As The Station Turns 8/6 - 7

When I arrived at work someone towing a trailer parked across the entrance to the diesel pumps. I drove straight at them before turning and having to go around. Then someone tried to pull into the pumps and blared their horn at the person. Seriously, directly in front of the pumps is not a parking space. 

The Manager was in a hurry today, she had several things to get done and then she is on vacation. She hustled through everything at the Truck Stop and then ran down to the West Side Station and then clocked out. She's on vacation and come Saturday I'll be on Hell Week.

After the third person in a row I wondered how long I could go before I yelled in someone's face "If It's A Debit Card You Have To Enter A PIN!!!!!" Honestly, if you want to use your debit know your PIN. The third person pulled out his card and jammed it in and out of the reader several times, which caused the card reader to jam up and I had to open the second register for .01¢ to run his card and then close it out again, and then unplug and replug the card reader in to clear it out. What a fun way to start the day.

Today was Horse People Day, most of my customers were pulling horse trailer on their way to, or coming home from either a show or a rodeo. I don't mind, they spend lots of money and it makes me look like I was busier than I actually was. And a lot of it was cash so I also had a large amount of cash drops, which also looks good in my paperwork.

A woman came in and wanted to leave her credit card while he husband filled up, fine by me, but then she stood right in front of the register the whole time. Several customers had to reach around her to use the credit reader. Seriously, get out of the way.

I went to check the ice and discovered one of the bags was splitting. I had to carefully bust up the ice and put it in a good bag. Later when I bagged ice I had to check to make sure none of the other seams were splitting, I found one. I'm not going to be there for a day so I wonder how many will get bagged and sold, and have someone try to bust the ice by dropping it and having it go everywhere.

I did an outside inspection and discovered that the #5 pump had been officially bagged out again. I knew it would stop working completely but I expected it to take a little longer. Since the Boss is going out of town you have to wonder how long until it gets fixed.

Sturgis is coming so there should be a lot of bikers coming through. Some miscreant must know that and that the bikers tend to be maga, they put several trump "I Did That" stickers on the pumps. Darn vandals and rabble rousers.

A storm was rolling in and the clouds were blocking the sun, the place got a little dark. The Part Time Woman was working across the street and turned the lights on, but I didn't. She got swarmed while I got a break. I wasn't complaining but I did get a good laugh.

A guy came in and was shocked at the number of Texas plates on the lot. I considered telling him to come back on Labor Day, it looks like downtown Houston.

A regular came in for a bag of ice, I made sure it wasn't going to break on him. He was asking about my Bad Hawg. He has a friend who can't drive but still needs to get around. I told him I ordered it through the Walmart site and they even had free delivery. The only catch is you have to assemble it. I wonder if I've started a local trend.

There was nobody in the building and I wanted to get some stuff done but there was one guy out on the lot. He carefully washed his windows, all of them. Then he came in and paid for gas and went out to pump it. Then he came back in for coffee, he wanted to know if it was free, not in this timeline. He wandered around the store and finally got some stuff, his total came to $14 and change. He dug $13 dollars out, then gave me a $50 and I rang it out. But just then he realized the bill he gave me and wanted to change it out for a $5 he found in his pocket. OK, but he still owed me another $10. Finally he gave me the right amount and I gave him back his coins. He left and the swarm hit. And no he wasn't a conman trying to pull the old fast switch, he was just befuddled. 

I got a call from the Haunted Station, it seems some woman was hanging out there and got into a situation with the Part Time Woman. The cops were called and the woman was told to leavet, however she had come across the street. The Part Time Woman called to tell me she was hanging around outside so I went to check. I found her walking around the place. I asked her if she had a situation across the street and she told me yes. I told her both properties were owned by the same company so she was going to have to roll on. She didn't try to start a fight with me, she didn't get loud, instead she said OK and headed out. Whew, that crisis was solved fast. btw, I figured it turned into a police matter across the street because the Part Time Woman lacks tact.

