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The Tipsy Butler

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I staggered breakfasts this morning. Up at 5:15 to bake for the first group, etc etc.
It snowed heavily overnight and is still going.
As I'm serving the first group, I hear a familiar scrape, scrape, scrape and when I look out of the window, I see a guest shovelling snow. She clears all our paths.
First guests leave for the day and she comes in to eat. Again, I hear scrape, scrape, scrape and I look out of the window and see the third seating out, as a couple, shovelling what has accumulated on the path since the first guest and starting on the driveway.
As I'm serving THEM, first shoveller is back outside finishing off my driveway.
Either I have ridiculously fabulous guests or they all think I'm completely incompetent and need to get it done for me.
Luckily - when I voiced this thought, everyone laughed and said, no, they just thought it was fun !!!!!!!
 
I have a regular guest who likes to varnish. I hate to varnish. In December, he took down one of my teak bow handrail all the way down to the wood (it needed a total stripping), and started building up the varnish. The other side is not so bad but needs another coat of varnish and a few areas touched up where it has been chipped. His wife asked me if I would leave that for him to do when they return in February because he is so very much enjoys his stay here even more if he can varnish something. WELL...OK!!!!!!
 
It is like today's cartoons in the paper. Mom slaves all morning cleaning kid's room and kid appears as she is walking out. Where have you been all morning? Over at Josh's helping him clean his room.
As a kid, I would run for the hills rather than clean our house but would go help Mrs. Catlett in a heartbeat.
I had a V E R Y S L O W sink drain in my then olnt bathroom. Plunged and plunged to no avail and it was late in the evening. The men of 2 rooms in-house took the drain apart trying find what was wrong (even went out their cars for tools when I did not have what they wanted). It finally was decided that the block was beyond the sink and it took a device I had picked up on the lets get rid of table because it looked interesting to take care of the problem (an air blaster of some sort that DH was convinced was going to blow the pipes). Cleared the problem, pipes put back together, and you should have seen the smiles on the faces of those men!! They were beaming in my gratitude. I think they had a good time talking to each other as they worked.
Were your guests from places that do not get snow? It was something different for them. At home it is work - for someone else it is a mitzvah.
 
It helps if you leave the tools where they can find them! I've had guests weed my garden for something to do.
 
I would say you have very nice guests..hooray for you!!! But be careful...should one of them throw out their back or heaven forbid have a heart attack...law suit city!!! :-(
 
...should one of them throw out their back or heaven forbid have a heart attack...law suit city!!!
sad_smile.gif

Yes, it is VERY sad that we live with this thought in the back of our minds at every given moment - even when people are doing a good deed.
I too have had some very 'helpful' guests. The most memorable for me are about 2 FL couples (both Dr.s) visiting here. They were on the balcony enjoying life. As I was cleaning their rooms I kept noticing them leaning over the railing looking at something and discussing. I went out and they said 'your son's fake snake sure has your cat fooled'....Looking over the balcony I see a snake all coiled up in a corner by the side door. My face went pail and I said, no its real, best tell DH to get it. (DH is terrified of snakes & me too). The men piped up 'let us get'm for ya'. My thoughts went directly to front page headlines "Guests die after snake bite at local B&B" I kept walking and said I best get DH before the cat is bit.....the wives started cackling...Guess we should let you know what our husbands do for fun...they did gator trapping. My next statement---what's your weapon of choice! Turned out the snake was a rare albino water moccasin. Very interesting to see once it was dead!
BTW: we do not see many snakes here even being close to the river.
 
...should one of them throw out their back or heaven forbid have a heart attack...law suit city!!!
sad_smile.gif

