To bb or not to bb
Eventually, I do actually make it into people’s homes to work on their computers. Most visits are very pleasant and I enjoy very much working with people and having fun with them. I am often a source of entertainment for them while I do my work.
However, once in a while, I get customers who are “not quite right” in the head. I was summoned to a business that was actually being run out of a residence. Of course, this is very common. My first year of business was run completely out of my home and vehicles.
Just for the sake of the story, let’s call him Donald Anderson… because that is his name. The chances of him reading this are about reasonable as believing blood can be extracted from a rock.
Donald is a very quirky individual, which should have been a warning sign to me. My first visit, I arrived at the appointed time. He arrived 45 minutes later completely unaware that he should have been there to meet me. So after he remembered, he felt bad and offered me a drink. We talked about his needs: he has a network that included two PCs and two Macs.
My specialty is PC systems. So I told him that I would hire a Mac professional that I know and he would pay me and I would in turn pay her. While we were discussing the problems and he was showing me around, he was slipping ahead of me and grabbing things off the counters and desks and stuffing them quickly into drawers. I thought nothing of it until later.
The day arrived that we (my Mac professional, let’s call her Jane – and that is not her name – and me) were to do the work. As usual, Donald was running back and forth between the bedroom/office and the family room/kitchen with strange people coming and going. One of the people who came had a box full of watches of every kind, NOT in their packaging and showing signs of wear. They were cleaning them and trying to guess what they could get for each one. I am sure you can imagine what went through my mind – some watch thief was trying to fence his goods.
I talked with Donald prior to the start of our work. I explained to him that there are two of us working on this, so I was going to charge him an hourly pay that was double. He understood and agreed. Donald’s secretary showed us where we should start – we will call her Maria.
Jane and I began our work. While we worked, Donald engaged in a number of strange things. Besides the running back and forth, scrubbing used watches and other used valuables, he was drinking one whiskey after another. He was cussing at pigeons outside his house and believe it or not, he pulled out a bb-gun and climbed up in the windows and poked it out the door and was killing them.
He said that the pigeons were good eating. Then there was a stray cat that he hated (I am guessing because it was stealing the pigeons he was killing). Him and another neighbor (who also had a gun) both went out and hunted the cat down. He came back bragging of his kill. I began to get a little scared.
Jane and I worked and in about two and a half hours, we got everything working quite well. I paid Jane and sent her on her way (as we were both a little freaked out about Donald’s behavior – but her more than me). I wrote up an invoice and asked Donald if he could pull himself away from his “work” in the back room. I waited about another half hour for him.
He offered me another drink, which I accepted but did not drink – because I was afraid he was drunken enough that he might be offended if I refused it. Anyway, I told him what he owed me. He was silent for an uncomfortable length of time. Suddenly he went from a calm demeanor to a fire-breathing dragon.
He used so much profanity that the paint began to peal off of the walls. A sailor would blush… He began to call me every name in the book. He said that what I was asking was outrageous and he ran up and down the halls spewing profane things about me, my business and my maternal relatives. He even sat down in the back room and explained to his watch thief friends what an immoral business man I was and made fun of my business name.
His secretary, Maria, was cowering in a corner and from the look on her face, she was about to burst into tears. When he went back into the back room, screaming obscenities, she and I whispered. She told me she had never seen him act this was. Of course, she had only worked for him about two months. And she only worked for him another week after that incident.
The tie-raid continued for another five or ten long minutes. I asked him to calm down and we could discuss it, perhaps even negotiate. Every time I tried to get his attention, he shut me up with loud screaming and threats of bodily harm. He even said that if I didn’t get out of his house he was going to “kick my ass all the way downtown”. He threatened me with a law suit and literally dared me to send him a bill.
Heck, I know when I am not wanted. I cut my losses and made for home. I had to keep looking back while I was walking to my car to make sure he wasn’t coming after me with his bb-gun.
However, once in a while, I get customers who are “not quite right” in the head. I was summoned to a business that was actually being run out of a residence. Of course, this is very common. My first year of business was run completely out of my home and vehicles.
Just for the sake of the story, let’s call him Donald Anderson… because that is his name. The chances of him reading this are about reasonable as believing blood can be extracted from a rock.
Donald is a very quirky individual, which should have been a warning sign to me. My first visit, I arrived at the appointed time. He arrived 45 minutes later completely unaware that he should have been there to meet me. So after he remembered, he felt bad and offered me a drink. We talked about his needs: he has a network that included two PCs and two Macs.
My specialty is PC systems. So I told him that I would hire a Mac professional that I know and he would pay me and I would in turn pay her. While we were discussing the problems and he was showing me around, he was slipping ahead of me and grabbing things off the counters and desks and stuffing them quickly into drawers. I thought nothing of it until later.
The day arrived that we (my Mac professional, let’s call her Jane – and that is not her name – and me) were to do the work. As usual, Donald was running back and forth between the bedroom/office and the family room/kitchen with strange people coming and going. One of the people who came had a box full of watches of every kind, NOT in their packaging and showing signs of wear. They were cleaning them and trying to guess what they could get for each one. I am sure you can imagine what went through my mind – some watch thief was trying to fence his goods.
I talked with Donald prior to the start of our work. I explained to him that there are two of us working on this, so I was going to charge him an hourly pay that was double. He understood and agreed. Donald’s secretary showed us where we should start – we will call her Maria.
Jane and I began our work. While we worked, Donald engaged in a number of strange things. Besides the running back and forth, scrubbing used watches and other used valuables, he was drinking one whiskey after another. He was cussing at pigeons outside his house and believe it or not, he pulled out a bb-gun and climbed up in the windows and poked it out the door and was killing them.
He said that the pigeons were good eating. Then there was a stray cat that he hated (I am guessing because it was stealing the pigeons he was killing). Him and another neighbor (who also had a gun) both went out and hunted the cat down. He came back bragging of his kill. I began to get a little scared.
Jane and I worked and in about two and a half hours, we got everything working quite well. I paid Jane and sent her on her way (as we were both a little freaked out about Donald’s behavior – but her more than me). I wrote up an invoice and asked Donald if he could pull himself away from his “work” in the back room. I waited about another half hour for him.
He offered me another drink, which I accepted but did not drink – because I was afraid he was drunken enough that he might be offended if I refused it. Anyway, I told him what he owed me. He was silent for an uncomfortable length of time. Suddenly he went from a calm demeanor to a fire-breathing dragon.
He used so much profanity that the paint began to peal off of the walls. A sailor would blush… He began to call me every name in the book. He said that what I was asking was outrageous and he ran up and down the halls spewing profane things about me, my business and my maternal relatives. He even sat down in the back room and explained to his watch thief friends what an immoral business man I was and made fun of my business name.
His secretary, Maria, was cowering in a corner and from the look on her face, she was about to burst into tears. When he went back into the back room, screaming obscenities, she and I whispered. She told me she had never seen him act this was. Of course, she had only worked for him about two months. And she only worked for him another week after that incident.
The tie-raid continued for another five or ten long minutes. I asked him to calm down and we could discuss it, perhaps even negotiate. Every time I tried to get his attention, he shut me up with loud screaming and threats of bodily harm. He even said that if I didn’t get out of his house he was going to “kick my ass all the way downtown”. He threatened me with a law suit and literally dared me to send him a bill.
Heck, I know when I am not wanted. I cut my losses and made for home. I had to keep looking back while I was walking to my car to make sure he wasn’t coming after me with his bb-gun.
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