It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Thursday, February 6
In what must be considered an upset, Crotchety Old Phil (COP) was rather pleasant tonite when we reported for duty at the General Hospital Security Department (GHSD)…Actually, he was out of the office when we got there, but he was pleasant when he got back.
We’re not entirely sure why, either, especially when you consider he’d been busy all nite because, like last week, the birth center was doing business left and right and again leaving us wondering exactly why in the hell people were humping like bunnies last May…By his count, COP had done no less than eight birth center escorts, and we even had two of our own before we were done limbering up for the shift.
We got to spend lots of quality time with one Mr E tonite…Our introduction came around 0940 when the ER called asking us to come and inventory the stuff from the guy in room four…We grab Phil by the scruff and bring him along because you never know, and on arrival, Mr E is in bed, apparently sleeping…He’s got no small amount of stuff – including two pocket knives and two lighters, which we take back to the security office – and the nurses do not want us to watch him, a bit of a surprise because rooms four and five are the ones we put the suicide and psych watch patients in, but the ER doctor doesn’t think a patient watch is necessary.
Around 2220 or so, tho, the ER calls to announce he is being discharged and could we escort him out because Mr E has been persnickety and ornery while here, not happy because he had hoped to get sent to the private detox facility outside of town…The ER, tho, declined to do this because he wasn’t drunk enuff to actually be detoxing from anything and, seeing no medical reason to keep him, they let him go…Mr E didn’t like this at all, and while he wasn’t particularly loud, his language did violate several fundamental aspects of decorum.
The last thing this situation needs is a confrontational security officer and we’ve learned over the years the best way to handle these sorts is to be pleasant, calm, and respectful…This can usually be counted on to keep them from getting mad at you because sometimes these people are embarrassed and will take a face-saving way out when offered…This tactic doesn’t always work, but it did tonite and while we didn’t become pals, he wasn’t hissing at me, either.
It took him a while to get off property, tho…We spent some quality time with him at the ER entrance, and then he wandered off but instead of turning left he turned right and ended up going down the hill to the loading dock.
Well, there’s no way out there…So we trot out and he eventually heads the right way, but he is bitching about it the whole way, advising he came here for some help and wondering why in the f*ck wasn’t he getting it..Eventually, he made it off and while we were walking toward the main entrance, we saw him coming back via the main driveway, and we met him at the main entrance.
He wanted me to call 9-1-1 for him…We declined, so he called them himself…(You have to be careful here: you can decline to call 9-1-1 for him, but there’s some federal law that says we cannot turn him away from the ER, so if he’d’ve asked us to take him there, we would’ve had to comply.)
Anyway, the dispatcher was confused and soon enuff she’s calling me on the security cell…We explain the ER had discharged him earlier and that he really didn’t have a medical emergency…Sometime during this call Mr E starts heading off-property again so we follow him from a ways back while talking to the dispatcher…This really isn’t a police matter, either…Eventually, he wanders off in the direction of the Mormon church across the street, and we head back to the hospital.
Phil also had the lowdown on John…Recall Wednesday we had a text from Hunter offering us his hours, which we ended up declining…Well, sometime last week, John ended up in our conveniently located ER after faceplanting outside…There was a helicopter coming in and he was taking strobe lights out to illuminate the landing zone but there’s a lip where the ER entrance and parking lot meet and John tripped over it…This is understandable because the lip wasn’t there before…This may sound odd, but the ER entrance cement was not poured on a real solid foundation and has been known to slip every now and then…Anyway, John has also been bickering with our parent company about something or another for a while and said screw it and gave notice.
Anna remains in a Kyiv hospital, recovering after her ovarian cyst surgery…She reported walking hurts, but the sleep medications work very well…She was scheduled to be released tonite, but she said they want to keep her until Friday.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 0930 Thursday until 1700 Thursday…7.5 hours for the day and 34.0 hours for the week, the strongest Thursday total (TT) in Sleep Log History (SLH), but not too bad, either…God bless all of you.
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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.
The Diary of a Nobody was inspired by the 19th-century British novel of the same name.
Coming soon! Gaylon’s books in actual book form!
