The condenser coil didn't fail because we forgot to clean it. It failed because we thought we had time.
Three years into my career, standing knee-deep in the coolant leak that would become my gospel: the refrigerant hissing like a serpent through the fractured manifold, the temperature gauge screaming past forty degrees below zero, the entire walk-in freezer turning to tombstone ice in twenty-seven minutes flat.
Cost: $47,000 in spoiled meat. Time lost: seventy-two hours. Heartbreak: incalculable.
That day I learned the difference between maintenance and worship. Between a checklist and a covenant.
Now I check my logs twice. Now I trace every seam with gold before I let it hold weight.
OSHA 1910.303(b)(1): "Every system shall be treated as if it were alive."