Survey Says ...

Kellen and I were driving down the road today and I saw a survey crew working. You know, those guys that stand on the side of the road in their orange vests with big fancy tri-pod-y cameras, doing whatever survey-y things they do to measure property lines and commercial easements and what have you. My brother-in-law, currently a partner in a surveying firm, started out doing that exact job, years ago, while he was finishing his degree.

As a back story, when we lived in both Alabama and Georgia, it is a common practice for probationers, and sometimes prisoners, to do roadside clean up. Picking up trash near the highway, mowing, weeding, etc. They regularly did the clean-up and maintenance for the entrance to our housing addition, and it was a familiar sight for us to drive home past men in striped jumpsuits, wielding weed eaters and leaf blowers, bus parked nearby with a "Prisoners Working" sign attached, and a gun-wearing warden keeping watch. Although really, if these guys were any kind of high flight-risk, I doubt they would have been allowed out to do the job, right? I always assumed it was the white collar criminals who were allowed out on lawn duty ... the tax evaders, embezzlers, and telemarketing scammers. Surely they wouldn't let rapists and murderers and drug dealers work in my neighborhood, close to me and my children ..... would they????

Anyway, back to my story .....

So I guess it makes sense that when I passed the survey crew, and said to Kellen, "Look, that's what Uncle Cliff used to do" he would naturally reply, with shock and horror in his voice, "Uncle Cliff was IN PRISON?!?!?!"