Yes, it is VERY sad that we live with this thought in the back of our minds at every given moment - even when people are doing a good deed.
I too have had some very 'helpful' guests. The most memorable for me are about 2 FL couples (both Dr.s) visiting here. They were on the balcony enjoying life. As I was cleaning their rooms I kept noticing them leaning over the railing looking at something and discussing. I went out and they said 'your son's fake snake sure has your cat fooled'....Looking over the balcony I see a snake all coiled up in a corner by the side door. My face went pail and I said, no its real, best tell DH to get it. (DH is terrified of snakes & me too). The men piped up 'let us get'm for ya'. My thoughts went directly to front page headlines "Guests die after snake bite at local B&B" I kept walking and said I best get DH before the cat is bit.....the wives started cackling...Guess we should let you know what our husbands do for fun...they did gator trapping. My next statement---what's your weapon of choice! Turned out the snake was a rare albino water moccasin. Very interesting to see once it was dead!
BTW: we do not see many snakes here even being close to the river..
Oh My!!!! Glad that worked out ok:) I hate all those creepy crawly things down south. I was freaking out when we took the swamp tour and then walked on the boardwalk area through the swamp park....kept looking down so I wouldn't step on a snake:-(
 
Nice! Send them up my way when they're done, we have lots of snow for them here. :)
We haven't had guests shovel us out yet, but we've had them borrow the shovel to groom the toboggan hill. And one winter we had a guest ask do we mind if he splits some firewood. Knock yourself out!
Bree: what's the trick to getting a guest (or anyone for that matter) to weed my flower beds?? I hate gardening.
 
...should one of them throw out their back or heaven forbid have a heart attack...law suit city!!!
sad_smile.gif

Yes, it is VERY sad that we live with this thought in the back of our minds at every given moment - even when people are doing a good deed.
I too have had some very 'helpful' guests. The most memorable for me are about 2 FL couples (both Dr.s) visiting here. They were on the balcony enjoying life. As I was cleaning their rooms I kept noticing them leaning over the railing looking at something and discussing. I went out and they said 'your son's fake snake sure has your cat fooled'....Looking over the balcony I see a snake all coiled up in a corner by the side door. My face went pail and I said, no its real, best tell DH to get it. (DH is terrified of snakes & me too). The men piped up 'let us get'm for ya'. My thoughts went directly to front page headlines "Guests die after snake bite at local B&B" I kept walking and said I best get DH before the cat is bit.....the wives started cackling...Guess we should let you know what our husbands do for fun...they did gator trapping. My next statement---what's your weapon of choice! Turned out the snake was a rare albino water moccasin. Very interesting to see once it was dead!
BTW: we do not see many snakes here even being close to the river..
Oh My!!!! Glad that worked out ok:) I hate all those creepy crawly things down south. I was freaking out when we took the swamp tour and then walked on the boardwalk area through the swamp park....kept looking down so I wouldn't step on a snake:-(
.
FYI Catlady, the snakes you don't expect are the ones that drop down from the trees....hard to see those booggers too, green on green. We have a swamp tour 5 minutes from the B&B, and send people all the time. Luckily no reports of snakes dropping in the boat for a visit yet. (Thank God)
 
Nice! Send them up my way when they're done, we have lots of snow for them here. :)
We haven't had guests shovel us out yet, but we've had them borrow the shovel to groom the toboggan hill. And one winter we had a guest ask do we mind if he splits some firewood. Knock yourself out!
Bree: what's the trick to getting a guest (or anyone for that matter) to weed my flower beds?? I hate gardening..
happyjacks said:
Bree: what's the trick to getting a guest (or anyone for that matter) to weed my flower beds?? I hate gardening.
Embarrassing but true...the garden was awfully overgrown, it was our first summer and we were in over our heads. One guest, not out of the goodness of her heart, but to teach me a lesson, started pulling weeds to show me, 'How little time this takes once you get going...'
That was the summer I never left the house. In all seriousness. I had to get my mom a b'day card in August and that was when I got out. Oh, and to watch the 4th of July parade from the porch. (I learned a big lesson that summer...get out of the house and leave the yard!
 
...should one of them throw out their back or heaven forbid have a heart attack...law suit city!!!
sad_smile.gif

