It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Sunday, May 9
The left drawer was off again…Tonight it was off 40 cents and recall last night it was off the same amount earlier in the week it was off 20 cents.
Something’s going on because a drawer off in amounts measured in dimes three times in a week is not a coincidence…Either someone on day shift can’t give change or count their drop correctly or yours truly can’t count…And if that’s the latter I am losing my mind because both dimes and nickels were counted three times and came up the same amount every time.
Reservation of the Nite was the P party…They were just another arrival until I tried to check them in before running the nite audit and their credit card (it actually turned out to be a debit card) was declined…All right, procedure here is clear: the reservation is canceled unless you’re a regular guest or there is some other pressing reason.
Then about 30 minutes into the shift Mr P calls and announces his day has been one long living hell and he would be late, probably as late as 0200…He said their plan to cut across a national park didn’t work out because the park was closed to everyone but guests with a pass.
Oh dear me, that’s one hell of a long detour, one which, as regular readers of this crap may – or they may not – recall ol’ Sparrow was obliged to take once…It’s about three hours out of your way…I recall being at the entrance and being told I’d have to turn around and it was utterly deflating…I even offered to buy a pass so I could drive thru but was told no: the park was sold out.
Anyway, I didn’t favor Mr P with the tidbit his card had been turned down, reserving it until his arrival…This could be a tricky situation, of course, if he cannot offer another form of payment because while ol’ Sparrow is nice and gracious and all that crap, you are not getting a key until payment is made…(Altho, if you’re staying multiple nites, yeah, we can work around that…We can – if we want – let make your key good for one nite, so then you’re locked out until payment is made…If I don’t like you, I may not do that, tho.)
It all worked out, tho…Mr P was surprised to hear his debit card had been declined but he waved it off, asking if he could pay cash…Of course, he can…This means ol’ Sparrow had to make some change, but that’s all right, he’s pro like that.
It was pretty busy for the first couple of hours…There were three other arrivals and a couple of walk-ins and more than one late check-out request…All were turned down, tho yours truly ended up lying to a guest.
After his request had been turned down, he asked if we were that busy…We weren’t, but it’s never good policy to give late departures on Sundays, so it’s rare when I do…I didn’t completely insult the guy’s intelligence by saying we were sold out, but I did say we were “pretty full” and that we were short of housekeepers besides (true enuff) and he nodded knowingly, buying my reasoning.
The first walk of the season is in the books…After almost a half-day of sleep Saturday I was feeling strong all night and the idea of lifting, followed by a walk followed by a soak sounded like a great way to spend Sunday morning…The only fly in the ointment came in the locker room when ol’ Sparrow discovered he’d forgotten his swimsuit and towel, so a soak was out unless I wanted to violate hot springs policy and surprise some people.
Lifting, tho, went well…I did the same workout as last time and actually got more than ten reps in on the last sets, so we’ll up it next time and see what we got.
There were some options for the walk…Longtime readers of this crap may – or they may not – recall yours truly got some walks while the VSO was closed to the public and the usual loop was downtown and then the street that fronted the river…You do that a couple of times and you got your two-mile walk in…We could also go home and walk in our small town, and the River Route was especially compelling, but boy, you get home you feed the cat you get putz around and then BOOM the next thing you know you’re eating something and you’re not getting your walk in.
So I put my work clothes in the bag and put the bag in the car and set out…It was a clear, cold morning, a bit above freezing, tho it should be noted a bit of freezing in the spring is warmer than a bit above freezing in the fall…I headed towards 5th Street then left towards the rodeo grounds and then made another left on the core trail, a route that was new, and we’d see where that took us…I walked for a bit and then came to a fork…Go left and you catch the sidewalk back to town; go right and the core trail continues past the ball fields and the botanical garden towards an area more or less across from the hotel, where you’re obliged to turn around.
Well, there was a sign at the fork that said it was a half-mile back towards the rodeo grounds, so I headed back to make it a mile, then headed towards the end of downtown and then back to the gym for a bit more than a two-mile walk, which produced a nice, satisfying feeling because it’s always good to overcome the voice inside you directing you to the easy way.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1530 Sunday until 2130 Sunday…6.0 hours for the day, a routine start to the sleep week.
The Diary of a Nobody is a novel. All elements are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Anything else is a coincidence.
It was inspired by the 19th-century British novel of the same name.
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