As The Station Turns 9/9

 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 sure to attach a note that the sale wasn't mine, and thus someone else's idea. And that's why I insist on taking a form of payment when I let someone fill up, or at least ask what kind of card they have.

A woman came in and was asking about trump and the whole changing the name of New Mexico. I told her that was never going to happen. I asked her if she had heard about the 9/11 thing and we had a conversation about how trump has gone off the deep end. The good part was the Manager had to listen to the whole thing and couldn't make any comments. I'm pretty sure her husband is maga.

I ran some empty boxes out to the dumpster and I looked over, there were several auction car guys parked on the side of the lot. The front bumper had falling off one of the trucks. I had to wonder if it was a damaged truck they had bought or did they hit something on the highway. later when I looked out they were pulling back onto the highway and the bumper was in the back of the truck.

A guy in an RV wanted to know if the water spigot over on the grass area worked. I told him it was locked up and the only faucet was under the window. He wanted to know if we had a hose, nope. He wanted to know if he could fill up his RV's tank. I said he could get a gallon or two but if he was going for a hundred the answer was no, water costs money. I sent him to the RV park, I didn't tell him they charge by the gallon. Everybody wants something free in the modern world.

The Late Guy came by, he needed a notebook and they don't sell them at the Haunted Station. It turns out he was suppose to be doing a daily log but thought someone was going to send him paperwork to fill out. Just more fun being the manager. He and another guy got into a conversation about homemade fireworks, it was fun to listen to. The guy said some guy brought him some PVC pipes packed with black powder and he wouldn't have anything to do with it due to the shrapnel, he's a strictly cardboard packing guy.

Some older guy showed up outside, I had no idea where he came from. At first I thought he was with one of the customers, or waiting for a ride. When I was trying to bag ice I saw the Tire Shop Guy and he was out chatting with the guy, which gave me time to finish. Later the guy came in and said he was trying to get to Colorado Springs, he didn't seem like he was trying too hard. He then asked if he could sleep behind the sheds, in order to get rid of him I suggested the old loading dock across the street. Then the rain rolled in and he came inside, I couldn't do anything since I had to keep an eye on him. After the rain he asked about a motel across the interstate so I gave him directions. If he had money for a motel he had money for a bus ticket. And if he wanted to go to Colorado he needed to go stand on the corner and stick out his thumb. Hopefully he's gone.

Also there was the perfect post rain photo but the old hitchhiker was standing in the way. I hate that. I eventually got the photo.

A guy came in and asked if we had diesel, I pointed at the pumps. He said they were bagged out and I told him it was only one of the pumps, the other three were working. So he left, he didn't get any fuel, he just left. All those questions, all those answers and it was pointless.

Skippy pulled in, sat out in his car, and then left. My kind of night.

Four guys came in, the first one asked if we had a "potty". Then they were yelling and screaming in the restroom. One guy asked if anyone else had ever done that, I told him it wasn't the worst I heard. He asked if there were disturbances at the station so I told him about the couple who showed up in separate cars and were ramming into each other as they went around the lot. He then asked if the sunglasses he tried on were cool, sure whatever. He asked if we carded for cigarettes or was I willing to look the other way, I told him the register required an ID to clear a sale. He then asked if a dance fight had ever broken out at the station and he and one of the other guy's started doing the most pathetic White boy dancing I've seen for a while. I told him he won and when he turned his back I told the other guy he was the real winner, I was thinking they were both a couple of losers. They bought their stuff and left. I would weep for the future but I was once 20 and stupid. 

Some guy kept picking up the pump nozzle and then hanging it up when it didn't go on. I hate that because the register give me an annoying beep notification every time someone does that. He then came in and said he wanted 15 gallons. Normally I'd grab my calculator and do the math but the guy had pissed me off so I told him we set the pumps by the dollar amount, not the gallons, he had to do the math. I don't understand people in the modern world who think stations are just going to turn on the pumps and let them fill up, nobody has done that in 25 years.

The Crazy Lady came in late, as usual and took an extra long time counting in her drawer, as if I wouldn't notice. I don't know if she's in a mood or not but she hasn't been taking, this is a bonus for me by the way. And of course I didn't see Bigfoot.

I had taken the truck today because the weather said it was going to rain when I was getting off work it didn't. A few weeks ago a tree branch had blown off and into the middle of the road so I drug it over by the fence. I meant to grab it when I hauled off the rest but I kept forgetting. So I wrote myself a note and almost forgot it again today. My neighbors must have thought I was nuts when I stomped on the breaks in the middle of the street. So now I have a big branch in the back of my truck and one of these days I need to take it and dump it.