Thurston has been our customer since we opened our store in 1995. To say that “Thirsty” has more money than good sense may be unkind but it is not too far from the truth.
He lives on an old money estate in “The Ranch”. His parents made a fortune in real estate and Thirsty was their only child. When people ask what he does for a living his cheerful answer is “I write checks”. He’s never held a job and he pays others to manage his investments and properties. From all appearances, they do it quite well.
Thirsty spends his days surfing or playing tennis and golf at the country club in “The Ranch”. Evenings find him hanging out with chums at the 19th hole or in the lounge at Mille Fleurs. He is always cheerful and optimistic and never seems to have a negative thought.
Thirsty called us last week. “ I need a new computer,” he announced.
“We just built you a new one in January, is something wrong” I asked?
“Heck no, it runs just fine”, Thirsty replied. “I was thinking that with technology and all moving so fast, I probably ought to get something newer and faster”.
“What do you do with your computer?” I asked.
“Lots of things” Thirsty said, “I play Free Cell, two different kinds of Solitaire, Jeopardy, Pac-Man, Sim City and I keep track of my golf handicap”. I asked him what kind of Internet connection he used. There was a long pause
“What’s the Internet” Thirsty asked.
“Never mind Thirsty, I know exactly what you need”.
Thirsty’s voice trembled with anticipation “Radical dude, I knew I could count on you guys. What am I getting”?
“We’ll build you a dual core, Athlon FX 62 AM2 with RAID 0 Raptor hard drives, twin Nvidia 7950 PCIE video cards and all the usual bells and whistles. It will cost you two grand but no one will be able to touch you for pure speed and power.”
“Now you’re talking,” squealed Thirsty. “Will I notice the speed difference between it and my old PC”?
“Well,” I said, “it’s 70% faster than your old PC but with what you use it for, probably not. You’ll just have to take my word for it”.
“That’s good enough for me,” chirped Thirsty “ I’ll need a 72 inch screen for watching movies”, he added.
“Don’t you still have your Megaplex home theater with stadium seating?” I asked.
“Yep” replied Thirsty,” but the projectionist has Wednesdays off. When can you bring it out?"
“We can have it ready by Friday, but with the way computer prices are dropping, I can’t guarantee today’s price past Wednesday.” I warned.
“No problem” he said. “take my credit card number, I'll pay now”