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The Lottery Experiment, October

 Week 41 Because I've been putting money into the Alternative Fund and it's been a slow week at work I have $8.45 in the Tip Jar. My usual spot is still closed so I had to go to a different store again, it worked out for two weeks so who knows? The place had a mostly empty rack the last time I went there but this week they had some new tickets so I went for the $5 one with the potential jackpot of $20,000, but the ticket was not a winner, and it's not a second chance ticket either. So I'm starting out the month losing. Week 42 I was told my usual spot would be open this week, but it wasn't. I almost forgot to buy a ticket this week but remembered because I had to go to the store, so I picked up one on my way home. It's been a slow week so I had $4.91 in the Tip Jar, it could have been more but I was really honest and gave people back what they overpayed me, good Karma and all. Anyhow since my usual spot is still closed and the other place doesn't have the ti...

As The Station Turns 10/29

 When I got to work the Manager was on the phone. She was only partway through closing her shift when she went outside to talk, I wasn't really listening but I guess she felt it was too private. Later when she came back she had her safe deposit in her hand, she had been walking around outside with a bunch of loose bills in her hand. That must have been one heck of a conversation for her to not have noticed. A guy came in looking for unroasted fresh chile. Sorry dude, you have a three week window from the end of September to the middle of October and you missed it. When I went out to check the trashes there was a blob of ice cream next to one of the cans. I was going to take a bucket of water out and wash it off but the crows discovered it and went nuts, so I left it for them. They actually did a better job than I would have. A guy was in the restroom for a long time and I needed to check the place but I got a crowd. A guy got a soda refill and his total was $1.40, he handed me 5 co...

As The Station Turns 10/28

 The day started off fun! There was a woman hanging out around the side of the building, because the Manager won't run people off, she wasn't doing anything at the time so I let her be. Then she came in and asked if we had a bus schedule....ummmm...we're not a bus stop, why would we have a schedule, you have to go on line for that kind of thing in the modern world. "Someone told her" that we had a schedule but there isn't anyone around who would have done that, step one of "here comes trouble" by the way. Then she started bugging the customers for money or a ride so I had to go tell her to not do that. She told me that I couldn't tell her to stop bugging people so I did the "this is private property and you have to leave" speech, if you say that and they refuse you can call the cops. She told me she was "federal" and I couldn't tell her what to do, she was something alright. So she went and gathered up her stuff, and came ...

AsThe Station Turns 10/27

It was another day at the Haunted Station and another day of a backed up toilet. Since the mens room was closed a lot of pissers left angry and frustrated. One guy flung the front door open and stormed out, but you knew full well he wasn't going to buy anything. I told the polite people that they could use the ladies room but the rest could go to one of the other stations. I guess they did a test run on the food warmer across the street and the Manager not only forgot to fill up the water steamer tray on the bottom but had it set to high and burned everything. I'm glad I haven't been over there for the past two days. The Crazy Lady worked the afternoon shift at the Truck Stop and I guess she was bitching non stop about it. For years she complained that the afternoon shift people weren't getting enough done and now she knows what it's like to actually be busy all day long. I hope they keep her on the shift for the next two weeks because she will get to deal with the ...

As The Station Turns 10/25

The day started with me having to go and get keys made for the Haunted Station so I can lock up the cash drawer at the end of the night. The Boss gave me money for it but he only wanted me to get the one key for the office. I picked up the keys from the Late Guy and "whoopsy" made a copy of one for the front door too. If something comes up and I have to open I have a key and the Boss won't know. When I went to the hardware store the key guy didn't have blanks that matched, great, now what? But then one of the other employees, who use to work at the Truck Stop, came up to the counter and told the guy to check in the random spare box and sure enough, there were two blanks. So I got the keys, went back by the Haunted Station and dropped off the Late Guy's keys, checked to make sure the new ones worked and then went home to get ready for work. BTW, the Late Guy was complaining about the Part Time Woman, it seems she couldn't dump the outside trash because there wa...

As The Station Turns 10/24

 The first thing I saw when I got to work was a hot food rack, they are going to go through with this. They've been told by multiple people that it didn't work in the past and resulted in a lot of waste, however they are like most companies, the big bosses who live far far away know better than the people who have worked at the place for decades. Oh well, at least I don't have to take the responsibility for it. I hope they don't put hot dog rollers in because those things are the worst. They finally got all the pumps up and running and the #12 pump crashed. Figures. Also the #10 diesel pump will start running slow and shut all the other diesel pumps down. This is going to be fun. And it's raining today, and rained during the whole shift. Because of the bad weather in the area, and rock slide on the mountain, and a tornado in Santa Fe, nobody was traveling so it was slow all day. This turned out to be a good thing because it meant I didn't have to go dump the tra...

As The Station Turns 10/22

 Today started off normally, and didn't stay that way. The Late Guy came by to tell me that the state wants the station to stop pumping premium or plus fuel until they do a through test of the storage tanks. So I rushed to get out of order signs written out and to put them on the pump. Two things, there was no scotch tape in the drawer so I had to cut strips of packing tape and of course I got mobbed by people while I was trying to do it. I finally got everything ready, got to the door and discovered that the Manager had already marked the pumps. As usual nobody told me the second half of the story. As the Manager was closing the safe bill reader jammed up. This meant I was going to have to bundle drop money and I wouldn't be able to get any money back out. I've worked here long enough to keep extra coins and bills just in case. There was a homeless guy hanging around, he's been here before. He isn't trouble, he buys stuff and then sits outside with his dog. However...