As The Station Turns 10/25

The day started with me having to go and get keys made for the Haunted Station so I can lock up the cash drawer at the end of the night. The Boss gave me money for it but he only wanted me to get the one key for the office. I picked up the keys from the Late Guy and "whoopsy" made a copy of one for the front door too. If something comes up and I have to open I have a key and the Boss won't know. When I went to the hardware store the key guy didn't have blanks that matched, great, now what? But then one of the other employees, who use to work at the Truck Stop, came up to the counter and told the guy to check in the random spare box and sure enough, there were two blanks. So I got the keys, went back by the Haunted Station and dropped off the Late Guy's keys, checked to make sure the new ones worked and then went home to get ready for work.

BTW, the Late Guy was complaining about the Part Time Woman, it seems she couldn't dump the outside trash because there was a really big squirrel outside. Unless it was a bear size squirrel that was a lousy excuse. She was also complaining that there wasn't a plunger, it was across the street at the Truck Stop. I get the feeling when the Big Changes happen they are going to let her go.

Later in the day when I went to work at the Haunted Station the toilets in the mens room was backed up and they were closed. What a great way to start a new gig. The pisser weren't happy because I told them the whole system was down, any paying customer I told could use the ladies room but to be sure to knock first. They got a lot of not customers going across the street.

The credit card system at the Haunted Station went down so all the cards are on the backup system. However when you don't use the thing it goes into sleep mode and you have to punch in the code to open it. They didn't put the code on the machine and the Late Guy didn't tell me what it was. I had to call him for the first credit card customer. It turns out it's just a series of repeated numbers. Again, not the best manager in the world.

It's been cold and rainy for a week but the good news is I know how to turn on the heater at the Haunted Station. At the Truck Stop the thermostat is locked up and when it's freezing in the building you have to bring a jacket. I remembered to turn it off at the end of the night so they don't figure out I know and they prevent me from actually using it.

Thanks to all the heavy rains and an actual tornado in Santa Fe people aren't traveling this week and it was slow. I got bored so I started cleaning and the place is a mess. When I was dusting there were clouds coming off the top of the equipment. Also the back room is full of trash, nobody is taking it out to the dumpster. The Late Guy told me all about how he did a hard core cleaning in the place before it reopened but I think he just mopped the floor.

The safe has a printer to run a report for everything you do, and it wasn't working. So I left it, I wasn't going to mess with it. There is probably some secret that they didn't tell me. I like going into a place and having to figure everything out because nobody bothers to explain things to you.

A woman came in looking for boner pills. O....K..... I told her I didn't know where she'd get those around here.

As part of my usual routine, that I do at all the places I'm covering, I checked the cappuccino machine and all the powder hoppers were empty. There was plenty in the back room but none in the machine, so I filled those up. Again, they've been open since Wednesday and the Late Guy was suppose to be getting the place ready before that. Plus there have been four other people over there and nobody said "Hmmm....I should fill up the cappuccino machine". Well it's done now. I get the feeling that even though I'm working over there two days a week I'm going to be doing as much work as when I was full time.

A woman came in to bitch that the price of fuel wasn't the same as in Arkansas. Too bad and be prepared to be disappointed for the remainder of your trip. Honestly, if the place you come from is such a paradise why don't you stay there?

Before he left the Late Guy told me he had filled up the ice hopper on the soda machine and I wouldn't have to worry about it. I still checked it towards the end of the night. I dumped four buckets into it (it only holds five buckets), I didn't go through that much ice since the majority of the taps are marked out of order, they took all the soda bibs over to the Truck Stop while the place was closed and they didn't get a new order yet. Yep, the Late Guy manages to do a lot of nothing. 

The rain stopped, the place was empty so I figured I would do the trash. I grabbed the trash bag roll and a guy showed up to use the restroom. Sorry dude, out of order so he left. That worked out. 

I almost got the trash done when a mob showed up. It was expected. Also since I don't have to worry about shift changes I can do it at any time. But they just kept coming, one at a time. Why? Sure enough, when the bag landed in the dumpster they all left. 

A woman came in and was telling me about all the rain from Lubbock to here, and all the crappy drivers. She said they came up on three trucks towing horse trailers, and they were driving in the left hand lane. They had to pass the trucks on the right side. And that boys and girls is how accidents happen.

I closed up and mopped the floor, there was enough dirt that I could have panned for gold. Just as I was finishing up a large RV rolled in. Too bad, I'm closed and you aren't going to track up my floor just to piss. I put off my paperwork until the end of the night so it took me an extra 15 minutes to get everything done, and I was on the clock so I didn't care. I double checked everything to make sure I went through the full closing process and then I went home. 

At home I was checking my money. I switched out several bundles of the Miscreant's marked bills in both of the drawers. I did it in the office out of view of the cameras. When I got home I discovered I was missing a bundle of singles, $20 total. I panicked because I thought I left it on top of the safe and if I went back I would have to shut off the alarm and they'd see me on camera and wonder what I was up to. However I discovered them in my coat pocket. I have to be more careful in the future. 

10/26

The manager of the West Side Station is on vacation and I needed to go for a walk before winter hit so I went by to say "Hi" to the Weekend Guy. He's not happy, as usual. I told him about all the goings on at the Truck Stop and what a mess the Haunted Station is. He then told me that next week there was going to be a schedule shuffle, the West Side Manager is going to be working on Saturday, the Weekend Guy was going to be working at the Haunted Station and the Late Guy was going to be working at the Truck Stop. However the Late Guy is suppose to be working Saturday afternoon, my shift. I get the horrible feeling they are going to want me to work at the Downtown Station on Saturday, I hate that place. I guess I'll find out. 

I told the Late Guy I couldn't get the safe reports to print out so he showed me the trick. He could have told me yesterday. Also since you have to use a separate system to run cards I ran them out separately in the register so my paperwork would balance and for some reason it threw off the bosses who couldn't figure out where the money went. Well, I guess I won't try to make things easier, I'll just let it be a giant mess that the accountant has to straighten out. Also nobody told me how they handle that stuff, once again I just got thrown into a situation. I'm not going to try to make things easier in the future, just do as I'm told and leave the mess for someone else. And I'm really looking forward to Tuesday to find out what the new cluster "you know what" is going to happen.