Tuesday, May 31, 2022

"Bob"

 

“Bob”

By Jim Culp

May 31, 2022

 

This post reminded me of when I worked for the government. The place was a maintenance and storage facility for the Army Reserve. This was 1999. The going operating system was Windows 98 making its way to 2000. At home, I loved Windows 95 and didn’t want to let it go. I stuck with it until my current machine gave up the ghost in 2001.

Back at the job, there was guy that ran the computer operations for the facility. He was 186 years old at the time I was working there (1999 to 2006). Bob knew everything, and he had worked with computers since the Abacus was invented in 2300 BC. Bob said he was there, but I doubt that. Bob still loved his 5.25 discs and insisted that everything be backed up on them. He also still used 4-tracks for audio; he had every song from several artists that recorded hits in Mesopotamia sometime before Jesus. Bob had a small room in the rear of the supply area that looked like Iron Man’s design shop. It had four computers, three printers, two CRT televisions converted into monitors, and a refrigerator. He loved to talk electronics, and my partner and I used to ask him if he helped design the Death Star. He’d answer “yep” without skipping a beat while typing at 15 trillion words per minute. We’d do that at least once a week just to get a laugh.

Bob finally retired in 2003 while I was in Iraq. He was mandated to retire, which pissed him off to no end. In the government’s defense, Bob was older than Methuselah…according to biblical records. Bob’s position was replaced with two lovely ladies, both dumber than a bag of hammers, but with lovely, shaped forms. Imagine that.

-Jim

 

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