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of Bob Moats |
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The story continues...
Updated on January 24, 2005
After a couple of months printing in the basement, I found an office building for
rent the next block over. It was right next to the Active Lounge, owned by the
same man and I rented the building. It was huge and I only used the front half for
my office and printing area. My son helped me to move my stuff and there was a small
room in the center of it that I lived in. I was now a business. This all took place
just before Halloween and the back room was so huge that I decided to throw a
costume party. It was a great time and a number of lounge owners came by and
supplied us with party goodies. I dressed as Elvira, yes, the Mistress of the Dark,
and I looked good! My son told a friend of his after seeing me that I had better
legs than Cindy Crawford. Back when I was doing shows for Jimmy Cox I had met a girl
singer named Cindy Lou who became a very good friend and she helped me with my business.
She came to help at the party by providing a karaoke machine that she used for her
business of singing around at lounges. The party was a success.
I had two phone lines installed in my office, one to talk on and one for my computer
and fax. I started to get online through a company called "GEnie" and "Compuserve" and
while I was in one of the chat rooms in GEnie I talked to a woman and her daughter
from Buffalo, New York. We chatted for a few weeks and then she came out to visit me
from Buffalo. We were sort of a "couple" and I would drive out to Buffalo every other
weekend to visit her, she came here on the other weekends. She was a very pleasant
person, very likeable, and had a number of animals, dogs, cats, monkey, etc.
We saw each other for about four months through Thanksgiving and I went out for
Christmas and had to endure a six hour ride back through a blizzard to Port Huron.
Every so often while we were online, she would get
a bit irritable and we wouldn't speak for a few days. I really don't know what I did,
but after Christmas she broke it off with me. Oh, well.
After a couple of years doing the guide things were going well, I had contests,
awards for best bar, band and just making the rounds. But in my fourth year things
started getting shaky. The people who helped deliver the guide started to back out
and I had to end up delivering the thing myself. Driving all over the county took
it's toll on my van and it was starting to act up. Frequently I had to just about
beg and pay dearly to get help to get them out. The advertisers were getting a little
annoyed if their ads weren't getting out to the people. I lost a number of advertisers
and I was low on funds to keep the printing press in supplies or keep my van running.
I finally ended up photocopying the thing and ran what I could out to the businesses.
I could see the writing on the wall, and it was not entertaining. After a while the
landlord was wanting his money and I had all but shut down the guide. Cindy Lou would
help out when she could but it wasn't enough to save the thing, it was run into the
ground.
Around this time a girl I knew from the "bitch" had blown into town and her and her
live in boyfriend were looking for a place to open a second hand (junk) shop. I helped
them get in touch with the landlord and they started to move in. I stored my stuff
in the back and ended up renting Cindy Lou's apartment when she moved in with her
boyfriend. I was out of work and struggling to make ends meet, but made a little
money still trying to keep my guide alive for a bit longer. It finally died and I
was facing eviction from my apartment. Before I got my computer online I was using
the computers at the public library and got to know one of the guys who worked there.
He knew of my problems and he was in the process of trying to get rid of his wife and
said I could move into his place. I was there for about one day when his wife popped
back up and I ended up moving back into the garage I was still renting. The garage
was behind the house my son and Pat lived in so I was still near by. I was also at
that time starting to get annoying letters from the Friend of The Court about child
support. They weren't collecting since I had worked for the print shop and didn't
collect while I was self-employed. Now they wanted blood. I ended up finding a job
working seven days a week very early in the morning at a local Dairy Queen, cleaning
and setting ice cream machines up for opening. I worked there for a short time
when my friend from the library, his name was Bill, had moved to a new apartment
and got his wife out of his life. He let
me move in and I worked at DQ till they closed for the season. I tried to collect
unemployment but found out the DQ owner had kept my hours just under the limit to
make me eligible to collect. He didn't want to pay so I got screwed. The Fiend of
the Court kept bugging and I stalled them off for a while. Bill finally broke down
and wanted to get back together with his wife, who now was in Kansas. I knew the
situation of his life with her, and she lived with us for a week or so before she
was shipped to Kansas and she was even a worse bitch than the one I endured. He
started packing to go to Kansas and I moved back to the garage. My life was really
crap by now.
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