  Ch 2 At 7:00 AM, after a quick breakfast, Joshua sat down at his computer and filled out the application for a patent from the U S Patent Office. He printed out the application, diagrams, specifications and supporting documents. He placed them all in a manila envelope and wrote his own address on it. He would mail this later today. His lawyer had suggested this as an additional protection. Having a sealed, stamped envelope that can be opened in court proving when something was mailed was a very good way to determine who was first if multiple inventors were ever involved in a court battle over who owned the patent.
Once that was done, he accessed the U S Patent Office website, clicked on the application tab and uploaded all the documents onto the website to be emailed to the acceptance office. Once the 'Email Sent' message displayed, he picked up the manila envelope and walked outside for the drive to the post office. The drive, at 8:30, was leisurely, since he had no appointments for the rest of the day. Other cars drove by, furiously racing to get to their destinations on time. This was one of Joshua's favorite things about owning his own company. No time clock to punch and no one to answer to if he took the day off. Arriving back home, he picked up the newspaper and walked in the front door. He sat down and started to read the paper. Looking at the clock, which read 10:30, two hours after he sent in the application, he got up and walked over to the computer. He opened his email to check for a delivery confirmation of the application. Among the load of junk email and newsletter subscriptions, a delivery error email was the only unusual email. Frowning, since he hadn't sent any emails in a few days, he sat down and opened the email. The message stated the email to the U S Patent Office had been undeliverable due to a virus in the contents.
Joshua's eyebrows rose, since he ritualistically updated his software weekly. It was almost impossible to get a virus and not know it within a day or two. He pulled up the anti-virus website and downloaded the latest update, installed it and ran it. The scan showed his PC was clean. Doing a search, he located two other brands, purchased the download versions. After installing them, he ran first one, then the other.
Both came back and showed his computer was clean. Either the virus was one that had just come up and wasn't known, or the virus was from somewhere else. Guessing that the Patent Office web server might be the culprit, he opened a new email directly in his email program and attached all the documents.
He manually entered the email address for applications and sent it. It was just after 11:00. Brows furrowed, Joshua walked back to the couch, picked up the paper and flopped down to read and wait. At 12:30, Joshua put down the paper, checked his email, which was still empty, and left to eat lunch. Stopping at a burger joint around the corner, Joshua sat down, and ordered iced tea and a Bacon burger from the waitress who appeared before he had even settled in. She set down his iced tea and left to turn in the order. The TV playing in the corner caught his attention while he was waiting. It was the headline news stories running through the daily list of local wars in third world countries, recent election results in several European countries and the latest murders and missing people. Joshua was on the verge of looking away when a new report came on. A reported was talking about the leader of the Republican Party in Germany who was missing. He had been scheduled to appear for a press conference and had not showed up. His staff was unavailable to comment. His burger arrived and he began devouring it, enjoying the heat and fresh tastes. The news report ran through his mind.
Every sop often, you hear about someone important going missing. But while its news, they never seem to care to report the outcome. Was he located, dead, missing, or sick? No one ever came back and filled in the blanks. News was about attracting attention, not actually giving answers. Finishing up his lunch, Joshua paid, got in his car and drove home. When he walked in, the first thing he did was check his email.
Once again an email was waiting for him stating the email could not be delivered due to a virus. Muttering sarcastic comments about technology and helping humanity, Joshua printed out the documents again. Once they were all complete, he collected the stack of documents and left the house. Walking over to his still-warm car, he sat down and started the engine. He started to pull out, but stopped, slammed the car into neutral and pulled out his PDA. Doing a search in the yellow pages, he located the closest WorldEx office. Putting the car into gear, he left his neighborhood on the way to WorldEx. Pulling into the WorldEx Parking lot, he glanced at the company logo as he found a parking slot. It was the same purple and orange logo it had been before they became a worldwide company. He climbed out of the car and walked into the building. Grabbing a large flat cardboard envelope, he slid in the papers and folded the top closed. He stopped at the address desk and used the chained pen to write the address for the patent office, as it was listed in the yellow pages on his PDA.
He walked over to the clerk and handed his package over. The clerk weighed it, told him it was F21.75 for guaranteed overnight delivery with confirmation. Joshua waved his credit key over the paypad and then placed his thumb on the indention. Once the paypad light flashed green, the clerk looked up from his monitor, smiled and said, "have a nice day.
" Joshua turned and, walking past the others in line, walked out to his car. Irritated by the extra work and delay in the application, Joshua drove quickly back home. Instead of a leisurely drive, he pulled in and out of lanes, quickly sliding right or left, irritated with the slower traffic. Arriving home, still full of frustrated energy, he walked into the house and turned left into his workout room. Still in Dockers and a Polo shirt, he started chain-punching the heavy bag. As the bag swung back and forth from the force of his blows, he stepped forward just enough to slowly work the bag up until it was horizontal, held up by the chain on one end and his pistonning fists at the other. After 10 minutes of this, Joshua was drenched in sweat and his normal ambivalent mood had returned. He backed up a step at a time, never slowing his punches, until the bag was once again hanging vertical. Finally stopping his punches, Joshua placed his hand against the bag to still it's swinging and then walked out to take a shower and change. 
