As The Station Turns 6/1

 When I got to work I discovered that I had left my glasses at home. Thankfully I have a backup pair but they are older and so the world was slightly fuzzy. Later when I got home I searched all over and I have no idea where they are. I know I wore them home and there are only a couple of places I could have put them, perhaps the cat stole them.

Anyhow when I walked in the station was very cold, the Manager was in a really crappy mood. She's always in a bad mood on Monday morning but gets over it as the day goes along, but today, she was in a horrible mood when I got there. Thankfully she was in a hurry and left right away so I didn't have to suffer through her wrath. I would learn more later.

An old fart was trying to run his card at the pump but it was declined. When he came in I told him and said I could try a prepay for him, quite often that works since credit card companies figure the people who stole the card wouldn't come inside and risk being on camera. However he was being grouchy and said "I'll go somewhere else", oh no, I won't have to deal with him anymore? He'll become someone else's problem? Woe is I. Anyhow before he left he said "you should get your card readers fixed" which pissed me off so I replied "You should call your bank and find out why they are rejecting your card". Then I flipped him off. The best part is that when he goes to the other station his card will still be blocked.

I was watching a woman across the street, she was waving her hands around like a ground attendant giving directions to a plane taxing to the gate. A U Haul rolled up and followed her directions to the pump. I was laughing at that.

I opened a roll of pennies and found several Wheat Pennies in the mix, more than usual. I had a second roll in the drawer so I checked it out and it had a large number of Wheat Pennies too. Even though I don't normally check the other drawer there was a roll of pennies in there so I checked it out, wow, even more. I figured someone had taken grandpa's jar of pennies to the bank and had them rolled without looking through them. What the heck, I got four more rolls out of the safe and in the end I came up with 65 Wheat Pennies, and two Canadian. I would have gotten more out of the safe but the Boss would have wondered why I used so many. Hopefully nobody else notices and when I go in on Wednesday I can get four more rolls.

The place emptied out so I though "this will be a good time to do the ice" and naturally I was swarmed. I didn't even have to touch the ice buckets, just think about them. I wish the lottery worked this way.

A guy pulled in and ran his card wrong at the pump, and then was parked too far away from the pump and no matter how hard he stretched on the hose it just wouldn't reach. If only he could have moved his car closer. Anyhow he got frustrated and pulled to a different pump, ran his card right and actually parked in a way that he was able to reach the tank. Then he came in to complain about the pumps. All things considered, they need to take his license away from him.

A guy came in to buy a vape and the register rejected his ID. I checked it and he was old enough, by two weeks, so I punched the numbers in. The other guy he was with also bought a vape and he was also just barely old enough. Wow, that changing the age limit really worked great to stop smoking.

It was getting towards the end of the night so I hit the restrooms with a quick clean and then went to dump the trash. That's when some people came in and had a long conversation at the pumps. Then a Pisser, then a comparison shopper, then the local tow truck driver got into a long conversation with a guy getting coffee about old cars and then I gave up. Then the place cleared out. Then I went and did the trash.

The Mexican Bus showed up and a guy got off, he wanted to know if he could use the phone to call his ride, I said sure as long as it was a local call. As he was waiting he started to tell me his story, he was arrested 6 years ago and just got out of jail. He was calling his daughter who he hadn't seen in a long time, to pick him up. He was shocked by current prices, yeah. Then he asked me if I knew his ex wife, he said she worked here. Holy crap, I think it's the Part Time Woman. Well, she'll be happy her former ex con husband is out of jail. Then his ride showed up and there was a very happy reunion. He says he never wants to go back to jail and only wants to live a quiet life. I wish him the best. Oh and he was talking about crime in the area, I almost mentioned the guy who got sideways with his dealer and wound up with a bullet in the back of his head, but he told me his cousin had gone missing and nobody knows where he is, ummm, he's south of town in a shallow grave. Boy I'm glad he told me about his cousin before I mentioned the guy's fate.

The Boss came by and I got to hear the rest of the story about the Manager. It seems when she came in first thing in the morning she chewed the butt off the Graveyard Guy because he hadn't stocked the shelves. Monday is her order day and she needs to see what is missing, and the walk in cooler was full of donuts and pastries that needed to go out. I would do it but I'm working solo and Sunday was a busy day so I didn't have time to go rooting around in there. And I did all the stuff behind the counter like the gum and the single pill packages. When the Graveyard Shift came in none of them were talking, the day started out grouchy and ended grouchy. And it was only going to get worse for them since the Boss was going to show up and lecture them on picking up the slack since all the other shifts are working solo right now.

The Boss also told me that the Doofus kept calling asking for a second chance. I pointed out that he already had a second chance after he got arrested for DUI. The Boss isn't going to hire him back, he said the guy was drunk when he called. I wish he would hire a few people, even if they were just part time on the weekend. I guess we'll see.

And, my neighbor came by and said she saw a bear running around my back, back yard in the middle of the morning. That's a rare thing on this side of town since we're far from the mountains, but once a bear finds a safe spot they stick around in the area. So as I was riding home I made sure to make a lot of noise, bears don't like people and will avoid us if they can. So if you're worried about being around bears just loudly say "Human Here! Just Minding My Own Business! Please Don't Eat Me!" I was greeted by the raccoons instead.

Normally I go out for a walk on my day off and drop by the Haunted Station to see how things are going for the Late Guy but things are getting tense and I don't want to be in the middle of that. So today I'm avoiding the place.