As The Station Turns 10/07

 Back to work, weee.....

The place was still standing when I got there, it didn't collapse because of my absence. I wonder how many people come back to work and discover that they weren't really missed. 

I had to start the day cleaning the counter in front of the register. It looked like someone had been eating there, crumbs everywhere and coffee stains. People are slobs. 

I guess the Late Guy has been trying to get the Haunted Station ready and he was upset, someone had left the door between the old restaurant area and the main store open and a bird had gotten in. I guess it was trapped inside for a while and made a mess, tearing open packages and pooping everywhere. And it's gone, the Late Guy is pretty sure there is a snake is in the building and caught the bird. Here's the thing, when the place was closed down I suggested that he check on it every couple of days, and he didn't. Now he has a mess to clean up and it's his own fault. 

As far as I know the tank inspector is going to show up on Thursday and if they pass the place will be open on Friday. I'm suppose to work two days a week over there so I'm going to have to go by and see if my codes are still in the register and the safe. I'm also going to have to get a set of keys so I can lock up the cash drawer at the end of my shift. But that's still on a "wait and see" basis.

I also had to chuckle because I was looking at the schedule and they forgot to have someone work on Thursday morning. I'm sure the Weekend Guy is opening on that day but he's scheduled to come in at 3. I'd laugh if nobody shows up. I also pointed out that the Late Guy is now stuck with the Part Time Woman three days a week. He says his first thing is to get rid of her. I said I wanted to leave her a drawer full of crappy bills and damaged coins but I come in on Wednesday and her first day is Friday, that means the Weekend Guy comes between us and I can't leave him all the crappy money. I'm going to have to figure something out.

Meanwhile, when I left last week only one of the diesel pumps was working but three out of four are up and running today. However the #7 and #8 regular pumps were down. Every Sunday at midnight the system cycles for the weekly report and for some reason it's knocking the pumps off line. The Late Guy showed up later in the day and rebooted them. They came back up and were running but the #7 wasn't allowing people to run their cards outside. I'm expecting it to permanently crash, probably during the Thanksgiving rush. I also had to laugh because it took the Late Guy three days to come and do a minor reboot, even though the Haunted Station is still closed.

The Old Guitar Player showed up. He's been permanently banned from the station and has a No Trespass Notice against him and he knows it. He opened the door and I just said "No!", he turned around and left. You'd think he would have learned by now but he keeps trying. One of these days he's going to come wandering around when the Boss is there and the cops are going to be called.

The Tire Shop Guy came in and we were talking about the activity in the neighborhood this week. One of the neighbors runs an independent trucking company but he's getting really old so he decided to sell off his collection of old pickups and semis. The auction was on Saturday and people have been coming by all week to haul them off. I guess they were blocking the street and the owner of the tire shop got pissed that his customers couldn't get in so he had a few words with the auction company. Since I was on vacation I didn't care, I only needed to go out twice and nobody was blocking my driveway at the time. 

I looked out and there was a dog with a leash running around. Nobody was holding on to the leash so I had to look out to see if someone was laying on the ground out back, they were sitting in their car and looked alive. I guess they didn't care that their dog was in danger of getting run over. Eventually they caught the dog and left.

I found a dollar in quarters laying on the ice freezer. Someone stopped somewhere else and wondered what happened to their change. It's going towards my experiment of buying lottery tickets.

Some guy was upset, every year he goes elk hunting in Colorado. Every year he stops at the Truck Stop to fill up the water tank on his trailer. There is a lock on the faucet now because so many people were stopping to fill up their water tanks and the owners got tired of paying the bill. The guy didn't get fuel or even buy anything in the store, I considered pointing this out to him but instead I just gave him a "life sucks for you" look and waited for him to leave. Some people want everything for free. And why didn't he fill up his water before he left his house? He didn't want to burn fuel hauling the extra weight. At least there is a little good news for him, there are plenty of places that fill up water tanks, and they charge by the gallon.

There was a husband in a hurry, he grabbed his stuff and came up to the register. However his wife was pulling a passive/aggressive move and was taking her time looking at everything, including the birthday cards. Meanwhile I was stuck waiting. Take your quiet argument somewhere else.

It's between seasons and the place has been dead so I figured it was a good time to do the ice, and here came a crowd. I got the ice done and I went back to zero customers. After a while I got bored so I grabbed the broom and here they all came again. I should just keep the broom behind the counter and when things drop off all I'd have to do is grab it and I'd get a rush.

A guy came in and walking to the register caused him to puff and pant. I was hoping he didn't drop dead in the station. Seriously dude, get an oxygen tank and head to a lower altitude.

A woman went to get something out of one of the coolers and almost broke one of her nails, and it really hurt. She was cursing and I was laughing. She apologized for her language but I told her I understood and heard worse. 

Skippy is back. He did his usual, wandered around the store, talked on the phone the whole time and left. The only reason he comes by is because the big bosses are watching and complain that he isn't being boss enough. I wonder how that is going to work out with the Haunted Station having to be reopen and the screwed up schedule. Next week is going to be a disaster.

At the end of the day it was so slow that I didn't have to dump any of the trashes including the restroom. McDonalds has started their new Monopoly game and someone had thrown away their bag but hadn't pulled any of the game pieces...so....I didn't win anything, so far.

The Crazy Lady came in but she wasn't talking. Bigfoot showed up because with the changing schedule the Boss told him he's going to have to start coming in on time, but he wasn't talking either. I closed my drawer and headed home. I'm going to enjoy seeing how things go next week when the graveyard shift has to cover sever afternoons, let the Crazy Lady see what it's really like to work during a busy day.