[Talfuchre]

I have no project at Punishers and thus no PERSONAL commitment either way.

However, this one on Doc's nearly made me cry.

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Hey Doc, I'm gonna level with you here.. I'm that guy who said I'm still waiting as long as it takes.. Trust me, for the past five years (2 years was gratis.. that was an acceptable backlog for me at the time) I've gone through the rollercoaster of hope and despair and realized that all the balls are in Lee's court and it is up to him to hit them back to me or pack them up in a box and go home.. The point being-- I have NO choice in the matter. I HAVE to wait as long as it takes because I was naive enough to send lots of guns and do lots of deals without ever seeing anything in person. I'm ashamed to say its not the first time and will probably not be the last time I've lost sleep over something like this.. I've also been waiting over two and a half years for a GM Throttle Body Fuel Injection kit from another small business guy who did exactly what Lee did.. Took on too many projects and wasn't able to keep up.. Unfortunately for me, EFI guy was able to refund everyone who paid their deposit with paypal with a credit card.. I paid with my bank account. I got bit for doing what I thought the right thing was-- pay with cash so I wouldn't run up my credit cards.. Damned if ya do, damned if you don't.. Ultimately I'm doing the same game with that guy-- hoping for the best in humanity to show itself. So far that guy has agreed to finish my kit for the deposit price ($600 out of $1200) and he swears it will be done by the requested date of July 15th.. Will that happen? Doubtful.. But I might be surprised.. Only time will tell..

Do I have faith that Lee will eventually have my equipment? The optimistic part of me says yes but the pragmatic side of me says to be prepared to never see my stuff again.. He was excited to hear I was still alive when I finally contacted him through HaveBlue because he heard that I had died. The entertaining thing is that I'm very much alive and my contact info has never changed. I stopped posting on message boards because I grew tired of the "I'm going to throw my wallet at you and win this game" factor in the game (I play with a pump...) and voila- dead. I guess I can take the "lost all contact info" bit, but... yeah. My balls are basically in a vice until the goods materialize, the money gets sent to me because the goods were sold because I was dead (hey, I'm a pragmatist.. no offense if you read this, Lee), or Lee dies/goes bankrupt/etc... A friend of mine went into a bad business deal with a friend and is owed over $10k.. His consolation? He's written into the dude's last will and testament.. I somehow don't imagine that happening between anyone except the closest of friends..

Anyway, this became way more longwinded than I wanted.. The point is, basically- I'm not willing to wait 7 years because Lee's work is in demand.. Hell, Doc, I gave up paintballing about five years ago.. I'm willing to wait because my alternatives are nil.. Can I bully Lee? No. He threatened me with a workman's lien on my property because I got uppity. Can I beg him? That's bull****. Can I sue him? I'm sure, but what do I gain out of it? Possession is 9/10ths of the law and I have nothing and he has my guns. Can I wait? Sure. And, I'm not kidding when I say I'd like to see my equipment with my own eyes when it hits the 10 year mark.. Heck, at the moment, I'd be ecstatic just to receive pictures of my stuff complete with serial #'s.. The only one I really can never forget is owning Blazer #009 for a few days before sending it off to be retimed.. I never even shot the gun since the previous owner had screwed with it so much.. But, alas.. What can I do? I thought about emailing the guy who started this thread, with my contact info and a list of guns Lee has.. But, to be honest, I don't even remember half the **** he has and I stopped cutting-and-pasting emails into a word document when it reached 25 pages and I was just barely 2/3rds of the way done.. He and I literally have a small novel's worth of emails back when I considered him a friend first and airsmith second.. Now I'm just another ******* customer he'll post about on his forum.. I've given up complaining because it does no good and it doesn't solve anything.. Now I just wait patiently.. and once a year I'll post in his forum or email him to tell him I'm still alive and I haven't died.

And, in case this ever needs to be google'd for my next of kin or his, my shipping info is..

Raj Rajadhyaksha
c/o Trabuco Hills High School (you think I'd post my home address? I teach high school... hehe)
27501 Mustang Run
Mission Viejo, CA 92691

...I'll be at that shipping address for the next 30 years, I hope. Let's just hope my stuff arrives before I'm ready for my retirement party

Cheers,

Raj with the 7-year old project list..
...does that make me special? pfft. hardly. it just makes me pathetic. Most people would have moved on by now and I almost had... but my friend brought it up after he say a discussion on pbnation... sigh. I figured I'd put me 2 cents in..

EDIT:
Added quotes for you --Brewtt