As The Station Turns 8/2

 When I got to work Mrs. Late Guy was complaining about the frozen coffee. It seems someone put French Vanilla in the Mocha machine. I'm pretty sure that only her and the Manager have access to the mixes so.... She had to empty the machine, dump the already mixed stuff into the right machine and then make a new mix for the Mocha side. At least I'm blame free because I don't touch those things.

The #5 pump had been working but once again wouldn't turn on. Does it just hate me or something? I figured it out, in the afternoon the sun shifts past the canopy and shines directly upon it, the rest of the time it's either in the shade or it's night, but it warms up during the afternoon. Something must be loose or only slightly broken, when it heats up it expands and separates. Once the sun goes down it cools off and makes contact again. But it worked on my day off, how could that be? Then I remembered that it rained all day and the sun was behind the clouds. The Boss doesn't want it bagged out so I put an "out of order" sign on the screen, and around sundown when the Boss shows up I took it off, it still didn't work. The thing is the problem isn't going to fix itself and it will only get worse. Simple repair now or a costly one later, guess which one the company will go with.

The Part Time Woman is working across the street and my favorite part is she hates working on Sunday. You have to wonder what excuse the Random Woman had for taking another day off. The last time she worked a Sunday she didn't turn on the canopy lights and hung out in the dark for an hour. This time the lights went on at sundown, however she closed up two hours early. I wonder how the Boss feels about that.

A truck driver came in with his fleet card. He said it usually doesn't work at independent stations but I had to try it for him anyhow. I insisted on doing a prepay to avoid all that mess and sure enough, it was rejected. Good luck to him getting to the next brand name station, the closest is a 90 mile drive.

One of the most annoying things is when a parent, or grandparent in this case, brings in the kids and tells them get whatever you want. The conversation goes like this, "Get whatever you want. No you can't have that. Get something we're in a hurry. That's too big, get something smaller. Hurry up. No you can't have that get something else. If you don't hurry you won't get anything. No, no ice cream in the car. I'm going to check out, if you don't pick something you won't get anything. No that is too spicy get something else. I'm checking out 5...4...3...2... Why does it take you kids so long?" Every day. Just pick something out for them. 

Today was the same story as ever, no business, go to do the trash, swarm, lingerers, finally clears out again, just finish trash, swarm.

Here's another thing I can't figure out, when I have things to do people linger around, look at everything and then slowly wander up to the counter. When I take a restroom break they must jump out of their car while it's still rolling, run in and grab something and come up to the counter. I'm in the restroom for two minutes and when I come out there is a line and they're all in a hurry.

I shouldn't have but I had a genuine laugh tonight. The Storyteller came in and he was happy, he had a $5 bill and didn't have to break a $20. However when he handed me the bill it didn't feel or look right so I asked him to take a closer look. He didn't notice what was wrong until I pointed out where it said "Movie Money" across the top, it was fake. He had just gotten it in change from a local store and was going back to tell them off. I put a note on Facebook for the locals to check their bills. And then I laughed at the situation. 

A bunch of carnival people came through. I like them, they fill up a lot of vehicles and pay cash. The head of the caravan was on the phone with one of his trucks, he was stuck on the mountain with an air leak in his break line, he wasn't going to drive down the steep incline without his breaks. At then end of the night the guy and another truck that had stayed with him showed up, they got $350 in fuel, and paid all in ten dollar bills. Luckily the Boss showed up late and I traded him $300 in the tens for three $100 bills. 

I already put this on Threads but I'm going to repeat it here. A guy came in wearing a patriotic t shirt, It had a print in the pocket area, the flag with the cavalry cross cannons symbol. I don't want to judge people but you could tell, this guy voted for trump three times in a row. Then he turned around, on the back was a large image of an eagle surrounded by bunting. But what caught me off guard was the oversized lettering that said "Spread Eagle". I don't know if that is still common slang but it's a descriptive term for a certain type of pose models do, models who have a distinct lack of clothing and are featured in "Gentlemen's magazines". The models are facing the camera and showing off the goods, all of the goods. I managed to maintain while the guy was in the building but after he left I started laughing hard. I can imagine this guy proudly walking around in that shirt, teaching "them liberals" a thing or two and people literally laughing behind his back. I hope nobody ever tells him.

A herd of kids came stampeding in the building, rushing to the restrooms. When they went out they left by the back door. The panicked and then turned around and went out the front door where their parents were waiting. 

The Graveyard Shift Guy came in, Bigfoot came in, and the time clock wouldn't let me out again. The previous night I had given up and went home. Tonight I didn't give up and forced the thing to let me out. Since the Part Time Woman had left early I drove through the Haunted Station. I couldn't help but notice that some miscreant had put a "I Did That" trump sticker on one of the pumps. People, I swear, plus it's hard to peel the back off those stickers in the dark.