In life, success tends to be equal parts effort, timing, and luck – I generally have none of the second two and therefore try to make up for it with excessive amounts of the first.
Looking back, we can see that in late 1990 a recession and massive unemployment had arrived on the scene…
So, naturally, this is when I decided it was a good time to restart my life in the ‘real world’.
Spoiler alert: Everything in my life seriously sucked until the end of 1993…
We arrived at my parent’s place in Longmont in early November 1990 without issue and I quickly landed a job in QA at PrarieTEK, working on 2.5″ hard drives, but things with my parents were pretty tense…
1991
So in January of 1991 I found a room for rent and moved my ex and I there.
The end of January is when PrarieTek started laying everyone off and I was told I had work through the end of February… So it was back to pounding the pavement – but Longmont was being hit hard by the economic situation and we needed to make it to Denver somehow.
We attended Genghis Con XII on February 15-17, 1991 at the Sheraton in Lakewood.
My ex made friends with a very nice lady selling handmade fantasy garb in the dealer’s room, and she trades a couple of on-the-spot drawings for a circle cloak with unicorn clasps for me.
At the end of the show we all had dinner to discuss a business proposition; convention sales.
I explained the complexities of our situation and they offered us a spare room at their place in Aurora in exchange for my ex making art to sell and helping make garb, and me helping run the business and getting the books in order. See, our business partner’s husband worked full time for an airline and didn’t have time anymore to go convention hopping for fun and profit.
We took them up on this, and a week later we have moved from a tiny room in Longmont to a slightly larger room in east Aurora.
Between March and August I attend a few conventions:
- SCA 25th year celebration in Texas – March 21-31, 1991
- I-CON in New York – April 19-21, 1991
While I was away at these conventions, my ex had hooked up with a couple of guys across town… So she was absent when I saw the Yes “Union” tour at BigMac in Denver on May 9th, 1991.
Soon enough though, it was time to hit the road again. And the next convention was NOSFFF in Louisiana – June 14-16, 1991. And while I was away in Louisiana my ex had moved in with the above guys.
Right after I got back from New Orleans I discovered this state of affairs, but decided that if that’s how it was going to play out, I’d just leave her to her designs… But a couple of weeks later one of the guys she’d shacked up with got mad and discharged a firearm in the apartment, and she called in tears, terrified… So I rode to the rescue…
She was apologetic, and said she was lonely with me being on the road and it ‘just happened’.
I believed her…
So, I quit the convention gig and then spent what little money I had saved getting us another room with a couple of folks in an old house at 1865 S Federal Blvd.
It was here that I worked probably a dozen different day jobs while scouring the Denver metro area for full-time work. We were just barely scraping by, and we ate more dollar store soup than I’d like to admit over the next month or two.
My ex went with our roommates to StarCon on September 27-29, 1991, and she returned with more fans; Wolf, Lyon, Lynx, and JJ. I was working in a call center, third shift, so I couldn’t go to the convention.
The economy still sucked and in mid-October both of our roommates were laid off and they both immediately bailed, leaving me responsible for a house I couldn’t afford… So, we had to move out as well at the end of October – but without anyplace else to go…
This resulted in sleeping in the truck with all of our worldly belongings for a night until JJ took us in for a few days, and then Wolf took us in long-term.
We spent the holidays with Wolf and her two daughters. My ex got the couch, I slept on the floor, and I continued to try desperately to get some work in the economic hellscape that was the early 90’s.
For November and December I scoured the papers, made phone calls, and delivered resumes during the day and played handyman around Wolf’s condo at night – fixing the dishwasher, the oven, the furnace, whatever. My ex entertained folks in the evenings when the clan would gather in Wolf’s living room for the next chapter of the game my ex was running.
Eventually my persistence paid off and I landed a job at EDCON across town in December. The job was working gravity and magnetic survey equipment on oil company seismic ships, which wasn’t too terribly different than the gravimetric navigation systems on a submarine – something I qualified on while on the 735.
1992
The job at EDCON paid well – like $40,000 a year well – but it had a requirement of being at sea for 2-4 months at a shot. Of course, I’d be off for 2-4 months after each tour, just like being on a sub, so it wasn’t too bad in my opinion.
My ex assured me that with Wolf and the gang she wouldn’t wander off again, so I took the job… And I started training on the LaCoste and Romberg gravitometer in mid-January while my passport was finished.
The job also had a $2000 signing bonus, so I rented a condo upstairs from Wolf’s place on Exposition Ave (#254), so my ex would have someone close by to lean on if required, and picked up an arrest-me-red 1988 300 ZX turbo to replace the truck.
I was promptly pulled over on Highway 36, on February 22nd 1992, for going unbelievably fast… The citation said “Speeding 10-19 over limit” – but that was the officer being really nice to me because I pulled over and waited the minute or so for him to catch up… JJ finally got to drive the Z because the officer forbade me from driving any more that evening.
My passport came in on the 3rd of March 1992, and on March 22nd I was on a plane to Mersin Turkey out of Chicago O’Hare.
