As The Station Turns 8/3 - 4

  When I got to work it was a typical Monday, busy as heck. Bigfoot had left me a mostly acceptable drawer but I was going to have to get coins out of the safe later. The Manager was pissed because she cleaned out the slushie machines and there were bugs in one of them. Someone had to have left the top off. I told her I don't touch the thing and how someone had filled up one of the coffee machines with the wrong stuff, she wasn't happy about that either. I though they kept the mix locked up but I guess it's in the back somewhere, this is the first I learned about that. She was happy to get out of there today.

Today two of the regulars showed up. First it was the Stuffed Dog guy who was buying milk and then the Butt Picker who was buying a pack of smokes, the rains have filled up al the outside ash cans with water so the butts out there are floating. 

Last week I found a pair of sunglasses laying outside so I put them on the picnic table to see if someone would take them. For some odd reason I kept finding them on the ground. Yesterday I put them on top of the fire extinguisher box out by the pumps and today they are gone. Someone was happy to get a pair. Also as I was outside checking around I found a kids size sandal by one of the pumps, but just the one. Some mother is going to be pissed when they get to where they are going and the kid only has one. "Do you know how much those cost? Do you think I'm made out of money I should make you walk around barefoot".

A kid came up to the counter with one of the stuffed animals to tell me it had a hole in the arm. I thanked them and then put it behind the counter, I didn't know if they sent damaged stuff back or not. Later when the Boss came in he told me to throw it away. I said I would take it home, throw a couple of stitches into it and send it to my niece for her kids. Free toy, woo hoo.

Suddenly I got busy and I had to wonder why. It turns out the station next door had raised its prices by 30¢ a gallon. One guy said the price was going up as he was getting ready to pump. For the rest of the day it didn't stop.

A guy kept trying to run his card at the pump but it kept getting rejected. He came in but didn't want to leave the card, he asked if he could prepay with a $100. Sure. He got $9.00 and came in for his change. I know what he did, he blocked his card on his phone and pretended that he needed a lot of fuel so I would give him change. If it had been yesterday I would have given it to him in $10 bills. Thankfully I had a lot of $20s and wanted to get rid of them. For all I know some miscreant might have marked them with secret political messages and was glad that they were going out into circulation.

The Boss came in and we had quite the discussion tonight. It seems he's trying to hire someone new for the Haunted Station. A new guy was suppose to show up today but didn't show up. Gotta wonder who is about to get the axe, I figure it's either the Random Woman or the Dyslexic woman downtown, and then the Random Woman will be moved down there. I guess we'll find out.

He also told me about the name change across the street, I guess that is confirmed. That's going to be interesting, And he said the Big Boss wants to close the West Side Station and perhaps convert it to something else, but that is in the future. 

He asked me if I liked working at the Truck Stop, I told him no. He was surprised but I told him the place was a hassle, the West Side Station is the best place because it never gets mobbed so you can get your side work done. He complained that the two people working over there now don't do anything all day. I told him when I worked there I would pick a big project "of the day" to kill time in-betwen customers. I can't do that at the Truck Stop.

The Storyteller came in. If you read yesterday's post you know that he had a bad $5 bill. He went back to the store he had gotten it from and told them. They said they remembered who had passed it to them. I forgot to ask if they gave him a good one but they could contact the police since they knew who had paid it in. 

Towards the end of the day I was trying to get a few last minute things done and some guy came in. He wanted to know if we had a place where he could plug in his charger for a short while. Since he was in the building I couldn't do anything outside. Who in the modern world doesn't have a car charger? Heck, I'm from the last century and I have one. 

The Crazy Lady came in and was grouchy because the Manager had counted her drawer wrong. The Graveyard Shift Guy was grouchy because once again he couldn't clock in. I got out of there. No stops tonight, straight home. 

8/4

I hadn't dropped by to visit the Late Guy for a while, he got on my nerves  but I figured I should be nice, plus I needed to check on some gossip. The last time I saw him over there he was talking about getting some help replacing a hose on one of the diesel pumps but he had recruited someone else and didn't call me, but now he was waiting for the state inspector to come certify it.

The name change is official the Haunted Station is going to become a brand name place. The bosses want to revamp the whole place and it's cheaper to convert it to a new company and have them install their equipment, including redoing the old kitchen area and making it a walk up counter service restaurant. They are going to have to strip a lot of old stuff out and replace it including the tiles and where a pipe broke and soaked all the drywall, which is now moldy. Perhaps even a set of high volume diesel pumps which will attract the trucking companies. This means the place will probably have to shut down for a week or two. I wonder how that will go. The Late Guy said he's be happy to take a vacation but I hinted that they's make him hang out to be the local rep to oversee the work. 

I found out that the Random Woman is the employee at the top of the To Be Fired list. I guess she's been showing up late, or taking random days off, and now wants a full week. Plus she's been coming in a little drunk. All this and not doing the basics of cleaning and stocking. I don't think she cares if she gets fired, she always talked about doing side jobs like food or Walmart delivery plus setting up a burrito truck. I always told her that was a good idea if she wasn't happy working there. I guess the guy they hired was suppose to come in and work at the place solo while she was gone as a test run and if he worked out he would become full time and she'd become a former employee. Now they are trying to hire someone else.

The Late Guy told me the Boss was trying to get more of the stuffed animals but couldn't get hold of the rep and we may not be getting anymore. This explains why he told me to just throw the one away the night before. However these companies go through reps quickly so he might get a call from someone new. 

He told me he had to go to one of their new stations about a 100 miles south and spent the day there. The place is a mess because the previous management let the employees get away with whatever they wanted. One woman would follow customers around and complain at them about handling the merchandise, she got fire for waving a gun around. I guess they are near a lake so they sell a lot of stuff to fishermen and that's what keeps them open. 

I was at the Haunted Station for an hour and thankfully he got busy and I was able to escape. I guess I'll have to drop by more often because now he'll be busy with the new stuff and won't be telling me about the old stuff.