Chapter 45

With the additional people we had hired, I now had technical support on the phone from 6 in the morning to 10 at night. I was even looking at the house to the north, which had come up for sale. It was on the corner, and I was thinking I might buy it and put a covered walkway in between the two buildings. Then move the technical support over there, as well as an office for Norm and myself. They were close enough that it would be simple to tie them both together.

I called Dee, and told her I was sending her over a proposal I wanted her to discuss with “The Board”. Purchasing another building right next door, and moving much of the staff into it. “To be honest, we are already outgrowing the facility here. I have people working on tables in the storage area, and that is causing other issues.” She asked me the price, and I told her they were asking $210,000. “But I think if we offer them $160k, they will take it. This area is not as valuable because it is close to the airport, and the market has been getting soft out here.”

She was reading through the proposal, and photos I had taken. And it was actually built at the same time the current building was, and was the exact same building, just that all the walls were still in place as it was still used as a residence. She told me that she did not see a problem, the business was well in the green. “I will tell them all tonight, we might have an answer tomorrow. But be near the phone, we may call you after dinner with questions.”

And call me they did. But in 45 minutes I had their approval for up to $200,000. I then typed up a document I would send to our usual contractor, outlining what I wanted to do with the property. Part of that included ripping out the backyard and putting in a parking lot for both buildings, as well as the walkway.

I spent much of that evening on AdultNET IRC, flirting with and at one point being seduced by Apple. I also found out that her first sexual experience was when she was 14, with a neighbor boy. And she picked me next, and I got the same question. I admitted I was 15, and it was with my first serious girlfriend in Idaho. I then asked another girl and gave her the same question. And for most of the session that night, there were no dares. Just us asking each other about our first encounters.

Finally, it was time to go to Idaho, and the drive was now almost getting boring. But with winter closing in I had reverted back to the route through Salt Lake. It was a bit faster but more boring as a lot was through largely empty desert.

Once home I went ahead and drove to Hainji Net, and Dee gave me a rundown of what all had been happening. She somewhat surprised me, in that the computers I had sent up to her were marked at either free for a 286, or $100 for a 386. Then I looked at the small print, with the purchase of a one year subscription. Their choice was one of the computers, or two free months of service. And unsurprisingly, most were picking the computer. “We only have five of the 286 systems left, and sixteen of the 386 ones. Do you think we should be getting more?”

Hmm, now this was something I had not expected at all. And now that I thought about it, I guess I should have. I met Mary, and realized we knew each other in school. She was a year older than me but was in my grade as was her younger brother because a bad injury when she was 10 caused her to miss a year of school. We hugged each other, and she was learning some of the lighter parts of tech support and filling in for Dee when she was out or busy. I told Dee that I could always try and repeat Or’Bit Computer Concepts up here.

“I will have to look around. But maybe have my dad and Dave check some of the companies between here and Boise, see if they do auctions or sales of their old equipment. Or I can expand how many I buy down there, and then once a month or so truck them up here as needed. But either way, we would need Phase II of the building to really do that. Figure that part we set up like we started down there. Front half showroom and display area, back half work area and storage. Start with a loading dock in the back, I can bring things up here already configured and tested on pallets and put them right into the warehouse. But if we go the route of buying locally, we will need at least one tech to go over them.”

Dee nodded, and I saw she was as always writing notes on the notepad. Then she gave me a dirty look when I said for her to write up a proposal. “Hey, you are basically the General Manager here. You are running the day to day here, not me. I have no idea what the budget even is here. But if you think we can afford to expand, then write it up and I will support it. But you know we will have to have the next part of the building first, and for that we need the board to agree.”

She nodded, and I sat and caught up with Mary for a bit until she got a call and went to her office to help somebody get their mail set up. I then wrote out a document on the good and bad parts of either buying computers locally, and my bringing them up here from LA. Ultimately, I think making trips up as needed might be the best solution. I could try to expand my contacts through Josh, or even return to buying up other computer stores. Set aside the lowest end systems as “free” systems for six month to one year subscriptions, sell the rest while offering a discount if they subscribed. But the one with the best arguments was for me to keep doing it as I was doing. Plus it would get me up here at least once a month or so I hoped.

I saw that the dive shop, skating rink, and Kent all had a BBS with us now, and although Harry had come down once a few weeks ago he did not sign up. And I knew if we started to offer computers and service for sale, he might quickly go out of business. But it would not be me putting him out of business, he would be doing it to himself. He had established a business model that maximized profits to himself, at the expense of the customers. I still had people come to the store that just hung out, ask Abe about new technologies, and just to talk about computers. I doubt that Harry had many people like that, and most only went to him when they had no choice.

