As The Station Turns 5/24-25

I walked in on another holiday rush but it was one of those wave days so the place cleared out just as fast, and it would go that way for the next 8 hours.

A guy came in looking for a knife. I wasn't sure if he was wanting to buy one or borrow one but we don't have any for sale and I wasn't going to loan him mine so he was out of luck. 

It was windy and raining, plus everyone was in a hurry so I didn't have to deal with a lot of angry people, they were too eager to get back on the road to fight with me over stupid stuff. So overall a good day.

The credit card reader crashed but I got lucky, the woman had just gotten a cup of ice so I didn't charge her for it and the next customer paid cash. I did the classic, unplugged and plugged it back in and thankfully I didn't get another customer until it fully rebooted, and it worked for the rest of the day.

The Invisible Man came in, I call him that because he had a failed suicide attempt that resulted in a large chunk of his face disappearing in a cloud of blood, skin and teeth. He use to cover up so he looked like the guy from the movie. Normally I can understand him but I've had the residual effect of ringing in my ears as I still recover from being sick, so it was a bad combination. It turns out he wanted a bag of ice. 

A regular came in, back in the day he worked at the local sawmill but now he's working at Subway. I really want to ask questions but it's rude to pry. By the way, the sawmill is a terrible place to work so maybe he quit, on the other hand he's a stoner so maybe he really screwed up. Maybe I'll ask the Late Guy because he knows everything. (update, he had quit)

Mrs. Late Guy dropped by, her daughter is selling raffle tickets for a school trip. A lot of my good school memories came from trips so I support them and bought $50 worth of tickets. I would like to win the bike or the oil change but with my luck if I do win something it will be the 3 month membership at the local gym. 

A family came in, they bought sandwiches and chips and went out to the tables to eat. Then another car showed up and they had a big hug-fest. The first group left and then the second group showed up and they had another hug-fest. Perhaps they had lived in the area and since they were passing through they called up family and old friends and said "come meet us at the gas station." It was interesting to watch.

The tank inspector showed up, got a report, went outside to check some stuff, and then left without saying anything. Was he really an inspector? And on a Sunday? I don't care.

The first two hours of the day drug along really slowly. And then when I looked at the clock another two hours had gone by just like that. It was a weird day.

My entertainment of the day was watching the State Cop bust people speeding. On average he was writing a ticket every 10 minutes. He'd finish up with one car and even before he got back to his usual position he was pulling over another. There were a lot of people who were enjoying their holiday weekend, eeep.

A guy came in and gave me an $80 prepay but the pump he said was already occupied so I was waiting to see where he went. However it turns out his wife ran her card at the pump so that is why it was occupied. He came back in for his cash.

I had been hitting the gaps between the crowds just right, I got the outside trash done, bagged up some ice (after I washed my hands), the ice hopper and so forth. It was around time to do the restrooms and I figured I was going to get lucky again, except some pissers showed up, followed by a swarm. It was an hour later. I guess my streak was over.

A local came in and was on his phone, he was really pissed. I guess he decided to be kind to someone and let them use his camper, and they trashed the place out, and lost their job in the process. The guy was cursing about crack heads and how he was going to be sure everyone knew the story. The moral is, don't trust crack heads.

The Storyteller came in but it was busy so he didn't stick around long. When I was at the Downtown station there were some Carter Quarters (google it) in the drawer so I bought them out and was going to sell to the Storyteller, and then hear about how his step-daughter's thieving boyfriend stole his coin collection. However it's the end of the month and his retirement check doesn't come in until next week so he didn't have any cash on him, so I'll do it next week, and tell him I never heard the story before even though I'm selling him coins. 

A horse woman came in and was feeding her horses, and dropped a couple of alfalfa cubes. I figured instead of letting someone run them over I'd bring them home and leave them for the deer that live in my yard. I had them in a bag behind the counter but then I realized it looked like illegal "recreationals" so when I caught a break I walked it out to the car, and made sure you couldn't see it through the windows, I didn't need anyone breaking in for compressed alfalfa cubes.

I heard something hit the floor, it sounded rather plastic. I wanted to go see what it was but I got busy so I had to wait. When I finally got the chance I didn't find anything. Perhaps someone dropped something and picked it up but I didn't see it.

Someone's total was $11.11. Yes I made a wish. It didn't come true today but fingers crossed.

For a week Skippy has been getting boxes delivered to the Truck Stop and they are clogging up the counter area. Well, tonight he came and loaded them all up, and I had to help him. When he was done I washed all the dirt off the counter.

It was nearly the end of the night and I went to the back to get the tank report. When I was trying to get back to the register one guy blocked the cross aisle, and a woman blocked the other aisle. Finally the two people got out of the way but then another guy got in my way, I went to go around and he rushed to get in my way a second time. What the hell man. I gave him the dead eye.

Stinky showed up and he was especially odoruphus tonight. Honestly, take a shower man, do some laundry. He is also starting to smell like wood smoke, I think he and the Doofus are burning stuff for heat at their house. I fully expect them to burn the place down any day now. Hopefully they get out alive but a lot of cats are going to die.

5/25

The good thing about today is that Mrs. Late Guy has to go to a school meeting tomorrow so she wanted to cover this afternoon and then I'll work tomorrow, which means I get Memorial Day off. The place fills up in the afternoon and they are all grumpy as heck. 

I decided to go for a walk and stopped at the Haunted Station to see what the news was. The Late Guy was complaining because he and the Random Woman have had a major falling out over the mess she left one night. It seems Skippy dropped by early and found out that the coffee pot hadn't been drained and the cappuccino machine had been taking apart but not put back together. She got mad at the Late Guy because she thinks he told Skippy instead of talking to her. So, that's going on. Meanwhile the Part Time Woman has been not showing up although she had to cover for the Random Woman this week. I guess she left the trash undone so the Late Guy left her full bags yesterday. I bet that went over well.

Meanwhile Skippy came in and wanted to know if the Late Guy had spare Marlboros since the Down Town station ran out. He was pissed that they hadn't planned in advance. He's mad that they're always having to get supplies from one store to move to another. I have to say, I never had that problem, instead I would order extra stuff knowing that other stations were always running out and they could come get it from me. Like I said, they are all making me look good.

And the computer at the West Side Station has been crashing again, the Weekend Guy is pissed because he has to keep closing while they reboot it. That thing is going to die and not come back up. I wonder how that will end. 

Business started to pick up so I came home. The rest of the week will be quiet, at least for me.