We pulled into Aurora Sunday evening, the 23rd, and I immediately stopped at El Chubby’s to get a to-go burrito before we check into the hotel… There was simply no such thing as a decent burrito on the East Coast, and I was jonesing for one.
Monday, June 24th I got the keys to my new apartment at 1747 Peoria St. To offset the cost of the rent I was doing maintenance for the lady who managed the building while I tried to nail down a new job.
Over the next couple of months I got a few positions though a temp agency. They gave me all sorts of placement tests that indicated I was perfect for high-tech jobs, but all they ever sent me to were weird day-labor gigs. One was working second shift at a plastics factory making rubber pond liners, and another was doing concrete work.
Zeze was having even less luck and I was rapidly running out of money to keep us afloat.
During this Zeze’s ex loses the yacht and the storage unit where everything Zeze, Pegasus, and I didn’t have with us was stored. This happened due to her not being able to get off Everquest to get a job, and then not telling anyone she was financially fucked so that we could save it…
Zeze, Pegasus, and I lost pretty much everything in July of 2002…
In August of 2002 I transitioned my iTools account over to the new .Mac offering, at which time my email went from my old ddw.net account to [email protected].
In September Richard and Mike from our RMA days reached out to me and asked if we’re still doing development work. They had started a new company and were promising us the moon and stars if we could make some more magic for them. They commissioned a website as a ‘good faith’ gesture.
On October 30th I finished the Vistech website for them and get a couple hundred bucks for my effort.
I can’t support Zeze any longer, so Zeze and I discuss; I can move in with Wolf and Lyon for a couple of months and extend what little money I have left while job hunting, and he can move back to Virginia and get a job with Dan who has been pestering for more recorders and other tech work.
I take the couple hundred I got for the website work and fly Zeze back to Virginia in early November. I once again make a backup of everything on November 10th right before I move into Wolf and Lyon’s spare room at Lowry.
I spend the rest of November, December, and January with Wolf and Lyon.
2003
In late January I reconnect with Larry, who I worked with on some projects back in 1996. He has a proposition for me: He runs a pawn shop up in Vail and thinks there might be some potential for a computer repair business there. He has a big stock of old Compaqs that need fixed up and sold as well. He also needs someone to watch his mansion in Vail while he’s away most of the year and handle things when he rents the place out during the ski season for $2300 a night… So, he’ll give me a room in his 6000 square foot monstrosity, cover all of the bills, and pay me a small wage plus 30% of any repair business I generate.
I move up to Vail on my birthday in February.
By March 2003 Zeze has been working for Dan for a couple of months and I’ve gotten the computer business off the ground in Vail.
March through May is spent dealing with Richard and Mike trying to screw everyone. It eventually embroils Pegasus and Geoff in England, Myself and Aryntha in Colorado, and Zeze in Virginia…
June and July pass fairly uneventfully.
August 5th, 2003, I join LiveJournal.