12 July 2004

05:00 AM

The bleating of the alarm clock brought Allen out of his restful slumber. He shut off the alarm, then stretched and yawned as he thought, 'Time for another day of work...'

He rolled out of bed and made his way to the washroom, pausing in the kitchen long enough to turn on the pot of coffee. After his morning ablutions, he dressed in the work uniform he laid out the night before. Allen then stepped through the kitchen to the garage, stopping at his makeshift workbench.

Allen turned on the light and stood there thoughtfully staring at his pet project for several nearly silent moments as he waited for the coffee maker to quit gurgling. He remembered at that time that the high output alternator and the 12v DC generator he had ordered through work should arrive that day. Smiling at the thought of his new parts, Allen switched off the light and returned to the kitchen, closing and locking the garage door behind him.

Allen absently made a cup of coffee for Lynn and himself, grabbed a few breakfast bars and a couple snack cakes, and returned to the bedroom to get Lynn up.

"Time to get up Beautiful..."

Allen set the coffee cups on the nightstand and sat on the edge of the bed before reaching up to gently brush Lynn's sleep tousled hair from her face.

Lynn grumbled under her breath as she begrudgingly opened one eye to blearily glare at Allen. Suffice it to say she was decidedly NOT a morning person. Though her attitude improved slightly as her brain registered the aroma of her hot morning ambrosia. Still, she was slightly resentful that Allen, who, like herself, was typically a night owl, could be so bright eyed and bushy-tailed this early in the morning. Hell, it had been two months since her promotion from third shift team lead to first shift supervisor at the customer care center for the insurance company she worked for, and she STILL felt like a zombie until around 9 AM.

"Must be black magic..." Lynn mumbled to herself before grabbing her cup and taking a long slow sip.

Allen waited for her to finish then asked, "What was that?... You were mumbling..."

Lynn scrunched up her face and stuck her tongue out at him. After another couple sips she finally replied, "I said you must be using the darkest, most unholy black magic. You are just too damned chipper for this godforsaken hour of the morning."

Allen just laughed. They both knew that his ability to be so alert and functional immediately upon waking was due to his time in the United States Marine Corps, not black magic. Allen admittedly did occasionally ponder if he had received a cheeky secret blessing in that regard though.

Allen's watch alarm started going off. It was 05:45. As he turned it off he said to Lynn, "Be glad both our jobs are so close by, or we would have to get up even earlier. Now get that sexy naked body of yours out of bed and into the shower. We have to leave in forty-five minutes. I have to drop you off today because it's raining."

"Alright, alright. I'm going..." groused Lynn as she got up and headed out the door.

Allen followed right behind her, coffee cups and empty wrappers in hand, savoring the view every step of the way.

06:45 AM

Allen brought their rolling deathtrap of a car safely to a stop under the covered entrance of Lynn's workplace. They shared a quick kiss, then Lynn quickly got out. Allen would normally have sat and waited until she was safely inside the electronic security doors before leaving, but he had to be to work in ten minutes, and his job was a ten minute drive away from hers on a good day. That days weather was anything but good. The wiper blades were barely effective against the torrential deluge coming from the sky. He only made it to work on time because the downpour deterred anyone who didn't have to be out from being on the roads. With the roads devoid of unnecessary traffic and cyclists, Allen was able to catch all the green lights and thus he clocked in at work with a minute to spare.

Allen said, "Morning fellas.", to Rich, the store manager, and Jim, the commercial account manager, as he picked up the delivery schedule and the keys to the 2000 Chevy Astro panel van that the store used for delivering parts to the various car repair shops in their district.

Rich and Jim raised their coffee travel mugs in acknowledgement as they continued their conversation while sitting behind the commercial parts desk.

Allen checked the delivery totes contents against the checklist for each client business. He then loaded everything into the back of the delivery van and set out to make his rounds. Roughly 2 hours later, Allen returned to the store, unloaded the warranty return parts, loaded the next round of deliveries, and checked in with Jim to inquire about any last minute additions, then headed out again.

The next time Allen returned to the store, it was time for his lunch break. He asked Jim about the parts he had ordered. The parts had come in, so Allen put them in his car and finished his lunch. While he ate, he reflected on the last six weeks. When he had applied, he had been hired as a part-time sales associate and cashier. One week after he started, Allen got moved up to full-time because Fred had gotten fired for theft.

Then Ralph, the cranky, hateful old commercial account manager got fired for cussing out one of the biggest clients, and Jim transferred in from another store.

A week after that, Ralph's flunky Tod, who had been the former parts delivery driver, got sent home early for being lazy. Tod then got drunk, decided to drive home from the bar, crashed into a parked car in front of a police officer, then ran from the officer. During the ensuing chase, Tod lost control of his already damage truck and wrecked again. This wreck totaled the truck, and landed Tod in jail after he got checked out at the emergency room. It also resulted in Tod no longer working for Autozone.

Since Bill, the only other employee at that time, didn't have a driver's license, Allen ended up as the new parts delivery driver. The position was full time with set hours, and better pay. Allen certainly wasn't complaining.

19:00 PM

Allen tightened the last bolt and then leaned back and stretched. The two new components were finally installed in his pet project that he referred to as the Oberon Drive. It was an idea he had first conceived of as a teenager. More recently, Allen had been studying the life and inventions of Nikola Tesla, and was further inspired to build the Oberon Drive.

It was far from complete, and certainly wasn't functional yet. Allen had months of trial and error ahead of him, plus there were still some missing pieces. But, if Allen was right, the Oberon Drive could be a world changing breakthrough in electric drive systems.

Allen didn't talk about the Oberon Drive much. Most people didn't understand what he was doing. They called him names and accused him of trying to build a perpetual energy machine. He wasn't. All Allen was trying to do was make a highly efficient, extremely compact, electric drive system that didn't require specialized batteries to run.

'Well, that's all I can do for now, so I suppose I'll call it good for the night.' Allen thought to himself before heading off to clean up and get some sleep.