Yes, it is VERY sad that we live with this thought in the back of our minds at every given moment - even when people are doing a good deed.
I too have had some very 'helpful' guests. The most memorable for me are about 2 FL couples (both Dr.s) visiting here. They were on the balcony enjoying life. As I was cleaning their rooms I kept noticing them leaning over the railing looking at something and discussing. I went out and they said 'your son's fake snake sure has your cat fooled'....Looking over the balcony I see a snake all coiled up in a corner by the side door. My face went pail and I said, no its real, best tell DH to get it. (DH is terrified of snakes & me too). The men piped up 'let us get'm for ya'. My thoughts went directly to front page headlines "Guests die after snake bite at local B&B" I kept walking and said I best get DH before the cat is bit.....the wives started cackling...Guess we should let you know what our husbands do for fun...they did gator trapping. My next statement---what's your weapon of choice! Turned out the snake was a rare albino water moccasin. Very interesting to see once it was dead!
BTW: we do not see many snakes here even being close to the river..
Oh My!!!! Glad that worked out ok:) I hate all those creepy crawly things down south. I was freaking out when we took the swamp tour and then walked on the boardwalk area through the swamp park....kept looking down so I wouldn't step on a snake:-(
.
FYI Catlady, the snakes you don't expect are the ones that drop down from the trees....hard to see those booggers too, green on green. We have a swamp tour 5 minutes from the B&B, and send people all the time. Luckily no reports of snakes dropping in the boat for a visit yet. (Thank God)
.
Yep..that's the tour we went on:)
 
Last summer we had guests who mowed our lawn and another guy who cleaned our verandah windows.
Let's face it, we love that it is getting done but embarrassed that we didn't do it ourselves before they arrived.
 
Last summer we had guests who mowed our lawn and another guy who cleaned our verandah windows.
Let's face it, we love that it is getting done but embarrassed that we didn't do it ourselves before they arrived..
OTOH, we had a guest call to reserve and he inquired if we would be washing his car the way the PO's did? THAT threw me. I laughed, he was completely serious. I guess if you have fulltime help, that's a service you can offer!
 
Last summer we had guests who mowed our lawn and another guy who cleaned our verandah windows.
Let's face it, we love that it is getting done but embarrassed that we didn't do it ourselves before they arrived..
Nope! You made them feel at home. Something to feel pleased about.
 
We haven't had any guests offer or do any work for us. I have had a couple of guests apologize for the messiness of their rooms! I'm not their mother!!
 
i am curious about tipsy's shovelers ... snow lovers from away? or folks who crave exercise? i agree, it's more fun and a lot easier when it's not my work that needs doing.
the only thing i can think of that someone did at the inn (aside from guests trying to do dishes) was a man who fixed my mantle clock. he and his wife stayed for three nights and it caught his eye because it wasn't working. i explained it had stopped when my husband died. i had to move that week and wasn't sure when it had wound down. then i moved, and moved again, and again ... it had been wrapped and stored and unwrapped and i didn't know a thing about clocks except that i loved it.
he spent all his free time working on the clock. wife went shopping or to the art gallery or to take a nap, he slipped into the breakfast room and worked on the clock. by the third morning, the clock was chiming ... i got goosebumps hearing it again ... got so excited i hugged him for a good 2 minutes. wife came in to the room mid-hug ... knew the story ... and got teary eyed with both of us.
that clock was packed away AGAIN ... i sure hope it works when i wind it up!
 
Last summer we had guests who mowed our lawn and another guy who cleaned our verandah windows.
Let's face it, we love that it is getting done but embarrassed that we didn't do it ourselves before they arrived..
OTOH, we had a guest call to reserve and he inquired if we would be washing his car the way the PO's did? THAT threw me. I laughed, he was completely serious. I guess if you have fulltime help, that's a service you can offer!
.
DH is definitely the "behind the scenes" person - he much prefers to leave guest interaction of any kind to me. HOWEVER, with no prodding from me, when we have snow, he always cleans off guest cars and will, when necessary, request their car keys so he can get everything de-iced and warmed up while they're eating breakfast.
 
Last summer we had guests who mowed our lawn and another guy who cleaned our verandah windows.
Let's face it, we love that it is getting done but embarrassed that we didn't do it ourselves before they arrived..
OTOH, we had a guest call to reserve and he inquired if we would be washing his car the way the PO's did? THAT threw me. I laughed, he was completely serious. I guess if you have fulltime help, that's a service you can offer!
.
DH is definitely the "behind the scenes" person - he much prefers to leave guest interaction of any kind to me. HOWEVER, with no prodding from me, when we have snow, he always cleans off guest cars and will, when necessary, request their car keys so he can get everything de-iced and warmed up while they're eating breakfast.
.
That's a great customer service - I'll have to let DH know about that - he'd like to do that, too, for the guests.
 
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