As The Station Turns 6/5-6

A brief recap of yesterday, a package for the Weekend Guy was delivered to the Truck Stop so I figured I would be a nice guy and drop it off at the West Side Station on Friday, my day off. I found out that the Crazy Lady had called in "sick", again, and the Boss showed up to discover that Stinky was very very drunk, so he sent him home and called up the Weekend Guy to cover the Graveyard shift. The Late Guy was working at the West Side Station for the day. And then I accidentally got caught by the Boss and he told me to stand by my phone later in the night. Great.

Well, at 9:30 PM I got a call from the Boss, he was going to need me to come in and cover the Graveyard Shift. When I got there Stinky was sitting out back and the Part Time Woman was closing out the afternoon shift, and the Boss was there too. It turns out that Stinky was drunk again and the Boss fired him on the spot, third strike btw. Since we're short handed I got to work all night. Several people also told me that the guy had been seen coming out of a liquor store with two quarts of Vodka. When you hit that stage of alcoholism it isn't much longer that your internal organs say "well, I give up".

So, I wasn't in a good mood and the night had just begun. A guy comes in and sets two bottles on the counter. I go to pick one up and suddenly he grabs it from me to turn the bar code around, I can't say how much I hate that. So I waited for him to turn his bottles around and then I went to grab it again. I guess he thought he was funny because he grabbed it from me again. This time I stepped back from the counter and waited. He left the F-ing bottle alone but as I was scanning them he asks me how my night was going. I tell him his total. He runs his card, I ask if he wants a receipt and "thank you" but not in a pleasant friendly tone but a flat "Go screw yourself pal" tone. He got the message and as he's walking out he's trying to glare back at me but I'm ignoring him, and flipping him off under the counter. Two things I hate, people who grab stuff away from you to find the bar code, guess what, I know where the F-ing bar code is, and two, people who think they're funny, you're not funny, you're F-ing annoying. Set your crap on the counter and let me scan it. Sheesh.

I hadn't worked the Graveyard in a long time and the first couple of hours were really really slow, but then the Midnight rush hit. I was glad for it since I was trying to stay awake.

A woman came in and wanted to know if she could just manually punch in her EBT (food stamp) card numbers on the reader. That's a giant Red Flag. I told her no, it would only work by running the card and she left.

A couple of crackheads came in and were trying to calculate how much money they had in their account vs, the cost of a couple of sodas and the amount of gas they could get. $4 in gas btw, less than a gallon. Then they sat out there, for a really long time. I don't trust people after midnight, anyhow some people pulled into the next pump and pretty soon I saw that the crackheads had their trunk open, were they selling crap to people? Was I going to have to go outside and tell them to get lost? Should I go out to my car first and get my club? But then I realized the car that had been waiting wasn't the crackheads but people doing the Kid Exchange. Divorced couples will show up at the station to exchange the kids for the summer visits. It's kind of a sad thing to watch. 

The next crackhead came in to get a slushie, you get a lot of them after midnight. She was asking how much the personalized keychains were so I told her $X.XX plus tax. She said she thought they abolished taxes. Sheesh woman, what planet are you living on? Oh wait, she's a crackhead, she's probably living on Venus. 

It was the wee hours of the dark morning, the place was empty so I figured I would give the floor a good sweeping. I grabbed the broom and here came the Pissers. Yep, they show up right on cue even in the middle of the night. As the guy was leaving he was pretending to be looking for something but gosh, we just didn't have it. Dude, I know that routine, just leave so I can get back to work.

The Weirdo Guy who I try to stay on his good side, in case his cheese fully slips off the cracker and he goes on a shooting spree, perhaps he'll remember that I was always nice to him and go down to the Conoco instead. Anyhow his car wouldn't start and he wanted to know if I could give him a jump, the place was full of people and since I was working solo I couldn't leave the register. I told him I had walked to work and he asked wasn't that my car parked out back? I said that was someone who had broke down and they were coming back later. I hope he bought that in case of the cheese slippage. Anyhow I don't know what was going on with his car but he left a few minutes later. I hope he wasn't trying to lure me out back because of said cheese and cracker situation.

I wanted to mop the whole floor, I went and filled up the mop bucket and here came the swarm. Ha ha, I wasn't going to do it for at least a half hour but I knew as soon as they could smell soap and water they'd come rushing in, fooled you. And yes, later I got the entire floor mopped and nobody came in to track it up.

The cops and the Tow Truck Driver were sitting out back chatting. I figured that the crackheads would stay away so it was the perfect time to clean the restrooms and dump the trash. That worked out well. 

I did a walk around outside to see if I needed to dump anything, or pick up anything, or if anyone dropped any money and I couldn't help but notice the increase in the number of trump "I did that" stickers on the pumps. Darn vandals, why I should go out and clean those off....perhaps next week.

People kept saying "good morning". Oh yeah, it is morning. The time shift really threw me off. 

A woman wanted to know if her husband was in the restroom, I've had other people ask me that question. I don't know your husband, and there were 5 or 6 people in the building, how am I suppose to know.

The sun came up and Mrs. Late Guy came in, yay, quitting time for me. My normal shift is to work the afternoon on Saturday but the Boss told me to take it off. I asked her who was coming in and she said it was the Late Guy, her husband in case you didn't catch that. I had figured he would be doing it, the Random Woman would open the Haunted Station and the Part Time Woman would cover the afternoon over there. Tonight the Graveyard Shift guy will be covering, well, the Graveyard shift. They are going to have to hire someone for it especially since the Crazy Lady is always "sick". Also since Stinky is gone her named moved to the top of the "next to be fired" list. Perhaps they'll hire two people. One guy asked me about the problem of new people and I said I don't bother to get to know their names until they have collected two checks.

Every week the Morning Shift complains about the Graveyard Shift not doing anything. I was working solo and got everything done, the restrooms were clean, the ice was full, the trashes were empty and the place was clean and stocked. Yes, I was out to make them look bad, and make myself took great. 

I went home, petted OC, put out some food for the feral cats, and possibly raccoons, and then went to bed. I woke up around 2 in the afternoon and have zero plans to do anything today. Anyhow I can't wait to see what happens next. Also I'm following the 11th Commandment, "Cover thine own butt".