Most days when I show up at Mason’s school to pick him up, I see the school’s custodian standing out in the middle of the road, directing traffic. His job, as far as I can tell, is to tell people not to turn into the school’s driveway when it’s full. Of course, when the driveway is full, there’s no where to turn anyway. In fast food terms, it would be the same as standing by the drink fountain and warning people to stop filling their cup when it’s full.

The funniest part of the whole situation is, the guy is only out there approximately every other day. On the days he’s not there, everything goes just fine. Drivers, showing a fundamental comprehension of physics, understand that they cannot move forward until the car in front of them has moved forward. Somehow we manage the no-so-complicated “single file line” system without his direction or intervention.

How depressing it must be to be able to be replaced by “nobody” on a regular basis and have things still run just fine.

(Susan’s comment: “I think the worst job is standing on the corner, holding a pizza sign. Those people can be replaced by a pole.”)