Ah, the Wachovia Championship. Hearing that name really kicks up some dust from the old memory banks. It’s not like I was out there on the greens, you know, chasing a little white ball. Nah, for me, that whole period, when the Wachovia was a big deal, it just represents a certain… vibe. A time when I thought I could pretty much figure anything out and make it work.
I remember getting this bright idea back then. I’d always been decent with computers, fixing little glitches for family, that sort of thing. So, I thought, hey, why not make a bit of cash on the side? Be the neighborhood tech guy. Seemed simple enough. Famous last words, right?
So, what was the grand plan?
Well, the “plan,” if you can call it that, was pretty straightforward. My “practice” went something like this:
- First, I scribbled down some notes on what I could offer. You know, virus removal, speeding up slow PCs, printer acting possessed – the usual stuff.
- Then, I fired up my old desktop and designed some flyers. Real professional, they were. Or so I thought at the time. Black and white, with a little clipart computer. Classy.
- I spent a weekend stuffing those flyers into mailboxes around the neighborhood. My legs were sore for days. I even pinned a few up at the local grocery store, hoping for the best.
- Then, I waited. And waited.
The first call I got was from Mrs. Henderson down the street. Her internet wasn’t working. So, I trotted over there, all confident. Turned out, her modem was just unplugged. She’d unplugged it to vacuum and forgot. Charged her a tenner for that. Easiest money I ever made, I thought. This was gonna be a breeze!
But it wasn’t all unplugged modems, let me tell you. The next “job” was a nightmare. This fella’s computer was ancient, making noises like a dying tractor. He wanted me to make it “fast like new” but didn’t want to spend any money on new parts. I spent hours, literally hours, uninstalling junk, defragging (remember that?), tweaking settings. It was like trying to get a donkey to win the Kentucky Derby.
And the printers! Oh, the printers. Don’t even get me started. They were always “jammed” or “offline” for reasons no sane person could figure out. I wrestled with more paper jams and cryptic error messages than I care to remember. I downloaded so many drivers, my own internet connection started to complain.
My “practice” quickly showed me a few things:
- People’s expectations were often way out there.
- Fixing one thing sometimes mysteriously broke another.
- What seemed like a “quick fix” in my head usually took three times as long in real life.
- And honestly, some folks just wanted someone to talk to while their computer whirred.
So, did I get rich? Not a chance. I made a little bit of pocket money, sure. But the headaches? They were plentiful. After a few months of this “side hustle,” I mostly just let it fizzle out. The flyers yellowed on the notice board, and I went back to just fixing my own stuff.
Looking back, that whole Wachovia Championship era, for me, was about that burst of trying something new, that feeling of just diving in. The tech support thing didn’t turn into a big business, but I learned a lot. Learned about patience, mostly. And that sometimes, just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should make it your job. Still, it’s a memory, you know? Part of the journey. And every now and then, when I see an old printer, I can’t help but chuckle a bit.
