[1997.jul.21]
> A fellow stopped at a rural petrol station and, after filling his
> tank, he paid
> the bill and bought a soft drink.  He stood by his car to drink his
> cola and
> he watched a couple of men working along the roadside.  One man would
> dig a
> hole two or three feet deep and then move on.  The other man came
> along
> behind and filled in the hole.  While one was digging a new hole, the
> other
> was about 25 feet behind filling in the old.  The men worked right
> past the
> fellow with the soft drink and went on down the road. "I can't stand
> this,"
> said the man tossing the can in a trash container and heading down the
> road
> toward the men.
>
> "Hold it, hold it," he said to the men.  "Can you tell me what's going
> on
> here with this digging?"
>
> "Well, we work for the county, " one of the men said.
>
> "But one of you is digging a hold and the other fills it up.  You're
> not
> accomplishing anything.  Aren't you wasting the county's money?"
>
> "You don't understand, mister," one of the men said, leaning on his
> shovel
> and wiping his brow. "Normally there's three of us--me, Rodney and
> Mike.  I
> dig the hole, Rodney sticks in the tree and Mike here puts the dirt
> back.
>
> Now just because Rodney's sick, that don't mean that Mike and me can't
> work."
>