As The Station Turns 7/23

 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 we were out. Nobody asked but if they had I would have sent them across the street.

An Earth Wanderer drifted through the station. This guy really stood out, giant feather sticking out of his straw hat, tie dyed shirt, sandals, giant backpack. The thing is he walked through the front door, walked through the building while looking around and then straight out the back door. I figure he was looking for beer. If he had asked I would have told him the bad news, the nearest liquor store is a mile away. He probably went down to the interstate on ramp and headed out to his next destination.

The Tow Truck driver came in, he's addicted to the coffee slushies. He gave me a quarter that had a big chunk sliced off the bottom. He was going to take it back but I told him it was fine. Later a guy came in and was being rude and I slipped it in to his change. I love doing stuff like that.

A guy was pulling a 5th wheel trailer and had a four wheeler trailer attached to the back of that. Personally I think that should be banned because if you blow a tire it should cause a bullwhip situation but I guess I'm the only one who cares about that because you see it all the time. Anyhow he pulled out of the pumps wrong and drug the four wheeler trailer into the pipe barrier at the pump. He had to have his wife get out and guide him as he backed up so he did't steer the 5th wheeler into it too. Again, this should be banned.

And then it rained, hard. It was a massive downpour and for some reason everyone figured they had to come into the station at that time. It passed and then everything got super humid.

The guy who carries around the stuffed dog came in. I hadn't seen him since he tried to pass the fake $50 to the morning crew.

A window of opportunity opened up and I was going to check the restrooms, but one guy walked in, and took his time. Sure enough, the window closed and I got busy again.

A guy came in with an atlas, you can still get those and still plot your journey by using one. However it helps if you know what you're doing. He was surprised to find out where he was, he thought he was 400 miles away. He also thought he had crossed the Continental Divide, nope, you're still on the East side of the Rockies. He was heading to Denver and was worried about the nearby pass, I told him it is a four lane highway and there aren't any of those annoying switchbacks you get when you cross the high passes in Colorado. He went away happy, good luck when you get west of Denver.

A guy came in and wanted receipts from pump #2 and #3. It wasn't until I saw him getting in the cars that I realized he was on pump #1 and #3. He got the wrong receipt. 

A woman came in but we didn't have the candy bar she was looking for so she went to the door and was shouting at her passenger, who was shouting back. It was about a 5 foot walk to the car. I don't understand people. 

A cool photo op popped up, as did a whole line of pissers. Since they had only come in to use the facilities I went and took the photo anyhow.

The place cleared out again so I rushed to put what ice I could scrape out of the maker and dumped it in the soda machine then did the restrooms. As I tossed the last bag of trash in the dumpster the crowd showed up, AHA, beat you all!

The end of the night was rolling around and I wanted to do a few post shift change things but a group of people traveling in separate cars were having their meet up and reunion at the station. They tried to figure out who was paying for what and where they would meet up next. The funny part is for two times in a row my neighbor shows up for cigarettes and got stuck behind one of these groups as they waited for that one indecisive kid, today she showed up just as they were walking out. I told her she broke her streak. 

A bunch of boxes showed up and Skippy came by to pick them up. He was checking out what was inside but one had been taped shut, every inch of the box had been taped. He couldn't get a start with the scissors so I pulled out my knife and cut the edge. It was full of hats and such. He took them and left. I don't mind.

The Crazy Lady showed up, a crowd showed up. I closed my drawer and went home. And I don't have to go back until Saturday.

7/24

I drug my fat butt out of bed, didn't turn on the TV and went for a walk. I'm still avoiding talking to the Late Guy at the Haunted Station so I took the long way around, which included a dog coming to check me out, I guess I smelled OK and it wandered off. I stopped off to visit the Weekend Guy, everything is going good for him since he's not their Go To guy anymore and he isn't working a lot of extra hours. He's telling me that everything is a mess at the Haunted Station, the lottery tickets aren't all being displayed from lowest to highest numbers but the Late Guy has them running in both directions. He also told me that he doesn't think the other employees are writing the numbers down properly, which will be bad news if someone ever breaks in and steals the tickets, you need to know which ones you've sold so the lottery can stop payouts on stolen ones. Not to mention if someone wants to steal a couple of tickets, if you don't keep track from one shift to the other who will you blame. 

The Weekend Guy also told me he thinks the Random Woman is sabotaging things around the station. Little things like the mop or garbage cans, or the faucet in the utility room. I told him that she hates the Late Guy so it would make sense that she's doing stuff to annoy him. I know it's bad but I love hearing these stories. 

The Weekend Giuy also told me what a mess the Dyslexic Woman keeps leaving, she's doing her paperwork all wrong, she's doing her drawer wrong and she's not counting the lottery tickets or cigarettes. No wonder she's number three on the Boss's fire list. He also told me that Part Time Woman showed up late this week and as he was trying to leave she wanted to chat, probably complain about other employees or the Boss. Thankfully, for the Weekend Guy, customers walked in and she got busy so he was able to escape. Honestly, at the end of the shift the only thing people want to do is go home. I get the feeling when they start redoing the Haunted Station for their food service she's going to find herself off the schedule and possibly not coming back.

The Weekend Guy doesn't want to believe the station is haunted however every now and then the security camera records still images of people in the building and they'll pop up on the screen. He was in the office doing some safe stuff, looked up and there was a still shot of someone in the building. He rushed out but nobody was there. I told him I had seen that several times too. The one that had me panicked was the guy standing behind the counter. 

Skippy showed up, the Weekend Guy said I should leave so he didn't put me to work but I said that Skippy doesn't like me. It all has to do with when they told him he had to be more of a manger and he started bugging me about every little thing at the Haunted Station. I use to help him out and make his job a little easier but I stopped doing that. He knew and he still holds a grudge. Sure enough, he came in, grabbed his paperwork and left. Suits me, I'm not his Go To guy.