ocularnervosa

 Week 28 Should I buy a 4th of July Powerball ticket? No, that was an easy decision. I decided to give up on the "buy one of every ticket" idea. Instead I'm going to buy according to what I feel like that day. Today I have $26.25 in the Tip Jar so I figured I would go for the $5 second chance ticket. It has a $2500 jackpot but I lost. I did enter for a chance at a million dollars. Week 29 This week I had $26.55 in the Tip Jar. I happened to look at last week's total and realized I took in the amount I spent on last week's ticket plus thirty cents more. I thought it was a good week money wise but I guess people weren't as generous or clumsy with their cash. I bought the ticket on Thursday again, I'm still avoiding that one guy plus it's summer so the place is crawling with tourists. They have a new $3 with a potential payout of $10,000. I didn't win. The good news is it's a second chance ticket with a jackpot of $5000 so I came home and entered ...

 When I got to work I found out that the Crazy Lady hadn't come in the night before. She didn't show up, she didn't call, even the Boss didn't know what was going on. I think she just moved to the top of the "next to be fired" list.  We got new vapes and the manager needed to put the prices into the system, however I was on the #2 drawer and that's the one you have to use. Every time she got on a roll someone came in so she had to log off, I logged in, rang them out, logged out and then she would start again. When she finished all the people left, it's like they know. She was also complaining about having to list everything separately by flavor instead of just putting them all under the brand name. She said it was because someone was stealing but she didn't know who, I told her it was the Dyslexic woman, I thought everyone knew that. It was one of the reasons they moved her to the Down Town station, she would be the only person on shift and if thin...

 Tuesday is usually my day off, but not this week. I had to cover Mrs. Late Guy's shift because it's her daughter's 16th birthday and they wanted to make it special. She knows that family birthdays will so be a thing of the past when the daughter goes off to college. I don't mind covering when it's a special occasion. But at the same time I've become the person who is always imposed upon to cover shifts, which gets on my nerves, never knowing what day I'm going to work, or at what station. I'm going to stick around until the end of the year and then consider my options. Always plan your next move at least 6 months in advance, that is my motto. When I got to work the representative from the supply company was just finishing up. Thank goodness, I hate when she comes in late and I have to deal with her. She complains about stuff that is suppose to be in the store, or how the shelves are organized, or any of a hundred of other things. I wasn't going to h...

 Despite the date I didn't go buy a lottery ticket. When I got to work Mrs. Late Guy was there. What the heck? I thought I was covering her shift today. Oh wait, this is Monday and I'm covering her shift tomorrow. For once she had gotten out of her drawer before I got there so I could count in and go to work instead of waiting. I don't know why they don't do this every Monday.  Mrs. Late Guy had closed her drawer early because Mr. Late Guy had to do something across the street at the Haunted Station and she was going over there to cover the register. While she was gone I was busier than heck but as soon as she came back the place dropped off to nothing. It's odd how every Monday is like that. She decided to do some of the side work including dumping all the outside trash and giving the restrooms a good once over. I forgive her for yesterday. And since business was slow for the rest of the day I didn't have to do them before I left so that worked out well.  A lot...

I spent my day off working on the Bad Hawg, there is a cable that runs from the control panel on the handlebars to the motor on the front wheel. But for some reason the panel that the cable hooks in to keeps spinning, it's not suppose to, and pulling the cable loose. So a bit of work and it quit doing that, until today. As soon as I got on and pulled out the gate, there goes the cable. So I had to drive to work. On my next day off I have to pull off the front wheel to figure out what the heck is going on there. It could be some lock screw has come loose. It's been super hot and the sun was extra bright today so I left my attic windows open, and the Bad Hawg uncovered. About an hour later the clouds rolled in and seriously looked like rain, all day long. Heck at the end of the night there was lightning on the horizon. All I had to do was get home before it rained. It never rained. I get to work, the place is busy, Mrs. Late Guy was frustrated and ready to go home and a woman cam...

