One hundred three

I have been away from my beloved Texas now for 103 days. Usually I can look back and say 'wow, time flies' but, today certainly is not one of those days. I felt everyone of those days apart from my home. I am doing my best to see the beauty here. Regardless of the overwhelmingly fantastic opportunity this is I must confess I am at a low. I like to think that there are not too many things that can knock this guy on his tail, false.

A bit of good news now to balance my downer opening. There is an instrument called a Vi-Cell in the immunology lab at the IAVI lab. This sophisticated little gem counts the number of viable cells in a given dilution. This machine has been a bit of a spaz lately showing counts even on a blank run (background noise). We had an engineer come take a look at it a few weeks ago and he replaced the 'flow cell'. The flow cell is a thin, flat, hollow glass horseshoe of sorts. The camera shoots pictures as the sample volume is pumped through this portion to arrive in the waste bucket at the end. There is a dye that live cells will take in that florescences given the special light beneath the flow cell. So Kahler called the manufacturer and they gave some basic instructions on what might be the issue.

With a Leatherman tool (thank you Uncle Bill) and a pair of forceps and the attitude that 'well this thing isn't working, what is the worst that could happen?' I used the screwdriver on the handy tool and we removed the shroud and located the flow cell. It was a bit like taking apart drum brakes that are well past needing to be changed. No sooner do you get the rotor off then spring start firing every direction and then you get to search for twenty minutes. NOW you have to try and figure out where they go, ha. While Kahler depressed the arm that supports the flow cell we removed a little hellion of a spring creation that uses two little steel bars that are to slide through either end of the stretched spring to keep springy pressure on the piece of brass that held the flow cell in place. This hole that the spring is supposed to go through is just so you can barely get the spring through much less see what you are doing.

Finally, we remove the flow cell and wipe some Trypan Blue stain off the lens side face and go about the nightmare of replacing that ridiculous spring contraption. With the help of the Leatherman needlenose and a pair of angled forceps we were able to piece the mechanism back together. Moses the lab director was quite impressed and some how it seemed to increase morale that we were able to do something to help the lab directly. I wonder what it takes to be a Beckman Coulter engineer. I am thinking I might just look into it.

Looking forward to taking a trip to the post office tomorrow to pick up a package from my folks. Then looking at completing a final gre practice exam so I can devote some focus to those areas that I am still lacking in.

The sunset this evening was beautiful and the smell of rain is heavy in the air. The thunderheads and the winds spread the tails of red sun elegantly in the western sky. It sprinkled a little around mid day today.

No time change for us here in Zambia making the time difference between us eight hours.

I hope that you all are very well and that you have a restful and blessed Sunday. I am going to try and figure out my next moves. No worries, even though everything around me is in flux He is faithful and constant. The rough times remind you of all the good that you have. I will talk to you again soon.