As The Station Turns 6/20

 I was trying to figure out if I should take my Bad Hawg (electric trike) to work today. Some of the apps said all sunny, some said partly cloudy, some said "Might rain, might not, who am I to say?" The wind was blowing and there were clouds on the horizon so I figured I didn't want to take the risk so I fired up the truck instead. It never rained.

The Part Time Woman actually showed up and I had to wait for her drawer. They know I'm coming, they could close one drawer and I could just come in, count it and go to work, but nope, both drawers still open. And the Part Time Woman counted her drawer wrong, she was $10 short. That's what happens when you rush. But I only have to see her once a week so I can live with that. She was also "sick" because she wanted to take Thursday and Friday off. I'm pretty sure she wants to take off the weekend of the 4th but hasn't told the Boss yet, this should be fun.

Mrs. Late Guy told me when she came in at 6 AM the breaker switches were off for the beverage counter, the slushies were all melted and no coffee. And nobody from the Graveyard Shift bothered to go check

My first customer came in and asked "how do I get the cash price?" I shouldn't have but I replied "Pay cash". He prepaid $40 and said he'd come back for his change. Check the prices dude, you aren't coming back for change. He took the whole $40.

When I was running the Haunted Station I had to deal with the Part Time Woman three days a week and she was always going on about how she was a germaphobe and couldn't stand a mess, she said she was the reason the station was so clean. The first time I cleaned the cappuccino machine over there it looked like a health department violation, yeah, she cleaned alright. Today there was a burned on chunk of cheese in the microwave that nobody seemed to have notice. I had to steam it with a wet towel and then scrape it off with a plastic knife. It's interesting how the clean freak germaphobe never saw it, in 8 hours, nobody gave the microwave a wipe, in 8 hours. 

The Late Guy dropped by to buy a bottle of Cherry Dr. Pepper, which they sell at the Haunted Station. He wasn't really after the soda, he just wanted to complain. I had intentionally avoided the place all last week just so I didn't have to hear all about it, but now I was trapped. The Random Woman does the trash all wrong in case you were wondering. And would it kill them to wipe the counters? I didn't mention the inch of dust on top of their coffee machine he seemed to not notice. 

The Crazy Lady came by to get a bag of ice. She was bitching because someone in an RV had parked on the west side of the lot. That is her main beef with the world. How dare you park there, out of the way, not bothering anyone. She wanted to go pound on their door and shout at them but she had something to do.

It was Tag Teamer day so at any given time there was someone in the building. There was finally a gap so I ran to take a restroom break, and almost plowed into an older woman checking out the sunglasses. I never heard her come in. I went back behind the counter and she...didn't buy anything. And by the time she wandered out the next round of tag teamers showed up. I went to the restroom an hour later.

I was looking out the window and saw a woman get out of a car, walked to the edge of the lot and behind some trees, was she peeing? I don't think so but she walked back to the car and got in. Then she got back out, slammed the door, walked back to the edge of the lot and threw her cup and kept walking. The car pulled out and went the other direction. I hope she wasn't walking back to Texas because that is a long way.

After 5 hours of Tag Teamers I was tired of them. The worst was that I kept seeing the same people. One woman came in, used the restroom, left, came back in to get some snacks and left, then came back in to get another bottle of water and left. And then the kid she was traveling with did the exact same thing. In, out, in, out. All day long. So when the kid put his credit card in the reader and then pulled it out cancelling the transaction, then did it a second time....the third time, in an angry but calm voice I said, "leave your card in, select the payment type (credit or debit), sign here" Grrrrr. I hate Tag Teamer days because I can't get any of the side work done, I'm stuck at the register.

By the way the very next customer runs his card and it's rejected, because he was using the wrong one and had to run out to his car, even though there was a line of people behind him. Geeze, it's called a "wallet", carry one. 

The next customer wanted a receipt for his pump, however I had just rung up his stuff and I couldn't do it until he paid for his stuff. He was just standing there waiting. "PAY FOR YOUR STUFF, I NEED TO CHECK THE RESTROOMS!!!!!!"

I managed to dump two of the trashes in between a crowd, then the second two later, and by the end of the night I caught the last of them. Overall it took me about three hours to do a 10 minute job.

The place once again mostly cleared out except for once again a woman at the sunglasses rack. The only positive thing was she actually bought a pair. 

I thought the Tag Teamers were finally done when someone pulled on to the lot. They pulled up to a pump and then pulled away and drove around to the one pump that isn't taking credit cards, pumps can be moody. They pulled away and went around a second time until they found another perfect pump. And then another crowd showed up.

Another woman came in and again had the wrong credit card, that one had been canceled and she had to find the active one. If you have a bad card take it out of your wallet, or purse and destroy it, stop carrying it.

Finally, towards the end of the night the crowed cleared out, nobody hiding by the sunglasses, nobody lingering around the pumps, I could take care of some stuff, and Frankie The Cop showed up. I can't tell him "I'm busy and don't have time to talk." He's planning on his summer grilling menu and I got to hear the whole thing. He also met Billy Bob Thorton back when he was working as a security guard for a movie company. My favorite part is when people walk in, see a 6'5" fully decked out cop and get in a small panic. Frankie is OK, he mostly cuts people a break unless they truly are criminals or are abusive. Yeah, it's a good idea to stay on Frankie's good side. 

One of my last customers was heading to Texas. She was worried about animal encounters on the dark highway. I told her the animals avoid the highway and at most she might see some antelope. I didn't say that deer tend to panic and jump in front of oncoming cars so she needed to be aware. No need to scare her.

As I was tossing the last bag of trash in the dumpster I saw a UFO! It was hovering over the hills to the west and slowly heading in my direction! It finally got to a point where I could clearly see it and it was....an IFO, a helicopter landing out by the hospital. Considering the size of the universe I doubt aliens have ever visited Earth but you can hope. 

The Graveyard Shift Guy rolled in and didn't have much to say so I didn't bug him. I got out of my drawer and went home. The friendly raccoon was waiting for me, even though I don't turn my back on it.