As The Station Turns 7/12

 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 finally started up the car and were leaving, except they drove around the building and back to the pump, now I was pissed off. I went out, knocked on the window and told them they couldn't park at a pump. The woman who was driving said she was having transmission problem. I told her she could park off to the side or over in the dirt lot, not at a pump. She started up the car, pulled around and....Parked At A Regular Pump! Oooo, now I was really pissed so I went out and told her she was going to have to leave. She said she was going to get fuel but I pointed out her tank was on the other side of the car and that the Guitar Player had a No Trespass order, if they didn't leave I'd call the cops and have him arrested. She said I was being rude, that she was a good customer and wouldn't come back. I knew better than that, they are a couple of burned out stoners who don't normally come to this side of the interstate. She drove over to the station next door, good she can block their pumps on a busy day.

A guy came in and wanted to know where they highway heading East went, I told him it ends at Amarillo. He wanted to know if it was a new road, not really. According to archeological records humans have been traveling along the route for the past 3000 years. It became a cutoff along the Santa Fe Trail in the 1800's, a highway in the 1920's, a modern road in the 1950's and a four lane highway in the 2000's. And last year it was designated as an official interstate, thus the pending bridge construction in the next couple of months to update it to interstate regulations.

So when I left on Saturday night I noticed the paper towel dispenser in the Mens Room was low, not out, but low enough that it was going to run out before the end of the night. When I came in on Sunday it was empty and there were no towels in the trash. Sure enough, the dispenser had run out and the Graveyard Shift hadn't replaced the roll. Honestly, this happens al the time. At the end of the month I'm suppose to have two days in a row off and I have to wonder if there will be any paper in it when I get back. I may be evil, the next time there is a low roll I'll replace it, save it and then put it back just before I leave for my two full days off.

When business dropped off I figured I would take advantage of the break and do the ice in the soda machine, however two kids came in and were looking through the chips. They eventually bought three large bags of Fritos and left. I went back to doing the ice and was about halfway done when they came back, it seems they were suppose to get Funyuns. I had a good laugh.

Last week my neighbor came by to get smokes and a candy bar but there was a slow family at the register, the kind of people who are waiting on that one indecisive kid, and she had to wait. Today she came in and it was the exact same situation. I pointed it out to her and we both had a laugh about it.

The Nashville Stampede came in. I had to look them up, they are a professional bull riding team. I guess they were on their way back from a rodeo. Some customer recognized them and had a chat with the coach. I didn't ask them for an autograph.

A guy came in and wanted to know if there was a big chain truck stop in the area. I told him he was out of luck so he bought gas here instead. Oh, that's right, they put a new one in at the south end of town. How could I have forgotten about that.....

The Graveyard Shift Guy came in and counted in his drawer, I was about to close mine when he said he needed to take a restroom break. Ummm....hello, you should have done that before you left your house. I wasn't too happy about that. When he came back I started to close my drawer except he went and got the stepladder to check the ice in the soda machine. Not only is that a bit of an insult to me, as if I hadn't done it and he ran the risk of running out in the next five minutes, but there were also customers all over the lot. Hey dude, run your register until Bigfoot finally shows up and then do the ice, you have a full 8 hours to work on it. The Graveyard Shift gets on my nerves some days. btw, it's been more than a week since I've seen Bigfoot, again. 

And then I went home, because I have to get up early on Monday to go help out the Late Guy with a new hose on a pump.