Greener grass
I listened to a friend of mine that teaches school complain about his job the other day. It seems he was unhappy about everything that went on at his school. From the lunches to the books and the people he worked with, he had nothing good to say about his job. After I left him I thought a lot about each of his complaints. I was running my dozer that day, so I had a few hours with nothing on my mind other than his complaints.
I’ve had jobs I loved and jobs I hated. It seems there is never a “perfect job,” somehow, someway there is always a bad part to every job I’ve ever had. When I was a kid, I hated hauling square bales of hay, but I hated working in town for minimum wage more, so I sweated and groaned hauling hay. I liked making money. Back then, a minimum wage job would only make me about $25 a day. I could haul hay and make over $100 a day.
When I was first out of college, I got a job as a government trapper. It was fun, but it didn’t pay much and I had to shoe horses to make extra money. My paycheck from the Department of Agriculture was about $300 a week. I could shoe horses after work two days a week and make more than that. So even though I hated dealing with horse owners that were clueless about keeping their horse healthy and sound, I put up with them if they paid me what I asked. The man that complained about his teaching job I think was suffering from green grass syndrome. My cows are always more apt to get out in the early spring, when the green grass is just getting started. As I dozed out some brush, I couldn’t help but wonder if people get green grass syndrome like cows do, after all it’s springtime and he is wanting to try it “across the fence.”
My sister stayed with just one or two jobs her entire life. She hated change. I’ve always liked the challenge of a new adventure. We are kind of opposite in that regard. I like trying to make a buck with a new set of cows or calves or buying junk at the auction and then reselling it. Maybe some people and some cows are just genetically predisposed to wander off looking for greener grass.