It’s Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Wednesday, January 29
Crotchety Old Phil (COP) was actually in good spirits when we reported for duty at the General Hospital Security Department (GHSD) tonite.
Regular readers of this crap know this is a rare enuff occurrence, and we would’ve understood if he’d been his usual crotchety self because he worked the entire shift alone and he was busy: there were two helicopter assists, a constable brought in some drunk for a blood draw, and there were the usual escorts and whatnot that attend a busy nite a hospital.
COP said the birth ward was hopping, too, much as it has been all week…We wondered aloud exactly what in theee hell was going on nine months ago that sent couples immediately to bed, but neither COP nor myself could come up with anything other than a lot of people seemed to be feeling frisky.
The big news Asher showed up at 2300, too, because he is back to working five 8-hours shifts this week…He’s grateful for it because college has started back up and it was tuff keeping up, tho he noted having a no-load graveyard job where you could get a lot of your school work done certainly helped…Ol’ Sparrow is getting a break next week, too: the two 12-hour shifts we’ve been working for a while are being replaced with our more-or-less usual 2100-0700 10-hour shifts, and that will be nice because with two 12s – followed by a 2200 arrival at the hotel Friday nite – all you are doing is working and sleeping and we are not getting into the gym.
From 2300 to 0700 Asher and yours truly stole money…We did do a couple of tours and we unlocked doors and there was the now-standard escort to the birth ward, but we did project work all nite and Asher did school work…(He goes to the JC in the next county…His dad is a 100% disabled vet, the the VA pays for his college, not too bad a deal…He has to hustle tho, because it runs out in a couple of years.)…It was so slow the only difference between GHSD and home was that here we were obliged to carry a taser and wear appropriate footwear, where at home we can wear our slippers and robe…We got all the work done we wanted to.
In fact, we got so much done when we wandered into the security office (SO) at 0630 we only half-jokingly told Asher that it would be nice to be able to relax and do some security work for the last four hours of the shift.
As it was, there was some modest excitement…Daniel came in at 0700 and, already worn out, immediately went to breakfast, so we manned the office for an hour…When he returned, we went out and patrolled a bit before spending 20 minutes in that wonderful massage chair that’s in the room that used to be the chapel…Then we wandered around a bit before noticing our old and good friend Doc (from the Legion) sitting in the cafe…We wandered up, told him we didn’t allow his type in here, and then sat down and got caught up…Doc and his wife Marcia own a ranch near town and the big news he is involved in two lawsuits with assorted neighbors…We gave him, and Marcia after she returned from her check-up, the total lowdown on how Anna and I got together…They are in their 80s and can’t complete relate to meeting someone in Kyiv online, but they were happy for me…It was good to see both of them, they’re good people and we don’t get out too much…Recall their son, Dr Nate, was the vet who put the cat down, doing so with courtesy and tenderness that will never be forgotten.
The big news is ol’ Sparrow did his first parking lot tour since winter hit…I am not making that up…It was a gorgeous winter’s day, clear with highs in the 20s, and we’d been in the office all night and we don’t get much sunlight anyway…Asher and I stopped doing these on graveyard both because of the cold and because it’s tuff to see where you’re stepping in the dark, and we certainly don’t need Asher cracking his head open or yours truly breaking a hip, but there was no reason not do one this morning…We are pleased to report our new $12 gloves from the retailer did their work pretty well…They were warm, tho you can’t use a touchscreen with them.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1430 Thursday until 1930 Thursday…5.0 hours for the day and 35.5 hours for the week both, frankly, substandard totals.
We have some zero clue what the deal was, why it took us a while to get to sleep, and why we were up well before the alarm…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!