I returned in mid-May to everything seeming to be okay; my ex was still around and everyone else was still in one piece.
Things were pretty amazing while I was off, but soon enough it was time to head back out; and in July I left for the Gulf of Mexico.
In Late July I contacted Wolf via sat-phone for a check-in and was told that my ex had not only hooked back up with an old navy acquaintance of mine but had drained my accounts to buy him a new Honda and move him out to Colorado. In the process she had moved out of the place we had upstairs from Wolf’s place, rented an apartment across the street from Wolf’s condo, and shacked up with her new beau.
I got to spend the next month fuming over this while I was stuck on a seismic boat in the middle of the Gulf of Mexico.
I returned in September to my ex being repentant for cheating on me, again, but now she was insistent on having an ‘open relationship’ where she could see other people while I was away – because she was lonely.
Yeah – that didn’t work for me.
Anyway, with the fighting and frustration over this my ex ran off with Mr. Right Now, to California, leaving me in ashes. Right after this EDCON decided to lay me off and I was once again looking for work.
In October I sold the 300ZX and acquired a gold rattle-trap mid-70’s Ford LTD that I was using for part-time day jobs. I’d been doing things like fixing windowsills, concrete work to support plumbing upgrades on office rework, and over the holidays I was driving around hanging decorations at strip malls.
And during all of this I was still pounding the pavement looking for steady full-time employment, but there just wasn’t much to be had.
1993
In January my ex managed to get ahold of Wolf and explain how distraught she was; they had run out of my money and had been holed up in some flea trap motel in Barstow California for a couple of weeks. And her glasses were broken, and she couldn’t afford her contacts, so she was effectively blind.
Wolf agonized over even telling me because she knew I’d jump on my horse and ride off to rescue my ex yet again – but she eventually did, and I did…
My LTD wouldn’t make the trip, so I borrowed a friend’s newer Hyundai and made for Barstow. I arrived, collected my ex and what few things she still had, and headed back to Colorado.
On the way back the Hyundai died – it threw the timing belt on the long I-15 hill out of California into Nevada, and we became stranded in the parking lot of Buffalo Bill’s Casino in Primm Nevada.
Wolf arrived to rescue us, we abandoned the Hyundai after cleaning it out, and I added replacing a car to the list of things I needed to do.
Me ex was once again repentant for running off and said she had learned her lesson and that things would be better…
I believed her…
About a month later I landed a maintenance position with D.C. Burns, the company who owned Townview Plaza – a 120-unit collection of low-income 1, 2, and 3-bedroom apartments at the corner of Colfax and Federal in Denver. Part of the building maintenance position was actually living on the property, so I moved my ex and I into a third floor 2-bedroom apartment at 3131 W. 16th ave.
Things at Townview were pretty nice, even if I was extremely overqualified to be replacing burners on thirty-year-old electric ranges and swapping worn faucet seats. I wasn’t making much money, but the rent was part of my pay so that wasn’t a worry any longer.
Townview was across the street from Mile High Stadium, so we had a towing company come in on weekends and haul out the freeloaders. I quickly got to know the owner of the towing company, who also owned two used car lots, and he let me have anything on the lot for cost… This led to getting a replacement for the Hyundai that died rescuing my ex, and I traded the LTD wagon for that Fiat X-1/9 I drove around for a while.
Things were looking pretty good, so, as one should expect at this point, things went south again with my ex… In April she got into marijuana, a month later, in May, she started seeing her supplier, a psychology student at DU, and by early June had moved out to live with her supplier.
While all of this was going on, I had gotten into the local BBS scene and on June 16th, 1993 I landed on “Empire of the Dragon” run by Aryntha. I was still using the Amiga 500 I bought back in New London, but it was now the “Franken Amiga” due to all of the modification I’d done to it; upgraded CPU, extra chip and fast memory, bodged hard drive controller and 40meg HD, new higher density floppy drives, the ‘fat’ Agnes chip for improved graphics, etc., etc.
I visited with my ex a couple of times in July at their apartment over on Havana and Mississippi, but I’d finally learned my lesson and washed my hands of her and left her to her own devices.
In August, a friend of mine named Wulfer had recently become unemployed and had run out of savings to keep his rent paid. So, I offered him the second bedroom at my place.
I went with Wulfer to see Jethro Tull at Fiddler’s Green on September 14th, 1993.
By October Wulfer had landed a third-shift assembly job at Intelligent Electronics over in Commerce City.
1994
The first half of 1994 was filled with hanging out with folks from the BBS scene… We did a lot of crazy stuff and, long story short, the powers that be favor the bold and the idiots – and we were equal parts both.
The Fiat had vapor-lock issues when the days got warmer, and it was eventually replaced with an orange 81′ VW rabbit that I got in trade for a one gigabyte HD (seriously). And when the rabbit died two months later it was replaced with a burgundy 1984 Mercury Marquis.
During this period the Amiga was replaced with a Pentium-based PC, and the Amiga went on to live in Addox’s basement. The first setup for Silicon Psychosis, my BBS, happened on that Pentium.
