I didn’t want to work last night. We had to clean literally hundreds of millions of square feet with a parking lot sweeper and my job was to walk to walk the perimeters of curbs and buildings with a backpack blower.

The problem is that these parking lots are vast and the sweeper has limitations. Just like running a vacuum at your house, the more clunky items need to be removed and the most soiled areas need to be scrubbed.

We all know what it like to pick up after our kids or when guests are coming over but imagine doing that behind two hundred truck drivers while wearing a 15-lb backpack blower. It’s hard work.

The problem is that I put these parking lots under a microscope and I look for problems where no one else would ever notice them. I have this idea that each parking lot is going to be like fresh-laid linoleum without a grain of or a piece of asphalt out of place. The truth is- no one is paying anywhere close to the attention to detail as I am. The folks have trucks to load, orders to fill, deadlines to meet and problems of their own. They are looking for a mined, functional and presentable parking lot, not a dance floor.

I do this very same thing in my personal life. I get caught up in the details and think that people are paying attention to me and my blemishes. I forget that everyone has their own trucks to load, orders to fill, deadlines to meet and parking lot to maintain.

I will never successfully remove every loose piece of sand and dislodged piece of asphalt from an environment which is constantly changing, growing, and breaking apart.

It’s mostly about maintenance, really.