A fella and a storm.
It's been about four days now since I first heard from Jon, who's a lovely 21 year old resident of Coon Rapids. I'm stifling back the urge to say it could be something -- I tend to call these things too early -- but he seems really nice, and he likes cartoons. Enough on that for now.
Two days ago, now, the storm came in. It was quick -- one minute, Rob and I were sitting outside, having a smoke, and the next, this enormous wall cloud developed about four miles west of the hotel, and it seemed to obscure the sky over the next few minutes. We had barely enough time to scream "Atreyu!!!!!!!!" and put the glass-topped tables inside before the wind and rain hit, and hard. The storm lasted about 40 minutes, and only about 20 of them were serious and/or life-threatening. Here are some highlights:
We received two letters from guests last night complimenting our professionalism, our respect, and our "highly effective conduct" during the storm. Probably the best idea I had all night was to make the bottled water from the store in the lobby available to all of the people stuck in the hallway. We were sold out on wednesday, which meant some 120 people, plus the 20 or 30 who came in off the street to get out of the storm.
Actually, it was all very nice, once the storm blew over. The lobby of the hotel was lit by candles and the occasional flashlight, and about 40 people hung out in the lobby to play cards, strike up conversations, or work on their battery-powered laptops. Because the soups were prepared early in the day, we were able to sell food and drink all night long, and ended keeping the restaurant open for an extra 2 hours. For a short while, the lobby, which is usually only a place people pass through, became a piazza. I was fired up the whole time.
We only had one complaint in the morning -- and it wasn't even a complaint -- the guy said to my boss, "so, do we get a discount?" She gave him the room for free, just to make him feel like a jerk -- and according to others who were there, he did.
The bulk of Wednesday night, for me, was spent leading people up four flights of stairs by flashlight to their rooms, and answering the "have you heard from the power company yet?" question. The hallway emergency lights lasted for about 2 hours (twice as long as they're meant to), and with exception to the one twit who decided to scare his girlfriend in the hallway by jumping out at her in the dark (Dumbass!), there weren't any problems or complications. I guess it's safe to say that this was one of the best nights I've ever had at work, despite the problems. I felt like all of us were working at our best -- it was amazing.
After everyone went to bed, the lights came back on at every shop, restaurant, and house visible from the hotel, excepting our building and the one next to us. Grumble. At that point, we figured that eventually, our lights would come on -- Rob, Kevin, and I ended up sitting around until about 2 am playing Texas Hold 'Em.... eventually, we realized that we'd either been forgotten, or we were subject to some major problems, so we went home, leaving Kevin there to do nothing. Hey, I was tired!
Anyhow, this has been a decently long update, and it even included a Neverending Story reference, so I think that's good for now. I'll talk to you all soon. Byes!
Two days ago, now, the storm came in. It was quick -- one minute, Rob and I were sitting outside, having a smoke, and the next, this enormous wall cloud developed about four miles west of the hotel, and it seemed to obscure the sky over the next few minutes. We had barely enough time to scream "Atreyu!!!!!!!!" and put the glass-topped tables inside before the wind and rain hit, and hard. The storm lasted about 40 minutes, and only about 20 of them were serious and/or life-threatening. Here are some highlights:
- A tornado reportedly touched down some two miles west of the hotel.
- Rob saw a guy coming in the front door actually get lifted off the ground by the wind, which approached 75 miles per hour in places.
- Guests were evacuated from their rooms (always a joy) and removed to the employee hallway away from any glass.
- One of the front doors (made of metal) was whipped so hard by the wind that it actually bent, such that it won't close properly anymore.
- Power ended up cutting out about 10 minutes into the thick of the storm (around 7:40p), and remained out until 10:30 yesterday morning (15 hours!)
- The flowers we planted in May remained unscathed, but the 45 year old olive tree in the parking lot was uprooted and now lies on the pavement.
- Some 145,000 people were without power for at least two hours last night, and there are still several neighborhoods that are without power.
- Jan & Deb's new house (purchased some 9 days ago) didn't "weather the storm" as well as expected. I've yet to see firsthand what that means.
We received two letters from guests last night complimenting our professionalism, our respect, and our "highly effective conduct" during the storm. Probably the best idea I had all night was to make the bottled water from the store in the lobby available to all of the people stuck in the hallway. We were sold out on wednesday, which meant some 120 people, plus the 20 or 30 who came in off the street to get out of the storm.
Actually, it was all very nice, once the storm blew over. The lobby of the hotel was lit by candles and the occasional flashlight, and about 40 people hung out in the lobby to play cards, strike up conversations, or work on their battery-powered laptops. Because the soups were prepared early in the day, we were able to sell food and drink all night long, and ended keeping the restaurant open for an extra 2 hours. For a short while, the lobby, which is usually only a place people pass through, became a piazza. I was fired up the whole time.
We only had one complaint in the morning -- and it wasn't even a complaint -- the guy said to my boss, "so, do we get a discount?" She gave him the room for free, just to make him feel like a jerk -- and according to others who were there, he did.
The bulk of Wednesday night, for me, was spent leading people up four flights of stairs by flashlight to their rooms, and answering the "have you heard from the power company yet?" question. The hallway emergency lights lasted for about 2 hours (twice as long as they're meant to), and with exception to the one twit who decided to scare his girlfriend in the hallway by jumping out at her in the dark (Dumbass!), there weren't any problems or complications. I guess it's safe to say that this was one of the best nights I've ever had at work, despite the problems. I felt like all of us were working at our best -- it was amazing.
After everyone went to bed, the lights came back on at every shop, restaurant, and house visible from the hotel, excepting our building and the one next to us. Grumble. At that point, we figured that eventually, our lights would come on -- Rob, Kevin, and I ended up sitting around until about 2 am playing Texas Hold 'Em.... eventually, we realized that we'd either been forgotten, or we were subject to some major problems, so we went home, leaving Kevin there to do nothing. Hey, I was tired!
Anyhow, this has been a decently long update, and it even included a Neverending Story reference, so I think that's good for now. I'll talk to you all soon. Byes!