Read Free Sunday (RFS) rolls on at The Diary. Enjoy.
It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Saturday, February 11
We reported for duty at the hotel about a quarter till tonite and at about ten till the phone rang and Gina answered it and had no idea what the call was about until Gina said 144 needed two pillowcases and two comforters.
That’s lazy…Someone calls needing something at ten till, you go and get it…At five till, you can leave it, but ten till, boy, you are really making the guest wait, especially because the final airline crew came in at the top of the hour, immediately followed by the two remaining arrivals and 144 didn’t get their sheets until 20 after, a wait of 30 minutes, which is unacceptable…(Gina, however, was back in at 0700 to work with Tammy and when I mentioned this she said she had to catch the bus, which picks up right after the top of the hour and didn’t want to miss it…Fair enuff.)
The big news, tho, is ol’ Sparrow got a $5 gratuity out of the deal and we all know what policy here is: immediate investment in the Lotto Fund as we headed to the convenience store after the hotel and got two more quick picks for tonite’s drawing…Recall we have $200 in winnings from our last gratuity riding on ten straight Lucky 4Ever drawings and we’ve won $12 so far.
There was a new sheet on the table under the time clock in the back office that turned out to be a log for cash drops…The sheet had some instructions on it, including the new step that all drops must be witnessed, with both people initialing the envelopes, tho there weren’t any envelopes to be found.
Cash-handling envelopes are actually pretty standard…The fronts are lined and marked so you can put the amount of each denomination down and there’s space for checks and pay outs, too, and we were really surprised to find out they didn’t use them here…Here you take your cash, stuff it in a baggie and put a slip in there with the amount and your initials, barely a step up from throwing it into a box.
A standard cash envelope.
We were two shy of a sellout when we started and we get a bonus for sellouts now so we held off on doing the nite audit until 0200, but there weren’t even phone calls, much less takers…The rooms were standard two queen rooms and The System was asking a man-sized $644, plus tax for them…We would’ve knocked that down to $500, but there was no one to haggle with.
For the first time, the average daily rate (ADR; room revenue/rooms rented) topped $400, at $402 and change…There were several $600+ rates and, in another first, some hapless loser was allowed to pay $749 for his suite, the first $700 rate that we’ve seen here…Good gravy, a rate that high for a nice, mid-range franchise hotel should probably come with breakfast included and/or a complimentary sex act, or least a six-pack.
We won nothing in Friday’s Lucky 4Ever drawing, meaning we’ve lost $48 of the $60 currently invested…It’s the third of ten consecutive drawings we invested our $200 winnings in and, frankly, we’re feeling confident heading into the home stretch…In fact, we’re starting to wonder how funny it would be to win twice.
It’s Winter Carnival time here in town and fortunately, there’s enuff snow for a proper one…This hasn’t always been the case and at times Winter Carnival has seemed more like a Spring Fling, but not this year…They put snow down on Main Street for assorted activities and this year there’s enuff stored at the rodeo grounds to lay snow down all the way to the small town…This will involve some modest inconvenience to ol’ Sparrow, as traffic is diverted away from Main Street, but it will be handled with usual aplomb.
There is something wrong with the cat…She is not eating all that much, tho otherwise things are normal…I made a vet appointment for Monday.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1130 Saturday until 2130 Saturday…10.0 hours for the day and 55.0 hours for the week, a total that was once spectacular but is now rather ho-hum.
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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!
