As The Station Turns 10/01

 It was a miserable day, the wind was blowing the rain sideways so I wasn't looking forward to going to work. The first thing I discovered was that one of the trash bags had been pushed into the can. I didn't want to be in the wind and rain trying to dig it out so I just put a new bag on top, but it was about to be sucked back out. I had to run in and get a cup of ice to weigh it down but naturally people showed up and tried to get in my way, they were all pissers so I took care of the trash first.

The Pepsi machine stopped working and a crowd showed up. Instead of trying to deal with it I just grabbed a piece of paper and marked it out of order. Later when the place cleared out I discovered that the CO2 tank was empty, this seems to happen quite a bit. I really have to wonder if it's actually happening at the first of my shift or are the rest of the people just ignoring the problem. Anyhow the Manager came back and caught me changing it out which is a good thing. 

Some guy with a car trailer pulled into the diesel pumps the wrong way, the pump was on the opposite of his tank. He backed up, which isn't unusual but they kept going, out into the street. He then headed off. I have no idea what that was about but he was lucky, there are a lot of angry truck drivers in this part of the world. 

A guy came in and was worried, he had overfilled his tank and thought it would flood his engine. I told him he wasn't going to have any problems. I could have explained to him that the fuel doesn't go directly from the tank to the engine but has to pass through the fuel pump and then into an injector and finally into your engine. I guess most people didn't grow up around mechanics or like to look through tech manuals.

The Tire Shop Guy came in, I jokingly told him someone in the parking lot was looking for a tire (if you read my blog you'll get the joke). He told me the wind had blown a tree down at the shop and then we had a discussion about chainsaws and how people don't understand that you can't put a blade on that is too long for the motor. When I woke up this morning (I live near the tire shop by the way) I heard the Tire Shop Guy firing up and sawing away, at 6:30 AM. I would complain but he told me about his neighbor, they got the city council to block an expansion of the business and then threatened to call the cops on him for throwing trash, in the shop's dumpsters. I can understand his motivation. He also told me the tire shop got a new credit card system and the first time he tried to use it he accidentally rang out a $150 refund on someone's card. I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has trouble with computers.

A guy's card wouldn't work at the pump so he left it at the register while he filled up. When he finished pumping the sale rang out and cleared off the register, I kind of panicked, what the heck? It was a big sale! Turns out he decided to try a different card at the pump. I wasn't pissed because he was from Australia and they are always really nice people. I also pointed out that his card's chip was wearing out and that was probably what was causing him problems.

The Boss came by today. I guess he's not avoiding me anymore. He told me he wants to change my schedule again, instead of just covering one day at the Haunted Station he wants me to do Friday, Saturday and Sunday. He was going to come back to talk to Bigfoot and see how he was doing on the graveyard, the Boss is planning on having the Graveyard Shift Guy cover the afternoons for the three days I won't be there. Things are starting to get messy.

The Boss wants me to start my new schedule right away, which means, once again, I have 5 days off, however I'm staying near my phone because I expect the worse. I guess it all depends on the Graveyard Shift Guy showing up on Friday.

The #11 pump went off line, with the Haunted Station being closed it means we are down to one diesel pump in town. I bagged it out of order but before I left I pulled the bag back off, I don't want to be blamed for anything. "Beats me, it was working when I left." The funny part is that the Late Guy was suppose to have taken classes and can fix things like this but we're down four pumps.

The rain stopped and the crowd thinned out so I decided to mop the floor. I got the bucket ready and sure enough, I was swarmed. I considered mopping the low traffic area and two people rushed over there, if only I can get the lottery to work that way. Anyhow the place finally cleared out and I got the floor done, in less than three hours by the way.

I don't know what they were looking at but a woman was laughing so hard about something on the souvenir rack that she was squeaking. Her friend was taking a video so it's probably somewhere on the internet.

The Crazy Lady came in and was slamming things around. I couldn't care less about her mood and I prepared in advance so it only took me a few minutes to close out my shift and leave. I also didn't tell her the Boss was coming back, let her enjoy that surprise. And when they move the Graveyard Shift Guy to working afternoons she's going to be super pissed, she always hated me because she thought she would move to the afternoon shift but I showed up instead. I don't care. Plus if I'm working the weekends across the street I don't have to deal with the Part Time Woman anymore. A win/win for me!

10/02

The Weekend Guy has packages delivered to the West Side Station because he doesn't trust the people where he lives. The UPS guy showed up after closing time so they left it at the Truck Stop and I took it by today. He's not working at the Haunted Station right now so he doesn't have much news. He told me the West Side Station manager is going on vacation at the end of the month. He doesn't know who will be covering the shifts so I'm expecting to hear about that. It turned out I had more to tell him than he had to tell me and it was lunch time so I came home to get stuff done before my phone rings and once again my 5 day vacation turns into covering extra shifts.