ocularnervosa

 My great "Five days off" continues with my covering the graveyard shift. And I'm starting to explore a side hustle that will fill in the financial gaps when I quit. Vote Democratic and save Social Security. The Late Guy, who just happened to be covering my shift before I got stuck doing the graveyard, actually did some stuff today, the ice in the soda machine and....well that was it. I had to start the night dumping the trash again, and bagging ice again, and taking care of the restroom, again. For a guy who constantly complains about how the people at the Haunted Station leave the place he sure doesn't make sure things are done while he's on the shift. And it was really slow so he had the time, but I guess he'd have to put his phone down for 20 minutes.  I figured I would get the same cash drawer I counted out the night before, since Mrs. Late Guy worked the morning shift I figured the Late Guy would use her drawer and I wouldn't have to count in for my ...

I am F-ing Pissed! I am incredibly pissed. I am SCREAM AT THE WALLS PISSED! I'm sitting at my house on Friday night, the first of my 5 days off and my phone rings. I knew I shouldn't answer it but I did and it was the Boss. And...that little B--ch The Graveyard Shift Guy needed the rest of the weekend off. He only worked on Friday this week and now he needed next week off. And I get to cover the F-ING graveyard shift because Bigfoot can't do it by his little B-tch self. I was stupid enough to actually make plans. There was something I needed to do and I could have done it on Friday but nooooo....I had 5 days off so I was going to put it off until Sunday, and now I have to go to F-ING WORK. And I'm going to do a crap job, that's for sure.  I got up on Saturday morning and went for a walk. I cashed in my winning lottery ticket and that didn't put me in a better mood, I got home and found that my insurance company had sent me a refund check, that didn't put me ...

 Week 37 This week I ended up with $37.87 in the Tip Jar. I could buy any ticket but I'm still avoiding the $20 one. The station finally has a new $1 ticket with a payout of $1000 dollars, and is a second chance game. When I went to the station I asked the guy for the new ticket, which was in slot #3 but he grabbed the wrong one out of slot #7. I didn't notice until after I scratched it so I was stuck with it. The one he sold me was a $1 ticket with a potential $500 jackpot. What do you know, I actually won back my dollar! I should have taken the win and walked away but I had come for the new ticket so I traded in the winner for the right ticket, and lost. In the end I'm starting the month down a dollar instead of breaking even for the week. Week 38 Thanks to buying low priced tickets and people being extra generous, or clumsy with their money, the Tip Jar reached $46.21. Since I'm going to buy a low end ticket again this week I rolled $20 over into the Alternative Fund...

 Today was fun, when I walked in a local wood company was filling up several trucks. Normally they come first thing in the morning so this seemed odd, then I saw the price. The diesel was $2 lower than the day before, something was going on. For half the day I was busy as heck with people filling up, and they were very excited to be getting it at that price. Story to be continued. When I was ringing out the wood cutters there was a problem so I tried to straighten it out and the stupid register rang it out as cash. There is a way to put it back in the system but I couldn't figure it out, thankfully the company has a deal with the station and pays by check so I just had to add the multiple totals together and they made one payment, although it threw off my end of the day total, but I left a note for the accountant. The Boss told me he wanted the Part Time Woman to work on Thursday afternoon, with me. She had said she didn't want to do it because I don't talk to her, and she ...

 When I got to work both the cigarette rep and the Lil Debbies guys were there. The good news was that the Manager was so distracted she didn't have time to be in a bad mood. I had to laugh because the Lil Debbies guy said he saw a bumper sticker that said Not All Wanderers Are Lost and I was able to suppress my nerdy little soul, I didn't tell him the quote is "Not all who wander are lost" and it's from The Hobbit. They've also continued moving stuff from the Haunted Station to the Truck Stop. This last round was more candy and pastries and all the tobacco. I'm really starting to wonder how long the station will be closed because they are clearing it out. Pump #8 decided to predict the future, it's reading regular gas at $9.69 a gallon. I guess when you pump it still rings out at the right price but the pump has the wrong amount on the display. We weren't busy so it didn't matter for me but I still marked it out of order. I realized that I pla...