 There was good new today, the Part Time Woman had taken off so I didn't have to deal with her. However, once again, Bigfoot left me too many coins and too many singles. Dude, I need $5s and $10s, not $1s and pennies. I ran out to the #12 pump and put a new "Please Pay Inside" sign on it. I left it on when I went home so I don't have to deal with that tomorrow.  I caught an unusual early break in traffic so I ran to do a quick check. Good thing too because I had to put toilet paper in the restrooms and dump the trashes. I got it all finished and the crowd jumped back up to normal, and stayed that way for the next couple of hours. If I hadn't done it when I did the restrooms would have run out of paper and the trash cans would have overflown. The Invisible Man came in, I hadn't seen him in a while (pun intended). He tried to commit sui cide (the blog blocks certain words so I broke it in two) and missed. He blew a big chunk of his face off and for a long time h...

 For the past month I've been getting up early and taking a walk to the Haunted Station to buy my weekly lottery ticket as part of my experiment. However I worked the Down Town Station on Monday and bought a ticket there instead. So today I stayed in bed a little longer than usual. I doubt they'll care. When I got to work I discovered that I had forgotten my iPad. The Manager doesn't have a phone, she doesn't believe in 21st century technology and refuses to carry one. The Big Boss wants a tank report every afternoon so we text him a photo and I do it from my iPad. However I have my phone so I used that instead. Problem solved. The ice machine hasn't been working and it completely stopped last night. The Manager has a call in to The Guy but there's no telling when he'll show up. When I checked there was enough to scrape out four buckets for the soda machines but nothing else. I think the machine likes me. Anyhow I didn't do any bagged ice and told people...

 Back to...normal. When I got to the Truck Stop the Manager was saying she was eager to go home. She had been busy all day and several suppliers had shown up so she also had to deal with all that. The Graveyard Shift Guy had left $3 in pennies in the drawer and she didn't have to use them. I offered to buy a dollar's worth but she said she already had her drawer slip written out. I know she was intentionally leaving them for the Crazy Lady. A family in a rental moving truck had broken down. A tow truck showed up hauling a new truck and then he had to wait while they transferred all their stuff from the one truck to the other. It took a lot longer than you'd think, I guess they wanted the stuff that had been packed first in the one truck to be packed first in the new truck so they had to get everything out and reorganize it. I got the feeling the tow truck driver was not happy about having to wait for them to finish up so he could tow the broken down one back to the main hub...

 I woke up to a Ping on my iPad. I figured it was the Late Guy asking me to show up at the Haunted Station to help him with the pump hose. He has asked me and the Weekend Guy to come help last week but had gotten the wrong hose, it was one for a high volume diesel pump not a regular gas pump. I considered ignoring it and saying I didn't see it until I was heading out the door for work, but I went ahead and checked. It was the Boss asking me to cover the afternoon shift Downtown. That's gonna suck and be good at the same time because I don't have to put up with the moody crowd at the Truck Stop. I had to find out what my drawer number is for there. I did my shift opening paperwork and then the Downtown Manager decided to double check my cigarette count numbers. She changed a few, which would have been fine, but at the end of the night none of my numbers matched up with my sales, and since she had scratched out and written over my numbers I didn't know what the original o...

 Yesterday the Weekend Guy called me to tell me I had gotten a letter from the Justice Department, it had been delivered to the West Side Station. When I worked there I was robbed at gunpoint. Thanks to a series of coincidences the guy was arrested within 24 hours after a shootout with the State Police. He was wanted in several states so they shipped him off to Oklahoma on several federal warrants and locked him up. Every now and the the Justice Department sends me updates. This letter was a case number I can check on their web site to see whats' going on with him, I'm not to worried because he won't be getting out on his current arrests for another 14 years and after that he will be transferred to Colorado to serve his time there. That guy won't be getting out ever.  The weather was going to be nice so I was going to take the Bad Hawg to work however the power cord from the engine to the motor kept coming detached. I don't know what's going on there but I'm...

 The Part Time Woman works at the Truck Stop on Saturday morning and every week it's the same thing, the restrooms need attention, the trash cans are overflowing and so forth. Today the women's room trash can was in the hall and the small cans next to the toilets were overflowing. The trash can in the mens room was under the hand dryer and had anyone used it the blast of air would have blown the garbage all over the floor. It doesn't happen the rest of the week, sure one or two things may need done but not all of them. I'm willing to bet the Part Time Woman tells Mrs. Late Guy she's going to check and then doesn't do any of it. I'd be happy if they came up with a good excuse to fire her. Also if the Random Woman takes next weekend off the Part Time Woman will be covering over there, fingers crossed. I got a call from the Weekend Guy, the mailman dropped off a letter for me from the Justice Department. I told him I would drop by on Sunday morning and pick it ...

