As The Station Turns 9/07

 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 hundred? The Manager cashed it out for me and then I wrote an angry note to go in with my paperwork. Then I came up with my evil plan and threw away the angry note. Bigfoot is off for the next couple of days and I'm off on Friday, so come Thursday I'm going to leave him the same drawer he leaves me, and he won't be able to get change from the Crazy Lady since she just opened her drawer. Screw me over? Get screwed back.

Early on I was busy but then I got a break. I ran to check the restroom and it was a good thing since two of the stalls were low on toilet paper and the ladies room was out of paper towels. I also ran outside and discovered that the Manager had changed the trash but hadn't put a trash bag in one of the cans. If I had been busy it would have been filled up and the only way to dump it would have been to cart it all the way to the dumpster and upend it. So, thanks to the powers that be who made people decided they didn't want to stop in for 10 minutes.

The number nine pump still isn't working right, I guess the Late Guy hasn't got around to it yet. Someone pulled in there, saw the Pay Inside sign and decided to try a different pump, which has been out of order for about 6 months. I guess he got frustrated and went across the street, where their entire card system isn't working, they have to use a backup and you have to pay inside. I saw him heading down the street. If he had just gone one pump further over he would have reached the working one. Later someone did the same thing. By not repairing their pumps the company is losing business.

A woman came in, I rang up her stuff and then she did her card wrong. She did it a second time. The third time it finally worked. Usually this annoys the heck out of me but she was quite attractive so I gave her a pass. Yes, I'm a sexist.

Someone paid in a $5 bill that was covered in some kind of oil. Considering it was scented I'm going to bet it was that stuff you heat up with a candle. Whoops, it wound up in the other cash drawer, and a good one ended up in mine. The Crazy Lady is going to hate that. The good news is I won't be there tomorrow so I won't get it back.

Three trucks rolled in and had classic trucks on trailers. I would have loved to run out and get a photo but ...I had a crowd.

How not to park at a gas station:


Not a customer by the way.

The crowd thinned out and I went to check the trash for the second time of the day. They didn't need to be dumped but someone had dropped a jar of salsa next to one of the pumps, they threw away the jar but there was a huge red blob full of glass. I went and got a bucket full of water, washed it off, let it dry off and swept up the glass bits. I'm just glad some kid didn't step in it. Later in the day when I got a chance to do the trash I managed to get one full bag, including the restroom stuff. I left the one with the broken jar for the night shift.

A guy walks in and says "Pump two". And? I asked him if he wanted to fill up so then he asked for a receipt. I knew what he wanted but I was going to make him say it. I hate when people do that. Ask for things in complete sentences.

I was trying to do a safe drop but one of the $50's wouldn't feed. It passed all the tests, it had all the proper printing stuff, the bill checker came up yellow, it was a real bill, the safe was just being a putz. Thankfully someone came in with a $100 and wanted fifty bucks in gas, and the bill went with them. So long, you're someone else's problem now.

The Storyteller came in. He told me the story of the car crash he was in, that split his skull and caused him memory problems for the rest of his life. He then told me about taking his big jar of pennies to the bank to cash them in. Every time he tells me the penny story the amount increases, it was $8000 in coins this time. That's 800,000 pennies for the people doing the math. I'm willing to bet it was $80 in pennies but the amount in the story has increased as the years went along. 

The Cheese Slippage guy came in for his usual pack of cigarettes. He had to use two cards since his debit didn't have enough money on it, I was nice about it. He then asked if he could get a cup of water, sure dude. I've said this before I just hope he remembers I was nice to him when he goes off the deep end and decides to head to the Conoco instead. 

You can't fool me, I know that's not a $50.



Skippy came in, did some paperwork, asked about a price on an item and left. I like it when he does that.

It was almost the end of the night and I was trying to get some last minute stuff done, and there was an indecisive woman. She looked at everything, looked at everything again, grabbed something, put it back, grabbed something else, put it back, and then went to the restroom. In the end she got a plain Red Bull. 

Both of the Graveyard shift were on time but there was a crowd so the Crazy Lady couldn't log in and had trouble counting in her drawer, they think I don't notice the difference between busy days and slow days. The Graveyard Shift Guy came in and he seemed to be in a mood so I left him alone too. And when I went to end my shift the time clock said I hadn't clocked in, even though I had. I hate that machine. I miss timecards.

By the way, you can tell how the economy is doing. A few years ago when we were in the oh so horrible Biden economy I had to work a Labor Day, the place was packed, I had to stay an hour late to clean the place including taking the snow shovel out to scoop up all the trash from the overflowing cans and I did $12,000 in business. Today, I cleaned the restrooms once, dumped two bags of trash and did $3500. Also if you're thinking of robbing the place the majority of those sales are credit and when the drawer hits a certain amount I make a safe drop, I don't keep that much cash on hand. 

I had a bunch of home stuff do to on Tuesday no updates on any of the stations. 

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