Sometimes life gets complicated. Like a slap on the side of your head when you least expect it. The other day my reading glasses right-ear hanger fell off. Being a person with a razor-sharp intellect and the reflexes of a jungle cat, and since the same thing happened to me 100 times before with other glasses during the last 25 years, I knew instantly what happened; the screw that fastens the ear hanger to my spectacles had come unscrewed. Over time and use the screw had come loose and fallen out.
You may think such a repair job is simple. Not so. The planning for the repair and the execution to re-attach the ear hanger is as complex and as brain twisting as any major project. Years ago, when I came to Witter Springs and built my home, I went through the same two-step trauma with a pile of bricks. I drew fancy plans for my fireplace. It was more complicated than a five-star Sudoku puzzle. When the old gentleman, with whom I had contracted to build my fireplace, saw my beautiful plans he threw up his hands.
“I can’t build that fireplace,” he said. “It is too big. I have Artheritius.”
I had to have the fireplace and chimney up before the contractor put on the roof … or face a whopping penalty. After a dozen calls, and since there were no other masons in Lakeport to do the job, and although I knew nothing much about laying bricks, I had no choice. I had to build my fireplace. That 48 hours of unadulterated hell were two days and two nights I still don’t like to remember.
The planning and the execution to repair my spectacles was just as complicated. What tools did I need? How could I find the lost screw that had fallen to the carpet somewhere in my office bedroom? It was the size of a fly speck.
After checking the garage, the barn, and all the shelves in the house, I found a magnet. On my hands and knees I moved the magnet over the entire carpet. After an hour I found the screw. With my tiny screwdriver ready, and about to re-attach the ear hanger to the spectacles, I dropped the screw. It rolled off the table to the carpet and I had to repeat the process a second time.
By some miracle I found the screw again. This time, when I tried to attach the ear hanger, the screw kept falling off the screwdriver’s tip. With a dab of clay I stuck the screw head to the screw driver. After more than an hour I managed to re-attach the ear hanger to my glasses. Since the ear hanger screw on the other side of the lens part was also ready to fly the coup and fall out I tightened that one and the job was done.
I’ve learned to roll with the punches and that little things will throw you every time … if you let them. I am no smarter than the next person but, lucky for me, I am persistent. Now that I could see the computer screen once more I wrote this story to calm my nerves.