 When I got to work today both the coffee maker and the cappuccino machine weren't working. I was busy for the first hour so I couldn't go check but later I was looking at the valves. The individual ones running to the machines were on but someone had shut off the main valve. I wish when people don't know why a thing isn't working they would leave it alone instead of making everything worse. Cappuccino machine is working again btw. Frankie the Cop brought a guy by, his 5th wheel trailer had locked up and he managed to get it off the road and into the Haunted Station. He wanted to know if he could leave it there for the night and have someone come work on it in the morning. I told him it was fine and I would let the graveyard shift know so they could look out and check on it every now and then. I also told him there were security cameras everywhere and there would be truck drivers rolling through the place all night. About an hour later I saw someone over there working o...

 Good news, the coffee pot isn't working. it's full of water, it's hot but it won't brew. The good news is that it happened in the morning and nobody can blame me. Nobody complained to me and the only problem was when the Storyteller came by for his nightly cup. He was going to have to go to the motel where his step son works. I gave him a cup so he wouldn't have to use one of their small crappy ones.  A woman was buying Clamato, she wanted to know if it was like V-8. I didn't mention that it says Clam in the title. I wish I could have seen her first sip. It was busy when I went in so when the first break rolled around I wanted to check the restroom, but there were a couple of people in there. They eventually came out and wandered around the store. They bought some stuff just as more people showed up. When the other people left the first couple came back in to use the restroom for a second time. Then another crowd showed up.  When I came in Mrs. Late Guy apologi...

 So I posted on the 18th and then several things happened. I could go back and add it but then half my readers would miss it. Yeah, five people read my post as soon as I put it up. Anyhow I'm doing a lottery experiment where I buy one scratch ticket a week and keep track of how much I spend versus how much I win, right now I'm down about $67. Anyhow with the Haunted Station closed I had to buy one somewhere else and I actually won. I had to go cash in the ticket so I decided to take a walk to the station down the road. Along the way I stopped by the Haunted Station and shut off the big sign with the price on it, that way people will stop going over there, everyone thinks they are selling for a lower than anyone else since it hasn't been updated in two weeks. Along the way I saw Stinky, the foul smelling brother of the Doofus, who got fired for showing up drunk every day. My goodness that guy looks horrible, he's bone thin, hunched over and his clothes were filthy. Well,...

 When I got to work there was an old guy trying to get in the back door, however the wind had been blowing and slammed it shut. It meant you had to pull hard on it to get it open. I was almost there when he gave up and walked around, meanwhile I pulled it open and went in. He didn't say anything when he just saw me outside and now I was behind the counter. Some people are in too big of a hurry in this world. The Manager was pissed because the Pepsi shipment had just shown up. It was a new driver so she was telling him where things were suppose to go. Good, if she was in a bad mood she could take it out on him.  The mystery box Fedex delivered yesterday turned out to be souvenirs. Since the Haunted Station is closed the Manager put them out at the Truck Stop and the West Side Station. I guess more is suppose to be coming in but it's odd that they didn't send the shipment all at once. A couple of weeks ago I put a notice on the pumps that they cut off at a $100 and you can on...

 I'm having evil thoughts. Nobody is telling me what is going on with the schedule next week. Originally I was suppose to have Monday off and cover a shift at the Haunted Station on Friday, however they are closed down and I'm not going to have to do that. Mrs. Late Guy said they wanted me to cover the morning shift at the Downtown station but that means I have to work Thursday night then open on Friday morning, plus I don't have keys to the building or the alarm code. And it's Homecoming which means I could get caught at the station during the homecoming parade with no way to get out. So if by this Friday they don't tell me anything I'm going to send the Boss a text saying that as far as I know he has everything covered and am assuming I'm working my normal shifts at the Truck Stop. If he contacts me back I'm going to remind him he has three full time employees on part time hours, one who works Downtown, and one who isn't working at all, just playin...

 Usually on Monday I work with Mrs. Late Guy for a couple of hours but she wasn't there. It turns out she had a doctor's appointment, she told me a while back that it could result in surgery and if that happens she might be out for a few weeks. I hope they plan on hiring some new people soon, I'm not going to be working double shifts. Across the street is still closed, Late Guy came by and he said they might get back up and running by the end of the week. More like in three weeks. He also told me about the Random Woman, I guess she was hoping to get in at the Downtown Station full time but the Boss told her no, so she decided to quit. She had put in her two weeks notice but good news, the station was going to be closed for two weeks so she can start her unemployment right away. Pump number one is down, they are slowly crashing one by one. I'm pretty sure the Boss is waiting until they replace the pumps (some time before the end of the year) and doesn't want to spend...

