Priceless!

Our shaker was broken.

I turned it on yesterday and left it on overnight to grew my bacteria in it. After a night's growing the bacteria that multiplied should make the clear yellow culture media look clouded.

But when I took it out this morning, the media was still clear, indicating no growth. The reason, as I quickly found out, was that the shaker wasn't heated to 37 degrees celsius, the optimum temperature for my bacteria. Instead, it was only 27 degrees.

I tried to turn up the temperature, first a little, then a lot. Nothing. The heating module must be burned dead or something.

I told Mary, the lab technician, about it. She said:"Oh, it's broken again. Let me call that fix guy." She made the call, he wasn't there, so she left a message.

When the boss came in later, Mary said:"Our shaker is broken again. The temperature won't go up."

The boss said:"Really?" and turned to the shaker room. We followed.

The temperature was still around 27 degrees. He looked at the shaker for 30 seconds and pointed at a button:"This 'heat' button is off. That's why it's not heating." He pressed the button. The temperature began climbing, then stabilized at 37 degrees in less than a minute.

Geez! Why didn't I check it more carefully? How stupid!

I said to Mary:"You better call the guy not to come."

Boss said:"Yeah. I don't want to pay him $20 just to press a button."

Me:"Oh you have to pay him to fix it?"

Boss:"Yeah. To press a button, $20."

Me (laughing):"It's like that Mastercard commercial:'To press a button, $20. To know what's wrong, priceless.'"

Boss (laughing too):"Yeah."

What I didn't say was:"To know how stupid I am, priceless."