Family Life

What a perplexing day!

There’s this machine we were supposed to hand over to our customer today. Friday it was working beautifully, effortlessly running at 125% of the required production rate. So we phoned and said, “Come on over. Your machine is ready!” This morning we started it up in front of our customer, and nothing worked properly. We couldn’t even manage a 10% production rate. Apart from the embarrassment of a total flop in the eyes of the paying public, apart from the fact that we’d hyped this as the embodiment of perfection, we simply had no idea why it wasn’t working. We just stood there scratching our heads and looking flummoxed.

We spent the rest of the day troubleshooting, trying to find out what went wrong and how to fix it. The thought went through my mind that God promised Adam work would be hard and frustrating. Sweat of my brow yielding thorns and thistles. That was today.

This afternoon I went for my monthly eye checkup. The visit reminded me how much my vision has improved with my new contacts, but how difficult they are to wear and care for. A blessing, certainly, but at a high cost.

The doctor prescribed a slightly modified shape of contact for better wear. The gap between contact and eyeball at the edges has to be big enough to allow tears in and out, but small enough so that dust and air bubbles can’t get under the lens. Tiny, trapped air bubbles are putting dents in my cornea. The contact is rigid and does not yield, so the eye suffers. Who would have thought an air bubble a fraction of a millimeter in diameter could do damage? So I need a lens with a smaller gap at the edges. Too small a gap will trap carbon dioxide and waste products excreted from the cornea itself, and it will slowly die. So it’s a fine art getting the design just right. This is why I have monthly checkups. I’ll probably pick up the new lens next week.

Today’s machine trials and eye checkup fit together, in that both are excellent, worthwhile achievements that can only be reached through perseverance and hard work. On days like today it seems nothing comes easy. But that’s life, right?

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