I can be an old-fashioned grump at times (ask my family), and this morning was one of those times. My day always starts with a newspaper while I’m eating breakfast. On days when the paper is late, Greg is not a happy boy. At home, my “paperboy” was once the high school basketball coach (and I was his statistician) — he knows, and my paper is always there about 5:00 a.m.

I’m in Orlando for a show this weekend (so come out and see us if you are, too!). Many hotels put a paper in front of your door, or at least have a stack at the front desk. Not this one — I was told that papers were at the gift shop. But the gift shop wasn’t open 20 minutes past the posted opening time. I walked back out of the hotel restaurant as the clerk arrived, and she told me the papers arrive “in the morning” and weren’t there yet. I walked away, grumbling something about it already being morning . . .

That’s where Darlene Clark enters the story — she had greeted me when I entered the restaurant, and must have been out on the lobby when I went into “old grump mode”. She also must have been out there when the papers arrived, because a few minutes later she appeared at my table with a smile and a copy of the Orlando Sentinel — and wouldn’t even let me give her back the dollar she paid for it. She absolutely made my morning.

Darlene was in the lobby when I came out later so I shot a quick picture and thanked her again. She is on our e-mail list — I have said for years that our customers are the nicest folks. This just proves it.

Thanks again, Darlene!