Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Sunday, January 12
We’re not too busy at the hotel right now…We weren’t sold out and the early part of the week is looking kind of slow, too, despite the fact people are saying ski conditions are outstanding…Still tho, there were a lot of folios to deliver and the hotel was a mess…There were three luggage carts left in the hallways, plus room service trays and the usual trash cans left out.
When I left to deliver folios there was a car parked in front of the lobby door…After a few minutes of waiting to see if anybody came in I left and delivered folios and when I came back the car was still there and then I gentleman in the lobby makes his presence known…He’s eating a granola snack from the sundry stand and says he would like to pay for it…While I’m ringing it up I ask him if the car is his and he says yes and was wondering if he should ask about a room here or sleep in his car.
I wasn’t surprised…You knock around front desks long enuff and your first impressions about people are usually correct and my first impression of him was “cheapskate”…He seemed a professional sort, could afford $5 for a sack of granola, had clean clothes and didn’t stink so it was doubtful he was homeless…I quoted him a rate of $129, plus tax, almost a giveaway in ski season, said he would think about it and then walked outside where he opened the passenger side doors on his car and moved things around, probably preparing it for his night’s sleep…He drove away shortly thereafter.
This reminded me of the time years ago, I was in the Navy, when my buddy Patrick and I took some leave and drove his hometown in Iowa because his old man ran a small-town radio station I wanted to work at when I got out…Another buddy, Randy, had just bought an old car and wanted to follow us, just for funsies, because he was driving the old wreck back to another town in Iowa and would drive another car back to San Diego.
Randy didn’t want to fork over for lodging, either…We were somewhere in Colorado and we stopped for the night and Randy said he would sleep in his car…All right, knock yourself out…It was summer and actually pretty nice at nite, not the 12 degrees it is now…In the morning he asked if he could use the shower in my room and I said no, which kind of soured the rest of the trip but if you’re cheap these are the chances you take.
There was more snow to move when I returned to The Shire this morning…This wasn’t a bulletin because we had several inches overnight at the hotel and the town snow plowers were on it bright and early and there was the usual berm on the driveway, but our small town only got four inches or so and the snowblower had everything moved in 20 minutes…It would have been less however it ran out of gas, obliging ol’ Sparrow to go get the gas can and fill it up…I also watered the plants before laying down to do some reading before falling asleep.
The Wife said her sister is still hanging in there…If she gets well enuff they’ll be able to move her to a nursing home but that is not going to happen tomorrow as she is still having trouble sitting up.
The Wife also noted the cabin was completely clean when she left…Recall Maria the Maid had been by…This was funny, of course, because The Wife knows I do not have the Good Housekeeping seal…The house is not, yet, a disaster area, but the cat no longer jumps up on the kitchen table because there’s no room…Bachelor habits are hard to break.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1000 Sunday until 2030 Sunday…10.5 hours a fabulous start to the Sleep Week.
Good gravy, I was a sleep machine today… I woke up at 1630 feeling pretty good actually…I used the can and stood there in the hall with my hands on my hips looking at the kitchen and thinking about making some coffee and getting started on the day…Morning routine, the gym and there would still be enuff time to get the day’s project work done.
Eff that noise…I went back to bed, as asleep in short order, woke up at 1830 and still wasn’t ready to get up…I set the alarm for 2130 just in case and rolled over for another two hours.
I hated to miss workout, but when you’re in the sleep zone like this you gotta take advantage of it because if you’re sleeping it’s because you need it…We all know there will be days when sleep is tuff to come by, so it’s good to bank hours when you can.
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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