Approaching Legendary Status
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My family and I were visiting Washington DC in August, 2009. One morning, I went into the city early to get tickets for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing for my family (they distribute tickets daily on a first-come, first-serve basis).
After I picked up my tickets, I wandered around the city waiting for my family to arrive. The plan was that we would meet outside the Metro station entrance at the U.S. Navy Memorial.
The U.S. Navy Memorial has a plaza bounded by two large decorative pools with fountains in them. I sat down at the plaza and waited for my family to arrive. It turned out my family took a while to get there and so I waited there at the plaza for about an hour and a half. I soon found that both pools had work being done to them. The east pool was being cleaned and the west pool was completed dry and was being repaired (it looked like some of the fountains pipes were being repaired).
Here’s what I saw:
East pool: Two people scrubbing, washing, checking chemical levels and so forth. It turns out they were a husband and wife private contractor company hired to clean the US Navy Memorial pools. They arrived along with their equipment and supplies in a Jeep. The whole time I was there, they were both physically working almost nonstop.
West pool: Five people, all with Department of the Interior uniforms. There were four Department of the Interior trucks plus one Department of the Interior full size van. One of the five persons was working. The other four stood aside and talked. During my 90 minutes there, three of the five persons did nothing at all except sit. Ok, to be fair – at one point one of these three guys did get up and walk over to a coffee shop - he returned with a giant coffee cup and a danish. A fourth guy walked into the pool where the fifth guy was digging, poked at something in the pool and then walked away. Two times the fourth guy went to his truck and brought back a tool for the fifth guy to use. Sometimes, the fourth guy just walked out of the plaza area entirely. The fifth guy must have been the low man on the totem pole that day. He spent more than half of his time digging in and working on the pool.
Conclusion:
Private workers – Both persons were hard at work the whole time. They car-pooled in a not-new looking Jeep.
Government employees – One guy was working hard. One guy occasionally lent a hand but sometimes walked off the worksite. The other three guys sat and talked the entire time. Each government employee apparently had his own government-issue large truck or van.
The picture below shows the three guys sitting. The “coffee and danish guy” is the bearded one on the right. Guy number five is working. You can see the top of number five’s hat to just to the left of the three sitters. Guy number four had wandered off again when I took this picture.
After I picked up my tickets, I wandered around the city waiting for my family to arrive. The plan was that we would meet outside the Metro station entrance at the U.S. Navy Memorial.
The U.S. Navy Memorial has a plaza bounded by two large decorative pools with fountains in them. I sat down at the plaza and waited for my family to arrive. It turned out my family took a while to get there and so I waited there at the plaza for about an hour and a half. I soon found that both pools had work being done to them. The east pool was being cleaned and the west pool was completed dry and was being repaired (it looked like some of the fountains pipes were being repaired).
Here’s what I saw:
East pool: Two people scrubbing, washing, checking chemical levels and so forth. It turns out they were a husband and wife private contractor company hired to clean the US Navy Memorial pools. They arrived along with their equipment and supplies in a Jeep. The whole time I was there, they were both physically working almost nonstop.
West pool: Five people, all with Department of the Interior uniforms. There were four Department of the Interior trucks plus one Department of the Interior full size van. One of the five persons was working. The other four stood aside and talked. During my 90 minutes there, three of the five persons did nothing at all except sit. Ok, to be fair – at one point one of these three guys did get up and walk over to a coffee shop - he returned with a giant coffee cup and a danish. A fourth guy walked into the pool where the fifth guy was digging, poked at something in the pool and then walked away. Two times the fourth guy went to his truck and brought back a tool for the fifth guy to use. Sometimes, the fourth guy just walked out of the plaza area entirely. The fifth guy must have been the low man on the totem pole that day. He spent more than half of his time digging in and working on the pool.
Conclusion:
Private workers – Both persons were hard at work the whole time. They car-pooled in a not-new looking Jeep.
Government employees – One guy was working hard. One guy occasionally lent a hand but sometimes walked off the worksite. The other three guys sat and talked the entire time. Each government employee apparently had his own government-issue large truck or van.
The picture below shows the three guys sitting. The “coffee and danish guy” is the bearded one on the right. Guy number five is working. You can see the top of number five’s hat to just to the left of the three sitters. Guy number four had wandered off again when I took this picture.
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