Passing of the tech torch

Guy Martin.

Greg Cunningham is an amazing person, tech and friend. I have spoken with many of his customers, and each have nothing but praises for Greg. He will be missed for his knowledge, kindness, humor and friendship.

One day, Greg came to my shop and told me that he was retiring. He asked if he could put my phone number and name on his phone message that would indicate that he was retiring. I told him that it would be okay, and that I would do my best to take care of his customers. I told him that I was excited for him, and his plans to retire and to do some extensive traveling. And, as he walked out of my shop door, I could tell that it was bittersweet for him to make this move. Of course, he is ready and excited for this next part of his life, but I knew that he would miss all of his customers whom he had developed an amazing relationships with.

I know this, because I have many customers that I have developed this same relationship with. In 2001, I moved to Tehachapi and started, like Greg, a mobile computer service. During that first half of the year, I had established a healthy customer base, including the association, CSD and police department in Bear Valley Springs. In town I had serviced several business offices, including the local Radio Shack. It was there that I met the owner, Ted Kitzmiller. After a couple of service calls, he offered me a space in his store to run my business from. After some thought, I accepted, as I could actually help more customers with a base of operations. It was so much more productive for me to be able to work on many computers at the same time. Thus, developed an amazing relationship with Ted for the next 20 years.

When Ted retired and the Radio Shack closed its doors for the final time several months later, I opened my own shop in Old Towne. For the past 2 years in my new location, I have had the pleasure of meeting new customers while maintaining my current customers and friends. Sadly, through these past 20 years, I have said goodbye to many of my customers whom I had developed a close friendship with. One, which many in Tehachapi knew was our very own jokester, Eve Geisler. She used to come into my shop and we'd spend 10 to 20 minutes making each other laugh. The day I heard she had passed, I closed my doors for a good half hour and cried as I realized we would not spend that time together anymore. Eve was my friend. I miss her.

I look forward to continuing writing articles in The Loop newspaper like Greg did. I enjoy writing tech articles and hope to help with the information I will share. Since I have a physical shop, I do most of my work there. I work on both Windows and Mac computers. Prior to starting my business here in Tehachapi, I worked 11 years for Waste Management as a system administrator. Yes, 30 years of tech experience...geeze I'm old!

Please, feel free to call, email or come in and visit my shop if you need help or have questions. I sure would love to meet you, even if just to shoot the breeze for a few.

For more information call Guy Martin at (661) 972-0448, email [email protected] or visit 20424 Brian Way, Unit 4, Tehachapi.