When working at the state, you come across a number of characters. One of these characters was a guy named Earl.

Earl was a tall slender man who was 70 something. If you frequented any of the coffee shops, cafeterias or restaurants in the greater Lansing area, you would eventually see Earl.

Earl never smiled. In fact, Earl never made eye contact with anyone or even acknowledged there existence. He would just sit at the table, sipping his coffee and working the daily crossword puzzle from the paper. Clearly, he was a burned out state employee.

One day, one of the deputy directors was walking to a meeting in another building. On her way there, she noticed that Earl was sitting on a bench under a shade tree by the Capitol. Since it was mid morning, she assumed that Earl was on break. However, when she returned 2 hours later and saw that Earl had not moved from his bench, she decided to notify Earls boss about the long break.

After making several calls, she finally located a manger in Earls work area. The deputy director explained the situation to the manger. The manager stated that while she was not Earls boss she would check to see why Earl was outside and not working. After checking with several of the other managers, she learned that Earl was on vacation for the week.

I guess that while Earl hated this place, he didn’t have anywhere else to go.