I went and asked if Harry had a BBS, and both Dee and Mary said no. I said that if we expanded, we would probably put him out of business. “Good!” Mary said. “He was a piece of shit in school, he is still a piece of shit.”

I looked over at her, and remembered that they had dated at some point. And I sensed there was something there I did not want to touch, so I just said that he was probably alienating his customers, and we would probably take most of them away. “Not that I have a problem, I saw him at the bar last year, holding court and bragging about how great of a baseball player he was. But just giving a heads up is all. Oh, and as an FYI. If we do that, I do not want him working here. Dee, think of him as an Idaho ‘Boborov Brother’.” Dee laughed, then explained to Mary what that meant as I headed over to the casino.

I checked everything over with Carl, and they said they were happy with it so far. “The chat has been used on average three to five times a day, with five to ten reservations per week on average. We have even had some people ask for Internet access while they are here. But how would we handle that?”

I closed my eyes for a moment and thought about it. “Well, any that wanted that probably have a laptop already. What I can do is set up some accounts, and print out the information on business cards. If a customer wants service, you can sell them it for say $3 a day, $5 for two days. Give them a card, and it will expire a set time after they first use it.” He said he would bring that up with Guest Relations and see what they thought of it.

I suddenly had an inspiration and went back to my office. I pulled out my green notebook, and found what I needed. I then called Pete Sauer. I was a bit surprised when the gal that answered the phone said he did not work there anymore, but she would transfer my call. He still worked there, just in a different department.

I left a message with his secretary, and he called back about 10 minutes later. It seems the years had been good to him, he was now an Executive VP in Acquisitions. I congratulated him on that, and it turns out he was indeed behind selling us the land between the ranch and where the Littlebucks were now. “I saw that while making that original proposal, and then sat on it to see if they would ever use it. When it was obvious they were not I brought it up. And John did not even ask, when I showed it to him on the map he said to offer it to you.”

I laughed, and thanked him and asked him to pass that along for me. He asked if it was true we had added over 800 more acres, and I said it was. Most of it grazing, as well as a park and campground. He said the next time he was in the area he would check it out. I then brought up the reason I called. He of course had questions as to what I was wanting to know, and said it made sense.

“To be honest, I have no idea how they do that. I would guess Procurement handles that. But I know who runs that department, let me go and ask around.” I thanked him, and spent most of the day showing George a few games I installed on the computer in “his” office.

The next day Pete Sauer called me back, and put another guy on the phone. It was their IT manager, and he said they had no real strong system in place at that time for handling such things. “Basically, at this time every shop or department handles all their purchases on their own.” I asked why they had not moved like most companies to a Corporate Computer model, and he laughed and asked if I wanted the job.

“Oh hell no! Sorry, I’m not in any way set up to build and support that many computers. In fact, most of the ones I sell come from corporations down in LA. But if you want a suggestion, get some proposals from a few companies, then tell your department heads about the Year 2000 issue coming up. We both know it’s not a problem, but that might get them to move and see the advantage of buying corporate wide instead of each department getting their own computers.”

We talked for a bit more, and he said he would try that at the next quarterly meeting. Well, that would not work for what I needed. The problem is that the only other major companies were mostly in Boise, unless I went down to Salt Lake. I know there were some there, but I had a feeling that with Novell based out of that area, there were probably already local companies tapping that market.

I called Josh, and he said he could give me some information of some other guys like him at other local companies. I also called Julie, and told her to start putting out feelers on any computer stores that looked like they might be in trouble, or shutting down. I really did not want to go back to that again, but it might be a good idea. Especially if I was going to set up another store. I would also need displays and fixtures after all.

That night after dinner I got a drink and logged on and checked any messages and such that I had waiting. Then going to AdultNET, I saw that Apple was in TorD again so went in. And she was in a 69 with a gal calling herself “EnVogue”. It was quite sexy to watch, and she said hello in IM as they continued playing. I sent back that I did not know she was bisexual, and she giggled and said she was not. “Only in here Idaho, only in here. It’s kinda sexy, and harmless fun.” I smiled and told her that was fine, so long as she was enjoying herself.

EV as everybody called her finished her dare, and then decided to target me next. I took a truth, and was asked if I had ever been in a threesome before. I admitted that I had, with two girls about four years earlier. But it was me with each of them, they did not do anything together. “I had known both of them for years, one of them was bisexual and the other was straight. The closest either of them went was probably after I made love to the straight gal. The other then went down on me, saying she had decided to go second on purpose, so she could taste our friend on my cock. But that was the most either of them went with each other.”

