I finally found the job that’s perfect for me.  I thought I had found it this summer when there was a road crew working on a stretch of road close to my home.  I shop along that strip several times a week, so I had a number of chances to watch the work.  Most of the crew had a job that must be called something like “dirt looker”.  A few would be engaged in digging, raking, sweeping, or operating machinery.  Most, however, (I counted nine out of thirteen one day) stood around in groups looking at the dirt.  I’m not sure what was so interesting about the dirt, but they would look at drawings and then spend long periods of time looking at dirt and pointing. 

It’s not a bad job if you can get it.  It’s no wonder it’s hard to get on a road crew.  You’re out-of-doors, it’s not hard work, and you earn decent pay without putting yourself out.

Today I saw an even better job.  I’ve seen it before, but I was reminded again today of what a sweet job it must be.  It’s a hole watcher.  It involves road crews again, but this time doing major re-construction with lots of digging of deep holes.  This, too, has a division of labour.  A few people operate large machinery, some of them digging big holes.  Lots more, however, are standing around looking into the holes, talking to each other, looking into the hole again, and pointing.

This is better than dirt looker because the scene changes more often as the hole gets deeper or more shallow.  Again - good pay, not too hard to do, and there’s always another hole.

If anyone is looking to hire a hole watcher, please let me know.