needless to say I got a phone call asking me for help, that their computer was running slow, their son, who they think is god’s gift to the world and knows everything, yeah he has a computer that he bought, pre-built, but according to their way of thinking, and their view of him, he’s an expert on computers and knows more than I do… yeah, I don’t think so, but that’s another story..

anyway, their computer of course was virus ridden to the point that they couldn’t do anything with it, it was overwhelmed, using 100% cpu usage all of the time wiht all this garbage running.. their son’s advice was to re-install windows, which of course even I agreed with after seeing everything there, I would have spent many hours trying to get rid of this junk and most likely would have missed something hidden..

anyway, I’ve spent at leat 5 hours pissing with it, re-installing everything for them, and coming back down to take care of other things as well that they screwed up afterward…

so for all of my time, he paid me $100, hell of a deal for all of the work I did, I looked at BestBiuy and what they would charge for the same services, it came to $1069, and that’s only for one hour of time, at the time I didn’t care about the payment, he’s family so whatever…

when I installed everything for them, I told them to give me everything they have so I can re-install everything while I’m there because I’ve got  full time job and family and well I can’t just run down every time they’ve got a problem…

but now though he’s throwing it in my face that I owe him because he paid me that $100, and he’s saying that I had better get down to his house and help him with his computer, because well that $100 apparently paid for my services and for me to be on call 24/7 for him only and for me to jump when he says so… he’s left me nasty voicemail messages pointing this fact out time and time again, and it’s to the point that I don’t answer my phone when I see it’s his number on the caller id..

I mean some people might argue that he’s family and I should have done it for free, well I’ve got a job, I take my time off, not paid to help him, and I think I should get some compensation for it.. he got like 95+% off of the going rate for what I did for him.. and I can guarantee that I’ve got more knowledge than the geek squad at best buy does… and he thinks and stated that I screwed him…

I don’t understand why family think that just because you have knowledge about things like this that you’re their personal PC tech to run when they have a problem…

a friend, or ex-friend of mine did something similar to me, we don’t talk anymore because of it, but I took care of all of his PC work, cheaply because I had the time then to do it.. a few months ago he got a new laptop at the pawn shop, he asked me to wipe it out, install windows, and all of his programs on the laptop, took me about 6 hours total.. he gave me $20, I just looked at him and said what’s this for? he said that’s for taking care of his laptop, I said I don’t think so, but he said that’s all I was getting for the work I did.. so I don’t talk to him anymore and I’ll never touch another of his computers again no mater what he offers me.. I don’t understand, I could see if maybe he didn’t have that much money, but he makes a good 70 grand a year so he could more than afford it…

I don’t get it… I really don’t

July 5th was the 2nd anniversary of my cousins suicide and to this day, and probably never will I be able to figure out why he did it…

not only did he leave behind questions unanswered but he left guilt as well with most of his family and friends, I personally have to ask is there something I could have done?  is there something I missed?

We were cousins but we were friends as well, the closest thing to a best friend I’ve ever had really…

I look back and well I wasn’t always there, I mean I think I should have been there, but as we got older our interests differed and we grew apart, we went our separate ways with our familes and friends, and things we liked to do, I guess I can’t blame myself or feel guilty about it but I can’t help it really… I just think back and have to wonder what more could I have done?

The last communication I had with him was an argument, and well there’s guilt there as well, but we’ve fought many times before and always ‘made up’, time went by and things cooled off and things were back to normal, but not this time…

He ended it with a bullet to his head, he left behind three small children and a wife, well the wife really wasn’t a wife at that point, she was cheating on him at the time, and I’m sure that was a big part of why he did it, but it’s not worth taking your life over something like that, so obviously there had to be more to it that that, then again we all handle things differently and that could have been his reason, but I find it hard to believe as I know he loved his children and would do anything for them that he could…

I don’t know, and I guess I never will…