As The Station Turns 5/13

 When I got to work the Manager told me the Homeless Millionaire has now turned to shoplifting. He came in, threw a bunch of garbage on the floor, grabbed several items and ran off. She called the cops and they immediately did...nothing. So from now on he has a "call the cops upon first siting" status. I fully expect that guy to end up in jail within the next two weeks, or worse, face down in a ditch on the edge of town.

The Late Guy told me the West Side Station is back up and running. He fully expected it to be down until they installed new software but the guy got it to work. I kind of expected to be working with the Weekend Guy on Saturday and Sunday but he'll be over there instead.

I need a good spot to park my bike so I was going to go outside and look around and as soon as I got to the door and that's when the tag teamers started coming in, one at a time. All I have to do is think about doing something and people show up. btw, I figure I can put the chain around the canopy post at the front of the station and I can see it out the front window. I need to check Thursday's weather to see if I can do my first ride to work.

A guy came in looking for Powerball tickets. Sorry dude we don't sell them but they do across the street. He said the guy over there said he couldn't sell them but we did. I turns out that the Weekend Guy is telling people that we sell lottery tickets even though we don't, and he knows because he use to work at the Truck Stop. He's doing it just to annoy me. A guy came in later that night but I told him that the drawing was happening and the machines had already shut down. 

The pump rejected some woman's card, she could just come inside and I would run it but she decided to leave. About 10 minutes later she came back. She must have gone to another station and had the same problem so decided to actually come inside and what do you know, it was a chip problem. Just come inside, trust me, we don't judge.

I looked out and there was a great photo worthy cloud, a big popcorn one, just hanging there begging to be photographed, and I was swarmed, for an hour. When they finally cleared out the cloud had collapsed in on itself and was just ordinary. And of course I wasn't busy after that. Customers ruin my life.

Back when I first worked at the the Truck Stop the staplers were always out of staples and there were none put out to use, so I took some and hid them where the old thermostat was, it has a metal cover so they could lock but it no long gets used. Well, the manager left the supply cabinet open while she ran to do something so I grabbed an entire box of staples to hide in the old thermostat cover, and there were the staples I had left last year when I moved across the street. It turns out it really is the perfect hiding place. 

Someone left a box on top of the trash can and the wind was coming up, I didn't need it blowing around everywhere so I figured I would run out and take it to the dumpster really quickly, and here came the next swarm. They wait, hiding just out of site and as soon as they see me touch the door they come running in. Thankfully the box stayed in place and when I got a long enough gap I ran out and tossed it, and the swarm left.

The Manager said she was trying to stock the cooler but she got busy, I got the hint. When I went in there were two flats of Red Bull that needed to be put out, and that's when the guys pulled up to the pumps, you can see them through the cooler's glass doors. One of the guys came in and went to the restroom, for a long long time. In fact the only reason he came out was because other customers showed up and pretty much forced him out. I have no idea what he was doing in there and I don't want to know. Also I eventually got the shelves stocked.

I had a line of customers and a woman came in, she was having trouble putting air in her tire and she got mad because I didn't come out to help her. Sorry, but I take care of my lined up customers first and not the woman standing by the door complaining. Also if you're going to drive in the modern world, learn about tires, and get an air gauge to keep in your car.

I thought the Homeless Millionaire was coming in the back door and was ready to properly threaten him and call the cops, however it turned out to be the Teddy Bear guy. He's harmless, as best I can tell. I actually hadn't seen him in a long time so he might just be passing through. 

There is a charity jar on the counter for a woman who has reached a point where she's maxed out her insurance but hasn't reached the Medicare level yet. (modern medicine sucks) Anyhow a woman came in and told me all about how her mother was taking off a program because "Obamacare". I didn't tell her that isn't how Obamacare worked and the program started 17 years ago and I know her mother's thing happened this year. Meanwhile she was buying a Vape, probably because trump and rfk jr. says it's a "healthy alternative".

A regular came in, not one of my favorites. He wanted to "borrow a pen", I knew what that meant so I handed him the one with the lowest amount of ink. Sure enough, he went to his car to do what he needed to do and left, with the pen.

A guy came in and prepaid $25. After he pumped he came back in for another $10. Then another $20. He could have just prepaid $50 and saved himself a few trips. People, the price of gas is ridiculously high, adjust. 

My shift was almost over and...nobody was there. Skippy showed up and asked me who was suppose to be working on the Graveyard. I told him I didn't know, because anymore I have no idea what they are doing. He asked me for their numbers but I don't have that, I'm not their boss. He eventually got hold of the Crazy Lady, I don't know what they talked about and as far as I know he also called Stinky. A half hour later they showed up, I don't think either of them was planning on coming to work, and of course I left an hour later, overtime for me. I've said it before, they need to hire four people and drop the axe on the entire Graveyard Shift.

As I was leaving I'm pretty sure I saw the Minstrel at the station next door, the last time I saw him was on the Colorado side of the mountain. I'm pretty sure he's been permanently kicked out of everywhere in town, hopefully he's just passing through and I don't have to start dealing with that situation. 

And yes, I'm going to be in a bad mood today.