Of course, it’s Read Free Sunday at The Diary of a Nobody.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Saturday, April 24
The big news is ol’ Sparrow wasn’t on the schedule at the hotel when he reported for duty for his first night back since his vacation…I am not making that up…The first sign was Assistant Front Desk Manager Q looking like he was witnessing the Son of Man arriving when I walked in.
What are you doing here???
Well, you know, coming to work…Q was surprised, noting my absence from the schedule…Regular readers of this crap know two weeks had originally been scheduled for the cruise that was canceled, but I had told Front Desk Manager Brandon I didn’t need the second week anymore and would only be using the first week, something Brandon promptly forgot about.
Q being Q, be bravely took command of something that’s not really his responsibility…He’s on the phone immediately, first to Brandon, who doesn’t answer, and then to Amy to see where she is…While he’s talking to Amy Brandon calls and it’s decided to let me stay because Amy is already into overtime…So Q calls Amy back and she likes this plan and since Amy is always late and I’m always early Amy is nowhere near the hotel yet and is able to turn around and still make good time to her home in the next county.
The big news is the masks the hotel gives out to anyone who needs them – like ol’ Sparrow, for instance, who is always good for wandering without one – are now all black…The old one was those standard light blue/white deals that seemed to be effective but were preferred mainly because they were free and easily accessible…The black one looks pretty sharp, too, and seems to be a tad sturdier.
There was a great turnout for our Legion district meeting today in the next county…It was our first meeting since September 2019 and all posts were represented, tho our small town post was the only one who didn’t have its commander show up…Ron, tho, a longtime member and past state officer was there and yours truly was too because while I’m a member of the post in town, I am commander of their Sons of the Legion squadron.
At every legion function – from a post meeting to the national convention – there is an empty chair in honor of our POWs and MIAs…This ceremony has evolved in my time here, both now as district commander and when I was post commander…At first, the sergeant-at-arms would place the black POS/MIA cover over the back of the chair, we’d salute and that would be that…Then years ago I started reading the accompanying paragraph and I was talking with Sgt-at-Arms Bill about it today and we decided at the next district conference we’d do the whole thing, which includes a table with assorted accompaniments, each with its own significance, which is announced during the ceremony.
Stanko, like all good adjutants, runs everything from behind the scenes…When I first got to town he decided I would be a good post commander, so he arranged for that and I served five terms…Then he decided ol’ Sparrow should be district commander and I was reelected today and will likely hold this position till I’m slobbering and can’t pronounce district commander anymore…And Friday he called me to announce that all officers would be reelected except for Senior Vice Commander Ed, who evidently decided to retire, tho whether this was his idea or Stanko’s may never be clear…Stanko then advised he wanted Tina – a member of our post whose starting to do more and more things – to be senior vice commander…My only concern was Junior Vice Commander James is entitled to move up, which concerned Stanko not at all…I talked it over with James before the meeting, tho, and he said he was happy to remain junior vice commander, which was hardly a bulletin because I’d succeeded him as district commander, so it’s not as if he’d be in awe of being senior vice commander.
Part of the festivities was deciding on where the fall convention would be held…I originally suggested a town south of here but they said no, they still hated the state office for a slight the last time they hosted which was fair enuff and then I asked Ron if we could commit our small town post to hosting despite the fact Commander John couldn’t be bothered to attend and he said we probably shouldn’t and then I see the hand of Post 78 Commander Dave go up…He commands a post that is about 90 minutes away and Commander Sparrow would love to not go there because it would result in even less sleep than I’m getting today but one of the lessons of command is it’s best to utilize enthusiasm like this and a motion, a second and a vote later BOOM, Post 78 is hosting…Ideally, every district conference would be held at The Shire, but you can’t force matters like these.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: The Sleep Log will return…For the record, we are going with 48 hours for the week, a figure regular readers of this crap know is about average. 1
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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