As The Station Turns 7/29

 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 things were disappearing they would know it was her.

It rained, it rained a lot. And I was busy as heck since everyone wanted to track up the floor. I never have to wonder what the weather is like outside because everyone comes in to tell me. Even though I can see it's raining hard everyone has to come in and tell me it's raining. Some go into details about how hard it's raining or the wind is blowing it around and so forth. If I hadn't read Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy I would wonder why, but now I know.

A guy came in to complain, last week he bought some jerky and he was mad that it was all dried out. I explained to him it was a natural jerky, not chemically processed to keep it soft but he said he had been eating jerky all his life and he never heard of that. Sure, he's been eating brand name stuff, not the local stuff that is made the old fashion way. I pointed out that he had gotten it a week ago and opened it, since it wasn't moldy I wasn't going to exchange it or refund his money. He slammed the jerky on the counter and stormed out. He needs to stick with Slim Jims or Jack Links in the future. btw, the crows enjoyed the jerky.

A guy was standing at the counter when a bolt of lightning struck nearby and there was an extra loud clap of thunder. He jumped and said "wow that was close". I guess I'm use to it because it didn't affect me. Makes me wonder how close people have been to lightning strikes. 

Even though it was raining and people were tracking up the floor I figured I would mop the restrooms for stuff other than mud. That's when I got my real first swarm of the day.

The place emptied out and I did all my side work, I wondered how I was going to kill time for the rest of the day and that's when the Boss came in. However I got lucky and a swarm hit right then, it looked like I had been busy all day. He told me the Part Time Woman was going to take Saturday off, good, I won't have to see her for another week. I also told the Boss that I was going to go home and turn off my phone for my two day weekend. 

The #5 pump has been bagged out for a week, the contact buttons aren't working. Cards can be authorized, prepays can be made but the pump won't go on. He decided to test it out and it worked for him so he insisted it be unbagged and was pissed that someone had marked it out of order. About an hour later someone tried to use it and it wouldn't go on. However I have two days off and I don't care. If necessary I'll go back to bagging it out during my shift and then taking the bag off before I leave. btw, I took the Please Pay Inside sign off the #12 pump since I won't be there for two full days.

The rain came rolling in, with a vengeance, and lightning was flashing everywhere. The radio stations all went off the air since it took out their transmission towers and our lights were flickering. Meanwhile two different groups were lingering around the store. They would pick up an item, wander around then go put it back. Pick up another item, wander around and again put it back. The whole time I kept waiting for the lights to go out and I would have to tell them they were out of luck. Thankfully the storm rolled on and the people finally paid for their stuff, after changing their minds at the register twice.

The top of the hour rolled around and I realized that if the Crazy Lady, who was now late, didn't show up there was the possibility that I would be stuck there for another hour and a half. Worse if she ended up getting fired or quitting the Boss might ask me to come in on Friday. Thankfully she walked through the door, late. I closed out my drawer and went home.

7/30

I had plans today however I slept in so I shifted things around and decided to go see the Weekend Guy in the morning. It turns out he was trying to contact me, someone had called the Truck Stop and said they left behind their credit card and ID with someone. I said it wasn't me. I guess the guy was pissed but if you leave your stuff it's not our fault.

I told the Weekend Guy about the upcoming rebranding and how much fun he was going to have dealing with the corporate rules. He wondered why they were changing one station but not all of them, I said it was so when someone came in, got pissed and said they were going "across the street" they meant to one of our other stations that just happens to have a different name. 

The Weekend Guy is pretty pissed at everyone who works at the Haunted Station, they aren't stocking, they aren't cleaning and the Late Guy isn't doing proper ordering. He's also mad at the Manager of the West Side Station and said he left her an overflowing trash can for Monday morning. I bet she hated that.

I took a look around the Haunted Station, you have to remember that the Late Guy was boasting about what a great job he's been doing. Well, they are out of condiments and spoons, and there are empty shelves. I also checked out the lottery tickets, he has a lot of $5 games but only one $10 game. I use to keep four of the higher priced tickets on sale because people liked them better and we sold the heck out of them. Plus all the game have been around for a while, everyone is looking for the new games. I would keep track so I could let games run out and hold space for the new stuff, which also increased sales. I'll never say anthing to the Late Guy about it but....

Anyhow I came home to defrost my big upright freezer and will go to bed early so I can get up and do the important stuff I had planned on doing today. I need to schedule a visit to the Haunted Station to say Hi to the Late Guy and hear all his complaints. We'll see how things go.