All in all, it was a fun way to spend about 90 minutes, and I had dumped a load of cum into the trash can before I signed off for the night. That was after a particularly hot sequence when Apple was dared to take on two guys at once. She was laying on top of one guy, and then whispered my name and asked me to come over. And after getting me nice and wet with a sloppy blowjob she told me to “get back there”, and stick it in her ass. And I am not sure how much she was enjoying the other guy, but I would describe how I would move slowly in and out of her ass, and how I would caress her back and sides as I was pumping myself in and out of her body, describing how hot and tight her ass felt squeezing down on my cock. And even reaching up and grasping her head and making her turn her head as far as she could and kissing her savagely as I finally went over the top and filled her ass with my cum.

I went skiing with Kim the next day, and it was a nice day on the slopes, but we had to be back by 3. Christmas Eve Dinner was the usual family affair, and afterward we talked over the proposal by Dee. And everybody agreed, even Jeff saying he might join us if we did that.

“Pete, Kim and I were talking about going down to LA next year, and we all know this will not get going until then anyways. Dee is going to be busy running Hainji Net, and it seems to me that you might need somebody to run the computer store. We go down there for a week or two for vacation, and you put me in a crash course of all I need to know. Dee can help me with anything else, and I can run things for that up here. In fact, I want to try something.”

Well, what he wanted to try was trying to fill the requirements of companies like Simplot, and smaller companies in the area. We talked it over until most everybody had gone to bed, and it was just Kim, Jeff and me left. I made sure he understood that we could not match the “Big Boys” like IBM, Dell, Northgate, and Compaq. But he insisted that there would be a market for companies that were local, and wanted to support local businesses.

“OK, I say go ahead, but you know that we are going to have to push both Phase II and III in the building to do that, right? And have the architect even redo the plans, Phase III may need to be even bigger. I think even Phase III was topping out at around 8,000 square feet. If you want to go that route, that is going to require some serious money from the company. You are looking at probably 15,000 square feet or more. And a staff of probably around thirty people. Want a suggestion?”

He and Kim were both looking at me and nodded. “OK, set it up as another company. Hmm, call it ‘Gem Computers’ for now, but feel free to change it. I’m just using that as a placeholder name for the moment as we do live in the Gem State. Make Gem separate from Hainji Net, but rents the land and space from them. Add Phase II and III, then extend the back of all of it almost all the way to the property line. Mostly use that for access across all of it, and plan a larger building on the North side. Turn it from an L into a horseshoe, but plan that one to be big.”

Both were watching me, and Kim had a note pad out. “Start small, I can design you several computer models to start with, at low, medium, and high end. In fact, let’s go all-out and get as much as we can from US companies. It will cost more, but we market them all as ‘US Made and Idaho built’. I know a company that makes motherboards in Oregon. And I know a place in LA that makes computer cases. I can talk to them, and see if we can get some made just for us. You will need at least a few people to start, to provide sales and tech support. I can make the computers at the beginning, and either bring them up here or have them shipped. Set up the sales area, and in one part sell only these computers.”

He asked how much more they would be, and I said almost double what I sold new computers for now. “Remember, when companies buy computers like that, they are also paying for support. If you can, offer free on-site service to any within say 50 miles. If one breaks, you send a tech out to fix it. I will write up how I created SpeedyTech, use it as a blueprint. In fact, replicate that and I bet you can get repair business also. And for companies that might be the foot in to sell to them. But realize, if we are talking about this, you are talking about hundreds of computers a month if not more. And I can not do much other than advise and help you get started. Are you sure you want to try this?”

“Pete, I’m working for the state, and it is mostly seasonal. Summer I put in 60 hours or more a week and more, but that drops to around 20 in the winter. And to be honest, I like the name. Gem really shows we are an Idaho company.”

“Well, we are the Gem State, and I’m not going to want them called something like ‘Potato Computers’!” We all laughed at that.

Little Conner started crying, and Kim went to change and nurse him as Jeff and I talked about other things. I told him to start spending any time off he had at the store, and suggested a few books to buy on basic computer repair and building. “Also, look for a magazine called ‘Computer Shopper’. It’s huge and thick, and is mostly ads for different computer companies. Get comfortable with what makes up a computer, if you want to do this you will have to know what you are talking about. And I will leave a name and phone number for the IT guy at Simplot, they are considering a corporate computer model.”

