It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Monday, January 15
Boy, we were groggy when we reported for duty at the hotel tonite…Recall yesterday we took some cold medicine to stave off a cold and slept a long time and woke up feeling better but boy, it does extract a toll because you wake up feeling like you just got back from a working all day at the gulag…Some coffee, tho, helped a lot, with Mr Caffeine doing its duty very nicely.
The Front Desk Supervisor (FDS) mentioned something tonite that I’d heard the Assistant Front Desk Manager (AFDM) mention from time to time: extra money…It comes up when it’s used to pay for a room that is otherwise unoccupied…Or something like that…We’ve never been completely clear on the matter…We asked what the extra money referred to and the FDS said that some online booking engines are still paying 12.45% tax to us when the tax is actually 11.65% and the extra money goes into slush fund that can be spent before the month is out.
More busy-ness tonite…There were several arrivals and some showed up right when we got there and the FDS was kind enuff to stay and help out…Like other times recently, tho, there weren’t as many arrivals as we thought, the recent quaint habit of people arriving without actually being checked into The System occurring again…I still don’t know how this happens, but there were six registration cards in the arrival stack that were actually in-house…We’re hesitant to mention this, tho, because 1) it really doesn’t affect the guest, and 2) you start pointing out things like this the next thing you know BOOM people are pointing out your shortcomings and Lord knows we have enuff of those.
Despite the fact we were sold out, we had a last-minute reservation…I am not making that up…We were checking in the remaining arrivals when we noticed it because it didn’t have a room number assigned…Crap…Fortunately, the FDS had mentioned that there were two rooms that were confirmed no-shows – 131 and 255 – and that we could either sell or keep in reserve in case something happened like, oh, I don’t know, a guest making an online booking, for instance.
We did mention this, because taking a reservation for a room you don’t have does involve a guest when they show up and are told they reserved that doesn’t exist…So we sent an email and the FDS – ever vigilant – wrote back saying it was “probably” his fault.
We don’t always get this lucky…Longtime readers of the crap may – or they may not – recall we didn’t get away with it a couple of years ago and the gent showed up and was told he reserved a room that didn’t exist and while we tried to blame it on The Internet, he did not take it well, especially because the town was sold out…But you can’t crap vacant rooms.
The lesson we’ve learned over the years that we do not have a knack for French was reinforced tonite…There’d been a gent hanging around the lobby all nite in a fretful state because he said (we didn’t ask) that he had had a run-in with an old friend who we gathered he was sharing a room with and you didn’t have to be Gerard Dipardeau to strongly suspect it was a lover’s spat.
Anyway, he buys some stuff from the sundry stand and we gave him his card back and he said merci, which even an oaf like me knows means thank you…We said you’re welcome and then asked him how you would say you’re welcome in French and it’s plain he doesn’t like this assignment but he rattles off a few phrases, but he says none of them are really satisfactory which shows his state of mind because how hard can it be to rustle up a you’re welcome in your native language???…As it was, there were two Canadians in line, Quebecois as it turned out, and the next thing you know they’re parlay-voo-Fransaying like nobody’s business, probably talking about that zany gringo behind the desk and we never did find out an appropriate French word for you’re welcome.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 0930 Monday until 2030 Monday…11.0 hours for the day and 21.0 hours for the week, both unheard of Monday totals.
Regular readers of this crap know we don’t usually get to bed on Mondays until mid- or late-afternoon, but without the VSO today we fed the cat and cleaned her litter box and reported to bed for reading duty and we were tired enuff to start dozing off fairly soon…Now, this could completely screw up the Tuesday sleep session (TSS), but we’re not working out Tuesday nite, so what the hell.
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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!