F 1 D 0 -- 2001 11 28 at 12 30

I knew something was wrong.

For the last few days, Mike, one of the
tenants (room mates) here has been saying
that he wants to talk to me some time. Fine.

Today ended up being that day. Fine.

He insists that he only wants to
pay 400.00 and not 450.00 a month.

Why?  Because the people in the next
room are paying 450.00 and their room
is much larger. There are two people in
it. They do this. They do that. 

To his credit, it was Mike who negotiated
getting cable here.  I wasn't interested 
in that.  So now I have a high speed
connection which I pay 40.00 a month for.

As far as I'm concerned, I'm now paying 90.00
a month, as I won't reduce his rent, but
I'm prepared to pay more for the cable
bill. Why? Because everyone here seems to
get benefit from it.  Everyone seems to
demand services here freely.

I'm tiring of the bologna.  Next time something
bad surfaces, I'm seriously considering doing
something different.  Finding a place on my 
own?  Even if it is small or far away, it may
be worth it.

I do have a lot of things, and the big place
has afforded me room for them. Perhaps the
things I own, actually own me.

It isn't like I use them a lot. I'm so
rarely home. Maybe this is My Own Addiction,
wanting to posess things I don't really
benefit fully from.

What do I need? Not much. I want to be
protected from the elements, and store
my computer. I'd like that computer to
be connected to the internet, but that
is not a need. 

If I were forced to deal with just what
I could carry, what would that be? I'll
think about this, and write more.  I'm
just bummed out a bit.

I have another room mate(s), Samir and
Melanie.  I need their income, but not
at the cost of them smoking inside the
house.  When I talk to them next, I have
to be prepared to ask them to leave.  Grand.

I really don't like confrontation. I'll
do it because I have to. But I just don't
like it.

Last night.

Last night had a lovely English Country
Dance.  It wasn't perfect, but it was lovely.

We had six come out. This is sufficient for
many dances.  I was the only man. That is
not sufficient. But we made do.

Prior to that.

I did a call on two families. Leon is a customer
who lives in a very nice part of North York. I
think it is called "The Links" but might be 
called "St Andrews."  It is a maze of curled
streets with very large homes.

He needed me to reconfigure his internet, as
Rogers is no longer using the @home servers.
I'm surprised they didn't just buy up the 
installed hardware. That would have made too
much sense. No, they've run fresh servers, 
fresh hardware, fresh connections. Just the
lines from the cable to the street remain the
same.  

So all of the addresses are changing now. I had
to alter Leon's system, and then he was eager for
me to meet his daughter, and fix her computer too.

She lived around the corner.  Ah, her home. It was
clearly four times the size!  It had these pillars
which ran from the porch to the top of where a 3d
storey would be.  Everything about this building 
was palacial.  The entranceway was wide.  There
is a small door to my right, and looks like a
bathroom. No, this is an office so that people
who need to meet don't have to come inside the
home part of the home.  This is where the computer
lives.

The computer didn't seem very used. It was running
windows 95, and had a 2 gigabyte drive. To put
this into perspective, new computers have 40 gig
drives now, and discount systems have 20 gig
hard drives.

Last year the numbers were 20 gig (full), 8 gig
(discount).  The prior year was 8 gig (full), 
4 gig (discount).  And previous was 6 gig, 2 gig.

I'm just helping you see the age.  

But there is more.  Normally, after using windows
for a year, the hard drive accumulates so very
much trash that a man like me must visit and
declutter everything.  This computer had signs
of some use, but had 1.984 g free of 2.2 g available.

"Nobody uses this computer, do they?" I ask.

"Sure, the kids use it," she says. "But not all
that much, I guess."  Yes, I could tell.

They wanted to spend money on it. "No, don't do
that," I offered.  "Spend about 1000.00 and get
yourself something fast and new.  You won't regret
it."

I'll post some prices soon. You'll see that a
system is merely the total of its components.

Prior to the visit with Leon and his daughter's
family, I was doing stuff for Sanderson Taylor.

Last night, when I was there, Carolyn complained
that the modem didn't connect right.  When I looked
at it, it was not connecting at all. This was so
serious that she phoned me and insisted I get into
her office promptly. "As soon as possible. Today."

I called the vendor, and got him ready for this.
I figured I'd take the system by taxi, he'd fix,
take it back.  Not a problem.  I made a date with
him so I'd not be stalled.

So back at Sanderson, here I'm am undoing the
cables at the back of the computer. "What are YOU
doing??"  "Oh, like I explained. I've called the
vendor, and he's ready for me. I'll rush your computer,
he'll fix it, I'll rush it back."

"I have to be without my computer? I can't be
without my computer! No! Have you asked Paul?"

"Sure did. It's cool with him," says me.

Carolyn rallies all of the other girls in the
office, including Karolina.  "There must have 
been a misunderstanding, Dave.  We can't be
without the computer, even if it needs fixing."

"I don't mind putting it off, but you wanted
this right away, so I arranged for Right Away.
Just like you said."

"Sorry, Dave. There's been a misunderstanding."

My problem: I'm going to be billing for the
wasted time.  Nobody likes that, but I've got
to.  I cannot have them demanding instant stuff,
getting it, and deciding in the penultimate minute
that it was a mistake, leave it for another time.

I'm glad to have the work. But when they get
the bill, nobody is going to be happy.

It is 109pm, and I am already late.  Today I see
a writer downtown in the west end.

That's all I know.