It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Monday, February 6
The recent trend of more revenue on fewer rooms has continued into this month…Revenue is already up $40K over last February on two dozen fewer rooms…Regular readers of this crap know this means a huge increase in the average daily rate (ADR; room revenue/rooms rented): $279 so far this month, up from $193 last month…We did some research at the county assessors site and the new owners bought the hotel for $26 million, so don’t expect rates to be going down anytime soon.
The question of what to do with our $200 Lucky 4Ever lottery windfall was answered for us…Recall we were debating whether to buy 100 quick picks for one drawing or buy ten quick picks for ten drawings because heaven forbid we do something useful or constructive with the money…Eff that noise, as we used to say in the Navy; let it ride, bay-bee…Well, it turns out that out of those two options, we can only do one…We were at the convenience store before heading into the veterans service office (VSO) and we asked the girl we’ve been buying our tickets from about our options and she said there was ten quick pick limit per game…All right; now we know…Tho as we thought about it, we could probably buy ten tickets with ten quick picks for one game but then we accused ourselves of thinking too much, an indictment we immediately pled guilty to…I mean, it’s a completely random affair: the odds of winning the big prize are the same – one in eight million something – no matter what numbers you play or when you play them…Still tho, it probably wouldn’t hurt to start looking into an annuity or something when we do win.
It was dead slow at the VSO today…No nothing: no phone calls, no emails that needed attention, no walk-ins…There was modest action in the Building Department, tho, when Malea wondered what the fire truck was doing in front of The Shire last nite…It seemed she and her husband were driving by and she knows we live right next to the weed store, so she was curious…So we told her about the gas leak and how it appeared to’ve been caused by some falling snow/ice and how some potheads in the neighboring parking lot smelled it and had the presence of mind to call it in, which made her laff…She also allowed how it was nice that the firemen and police officer moved the snow off the carport roof.
The Chariot – our new snowblower – got its first use in a few days this afternoon, easily handling 3-4 inches plus the usual berm…It didn’t start right up, tho, but that’s only because we forgot to pump the fuel system three times, but once we did it started with one pull of the cord because we were too lazy to get the extension cord out for the electric starter.
Our only complaint with The Chariot is the chute that actually throws the snow sometimes doesn’t stay in position, so you gotta stay on your toes to make sure snow is going where you want it…Another problem is it is getting harder and harder to find places to put our snow…The snow is stacked so high near Maple Street that right now it is just barely clearing the top…And we strongly suspect we’re going to have to do some work Thursday on the creepage the snow is causing at the entrance to the driveway…This would involve some shoveling which, of course, goes against everything we stand for now, but two seasons’ worth of snow so far is starting to take its toll.
So far we’ve contacted three plumbers regarding our water heater problem – the one the home warranty company (HWC) authorized us to find help for on our own because they couldn’t produce anyone – and only one has shown promise…Of the two in town we contacted, one hasn’t seen fit to bother us with a response and the other made it clear he didn’t really want the work…The company in the next county, tho, called me back while we were sleeping, something we’d advised might happen…I think we used them a few years back when the heater had a problem, but either way, we’ll call them tomorrow.
Sickies Update: The sinus infection is getting better…The worst appears to be over.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1530 Monday until 2130 Monday…6.0 hour for the day and 12.5 hours for the week, both rather average totals…We were tired enuff, tho, that it took two minutes for the alarm clock to wake us up.
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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.
Coming soon! Gaylon’s books in actual book form!