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As The Station Turns, An Overview

 As this blog gains followers, up to 12 on my last post, I realized that if anyone wanders into this thing they won't know what is going on, so I figured I should do a quick overview, an explanation of location and characters. So, here it is. Halfway between here and there is a street, about two miles long. On this street is a series of restaurants, fast food places, motels, a few scattered gift shops and of course, gas stations. Overall more people visit this two mile strip that live within a hundred miles. And on this strip there are three gas stations, all owned by the same company, plus another one in he downtown area, they are all owned by the same company and ironically enough within two blocks of each other, one is directly across the street from the other one. I've said that you could set up cameras in this place and make a reality show about it, and these are the calm years, it use to be a lot worse. And this is where I work. Anyhow, let's start with the stations. ...

As The Station Turns 6/29

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 It's still the holiday busy season so I walked in to a crowd. The Manager was in her usual grumpy mood but she was in a hurry, she had already counted down her drawer and rushed through her paperwork, and left. So I had that going for me.  Mrs. Late Guy works a split shift on Monday so it gave me the opportunity to ask her about the shoplifting incident. She said the guy was checking out stuff on the oil rack and looked confused. She asked him if he needed help and that was when he grabbed the antifreeze and ran out. I figure he couldn't tell the difference between the gas and diesel engine formulas. And here's the crazy part, she tried to chase him. They were out on the lot shouting at each other when he was running off. When she found out the guy was a crazy carjacker she had a little panic attack. Here's the rule, don't chase them, just call the cops Pump 7 is still acting up, yesterday I put a "Please Prepay Inside" sign on it but I took it off at the...

As The Station Turns 6/28

I'm getting ready for work and my phone starts ringing, oh gawd, what now. The Late Guy was calling because he's pretty sure one of his fuel tanks is at the point where it's too low to pump but he can't tell which one. He wanted to know which pumps were hooked up to which tank but I have no idea, I never knew when I was over there. And if he's out of fuel that means I'm gonna get mobbed this afternoon. I'm also pretty sure one of the tanks isn't hooked up to anything anymore. Later when I was at work I saw the truck show up so that situation was resolved. It was another pre holiday weekend and the place was mobbed. Mrs. Late Guy wasn't happy about not getting to the trash and bagging ice so she ran around and did that before she left. No matter how many times I tell her it doesn't matter and I'll get to it later she still insists on doing it. Oh well, at least one person has a work ethic. The Weekend Guy had to work the graveyard shift and I ...

As The Station Turns 6/27

 The weekend before a holiday is always a mob scene so I wasn't surprised to walk in on a crowd. Cigarettes have gone up in price so the Late Guy needed to come over to change the bar codes in the register and Mrs. Late Guy was going to run across the street to cover over there, so she was out of her drawer really quickly. As the Part Time Woman was trying to get out of her drawer she discovered she had a prepay and the people had driven off without their fuel, and nobody had pulled up and pumped it. And, she's worked there for years but didn't know how to void the sale I got tired of hearing her go on about it so three seconds later I rang it out. Honestly, do people look out the window? If you have a prepay sitting there for a long time, two hours, look out the window! That wasn't my only complaint, there were two of them on shift and the restrooms were a mess, the trash was overflowing and the soda machines needed ice, and I was busy for hours. Not only that but late...

As The Station Turns 6/25

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 I took the Jeep over to the Truck Stop this morning to see if I could jump start the pickup. The idea was get it to fire up, drive home, walk back and get the Jeep. However it wouldn't spark over. I'm thinking it's something to do with the distributor. I called my brother and he's going to help me get it to the house tomorrow and I'll get up under the hood. If I can't get it started I'll have to call the mechanic. Meanwhile the Manager's granddaughter is saving can pop tops for the Ronald McDonald house. I haven't seen that in a long time. The have water jugs full of them, and no idea what to do next. I didn't tell her "toss them, that was an original internet hoax". At least they aren't sending money to a Nigerian Prince. When I got to work it was a mob scene, people who are taking a week off for the 4th are setting off early. I'm glad I'm not working on Friday because around 5 PM the people who took a half day off start s...

As The Station Turns 6/24

 The Manager said she went by the liquor store this weekend to get beer for the game. As she was walking in an angry woman was walking out, she apologized for almost hitting the Manager with the door and then complained about the drunken idiot behind the register. If you read these on a regular basis you won't be surprised, it was the Doofus. The general consensus is that if you run a liquor store you shouldn't hire an alcoholic. The supply truck usually shows up around 5 AM. Today it showed up at 1:30 PM so when I walked in there was stuff everywhere. I rushed to get into my drawer and then helped her put stuff away, in between customers. I don't mind, it killed the first two hours and I got free donuts because the bag was damaged. About a month ago I bought a book of raffle tickets from the Late Guy to help fund a school trip. Today the Manager told me her granddaughter still had a book left over, so yes, I bought them. I don't care if I win, heck I don't need to ...

As The Station Turns 6/22

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 Before he left for NYC the Boss told me he wanted me to cover the Downtown station today. But then he realized that I had to work at the Truck Stop today so he said he would make up his mind, and then I never heard anything. Well, I went in to work at the Truck Stop and Mrs. Late Guy was across the street. I'm guessing the Random Woman ended up covering Downtown, oh well, she likes it and wants to work full time there. The Manager was in her usual bad mood but was taking it out on a customer who got the wrong cup for a slushie, so I got to avoid that. Then the old Guitar Player showed up, he was No Trespassed from the Truck Stop after the new owners took over. The Manager told him to leave and not come back. Again, her bad Monday mood was channeled to someone else and I didn't have to deal with it. A guy looked at everything in the store at least three times, and then bough the Kit Kat he had been carrying around. Meanwhile his friends were waiting outside, they probably wante...