Cobra

So yeah...for those of you who don't know, I make my living as an IT Consultant. It wasn't exactly my first choice when searching for a job but it's okay most days and pays the bills until I find something else.

So anyway, we deal mostly with small businesses. I like most of our small businesses as they're all pretty laid back in regards to they flex to our busy schedules most of the time and I like that. The ones that don't flex, I send to my boss so he can deal with it. Very nice indeed.

Unfortunately, we also have picked up more "residential" business in the past few weeks. Mostly people who don't know someone 'tech savvy' that have problems with their computers. Some of them have been simple hits...clean up some spyware, remove a few viruses, maybe restore Windows.

Then, there are the users from hell. The ones that you are 'asked' to rearrange your schedule for because they had a paper due yesterday but their computer died 2 weeks ago. One customer in particular has been a large annoyance. His hard drive died, spectacularly I might add, taking some of his college coursework with it. I somehow managed to get into it via Knoppix and copy his files off to a server on our network. I then burned these to a CD for him and checked the files I could with my workstation. He had several documents in Wordperfect that I was unable to test but I warned him that some might have been corrupted...

He has called our office every day for 2 weeks. He first called to say that the CD had viruses (which was bogus, I scanned it while he watched to prove it). He then called to say he could not open any of the files (again bogus, I opened a handful in Word). I asked him to try opening files in Wordperfect and he looked at me like I was asking him to give a donkey a blowjob. He called today and I spent 10 minutes trying to explain to him that the Wordperfect files would not open in Word...I know, I tried it. So I asked another coworker to talk to him. When that coworker contacted him, he said everything was fine.

I'm expecting his call first thing Monday morning to say it's broke again.

Okay, first rant and I'm feeling pretty fucking pissed off about my current living situation so here we go...

I just moved back to Indiana about a year ago. I lived with the parents for a few months until I felt comfortable financially to get a place of my own. That day finally came right before Christmas of last year as I found a place just south of town in the suburbs. Excellent. That's where my housing nightmare began...

My first visit to the complex was flawless. I had picked out the unit I wanted and filled out the application. I was promised a unit by the end of the month as my fiancee was soon going to be out of a place as of the beginning of the year. All fine and good there.

Two days later I drop off the check for the deposit. When I did this, I was informed that they had given my apartment to someone else less than an hour before. I later found out that this person had turned in their application AFTER I had done so and they informed me when I turned in my application that there were "several" units available when there was only ONE. Asshats! "No problem," the manager assured me, "we'll have another one coming open soon." Alrighty then, we'll see if they can redeem themselves.

Sure enough, a few days later they called me. They were evicting a resident and they assured me that they would have the unit ready for move in by the end of the month. They made good on this promise, only they did a rush job on their "repairs." One of the closet handles literally fell off in my hand, the tub drips constantly, the bathroom door didn't close properly...ARGH!#@!#!

I have lived here for a total of 6 months...and they're the worst 6 months I've ever spent in an apartment. The dishwasher leaks (though they still to this day say there's 'nothing wrong'...), the water heater had to be replaced because it leaked EVERYWHERE, we've lost water on two occasions (once it was out for 24 hours...). Not to mention our downstairs neighbors are the WORST NEIGHBORS EVER. They blast their Spanish television during the day, constantly beat on the ceiling and/or walls, and claim that we had a "dog" in here. Our complaints to management about them warrant no more than a "we'll write a letter" response and my request to relocate was flatly denied.

Well, there's an out in our lease. If we're buying a house, we're out. Therefore, I'm buying a house. Ha. Take that, fuckers.