ocularnervosa

 Hell Week Redux Day 5, and make it a double. Whatever was burning last night must have been stomped down fast because the air is clear this morning, at 5 AM.  Later I found out that it had been a shift in the wind and the fire was still burning strong on the Colorado side of the mountain. If it shifted to the west it would shut down the interstate and that would cause traffic chaos The first time I got stuck going back to the Truck Stop the Crazy Lady would mumbly, very loudly, under her breath that I was taking too long to finish my paperwork and was just "milking the clock". My attitude was "bite me, I'll take as long as necessary". Today she spent a half hour cleaning the restrooms, something she could have done for the eight hours she was on her normal shift. No wonder she's on the short list to get fired. They had said they weren't going to put in an order this week so I wasn't going to have to deal with the supply truck, however the last order...

 Hell Week Redux Day 4 I was almost late to work. I thought of something and had to post it on Threads, looked up and was supposed to be on my way. I still showed up on timeish. There was a mob of people but they cleared out quickly. I still had to deal with lingerers while doing my opening paperwork but it wasn’t as bad as usual. The price of fuel went up 20 cents a gallon yesterday and dropped 10 cents a gallon today. It’s going to be a fun fall. I had a couple of things to do but I had to wait for a guy who was sampling the slushies. He finally picked one and a crowd showed up, as if planned. And just like yesterday every time I went outside people would show up, mostly just to check their phones and leave. Do you get more bars by a fuel pump? The Late Guy came by to get a photo of a register screen. And he was an hour late getting off work from the Haunted Station. Gotta wonder what is going on with the Random Woman, I’m sure her days are numbered. Btw, the Late Guy wasn’t talk...

 Hell Week Redux: Day Three I thought Mrs. Late Guy had cursed me again when she told me that she had a slow day. Sure enough, for the first hour I was swamped. After that it was super slow, you'd think it was mid February. Tell me again about how great the economy is doing. Speaking of which Sturgis is going on and I realized that there were very few bikers through this week. Normally we'd be overrun by outlaw gangs, weekend enthusiasts and loners. This year, perhaps one or two small groups and stragglers. I don't think this is going to be a good fall. I was trying to do my first of the shift stuff but two women kept running in and out of the restroom. I wasn't going to ask what was going on in there, and hopefully I didn't have to clean up a mess. When one left and the other was still in the restroom I figured I could run and do something but she came out and practically sprinted to the register. When they finally left here came the swarm. I left the low toilet pa...

 Hell Week Redux: Day 2 Today started off pretty good. I went to get the tank readings and looked up, there was a dollar bill stuck on top of one of the fuse boxes. Why was it there? I don't know. Who put it there? I don't know. Where did it end up? In my pocket. Mrs. Last Guy told me that it had been a slow and boring morning. This is a quick way to curse another shift. Sure enough I was overrun with customers for hours. I had to dump the outside trash twice. It's worse than mopping the floor. Today was "Small Children" Day. Everybody who came in had toddlers who were at the age of walking and exploring. I wouldn't mind but it means that they all take at least 20 minutes to find their stuff, have a discussion about not buying the stuffed animals and finally picking something out. At least there wasn't the "pick something out, you can't have that, hurry up" conversation. Yesterday I intentionally loaded an almost empty roll of paper towels in...

 Hell Week Redux, Day One The Part Time Woman works Saturday mornings at the Truck Stop. When I walked in she was taking a small bag of trash out to the dumpster, and was still in her drawer, as was Mrs. Late Guy. They know when I'm coming in and could close one so I can count in and go to work. But noooooo, they were still in both drawers. So I was stuck hanging around waiting for one of them to close their drawer. Finally Part Time Woman closed her drawer, and once again she was off in her count so I had to open my drawer for an odd amount. Oh well, I guess the Random Woman is going to be gone for the next two weekends and Part Time Woman will be covering across the street. So I got that good news. I'm going to have to cover Wednesday morning but the only good part was that they weren't putting in an order so I wouldn't have to unload that. Except it turns out that last week the supply company didn't send any of the tobacco so they had to put in an order. And ther...

When I arrived at work someone towing a trailer parked across the entrance to the diesel pumps. I drove straight at them before turning and having to go around. Then someone tried to pull into the pumps and blared their horn at the person. Seriously, directly in front of the pumps is not a parking space.  The Manager was in a hurry today, she had several things to get done and then she is on vacation. She hustled through everything at the Truck Stop and then ran down to the West Side Station and then clocked out. She's on vacation and come Saturday I'll be on Hell Week. After the third person in a row I wondered how long I could go before I yelled in someone's face "If It's A Debit Card You Have To Enter A PIN!!!!!" Honestly, if you want to use your debit know your PIN. The third person pulled out his card and jammed it in and out of the reader several times, which caused the card reader to jam up and I had to open the second register for .01¢ to run his card ...