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quote: Originally posted by Kapoho Joe
quote: Originally posted by shockwave rider
If you know what is happening you can ask UPS to hold the package, but then you have to drive to Hilo to get it and they only hold it for 5 days. You can also get the post office to hold packages that were mailed to a street address that doesn't get mail delivery, but again you need to know what is going on to make the call, and then you have to go stand in line to collect your package.
Or you just pick a subdivision with delivery.
Ultimately, that is what we did. I really like mail delivery and piped water. But there are not actually enough lots with those amenities to provide homes for all the people who want or have to live in Puna. As long as a termite eaten shack in Hilo or Keaau costs close to $200,000 people will keep living in Puna, and as long as there are only a handful of places with mail and water, people will be forced to live in subdivisions with no mail or water service and crappy "private" roads controlled by HOAs.
My partner grew up in very rural Wyoming (try being a gay kid in cowboy land if you want to become damn thick skinned) and his parents ranch got US mail delivery every single day. I lived all over the country growing up and we always got mail delivery, Hawaii has different rules, supposedly because we became a state after everywhere else, so they didn't bother to give us mail service .
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there are not actually enough lots with those amenities to provide homes for all the people who want or have to live in Puna
Just one more thing where Puna could ("in theory") unite behind a common cause and force positive change...
people will be forced to live in subdivisions with no mail or water service and crappy "private" roads
...but Puna can't seem to solve these basic problems.
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I've been told that I can't get home mail delivery because of low population density. But we were driving around Kaloko and other areas above Kona; there would be only 1 or 2 driveways per mile, but they had mail boxes. Really nice paved roads and county water, too.
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"in my part of Kapoho she would only need one address
Yes: some subdivisions are fortunate enough to have street addresses that can receive USPS mail. "
Fortunate because we bought cluster boxes and made a safe area to place them.We get better delivery than most because we have a mailbox association !
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We have some Black and Decker rechargeable devices that use lithium batteries. These can use either a thinner battery (that doesn't hold a charge very long) or a thicker battery (that'll go near an hour in our B&D weed trimmer). But, the USPS won't fly lithium batteries. Oddly enough, they will fly, say, a new trimmer WITH a lithium battery by air from Amazon.
I'd love to order some of the thicker battery, but it would have to get trucked to Richmond, Ca., and then thrown on the barge. Haven't had a chance to talk to the Keaau Post Office people to see if this could be worked out yet. Just wondering if anyone else has dealt with this. Home Depot doesn't stock these. Garden Exchange doesn't.
Jon in Keaau/HPP
Jon in Keaau/HPP
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USPS won't fly lithium batteries.
1st class & Priority Mail is transported on passenger planes.
Amazon often uses hybrid shipping with USPS / DHL or Fedex for a single point to point shipment, so some of those flights will also take place on passenger planes.
I believe Fedex will still accept lithium batteries for shipment on their cargo only planes, but there are restrictions. Cargo planes can accept certain dangerous goods items not allowed on passenger flights.
I saw the tracks immediately - they swirled back & forth across the shuffled sand of the path. They seemed the design of indecision, but I am not sure. Mary Oliver
"I'm at that stage in life where I stay out of discussions. Even if you say 1+1=5, you're right - have fun." - Keanu Reeves
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only 1 or 2 driveways per mile, but they had mail boxes. Really nice paved roads and county water
They also pay more than $25/year in property taxes.
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You only pay $25 a year? I pay waaaay more than that! [ ]
But postal service isn't a function of county government, so it shouldn't be limited to wealthy areas.
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postal service isn't a function of county government
Better services (government or otherwise) tend to "follow the money".
If my subdivision had enough "value", it might find itself eligible for more services and/or infrastructure from government, along with better treatment from the private sector. Instead, we live under a tour helicopter flight path, while driving by clandestine garbage dumps along our "privately owned (but open to the public)" goat tracks.
I wish I could afford paved roads, piped water, and mail delivery...
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quote: Originally posted by birdmove
We have some Black and Decker rechargeable devices that use lithium batteries. These can use either a thinner battery (that doesn't hold a charge very long) or a thicker battery (that'll go near an hour in our B&D weed trimmer). But, the USPS won't fly lithium batteries. Oddly enough, they will fly, say, a new trimmer WITH a lithium battery by air from Amazon.
The IATA regulations for shipping lithium batteries were recently updated. Read that to mean 'made more restrictive.' They can still be shipped by air, but only if their capacity is small enough, and only in small enough quantities. The rules are different for batteries shipped with, or installed in equipment, than for batteries shipped separately. Batteries shipped on their own, if you believe the authors of the IATA regulations, are much more likely to suffer a catastrophic failure, and therefore have more restrictive rules. I have had some luck in using a retailer's 'ship to store' option, such as with Home Depot or Walmart, to get battery packs for tools. It is sometimes commingled with their goods in their regular container shipment. If your battery pack has greater than 100Wh of capacity, your only other option if using a mainland supplier is to use a freight forwarder to send it via Matson or Pasha.
Often, what I end up doing is buying the batteries that I need while visiting my family on Oahu, and bringing them back in my carry on. Unless the airline objects, you can carry two batteries of up to 160Wh in your carry on. I have not tried that since the Samsung issues. I imagine that they may be a bit more testy about it now. I may have to try shipping the next one back with Young Brothers.
I very much wish that Parcel Select would allow relaxed shipping rules for batteries and similarly restricted items, since it reportedly travels entirely by surface. It would make feeding the equipment which I use to make a living much easier.
http://pe.usps.gov/text/pub52/pub52c3_026.htm#ep900090
https://www.faa.gov/about/initiatives/ha.../?hazmat=7
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