The Diary of a Nobody/July 17

You made it. It’s Read Free Sunday (RFS) at The Diary.

It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…

Saturday, July 17
Almost interesting is the fact it takes time to get back in the swing of full touchscreen mode at the hotel…I seldom utilize the touchscreen on the home rig and the monitor at the veterans service office (VSO) is one of the turn-of-the-century deals non-touchscreen, so coming into the hotel after two nights off you find it takes time to get back into the swing of touchscreening.

The big news is the two keys – missing for the final two shifts last week – were back…Recall, Assistant Front Desk Manager Q took them home and it was good to see them back because ol’ Sparrow enjoys having them on his key ring attached to his belt…Unknown, however, is whether Q brought them back Thursday or ended up keeping them for his entire three days off. 

There was an email saying meeting our revenue goal for the month (420) is going to be cut close, so we are upping the rate charged firefighters. It had been  $115 per night – the government per diem amount for up here – but now when we are anywhere close to being sold out, the rate is $175 per night, which Front Desk Manager Manager Brandon said is within the acceptable 150% range of the per diem rate…We’ll probably get it, too, because it’s not as if there are a whole lot of options up here this summer. 

I don’t know, tho, even at $115/nite I think we’ll still meet our revenue goal…I mean, we’re pulling down 60K every weekend and we’re at 314 right now and occupancy is at 94% for the month, so we should be OK, but what do I know…(By the by, revenue for July 2020 was 386 and for July 2019 it was 509. Not having baseball teams in-house every weekend is hurting us. 

The lobby was busy when I reported for duty, mainly with kids playing games on the business center computers and even a foursome playing cards of all things…Some parents were milling about but, as usual, Sparrow’s arrival had a calming effect because something about yours truly absolutely screams “boredom” and “party’s over” and, sure enuff, the lobby was empty by twenty minutes after my arrival, a pretty good time for clearing everyone out. 

Yours truly completely missed on guessing a guest’s age, too…About 0100 a couple checked in and at first glance it was presumed it was some hot younger gentleman/wealthy older broad action, something ol’ Sparrow can spot a mile away, having been there himself once or twice over the years…The guy looked to be about my age and the woman was reckoned to be anywhere from her mid-60s to her early 70’s. 

Wrong-o…I checked her ID to ensure she wasn’t part of the roving gang of impersonators ravaging hotels in the region, and it heralded she was born in 1964, just a year before yours truly…Crap, I was off by a lot…Part of me wanted to apologize and say wow, you sure don’t look 75, but I kept quiet. 

While I didn’t sleep the ten hours or so that have become standard the past few Saturdays (see Sleep Log below), not only was a strong morning routine conducted but a really nice walk was gotten in, too…I set out about 1745 and the initial plan was to take the River Route, but after getting the sprinkler going the Fairgrounds Route starting looking really good, perhaps because the sprinkler was set for Sector D, back by the alley, really close to the start of the Fairgrounds Route…It was hot – still in the 90s – about twice the temperature of Thursday morning’s walk in town and the Fairgrounds Route in large part covers a residential district, so there was some nice shade. 

Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 0900 Saturday until 1400 Saturday, 5.0 hours for the day and 45.5 hours for the week, a lackluster end to an otherwise strong sleep week.

I dreamt of Alejandra, the senorita yours truly came dangerously close to having a date with a while back…We were trying to have dinner at the nicest restaurant in town but couldn’t seem to pull it off, which is more or less what happened in real life. 

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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