Once again, thank you all for the support!! I am hoping today brings some good news from the owner of the local outlet for the company, but who knows? I will also be calling the company again to see if I can get to a higher up, or motivate someone there to make some phone calls to find me a loaner. It seems that they could do this much at least.
Copper, I think they felt that my mentioning this post was a threat. I don't want to threaten anyone, and that isn't the purpose of this post. I feel however that when a company screws up twice on the same deal they should be bending over backwards to make things right. Sure, companies like this can't give special attention in every instance, but it seems in this case a little understanding and relaxation of the rules might be in order. It's not money that is at stake here! I am sure that someone with a potential cash crop of pot plants would be saying "My problem should take precedence over some guy in NY growing plants for a hobby"!
Ozzy, I sure wish you lived closer I could use a hand with things electrical! Eventually I am going to have to hire another electrician to fix the useless arrangement the last contractor put in. He wired ONE outlet in the cellar and that has a plug that wont accept the regular AC plug that the ballast uses, which means running an extension cord from another outlet upstairs to carry the 1000 watt load. The grow room upstairs already is pretty loaded. It's a good thing that flourescent tubes don't have much resistance. I have about 30 of the 40 watt tubes on one circut!
It's not possible for me to take money from friends. It's not pride so much as good common sense. I feel like I already owe so many friends so much for sharing plants with me when I have no funds to reciprocate! I promise that I will do whatever it takes to keep the collection alive though, and better days are coming. The good weather for the next week is going to help out a lot! After that time, the real problems will start. I am also working on alternatives to the HID lighting even if I have to use the cursed credit cards to do it!
You're all a fine group: I have never met the like! As to having y'all call the company I am somewhat tempted! Let's see what today brings. I believe that they want to help, but I have to make them see that time is of the essence. If the only solution is a repair of the ballast, then perhaps they will give the repair and return some priority.
Meanwhile, I feel the beginnings of some virus thing! My son had a 103 temp for 3 days and he was just here installing the new hard drive. I have way too much to do to be sick: I have to essentially construct a grow space to house the plants when (and if) the light issue resolves. I plan on doing this over the weekend if I am still on my feet.
Once I get myself situated, I plan on mass producing and flooding the world with CP. Nothing is going to stop me from doing this! I haven't been able to be very active lately, so thanks for remembering my past efforts in that direction.
The good news is I have had germination from many of the Brasillian species from the seed Robert Gibson and others symapthetic to my goals have provided. Within the next few years I think we will be able to reduce the "rarity" of these plants significantly and finally see them more represented in collections throughout the world, with your help of course!