Posts

The Lottery Experiment, August

  Week 33 I thought that I was going to have to work extra shifts this week so I figured I would buy my ticket on Tuesday. However I found out the person who was taking time off got their dates wrong, it's going to be next week. So I figure I will do the Friday thing I planned on doing last week. I've been buying a ticket on Thursday morning to avoid the tourists and, well, to avoid hearing about what a great job the new station manager is doing. However big changes are coming so the guy had something to complain about, plus I slept in on Thursday, so I dropped by on Friday morning instead. It was just what I expected, the place was busy, the manager was complaining and big changes are going to be happening over the next few months. Gonna be fun. This week I ended up with $30.17 in the Tip Jar so I considered my options, do I buy one of the second chance tickets? Do I buy one of the low end tickets? In the end I went with a new one. It's a $10 ticket with a potential payout...

As The Station Turns 9/03

 I decided to get up early and buy my weekly lottery ticket. The state has several new games and I'm interested in buying them just to see. Except the station only has older tickets, ones that have been there a while, plus an empty space. I know you shouldn't criticize the people who take over your old position but the Late Guy is really slacking. The Weekend Guy was complaining because a new pack of tickets were back locked up in the office and one is probably the one I was looking for. Also lottery tickets are individually numbered. When I filled up the display I would go from low to high but the Late Guy is just putting them in there however. If anyone ever breaks in and steals them they won't know which tickets to void. It's a bad system. When I was at the Haunted Station there was a rack of pastries near the front door, and they sold well. Today I noticed the rack was gone as was the selection of pastries, muffins, danish and flavored breads. I have to wonder if th...

As The Station Turns 9/02

 For once this summer all the weather apps agreed, it wasn't going to rain today, so I took my Bad Hawg. With the price of gas going up every week I'm going to have to start walking on potentially rainy days. And it's killing business, I hope I have a job in December. When I got to work my incoming drawer wasn't from one of the Graveyard Shift people, it had been counted out by Mrs. Late Guy. Thank goodness, for once it would be right. Also this meant that either someone didn't come in or didn't open a drawer. I figured I would find out. Every days I start my shift doing my opening paperwork, counting in the drawer, counting the loose packs of cigarettes and so forth. The entire time I was working on that there was a crowd, one guy tried to interrupt me in the middle of a long count of cigarette packs, if you see someone counting leave them alone until they are done, sheesh. Anyhow I finally got everything done and the crowd went to zero, the entire place was co...

As The Station Turns 8/31

Image
 Just before I had to leave for work my phone started ringing, now what? It turns out it was the Late Guy and he was having trouble changing out the syrup box on the soda machine. It's a tricky one, most are just a screw on cap but this one has a plunger that you have to pull out of the bag and then slide the clip to the side of the bag nipple. The thing is I've shown him this before. I was almost going to have to go over there and show him, again, how to do it but I explained it over the phone and he figured it out.  I forgot it was Monday because the Manager was being chatty and friendly. She had to take her car to the mechanic and was waiting for her husband to show up. Normally this would be an uncomfortable situation since she is always in a bad mood on Mondays. I guess she got to tell off the Graveyard Shift Guy, he was complaining about having to fill up the ice in the soda machine and she reminded him that he gets paid to do a job. I guess he also told someone that cle...

As The Station Turns 8/30

 When I got up my phone was ringing, what now? It turns out it was the Late Guy, he didn't know where the ticket paper for the lottery machine was. When they moved me from the position of manager I did the right thing and gave him the full tour, here's this, this is the control for that, here's where I hid the cleaning supplies so the Part Time Woman can't steal them all and so forth. One of the things was "here's the keys and here's what they go to" which includes where the extra supplies for the lottery are stored. The thing that amazes me is it's been three months, you'd think they would have sold enough tickets to have gone through a couple of rolls by now. So I had to tell him where the stuff was stored and where the key should have been. I didn't get a call back so I guess he found it. When I showed up to work it was total bedlam. A couple of old ladies couldn't get the lids on their cups and they were blocking my way so I couldn...

As The Station Turns 8/29

Image
As I was pulling on to the lot I noticed the suspicious red car pulling into the vacant lot again. They drove behind the trees where they wouldn't be seen on any of the station's security cameras. I really have to mention it to someone in a position of authority. I figured it was going to be another slow day. I started my cigarette count, we have to have the incoming and outgoing numbers to make sure nobody is stealing, as I was doing it some guy was hovering so I went over to the register to wait. When he started his second lap around the store I went back to doing my count and sure enough he practically ran over to the register to buy the first thing he had grabbed off the shelf. Every time. Then I got a line of people. I finally got to finish the count, in between customers, and then they all left. There is a glass display case at the front counter that locks up in case you want to sell high value items. The Manager uses it for storage of stuff she needs quick access to but ...

As The Station Turns 8/27

The plumber is coming to my house on Friday morning so I had to get my weekly lottery ticket early. I took a walk to the Haunted Station, the Weekend Guy was covering the morning shift. Boy was he in a bad mood. Stuff isn't working, stuff isn't being ordered, stuff isn't in the system. While I was standing there some guy wanted one of those air fresheners you hang off the rear view mirror. I use to make sure they were in stock because we sold a lot of them, and of course there weren't any. There is a new personal wipe you can hang up in your car and the Late Guy said it probably wasn't in the system, he even wanted to make a bet. I said that some had already been sold so it probably was, the Late Guy owes me a dollar.  I was mentioning the Specter of Beggars Past (see my last post) and he said the guy had come in to the Haunted Station too. He said he thought it was the guy who use to drive around town on the bicycles that had been joined together and he put a motor...