 When I got to work the first thing I saw was the old hitchhiker guy from yesterday. He had wandered off the day before so I didn't have to worry about it but I was going to have to take care of it today, then the Fates lent me a hand. He came walking by my car as I got out so I told him he couldn't bug customers at the station. No asking for money, no asking for rides. Thankfully he didn't try to get into a fight and claim he wasn't doing anything, or he had permission, or any of the other stuff I have to hear. He's going to find out that after the years of trouble caused by the "Going to Denver for 4/20" crowd caused that the earth wanderers are not welcome at any of the businesses in town. Seriously, break-ins, fights, harassing people, and it's not like Colorado sent any of their drug money to compensate for the problem they created. Mrs. Late Guy told me she saw the nutter woman from the night before heading down the highway. The woman claimed she...

 I posted my blog yesterday and then realized I forgot something. The Dyslexic Woman needs a day off in two weeks on a Friday (which coincidentally is the High School homecoming). This means they will need someone to cover a shift at the Downtown Station and the boss realizes that I hate working there, so he's having the Random Woman cover and he wants me to cover the shift at the Haunted Station. The problem is Friday is my day off and he doesn't want to pay me overtime so he figured I could take Monday and Tuesday off, two full days in a row. The problem? If the tanks at the Haunted Station don't get fixed and inspected they could be closed so the Random Woman would be available to work Downtown and her shift wouldn't have to be covered. This means I could work my normal schedule, no two days in a row off. Why does this stuff always happen to me? I have company so I needed to find a key to the house, I knew the spare was in one of my drawers but which one? As I was lo...

 When I got to work the Manager was hauling ice over to the West Side Station. She asked me to park on the side of the lot so she could pull up to the back door. Here's the thing, I park way off to the end of the building and wouldn't have been in her way. So I have no idea what that was about. So every day I do a daily photo from the same spot, that way the image is always the same but due to weather and the light and stuff moving through it there is always something different. Well today a semi rolled in hauling a military tank and they stopped right in the middle of where I take my photo, so I rushed outside and just as I got there some pissed pulled right into the middle of it. I still took the photo because I knew what was going to happen, the people were going to sit there until the truck pulled out, and I was right. They used the restroom, they hung around, they didn't buy anything, and after the truck pulled out they finally left. Someone really clogged the toilet. ...

 When I walked in the Manager was still putting stuff away from the delivery truck. Whenever she does that she talks to herself, mumbling, complaining, sometimes singing parts of songs (today was Down By The Schoolyard). I tell customers that she has Tourette's. The Manager says that Skippy claimed she was $88 dollars short on her last paperwork. There's a fight brewing. The Dyslexic Woman came over from the Haunted Station. She held on to some guy's ID while he filled up and then when he came in he had a fleet card, which they don't take. So she came over to the Truck Stop, where we take the card, and had to do a forced entry, where you manually put in the amount, however the register started acting up and kept saying it couldn't run the card "at cash price" and wouldn't convert either. I was trying to calculate how much more it would be in order to work as a regular gas purchase when the register suddenly decided that it would take the card. I made s...

 Happy Labor Day. I wasn't looking forward to work today because Mrs. Late Guy had to cover at the West Side Station and I was going to be working the shift alone. If I got really busy I wouldn't be able to get to the trash cans or any disasters in the restroom, I'd be too busy covering the register. However we're in the middle of the trump economy and it wasn't any busier than a summer Saturday. I'm not looking forward to this fall when business drops off to nothing. Speaking of the West Side Station I had gone by there and I couldn't help but notice, their pumps need work, the ice machine isn't working, the shelves are half empty and half the lights are burned out. I'm wondering what the future of the place is. When I got to work I was instantly pissed off. Bigfoot left me a crap drawer, there was about thirty dollars in five dollar bills, no tens or twenties and a hundred dollar bill. How am I suppose to open a drawer with no small change and a hu...