Chapter 1
This is a story about Bob Stevenson, or boring old Bob as he is often referred to, by those he works with or mixes with in his life. Bob is not particularly old, he is only twenty eight years old. Most would also classify Bob as a bit of a nerd, which in a way he is. Bob has always been good with computers and other forms of technology, but he can’t stand computer gaming or gamers. He does use a pocket protector in his shirt pocket to prevent ink from his pens, ruining his shirts. He keeps his pens handy, in his shirt pocket, which he does, in the interest of efficiency. He can always lay his hand on a pen, the instant he needs it. Bob does not look anything like the stereotypical nerd, the ladies around the office think he is quite the hunk. When they first encounter Bob most young ladies will certainly check him out, but once they have attempted having a conversation with Bob, they soon give up.
Bob Stevenson is one of those persons that feels most comfortable in his own world. Bob likes everything in his world to never change. He gets up at exactly the same time Monday to Friday, his working week, and goes to bed at exactly the same time. On a Saturday and Sunday, his weekend or non work days, he allows himself a little treat, and gets up exactly thirty minutes latter, and because he likes exactly the same amount of sleep each day, Bob goes to bed exactly thirty minutes latter on Friday and Saturday nights. Bob does everything in his life to a precise plan he has previously worked out in detail. Bob’s version of being spontaneous, is how just last weekend when he called into the same coffee shop he always goes to after he has been to the supermarket, instead of the black coffee and blueberry muffin he always gets, in a moment of spontaneity he went for a apple and cinnamon muffin instead.
Bob drives to work by exactly the same route every day and drives home by the same route. But being the reckless devil he is, the route he chooses to return home from work is not exactly the same as the one he uses to go to work. Has Bob moved to the dark side ?, no, Bob is trying to solve a problem, both ways cover the same distance, both have exactly the same number of traffic lights and stop signs. Bob, being a bit of a perfectionist, can’t make up his mind on which one is the most efficient. So being Bob, not knowing this important detail in his life, is eating away at him. The only way he can solve this important detail is, for three months, go to work the way he is at present, returning home as he is now. After the three months he will change over to going to work, the way he presently returns from, and return the way he presently goes to work. This would make no sense to most of us, but to Bob, this is all perfectly logical. Over this three month period he is collecting data, this is option A. He will collect the same sort of data when he switches over, this is option B. Then he will statistically analyze all of this data, and then he will know for certain exactly which is the best and most efficient way to travel to and from work and he will then be able to sleep peacefully again, in his bed at night. None of this makes any sense to most of us, but Bob being Bob, to him it does;
The joke around the office where works is, Bob is so boring that if you take the risk of having a conversation with Bob, longer than a couple of sentences, is most certainly dangerous, as conversing with Bob for more than a few sentences has been known to put a person to sleep, and Bob, on occasion will have a conversation with himself, if he has one of these conversations with himself, and goes on for too long he will even put himself to sleep.
Bob is a highly valued employee at McPherson & Sons Industries. McPherson & Sons Industries make small engineered components that go into all kinds of machines and appliances, things like special bolts and screws, brackets, small parts that get used to make bigger things. McPherson & Sons Industries never make small quantities of anything. These widgets, that’s what we will will collectively call all these parts, for want of a better word, get made in large quantities, often thousands, or tens of thousands at a time. Bob is an Industrial Engineer, his job is to find the best, fastest and cheapest way possible to make all sorts of widgets.
Bob has been steadily working away on the same project now for three whole days. This is a very important project. This involves the manufacture of forty thousand widgets for a large company that McPherson & Sons Industries has not done business with in the past, but has always wanted to. This company, Wiseman Manufacturing has been left in the shit by one of their suppliers and they now need forty thousand widgets ASP from anyone else who can do so quickly. Bob has been tasked with sorting out two main problems that need to be sorted. The first, is there enough production capacity available in the factory at present to allow taking on this extra work without disrupting present production. The second is, can they make them for the price that Wiseman Manufacturing wants to pay for them. Wiseman Manufacturing is a potential new customer that McPherson & Sons Industries wants. The regular work that this customer can provide is desirable for McPherson & Sons Industries, but they can’t afford to loose money or fail to supply the widgets on time.
This project need to be done way faster than normal, that is why the responsibility for this has been placed firmly on Bob’s shoulders. Bob is quite stressed for him but to look at him, you would not notice. The three days Bob has been working on this have not been the normal eight hour days that he normally works but he has been pulling twelve hour shifts on this. Bob has just smiled. Most observing Bob would not have noticed that smile as a Bob smile is a subtile thing, just a very slight upturning of the corners of his mouth. For Bob the smile that just lit up his face was an enormous one. That means two things, he has finished and he likes the result.