 I've been doing a lottery experiment, once a week I buy a scratch ticket then I keep track of how much I spent versus how much I won. I'm down fifty bucks by the way. Anyhow I was dropping by the Haunted Station on Friday to buy one but the Late Guy, who is the manger over there now, has been bugging me when he boasts and brags about what a great job he does, so I go on Thursday morning when the Weekend Guy is there. Plus this Friday I have a big package showing up and I have to be home when it arrives. Anyhow I went and bought my ticket this morning, and I lost again. The Weekend Guy is pissed at the Dyslexic Woman because she called him and asked him to go to work early yesterday. It seems her daughter's boyfriend is abusing her and the Dyslexic Woman had to take her to the hospital yesterday, what a mess.  The back room at the Haunted Station is a mess. There is all kinds of new equipment being stored for their future restaurant, but that's not what I was looking at...

 When I got to work the Manager was in a bad mood, she had been dealing with grouchy customers plus the safe had stopped working after Skippy did something to it. She tried turning it off and on again and it started working. She wanted to know what I had done but it had rebooted on its own. It worked the rest of the night. I've noticed a car parked on the edge of the lot for a few days but nobody said anything about it. Is it broke down? Is it an auction car they are coming back for? Is it abandon? If it's still there when the Boss comes back he'll have it towed. Last week the #5 pump wouldn't authorize, it would take cards or prepays but the contact buttons won't engage. I had bagged it out and planned to unbag it at the end of my shift, but I forgot. When I went in it was operating again. Today it was bagged out again, it must be doing the same thing and if the Boss complains I can say I didn't do it. I did put another "Please Pay Inside" note on pum...

I got up early and went to the Haunted Station, the Late Guy had asked for help replacing a hose on a pump and needed two people, he had contacted me and The Weekend Guy to come by. I hopped on my Bad Hawg and headed to the station. When I got there the Late Guy wanted to know what I was doing, I said "well it's Monday..." I guess he was having a problem with his weekly supply order and had forgotten, he left his tools at home so I was watching the register while he ran and got them. On the way back he picked up the Weekend Guy since he walks everywhere.  So the Late Guy gets back, pulls out the hose and...it's the wrong one, it was a heavy duty short hose for a diesel pump, not a regular dispenser hose. He went across the street to the Truck Stop to see if they had some regular hoses in the storage shed but they didn't. So he has to order one, the morning was a waste of time, plus I'll have to go back next Monday and do it all over again. While I was at the H...

 When I woke up my phone was ringing. My first thought was "Great, what do they want at work now?" but it turned out to be my brother. He was hauling the flatbed trailer out to my other brother's house, he's rebuilding his deck and needs to get a load of wood. I hadn't seen both my brothers at the same time in a while so I went along, however it turned into a two hour chat session which put me behind for the day. So I didn't post my daily blog. Sorry. When I got to work there was a guy cutting the grass in the green area in front of the station. The rain over the past couple of weeks really caused it to grow.  There was a car parked at the diesel pump, they weren't getting fuel and it's one of the quickest ways to piss me off. They got out and were screwing around under the hood so I figured they were having car trouble, but I also noticed that it was the Old Guitar Player who has been told on multiple occasions to stay away from the place. They finall...

It was a normal Saturday, the place was swarming with tourists and the Part Time Woman hadn't closed her drawer before I got there so I could count it in and go to work. When I finally did count it she was $4 off, she had shorted me a dollar bill but hadn't counted one of the two rolls of dimes she left in the drawer, there is no need to leave that many dimes by the way. Mrs. Late Guy was telling me about a restroom disaster, someone had plugged up the men's room toilet and then every customer that came in after kept flushing it, until it overflowed and flooded the place. Thankfully there is a floor drain but they still had to unclog the toilet and mop the floor, all in between crowds of pissers. Thankfully I didn't have any problems for the rest of the day, but I did keep an eye on it. I noticed a new seat on the men's room toilet. I bet there's a story there but nobody said anything. Maybe I'll ask later. My first customers was a swarm of Scouts, four vans...