When you need to buy something from Amazon, think of us.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission.
7:34 am - Friday - August 4th - 52º F, humidity 64%, wind 1 mph out of the east southeast..clear blue skies......again! Forecast high for Gardiner, MT is 86º F ( Mammoth Hot Springs - 81º F).....after today the next 14 days will be in the 70's at both locations.....a sign of the changing seasons.
Thursday it was back to work in the Mammoth Hot Springs General Store. As we get later into the 'season' the busy time during our days seems to be shifting more to mid afternoon. Initially it began around 1 pm and lasted 2-3 hours, but now it is beginning around 2:30-3 pm and lasting the same 2-3 hours. I'm sure part of that shift is due to the reopening of the Mammoth Hot Springs Hotel.....their check in time is apparently 4:30 pm.
At any rate we slept in until almost 8 am.....no doubt our bodies are still in recovery mode from the 18.4 miles of hiking we did the two prior days. I finished cleaning up after the beer tasting party we had Tuesday evening (putting chairs away, throwing out 14 beer bottles, etc.) and then it was 10:30 and time to head to work for our 'MID' shift at 11 am. The line at the North Gate was about 1/2 mile long, but thanks to the employee entrance we were able to zip through in just minutes.
We arrived to find our schedule (beginning this Monday) has changed again.....our days off are back to Monday/Tuesday, which we like, and three of our 5 shifts are now either 'MID 1' (11 am - 7 pm), or 'MID 2 (9:30 am - 5:30 pm).....we still have two 'CLOSE' shifts on Friday and Saturday. As I have written previously, this is the nature of the hospitality industry.....the only thing certain from week to week is change. Well, as 'they' say, "Change is the spice of life", and that is how I will interpret it. I am actually somewhat excited about being off work at 5:30 pm!
Our 'MID1' shift began slowly, but by 2:30 things were going full tilt......I acted as cashier for about 90 minutes processing one customer after another. The rush continued unabated until around 5:30 when it once again began to slow down.
Our managers had been preparing us for about two weeks for the software update scheduled for Wednesday night....in the past these updates have resulted in software malfunction the next day resulting in all transactions being processed manually for hours at a time until the system was debugged. This software update did occur Wednesday night, and the 'OPEN' shift folk ended up processing customers manually for about 90 minutes before the bugs were worked out in the system.....by the time we arrived at 11 am order had been restored. Nonetheless, those who came on at 7:15 spent the better part of their shift sorting out the issues from the first 90 minutes.
We were off once again at 7 pm, and home by 7:15 pm relaxing outside in our recliners (TLE in her rocker) until close to 9 pm when the chilly air chased us inside. We have noticed a sharp decline in the flying insect population this past week as well as the temperatures.
That's it.....another day in the life of Clarke and TLE. Life is moving fast! Thanks for stopping by!
When you need to buy something from Amazon, think of us.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission.
One of the main things I enjoyed about the hospitality business was the constant changes makes the days go much quicker. Enjoy the weather now with less bugs.
ReplyDelete