with a small propane-powered fridge and a tiny dorm fridge
- a large power station which should let us use the espresso machine and microwave (sparingly)
- my 32” external monitor, as apparently the magic that is a supercomputer in my pocket and on my lap aren’t sufficient for me
- the servers that are home to my other web services which are currently offline
- our hot tub, though it will be a while before it’s usable as I have to build a deck for it and it requires much more electricity than is currently available
garage
The garage is finished except for the garage door. The pallet upon which the garage door was being shipped apparently fell during transport, damaging two of the panels beyond repair. At least we’ll have a garage to store our treasures, but if it continues to rain we’ll have to affix a tarp across the opening.
thyroid cancer recovery
The trick now with taking care of my thyroid cancer is to adjust the levothyroxine dose and monitor for any signs that there might be leftover cancer cells hiding somewhere. I’ve been doing pretty well except that I’ve started having profound fatigue in the afternoons. I got follow up labs which showed a TSH over 30, which means I’m seriously under-dosed on levothyroxine. I’m talking with my primary care provider today about a dose change, then we can check again in six weeks (it’s a slow process). The indicators of leftover thyroid tissue are falling, which bodes well for complete elimination of the cancer. They’re awaiting analysis by an endocrinologist, though, and there are none on this island. I’m told referrals will take months and involve my flying to a doc who’s closer to a metropolitan area.
solar power
Our custom solar panel mounts have shipped from the mainland and should be here next week. Then the panels, inverter, and batteries need to be installed. All that will just get us power to the studio, but the studio is now wired and ready. At first, we’ll only be able to use the big solar to charge the car (if she ever arrives!) and the power station. I’m still working out details of the transmission line from the studio to the main house. The house has to be completely re-wired before it’s ready for real electricity. We’ll be getting by with the temporary solar, the generator, and the power station for a while yet.
studio
As I said above, the studio is now all wired up. I have everything ready to install a half-bath including the plumbing materials (except the sink) and the material to frame out the wall, the door, and the ceilings. Once that’s done, we’ll be hanging drywall and it will go from more of a shack to an actual working studio where I can do my writing and we can house guests.
Luna the Big Dog™
Luna (aka the Hawai’ian Maukamute) seems to be adjusting well. She had an encounter with a cane toad that had her woozy, slobbering, and nauseated for a while but HA swabbed out her mouth and the experience only lasted a few (anxious!) hours.
mold
The mold remediation is proceeding with a fresh coat of mold-resisting primer on the kitchen ceiling (by far the worst). HA is picking out some great colors and we’ll soon start the Great Interior Painting Project.
‘ōhi’a
The ‘ōhi’a is still standing and the bees are thriving.
fencing
One of the big projects I haven’t talked about is fencing. The property was fully fenced when we bought it, but much of it was in poor shape. We improved the fencing in the acre or so surrounding the house and added a fence separating that from the rest of the property, just so that we could be sure that Luna wouldn’t go wandering. There’s a big problem with feral pigs around here, though, and they were making a mess of the pastures and there were some big boars that are a real threat not just to Luna, but to us. So we’ve had a neighbor working on shoring up the existing fence around the perimeter, and then adding a new fence to isolate the gulch (which cannot be effectively fenced). The new fence will also serve as the route along which the power transmission line, the fiber optic data cable, and water will be connected to/from the studio.
address changes
Changing our addresses continues to be non-trivial in some cases. Slowly but surely they’re getting done but, really, companies need to do so much better with this.
infrastructure
I’ve noticed my role as Infrastructure Man has increased significantly here: there’s keeping all the projects on track, keeping the gas cans (for the generator) and the propane tanks filled, keeping the temporary solar batteries charged, and the repairs made as they come up (and they do!). There are now more rechargeable night lights (but not Wyze) to keep up — something for another column.
mainland house
The mainland house is sold, escrow is closed, the money is in the bank.
sourdough
I haven’t been doing any baking. There just isn’t time. I do want to create a local sourdough flavor, though.
—2p
addendum 20241011
Our ship came in and all our precious possessions seem to have made it intact. The moving company was great. Joulee the Free Salvage Tesla has finally started reporting that she’s at the port. Our moving company tells us she’s due to sail tomorrow. Progress! (The bed, by the way, was more than everything I dreamed it would be. If you’re suffering with an old, cheap, or otherwise shitty bed, do yourself a favor and get a new one. There are low cost alternatives now that are amazing.)