Pilot fish has some extra money in his medical flexible spending account at the end of the year — and he knows it's use-it-or-lose-it time.

“I was nearsighted and wore contacts most of the time,” says fish. “I figured this would be a good opportunity to get Lasik eye surgery to get rid of glasses and contacts for good.

“The appointment was made, and the corrections were done to both eyes in one procedure. I was told that my eyes would be watery and blurry for a few days. Since I had the procedure on a Friday, I figured I’d be OK to go to work on Monday, though my eyes would probably still be healing.”

Monday comes, and fish’s eyes are indeed still a little watery and slightly blurred, but he makes it in to work without problems.

Everything seems normal as he sits at his desk. The computer screen is a little blurry, but so is everything else.

Still, fish begins to suspect that something unusual is going on when some of his co-workers keep dropping by to see how he’s doing and to ask if he can see well enough.

When fish mentions that his vision is still a bit blurry, they suggest calling the doctor. Fish isn’t really concerned — it’s only been three days, after all. But he figures there’s nothing wrong with calling to make sure what he's experiencing is normal.

“About the time I picked up the phone, one of them couldn’t help it any longer and confessed that they had replaced my monitor with an identical one from surplus that had lost its focus and was always slightly blurry,” fish says.

“It was a great practical joke. The only problem is, since everything was blurry, I didn't really notice the difference.”

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