And then a storm hit. If it had just been rain and thunder it would have been no problem but the winds kicked up to 50 to 60 MPH and all the outside trash cans went flying across the lot. I had to go chase them down, plus the lids and bring them back. One had the trash bag sucked out of it so I had to run inside to grab a bag and replace it, just before someone tried to throw trash into it, and I had to weight it down so it wouldn't blow out again, usually a cup of ice will do the trick. I took two of the cans and put the on the side of the building where the wind wasn't blowing. I told the Crazy Lady they were there and I left them in case the wind came up again. It was fun. Oh, and yes I was swarmed at that minute and had to ask several people to wait while I took care of the weather crisis. 

One woman was worried about driving over the mountain and pulling a trailer in the wind but I assured her once she got into the canyons it would break up and be no problem. The truth was by the time she got to the bottom of the hill the wind would die down.

A truck driver came in and he was pretty shook up, he had been coming down the highway when the wind hit and his trailer was empty. It was pushing him all over the road. I told him that there were times when the wind would blow trucks and RV's over and the highway department would close the roads, that didn't make him feel any better. He was parking for the night so it didn't matter. 

The wind brings out the weirdos and tonight was no different. After the wind came up I got a whole string of them from the locals to tourists. I think under normal circumstances there is enough of a buffer of normal people that we don't notice all the weirdos but in bad weather the normal people stay home and all you're left with is the walking freak shows. Thankfully it was the last hour of my shift.

At the end of the night I rushed back to get the tank reading and when I came back there was an RC Cola sitting at the register. It wasn't there when I left and nobody was around, I waited in case the person was in the restroom had left it. At the end of the night I put it back in the cooler. Was someone upset that I was away from the register for a two full minutes?

At the end of the night the register tried to lock up. It took me several tries but I got it working again. I just needed it to last for a half hour and then it could crash. Thankfully nothing else happened for the rest of the day.

The Graveyard Shift was late, surprise. Both the Crazy Lady and Bigfoot walked in at the same time so he counted in his drawer first and started counting the cigarettes. She just hung out. I went home and when I got there I discovered a bunch of branches from the tree were laying in my driveway. I'm gonna have to call my brother and see if I can borrow his chainsaw but I'm going to have to wait until next week since I'm going into Hell Week and won't have the time until at least until next Friday. It would be great if he felt charitable and came and cut them up for me, but I know that won't happen.

8/7

The Weekend Guy got a package at the Truck Stop so I figured I would be nice, I had several errands to run so I dropped by and grabbed it then went by the West Side Station to drop it off. I told him he owed me $5 for shipping and handling but I never got the money. 

He was telling me about the mess at the Haunted Station, it seems that the Random Woman took another day off but didn't let the Boss know in advance. They asked him if he would work but he pointed out he was already at work a the West Side Station. It explains why the Part Time Woman showed up instead. 

The Weekend Guy also told me a repair guy showed up to look at the credit card readers, even though nobody had been scheduled. He checked with the Boss and he didn't know anything about it. It then got bumped over to the accountant and she didn't know anything about it. In the meanwhile the guy didn't get anything done. Since a new vendor is taking over these guys will soon lose their contract.

I  swung by the Haunted Station to get the latest information. The Last Guy isn't telling me what a great job he's doing anymore, he has his hands full. The Part Time Woman left him a note that the air conditioner had stopped working, it needs to be oiled, and it was too hot for her to do any work.... She also claimed the mop handle was broken but the only problem was the wing nut that locks the mop head down was loose. Also the Late Guy is trying to get the boss to move the Weekend Guy over full time so they can fire the Random Woman. The company is talking about shutting down the West Side Station so it would work out.

Also the new company has big plans, as far as the Late Guy knows they are going to go into high gear in December but until then a lot of stuff is going to start showing up including signage and kitchen equipment. I guess they are going to install new registers first so that should work out. I said the best part was I would be on the sidelines watching and not have to be in the middle of it. 

The station got busy and I have stuff I have to get done before Hell Week kicks into full gear so I came home. I won't be seeing any of them for a week, or more depending on how tired I am on next Friday.