January 16
Friday I was sent to 22 to attend to a drunk who had forgotten his room number. I get there and there’s this tall, fat guy sitting in a chair provided by the porter who had found him wandering aimlessly near the elevators.
The guy had a gut from here to Reno and a friendly face and he was a friendly drunk, calling me a saint and trying to shake my hand and whatnot. I asked him for some ID and he produces a passport that said his name was R. Bjornson. I said the name out loud and evidently did a pretty good job of pronouncing it.
“That was almost perfect,” R. Bjornson said. “Are you Scandinavian?”
I shook my head. Dad was an American white boy from a small town in southern Illinois and my mom is no help here either; she’s Mexican.
“I had 13 years of Lutheran schooling, though.”
R Bjornson bowed in homage.
“Say no more,” he said, nodding knowingly. Had he been sober enough to wink without falling over I think he would have.
I am pulling not one, but two OT shifts Monday. I wasn’t particularly looking for OT this weekend but the chance to pick up some swing shift OT without disrupting my treasured sleep patterns was too good to pass up.
Then 77Dwayne talks to me about working grave OT Monday night. He said he had noted I was off and asked me if I wanted Eddie – 1.
That perked my ears up a bit. Eddie – 1 is easy, I am there anyway and I’ve been an OT whore lately and whores report for duty at the wharf when the fleet’s in, so I said sure, I’ll do it.
January 18
Proof that the graveyard crew will whine about anything was provided tonight, not that we needed another example.
Officially, all Monte Carlo security officers are entitled to two ten minute breaks and a 45-minute 482. On graveyard though, only the Henry units get two 10-10’s. In fact, when I first reported to graveyard Charlie units got zero (0) 10-10’s, though that changed after a few months and graveyard casino units now get one (1) 10-10, though this change was resisted by some (mainly dispatchers who didn’t want to bother having to schedule them) and some people actually turned down their 10-10’s, a phenomenon which still happens on occasion.
Tonight the single 20-minute break, – called a 483, and, you might recall, a staple on swing shift – made its debut and some of the guys were complaining about this! I don’t know why. I really don’t. Why anybody would complain about being allowed to take a 20-minute break instead of a 10-minute break is simply not fathomable, but they were.
Redneck Randy was sentenced to an hour and forty minutes of validators – watching cash accepting boxes being taken out of slot machines – last night because I was forty minutes late relieving him.
It wasn’t my fault though. Just before 0400, I went to Eddie – 2 (the employee entrance) to relieve FTO Terry, who was pulling some OT spending the entire night at Eddie – 2, for 482. Normally it would be considered good form to return about 0450 or so, allowing for a few minutes to walk back from the EDR.
Terry didn’t return though, until well after 0500. I didn’t particularly care cause I would rather sit at Eddie – 2 than stand and watch the cart holding the validator cans, and what really made it funny was I was sent on 483 right after Terry came back so Redneck Randy was sentenced to an hour-forty guarding the cart.
Redneck Randy said Terry was late because he was down in the office whining to 77Dwayne about something or another. Exactly how Redneck Randy knew this since he was occupied isn’t clear, though Terry later admitted he was in the office, though he denied he was whining.