The next morning, Jeff arrived at the data center right after I did, and I took him to the back and had him pull a computer off of the shelf. I then walked him through opening the case and explaining what each of the cards inside did. When it was almost lunch we got in my truck and drove to Dead Steer, and talked some more while we were eating. We then hit one of the other computer stores that he knew, and Idaho Data Systems was not doing well. Jeff said he knew the owner from the church, and this was only the second time he had been there. It was my first time inside, but it looked even worse than Harry’s place. The owner was an older guy that knew Jeff, and told him his woes of barely getting by. He introduced me as his brother-in-law, and Morgan took us into the back. It reminded me a lot of Cliff’s place.

Stuff going all the way back to an old Osborne on a shelf, and 8 bit systems even including a Pet and Texas Instruments up to a bunch of XT systems. All in all, a bunch of antiquated junk, which he would likely never sell. I overheard Morgan telling Jeff that the recession was killing him, and he was about to go under. Creditors were already knocking on the door, but he had no idea what to do.

I looked at Jeff and he nodded, and I asked Morgan if he minded saying how much he owed. Well, $5,000 was a lot, and it seemed like he was in a tough spot. I took another look around and knew I had enough in personal funds to make an offer even if the company decided against it. I asked him if he was under a lease, and he said only until the end of the month. That was another of his worries, it was year to year and he would have to renew the lease in January and they would surely want more money.

“Morgan, what would you think of simply selling out? For say $15,000 for the entire store, and I give you a job?” Jeff smiled and nodded, and Morgan looked stunned. “That would pay off all your creditors, give you some money in your pocket, and a job. But part of that is going to be teaching Jeff here everything he needs to know about running a computer operation.”

Turns out that Jeff was his pastor, and after ensuring that neither of us knew his situation and we were serious about it, he agreed. I then had him take me through everything he had in the back, and there was even more that I did not see. Including an Altair 8800! Jeff was asking me what all we would do with this stuff, and I reminded him we already had approval for Phase II.

“Put all the computer stuff in my garage, the shelves and cabinets in the barn. You and Morgan here can set up in my garage, get as much working as you can between now and construction finishing. That will be your initial stock. Morgan, make him as good of a tech as you can between then and now. How does $1,500 a month sound? Fix everything you can get fixed, as systems are done arrange with Dee to use them as promotions. Then when Phase II is done, move everything into there. Once I finalize a design for Gem Computers, I can bring some up and we can hash over any changes.”

Of course then we told Morgan what we were intending, and he was all on board. Jeff went to call Kim, and said to tell Dave we would be needing help for the next week or so as well as the trailer. When he came back I got a pad of sticky notes and started putting them on several systems I saw scattered around. Jeff asked what I was doing, and I looked at Morgan and smiled. “Simple, all these I am tagging? Put them in my basement. These will NOT be sold! Morgan here has some great pieces of early personal computer history, and I want it kept. Maybe set up a small computer museum with it, explain how it all started.”

Well, I only got to go skiing one more time right before I left. Most of that week was spent moving everything from Morgan’s shop to the barn and garage, and we had a decent workshop set up in in there. I spent a few days sorting all of the cards, as they started on the XT class systems. I had everything below a 286 configured with at least a 20 mb hard drive and CGA monitor and sent to the data center. Dee and I ran some numbers, and we redid the promotional computers. A six month subscription got an XT, a year got you a 286, or a 386 for $100. I realized I had underestimated the demand up here, and that $150 for an XT and six months of service was still a good deal.

The board met once Morgan’s shop was empty and approved having plans for the future expansion, and Phase II and III construction in the spring. They asked me what to expect in the next few years, and I shrugged. “Well, a lot more changes are coming soon, that I can see. The computers I am going to design are going to be largely cookie-cutter systems, and we will price them I figure at around $2,500 to $4,000 each. This puts them in the range for businesses, and with Morgan you have a good start on a tech support department. But we do these largely like Dell. A single base model, with a handful of options. Concentrating on purchases of five systems or more, ready to use in a business environment. That means DOS, Windows, and a few options for word processors and spreadsheets. Then you can have them already built, just change things like RAM and loaded hard drives as needed.”

When they asked what we would do for the Phase II building, I said that was the company offices. “Tech support, offices for Dee, Jeff, myself, and anybody else. When this goes live, will need a sales staff also. Jeff and Kim can do that to start, but it will soon outgrow them if this takes off. And it would be nice if I can start passing off some of the support for Hainji Net over here. Remember, I am already about to expand down there, and about 15% of my tech staff is also supporting here. It will save us both money if that is done locally, wages are lower here.”

Jeff and Kim made plans to come down, and I said they would be more than welcome. “Plan for two weeks. Three or four days of play, but the rest will be work. Tell Morgan I will be sending some stuff up here in a week or so, so you both can learn networking. Mary can help a bit with that, but you will need to learn to hook computers together also.”

