The Bronx Zoo. Copyright 2012: singeronthesand
A lazy employee will give you nothing but trouble;
it's vinegar in the mouth, smoke in the eyes.
Proverbs 10:26
A friend of mine had a recent hip replacement, and has had no end of trouble since. Twice the hip has dislocated, and today she lays in a hospital bed facing more of the same for this weekend, followed by surgery on Monday morning to put in a different hip, change out parts, or whatever is needed in order for this replacement hip to work for her. Several of her friends have taken a portion of her "labors" to take care of: mine is watering the outdoor plants, a job I often do for her while she is traveling.
Watering the plants outdoors, particularly those in containers, is not a job that you can sluff off on. Well, you can, but the result will be plain for all to see - wilted or dead plants. When the summer heat descends (the next three days in Richmond are slated to be 101-104 degrees!), one missed watering session can completely kill a container plant. I am involved in something that is going to keep me from watering my friend's plants for four days - a lifetime in the coming blistering heat. Who in the world can I trust to do the job in my absence? Not just anyone, that is for sure.
I have 20 container plants on my own property that will be need to be watered during this period, not one of which do I want to risk losing. So I need to find someone I can hire to do both jobs for me. Who can I find that will understand that, morning and night, each one of those containers has to be watered. Who can I find that won't say to themselves - "hey, she'll never know" when they decide they "just don't have time right now." I have been in this situation before, and come home to gloriously blooming plants. I have also gone away and come home to plants that were wilted and half dead. The answer will lie in the hands of the person I hire to do the job. I just pray it won't be "a lazy employee"; I've never been fond of vinegar or smoke.
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