Just back from my summer vacation with the family, I thought I would share a picture that reminded me of something: IT is not always a glamorous job. Yes - sure - I know most of you, when asked by friends, compare your jobs to the other exotic professions such as globetrotting spy, travel photographer, rock star, etc.

However, I know that some days... well, IT is simply not actually that glamorous. Not every day is a briefing for senior management highlighting how you have single-handedly done 3x more with 54.6% less. You don't always get to high-five your peers celebrating 23 consecutive months of ZERO support calls from your end users. Sometimes, there are simply tasks that preempt that uninterrupted 3 weeks of "think-time" designing a next generation strategy for your Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). And, yes, there are days when other budget demands withdraw that blank check book your boss gave you to build your own cloud computing environment with complete autonomy...

Some days, you just get stuck with the dirty work that life in IT brings.

I shot this picture (at right) last weekend with my Blackberry. It's from the annual Ketchum/Sun Valley Wagon Days Parade.  Touted as "the largest non-motorized parade in the West", it features a whole lot of horses. For those of you that have spent your entire life in the city, you may not realize this but... horses can make a mess. They aren't usually particular about where they do it either.

That's where the hockey players from the local Sun Valley Suns hockey team steps in to help out. They drop the ice blades in favor of their roller blades, grab a shovel, and literally do the dirty work of cleaning up. Kudos to them for doing their job with a smile on their faces!

I'll let you draw your own comparisons. Shoveling ... umm ... "stuff" or dealing with smelly IT tasks. Dirty work varies from job to job and I know that IT has more than it's fair share. But, just remember - at least your tool is usually a keyboard instead of a shovel, right?

I'm curious: What's the dirtiest job you've had to do in IT?