Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Saturday, August 22
Had some moderate walk-in traffic in the first hour or so tonight…In fact, one couple came in before I’d even logged into the system…The gentleman half asked for a room.
Let me see what I have available, sir.
I made some other small talk because logging into the system isn’t instantaneous…Actually, it’s best to know this beforehand – it used to be customary in the trade for the person you’re relieving to tell you rates and availability – but yours truly was derelict in that duty,
It turns out we had pretty good availability – 17 rooms or so – and there was no reason to quote the asked for $225 rate, and I offered $179 and they took it and why I slashed rates to $159 for the other two walk-ins will always be a Mystery of the Front Desk.
There’s a new touchless check-in procedure, too, which apparently is a hot, new corporate standard…This means the credit card machines on the counter are being used for the first time…In the past, the customer handed you their card and you used the credit card reader that is your workstation…The ones on the counter have always been there but were out of order till recently.
The guest doesn’t sign or initial anything anymore, either, neither registration card nor pet form if they have a dog…We now read them everything and make a checkmark at the appropriate place and those of you with even the slightest business and/or front desk acumen might see the problem with this: we do not have a signature of the guest on file…This is mitigated somewhat by the fact the credit card machine captures a signature, but I am not entirely comfortable with this and Brandon isn’t, either.
The only fly in the ointment was there was no training for this…Front Desk Manager Brandon happened to still there for the first one, but he did it instead of allowing me to do it under his instruction so it should not be the Upset of the Year that yours truly could not replicate the process.
And touchless check-in is ultimately academic, too, because you can implement all the touchless processes you want but you are still going to have to manually prepare the room keys…There’s no way around this…Both the key packet and keys must be touched by a human…Now, our keys are sanitized when they’re returned to the front desk, but if your desk clerk is wracked with COVID, you’re screwed.
There was a bottle of wine in the back office that Brandon said was there for the taking…Since I’m a drunk now – what with brandy and snifters now being kept at The Shire – you might think I would have started in on it during my shift, but I couldn’t be bothered to even bring it home.
It was a very good workout tonight…Recall last time I got 90 lbs up eleven times on the shoulder cable press and ten is the workout and the plan was to leave it at 90 lbs a couple of more times but screw it, I thought, let’s see what ol’ Sparrow has today so the weight was upped to 100 lbs…This sounds like a lot – and it is pretty good weight for an old man – but bear in mind you’re using both shoulders and it’s a machine, so it’s not as if you’re moving dead weight.
The hope was to move it six times because serious bodybuilders will tell you that will really build muscle, but I was able to move it eight times, not too bad…Everything else was really strong, too, and that was followed up with the Post Office Route for the walk…It was a tad darker than desired for the last half, but I walked against traffic and there are sidewalks most of the way, so I was pretty safe…(The only place there aren’t sidewalks on Main Street is the few blocks from The Shire to downtown…But there is a bike lane and some other room, so it’s hardly as if there is any great danger in getting hit.)…I am thinking about getting one of those reflector vests, tho.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 0900 Saturday until 1730 Saturday…8.5 hours for the day and 45.0 hours for the week…Regular readers of this crap know this is a pretty routine weekly figure, but it is the second-highest weekly total for the month.
I actually first woke up at 1630 and was ready to get up but I didn’t…A patented Sparrow Roll Over wasn’t executed – that’s when you’re dead serious about more sleep, but yours truly was asleep for the final hour soon enuff.
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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