On the second day of 1991 I drove home and was once again frantically at work. I contacted several companies and ordered five motherboards from each to be used in the first Gem prototypes. I then drove down to Hawaiian Gardens and hit up the case maker down there I knew. This was another contact I had through Norm, as this is the company that made all the Digi Boxes. Not the systems themselves, just the cases they used. And Norm was there with me as we walked the plant. It was fairly big, but the entire process was done on the premises.

After touring the facility, I sat with the owner and discussed what I needed. When I told him I wanted a thousand cases cases he whistled. I told them I only needed fifteen prototypes in the next three months, and after that we could take delivery as they became available.

“I have a question though. Do the cases have to be beige?” He laughed, and said they did not, that was simply what most companies wanted. “OK, not us. I want the first 1,000 to be black. All black, is that a problem?” Thankfully not at all. I then pulled out a drawing I had made, and said that is how I wanted the front to look.

I admitted I was not good at drawing, and he laughed and agreed. I pointed out what I wanted though. A door in the front that could be swung open or closed, and pushed into the case when fully open. The entire case would be flush when closed, but open would reveal the power button, reset and turbo switches, and all of the drives. “I want at least four large and two small drive bays. And a way to securely lock it. Also, a way to secure the case from casual tampering.”

He grinned and pulled out a screw and put it on the table. Hmm, a torx screw, but with a pin in the center. “This takes a special screwdriver. It’s cheap, and not many have the driver or bit for this.” I said that would do, and if they did not care about security they could replace it with standard screws.

I was told I could have the first fifteen at the end of February, and I said that was perfect. I also asked for fifteen to be made with clear plastic. I explained why, and he said that was not a problem. He made up the contracts, and said he would have the first face plate ready in two weeks to examine. Norm had also gotten “Check-In” completed, and was about to drive to Idaho to oversee the installation and the first week of operation to make sure it was operating as expected. He was going to stay in the RV, and right before he left I reminded him that Idaho was not California, and to leave his weed at home. He grinned, and said he never crossed state lines with it.

I also found out the date for the install at Pavel’s conference center. Jack and Mike did all the wiring, and even set up an electric pulley system that let them raise and lower the projector for either replacing bulbs, or removing it to put in the chassis. That was placed in the IT room, so it could be moved where needed. They placed it near the front of the room, and while it did not fill the screen it still came at over 150 inches, and was visible with all the lights off. Mike hooked it up to a VCR, and soon we were laughing as he played Rocky Horror. And the sound system he had installed sounded great. Mike even gave me a demo of the lights they had installed, and they were perfect.

On the world front however, things were not so good. Iraq had refused all demands to leave Kuwait, and was threatening to expand hostilities into Saudi Arabia, Israel, and any other countries in the area that offered assistance to the US led coalition. At least all of the hostages they had held seem to have been released. But I saw talking heads on the TV still saying the US should leave and not get involved. This was looking to be another Korean War in the making, and it was increasingly hard to sleep at night because of the stress of worrying about all of my friends in the area.

That weekend Heather did not come skating, and Amber told me she had a date. I smiled and said good for her, and that left me skating with her half the session. She also had finally called it quits with Stacey. “She was just becoming so possessive, I could not take it anymore. The final straw was actually after skating last month. I finally decided to hell with it, and told her it was over for good.”

I told her that might be for the best, sometimes you just had to realize it was over and walk away. “And trust me, been there myself more than once Amber.” She kissed my cheek at the end of our first skate, and let go of my hand and skated off when we were next to Pat. She grinned and asked if my other girlfriend was leaving me and I laughed. “Naw, she has been having problems with her ex-girlfriend, so I was giving her some advice.” We skated together for the rest of the session, and as the session ended she gave me another soft kiss before leaving.

She had to get home for her son, but I still had about fifty people come to the data center. And Blake and Bunny were there, and more than a few either signed up for service, or paid their bill.

The next week I was finishing up some paperwork when Bunny called everybody to the front. I turned on the TV, and on it was night somewhere, and there were explosions in the distance. We could see machine guns and rockets being fired into the sky, and more explosions as the reporter was saying he was in a hotel in downtown Baghdad. Holy crap, we were finally attacking them!

At 5 we turned everything over to the night crew, and I quickly went home and stayed in front of the TV all night. I finally went to bed after 1 in the morning, as reports were coming in of no US casualties yet. Then the next day, the horror of the news that 12 ballistic missiles had been launched at Israel. Israel! They were not even involved in this at all, we did not even have forces involved. The fucking lunatic was simply attacking anybody he could, for no reason other than wanting to cause a split in the forces against him.