As The Station Turns 8/10

 Hell Week Redux: Day Three

I thought Mrs. Late Guy had cursed me again when she told me that she had a slow day. Sure enough, for the first hour I was swamped. After that it was super slow, you'd think it was mid February. Tell me again about how great the economy is doing. Speaking of which Sturgis is going on and I realized that there were very few bikers through this week. Normally we'd be overrun by outlaw gangs, weekend enthusiasts and loners. This year, perhaps one or two small groups and stragglers. I don't think this is going to be a good fall.

I was trying to do my first of the shift stuff but two women kept running in and out of the restroom. I wasn't going to ask what was going on in there, and hopefully I didn't have to clean up a mess. When one left and the other was still in the restroom I figured I could run and do something but she came out and practically sprinted to the register. When they finally left here came the swarm.

I left the low toilet paper rolls in the mens room yesterday just to see what would happen. What a surprise, I had to put toilet paper in the mens room today. Three other people at work,  they are there for 16 hours and none of them can go put in new rolls.

A mother told her kid he could have a candy bar. He wanted gum but she said not in the car. He started to throw a temper tantrum and WOOSH, dad rushed them out into the truck and they left. No candy for you junior.

There is a professional moocher who shows up twice a year on his begging loop. Back in the day everyone else felt sorry for him and would let him hang out, bugging customers. The new owners don't want that kind of thing so I ran him off. He had shown up when I was running the Haunted Station and I ran him off from there too. I saw him hanging out at the station next door, he must have recognized my Jeep because he didn't bother coming over to the Truck Stop. A couple of hours later and he was gone, usually he sets up his tent in the vacant lot next door and will spend a couple of weeks. I guess he learned that the free ride was over and moved on to his next mooching spot. And if you feel sorry for the guy, he doesn't have any disabilities, he isn't mentally challenged, he's just opposed to doing actual work, a true mooch.

Credit cards have a $100 limit at the pumps. Some guy came in to complain and when I told him the banks have us on a limit he stared in on the "that's not true" at which I stop talking. He bitched and complained that other places had done it to him too. Well, perhaps it's a real thing pal and complaining at me and calling me a liar isn't going to change it.

The Big Boss is in town, he and Skippy showed up and they changed the price of fuel, it went up 20¢ a gallon. Where is that $1.99 a gallon again? The Big Boss asked about business, I told him it was slow because of back to school. And that was it, he didn't tell me anything needed to be done or ask how stuff was going, everyone else complains that when he shows up he gives them orders but I guess he's happy with the way things are going. Later I saw him across the street and the Random Woman was out complaining about the broken handles on the dumpsters. Also they didn't increase the price across the street so business died off to nothing. Heck I even had the time to go in and give the restrooms a good scrub down. 

Also the Big Boss and Skippy were talking about remodeling the Truck Stop. I was acting like I wasn't listening, but I was.

If business wasn't slow enough a semi had been turning onto the freeway entrance ramp. Somehow he went over into the soft shoulder and lost control. When he tried to pull back on to the pavement he got himself stuck, straddling the road. The cops had to show up and close the ramp so traffic was being diverted to the next overpass. Business came to a screeching halt. The totally expected thing was every time I went outside to check the lot someone pulled in. As soon as I went in the building they left. Every time. I still got the trash all picked up and the squeegee buckets filled.

The Cheese Slippage guy came in. He tried to use his regular credit card but it was rejected, I guess that has been happening to him quite a bit. Here's a thing, pay your bill. Now I'm worried whoever oversees his finances isn't doing it anymore.

As I said I got both restrooms scrubbed down but I keep my cleaner hidden on a high shelf in the back behind a bunch of old crap they don't need. I got the ladder out, got my bottle down, when to get some paper towels for wiping down the sinks and toilets and a pisser came in. I had to wait for him to finish and then he just left, didn't even bother buying anything. And when I went to get to work, he didn't flush the toilet. I'd wish bad things on him but Karma.

Since the graveyard shift was going to be slower than I was I wanted to leave them as little to do as possible, bwa ha ha ha ha. Even though I had filled up the ice hoppers on the soda machine earlier I figured I would top them off so you couldn't squeeze one more cube into them. Sure, as soon as I got the ladder out here came a whole crowd of people, and they all wanted stuff in the fountain area. Finally they left and I got to dump that half bucket of ice in the machine. 

They got the truck off the freeway ramp, traffic started to flow again and other stations started to close for the evening,I got busy for the last hour. When the Graveyard Shift Guy rolled in there was a crowd in the building. Boy was he going to be surprised in about a half hour when business dropped back down to nothing. It was going to be a long night for them.

And on a side note, Hell Week is about to kick into full gear. I have to work the afternoon shift on Tuesday and then go in at 6 AM on Wednesday and work until 10 PM, then repeat it on Thursday. That means when I come home on Tuesday night I'm going straight to bed and the same thing on Wednesday. And I'll be getting up as late as possible and going straight to work. I won't have time to post As The Station Turns updates until Friday. So expect nothing for three days and then a flood. Hopefully I'm not in a horrible mood by then and cause a scene. 

So, catch you after the "Summer Break".