November 3
Here was your Henry lineup for last night:
Henry 1 – moi
Henry 2 – Lee
Henry 3 – X-Ray
Boy, were we hopping last night. So much so the old Foot on the Desk percentage was just a shade over 25 percent, a night’s work that could only have been drearier had it included hourly beatings.
It started right off the bat, too. I had just gotten to the hotel and was in a stairwell going from 23 to 24, and when I get into the 24 300 wing, holy smokes, it sounded like a haunted mansion in there. It was a pretty nice night and several guests had opened their windows. It was windy outside and when this happens you can really hear it in the halls. So myself, and swing shift Henry 2, Stan, had to attend to getting guests to close their windows.
Then I get saddled with the first of two reports when the fire alarm outside of 4-233 goes off. This gets everybody’s attention, and by the time I get there from 29 X-Ray, Lee and some engineers are already there. All there is for me to do is utilize my only real talent, standing around and appearing to be in command.
Outside units mobilize in this situation, too. The sprinkler room must be manned and all three stairwells have to be checked for evacuating guests, which is a lot of mobilizing considering someone had been smoking a cigar too close to the detector.
Twenty minutes into 482 we go 499 for a guy Rich and Code Four Carlin picked up in the lobby. He had fainted and they had revived him and he blacked out twice on the way to his room, so they sat him down on 24 and waited for paramedics. X-Ray locked out the elevator while Lee and I responded. This was too much for the guest to handle as he wet his pants and they ended up transporting him, and I did the report for that, too.
As the responding officer, Code Four Carlin really should’ve gotten the report, but he is the slowest typist west of the Rockies and the report would’ve taken him till Thanksgiving, but he was right there looking over my shoulder making suggestions – none of them particularly helpful – until I told him to amscray.