Geeking in the Woods

I'm trying to earn some cash helping local folks with computer problems.
At the rate I going I will starve if I need to rely on this work for
income. Maybe things will pick up if I can get enough folks to work with
but I'm not sure there are enough folks using computers out here to
provide a usable customer base.

The working conditions are not a geeks dream. Yesterday I was called by
a nice guy who needed some help, but he lived so far out in the sticks
he didn't think we could find his place. Instead we met in one of the
nearby towns. He brought his tower, monitor, keyboard and mouse, and set
them up on his tailgate. He used an inverter connected to his truck
battery for power.

I may have been a bit flustered by the setup but I was able to do some
work, I even had an audience for a bit, one of them was a horse. I hate
it when a horse is critiquing my work don't you? Sadly the gentleman's
system was basically toast. I'm going to try and recover some data off
the HD for him but I don't hold out a lot of hope for that even.

On a previous job the customer brought their system into a local bar /
diner. At least I was able to have some pie while I worked. In fact, I
traded the work for the pie. Ummm pie!

My big problem right now is nailing down when and if someone wants help
on their system. No one calls and says” My widget is not widgeting. Can
you come by on Monday around 10:00 and take a look at it?” No, what I
get is “My computer is not working right. Can you to take a look
sometime.” From this info I must then extract more about the problem, a
day and time, and a location they want me to come to, that is if they
want me to come over. Commitment is a challenge.

I need some things to make my job go smoother, I have most of them, but
they are in storage in Eugene, I'm not sure what will cost me more,
replacing the equipment or retrieving it from Eugene. Sigh, I hate this
kind of decision.

Oh well, maybe today I can whittle down my to-do list some more, no
computer jobs scheduled.

The challenged Geek of Treehaven.