On June 18th, 1994, Aryntha from EOTD and I attended the Pink Floyd “Division Bell” tour at Mile High stadium; it was pretty amazing.
In August, Wulfer mentions that I.E. is looking for more people and that I should put in a resume… I did, and I was basically hired on the spot. So, I gave my two weeks notice to Townview.
The apartment at Townview was conditional on working there, and I wanted to be closer to work, so I started looking at apartments in Aurora – and by the end of September I’d moved to a mobile home in Aurora and had started over.
The trailer was a small 60’s era one-bedroom single-wide that I got for a rent-to-own deal – and once again I had the living room as a bedroom while Wulfer had the bedroom at the back.
I started at I.E. working 3rd shift assembly for IBM’s EduQuest line, and two weeks later I was a line supervisor. And by mid-October I was in charge of Q.A. for the EduQuest line.
As I moved up the ranks my pay increased, which freed up funds for high tech toys. One such toy was the first TV I’d had since I left New London. I promptly caught up on “Babylon 5” which was in its second season.
1995
By 1995 I’d moved into I.T. at Intelligent Electronics and was reporting to the department head. I was designing huge file server setups and cutting-edge network topologies, and working with system architectures from companies like Sun Microsystems, Compaq, IBM, HP, and others.
At home I was getting into some rather esoteric computer systems. My living room / bedroom was full of odd machines like a PowerMac 8100/100, an HP9000 C110, a DEC AlphaStation, and even an SGI Indy.
I also started the groundwork for “Infinity Web Design” in early ’95. IWD never really went anywhere, but I learned a ton about HTML and graphic design.
While I was still active in the local BBS scene, I was also spending a lot of time on “FurryMuck” as well, creating text-based worlds and adventures. This was where I meet Zeze in February of ’95.
Zeze and I got to talking about conventions and whatnot; Zeze ran “UniGraphix” which traveled from show-to-show selling prints and art services. I used to run a similar company doing similar things, so we were able to commiserate.
In March of 1995 I have ISDN installed at the trailer, and get 128kbps service in my bedroom. I’d also sold the Mercury and bought a 67 VW Beetle as a new project car.
In April I got hired away from Intelligent Electronics by a local computer shop called Action Computers. I was brought in to start their computer repair business, as was Chimles from EOTD. Together we spent the next six months basically building Action Computers for Mark and Allen, the two guys who own the place.
It was while working at Action that I met Larry in July of ’95. Larry had stacks of Compaq servers that he wanted to mesh together with a hypervisor for ‘reasons’, and had discovered I could make those plans come to fruition. Due to this he spent a lot of time in the store picking my brain…
1996
In January I was contacted by I.E. to come take over their Denver network operations, I bail on Action and go back to I.E. and 1996 passes with me building some really cutting-edge services for I.E.
I wrote “Intellitrack”, the warehouse management system they used, created the data interchange and conversion systems they used to talk to IBM’s proprietary systems over X.25, the imaging system that was used to flash customer configurations on the assembly lines, and the data storage and server system that made it all happen.
In June I picked up a 1974 Porsche 914 as a replacement for the VW, but wound up keeping both of them in the driveway while Wulfer’s Wagoneer was relegated to sitting on the street.
In October the Blizzard of ’96 hit, and this is of course when I figured it was a good idea to go to ConFURence East in Cleveland Ohio to actually meet Zeze, Zeze’s ex, Jeff, and his wife Ronie who were also part of UniGraphix.
I landed in Ohio on November 15th in the middle of another blizzard, met a ton of very nice people, and then returned to Colorado for another pleasant holiday season at home.
1997
November was so much fun that I flew out to Buena Park California to attend ConFurence 8 with the UniGraphix team on January 16-19, 1997.
It, too, was a lot of fun and we decided that we should do this every year.
In February though, rumors began to circulate at Intelligent Electronics about the company being sold. And on March 28th the rumor becomes true; Ingram Micro was going to make an offer to buy I.E., and if Ingram Micro did buy the company, I’d have a choice of moving to Memphis or finding another job.
I talked to Zeze and they offered to put me up if I wanted to fly out to D.C. and see what the job market looks like out there. So, on the following Monday after the announcement I took a week’s vacation to fly out to Maryland… Everything looked good, and Zeze told me I was free to use their spare room as long as needed.
So, I flew back to Denver and started the process of moving back to the East Coast…
Over the next month I sold my VW Beetle and my Porsche 914, boxed up and shipped anything I deemed essential to Zeze, and signed over the trailer to Wulfer.
While closing down operations at I.E., in May, the department head handed me two trays of 200Mhz 512K Pentium Pros while I was at my car one evening, stating those were my severance because “the assholes in corporate got their payday and no one outside of C-level was going to get anything”. I started to respond, and he just held up a hand and walked away.
200Mhz Pentium Pros sold for about a thousand dollars each in 1997, which meant I had about $16,000 in CPUs. So, I sent a bunch of them to Zeze who sold them in D.C. and they used that money to move their farm from Maryland to Rhoadesville Virginia.