Meet Sparrow, an average man passing an average life…
Saturday, July 18
You have to be careful when a guest calls looking to extend their stay…You cannot immediately say yes, so when 257 called requesting to stay another nite and I had guests at the needing service, I jotted the room number down and told her I would get back to her.
First, of course, you have to determine if you have rooms…It’s Friday night, so tomorrow is Saturday and it’s entirely possible we might not have rooms…After the guests are dispensed with, yours truly checks and while we do have some availability for Saturday night, her room type has already been booked and she would have to move…Then a check of her current stay shows she booked online, thru one of those name-your-price places and she’s only paying $119, plus tax, for her room, a steal for this place in the summer, and the rate the system is asking for tomorrow night is $225, plus tax, and you have to tell the guest this because they might well be under the impression they automatically get tonight’s rate…They do not…Those name-your-price rates are set that day when we have rooms to move and do not anticipate sufficient walk-in traffic to sell out….So if they do decide to stayover you simply cannot extend the current reservation, you have to make a brand new one, and get their credit card, too, because the virtual credit card the company sent won’t be good, of course.
So I call them and tell them this: we do have rooms, but you will have to move and bend over, grab your ankles and commence whistling Dixie because your rate is a lot higher…The gal did not like this news at all and send she would let us know in the morning.
And you’re still not done, either, because it is not completely out of the question that they will sashay up to the front desk after 0700 and say the overnight guy said they had to change rooms, but otherwise could stay at the same rate, which would cause problems for Tammy, so you make sure to let Tammy know 257 asked about extending, her room type is booked and the rate you quoted her.
We missed selling out by a handful of rooms but the front desk was busy enuff…There were three arrivals and a couple of walk-ins during the first hour – not to mention 215 requesting another comforter – and I didn’t get drawers counted and retired to the back office until after midnight.
I saw Richard again today, the veteran I drove around yesterday…He had a follow-up appointment at an optometrist here in town and rather than work to find another driver I did it myself…The appointment was for 0800, too, so it was convenient to drive south of town to get him and bring him in and still get home at a decent hour…Richard said the meds they’d given him didn’t let him sleep all that well, but his eye looked normal again (he’d had some cataracts removed) tho he was still wearing those large sunglasses they’d given him yesterday.
A wonderful walk this evening…I headed out about 1930, walked to downtown and then turned right and headed out to the river…The big news is the first leaves of the season are starting to turn…This is the earliest I’ve noticed leaves turning, tho it should be noted I am hardly Mr Nature…Usually, you first notice them around mid-August on a stretch of highway heading into town, so this is about a month earlier and the possibility that ol’ Sparrow is an idiot and that is a normal color for that part of that tree cannot be entirely dismissed.
Sparrow’s Sleep Log: 1030 Saturday until 1800 Saturday…7.5 hours for the day and 52.5 for the week, tied for the highest week of the year.
Proof that yours truly will whine about absolutely anything can be found in the fact that I am whining about today’s sleep session…Not about the 50-hour weeks – of course not, that’s what we live, er, sleep, for, but regular readers of this crap will recall that from time to time I only get four hours or so on Saturdays and while I whine about that, too, that is extra time for project work and reading and whatnot…When you wake up at 1800 sometimes you think you are rushing morning routine when you only have four hours to get out the door.
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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