9/11
Seems about the best place to tell this story, so here we go.
It’s early 2001, and I had just gotten laid off from my job with a telecom company servicing CPE (Customer Premises Equipment), a nice field tech gig where they gave me a truck full of parts and test equipment and sent me across Southern New England and upstate New York fixing stuff.
Come September, I had gotten a retail job at one of the big box places. Was supposed to be in the electrical department, but at the 11th hour the lying fucks sent me to flooring despite having no experience. Wound up working by myself with the most basic knowledge because the co-workers were always in the back conference room having orgies.
Had enough of that on 9/10/2001, and walked into the manager’s office with an ultimatum: transfer me to electrical where I can at least use my tech knowledge to help customers instead of coming across like your average dumb retail worker. Manager said “give us a few days, and we’ll see what we can do.” I accused him of stalling for time, and said that unless he makes a decision now I’m outa there. He didn’t so I left my name badge on his desk and walked out.
Came back home, went on IRC, and talked with my friend Sergi from New Jersey, who I knew from 2600. He offered to come up the next day, hang out, and work on some hacking projects. I said sure, and left it at that.
The next day I was home waiting to hear from him so I could pick him up at the train station when my wife called from her work. “Turn on the TV.” she said. “Something happened with the Twin Towers in New York.” Sure enough I turn on the TV, and saw that a plane hit one of the towers, and watched it live when the second plane hit. Sergi never made it to visit that day.
A couple days later, I reached Sergi online. He was running late and was on the PATH train in Newark when the first plane hit. When he found out he turned around and headed home. We made arrangements to visit later when things calmed down a bit. I think I may have chatted with him online a couple times after that, but then he disappeared, and I never heard from him since then.
Fast forward a few months later, I was down in Manhattan at the NY 2600 Meeting where we used to hang out, and asked “Hey, anyone hear from Sergi?” That’s when I found out he got killed in a car accident on the New Jersey Turnpike a couple weeks after 9/11.
The degenerate baby boomers who were all having orgies at the store were caught and fired. A lot of them went to work at the competition next door. I now work with one of the people who did LP for the chain, and was involved in the investigation.
Most interesting time when I worked there: Kid and his mom approach me with a shopping cart full of PVC pipe and a BBQ ignitor with vague questions. I look at them, say “You’re building a potato cannon,” and give them a few tips towards making sure the build works safely the first time. At some time prior I had written a review in Cybertek for my friend Mike from M&M Engineering’s book on making potato cannons which he used to sell at local gun shows.
