9/21

Payday! It really is the best day of the week. Why is it on Wednesday? Beats me, all I know is there's a check. Or as I like to say, "If they didn't pay me I wouldn't come here at all". Come to think of it, since they stopped paying me I haven't been back to my old job, I guess that saying is true.

Since it's payday I decided to go get my check, I was up early and had nothing better to do. I walked up to the station but the checks hadn't arrived yet so I decided to hang out. One of the women from the afternoon shift was there and she was saying she may have a job with the county. If that happens I might have a shot at an afternoon position again, yeah! Of course it happens just after I booked a room for Thanksgiving so I will have to see if I can still get the Wednesday/Thursday days off schedule but I'm not making any plans yet, after all I got screwed over for the afternoon the last time.

Meanwhile the morning woman got back together with her loser boyfriend, I guess she paid for her bus ticket. She was debating selling her washer and dryer. I considered saying "why don't you tell the loser to get a job" but I don't want to get in the middle of that train wreck of a relationship. For the next week she will be happy and in love, then the fights will start, then some woman will start calling because she is screwing the loser on the side and then they will have the next big fight and break up again. Why do people.....never mind.

While I was waiting for the checks to arrive the manager had to run and make some duplicate keys. How the heck did I get stuck running a register on my day off and off the clock? OK, so I helped maybe two people and it's good Karma towards the job but none the less. I also found out Ray's real first name is Guadalupe, that's a girls name by the way. It would be the same as naming your son Mary or Katie or so on. It goes a long way to explaining why he is the way he is. Oh well, I will still call him Ray.

Finally I got my check and two hours after I showed up I went home. How the heck did that happen? I planned on staying up late so I could stick to my schedule but by midnight I was falling asleep sitting up so I went to bed. I slept for a solid 9 hours so I am fully rested. Again, I will regret it come Friday but for now it was the best sleep I have gotten in years.

Found money, nothing today.

9/22 

 Bank day. I decided that it would be a good idea to deposit my paycheck since I needed to pay bills at the end of the month. I've been lazy over the past few months and it's a nice day I decided to walk.

On the way back I stopped and visited a friend who works at the other station. She didn't have any good gossip so we just chatted about angry customers and lazy coworkers. The good thing is we can both vent and nobody else knows. After that it was homeward bound where I didn't do anything else for the rest of the day. I stayed up until around 3 am and then went to bed. I like slow days. 

Found money one cent 

9/23

It's another sunny day so I decided to go for another walk. This time I did something I had been putting off, I went to the art show. It was actually a very good show, surprising for a stinky little town. Of course I kept wondering, "how the heck did I get accepted into this show?" There were only 5 sculpture and three of them were mine. Had they been judging by category I might have won something but it was an in general judging. If you want to win the local show you have to do either animals or cowboys, no skulls made from broken beer bottles. Hmmm....maybe if I made a buffalo skull from beer bottles..... They also handed out slips to vote for "people's choice", I could have put in one vote for myself but instead I really liked an abstract painting so it was my choice.

On my way home I dropped by the station to say hi. The manager had some news for me, Ray didn't show up last night. According to company rules if you don't show up for your shift you quit, not fired but quit. It's in the employees handbook. So they hired someone new but the person can't start until Monday. This is good news for me because I don't have to train them solo over the weekend, they can start learning while both Diane and I are working. I can teach the new person the register while Diane does her usual cleaning frenzy. Yeah.

The manager wasn't happy, she is going to have to show up at 10 to give Ray his walking papers. Of course he will claim it wasn't his fault but that doesn't matter. He will probably try to get on unemployment but since he technically quit he can't do that. And finally he will probably try to come up with some phony lawsuit but he signed the first warning and the employee agreement so he doesn't have a legal leg to stand on. He just isn't that smart. And considering his track record the last place for him is McDonald's. I'm going to miss Ray, he was fun to write about.

~ 

I showed up at work and it was a normal night. I counted in a drawer and logged into the register. So far so good. Then the manager showed up.

The manager had to catch Ray and get him to sign his termination papers, the 11th commandment of Cover Thine Own Ass was in effect. Then Diane showed up and logged into the second register. We were just busy enough that I was stuck behind the counter, no matter how much I would have preferred going off and hiding until the unpleasantries were done.

After about 10 minutes the manager asked me if Ray was often late and I told her he was always late on Friday so he could avoid having to work a register, the manager was not happy with that. Things weren't going to get better.

It was around 20 after when the phone rang. The manager checked the caller ID and sure enough it was Ray, she answered and he hung up right away, not a bright move. Sure enough, 10 minutes later he called back but this time he had a story, he wasn't feeling well and needed the night off, if it had been me I would have said "sure take as many days off as you want, just come by Monday to get your last check." Instead the manager told him that Diane hadn't showed up, he had to come in and had 10 minutes to show up. This was getting very interesting.

Amazing Ray actually came rolling in and was surprised to see Diane standing behind the counter. The manager handed him his termination paper and told him to read and sign it. I don't think he read it because when he was done he asked "should I go home now?" Well d'uh, you don't have a job anymore. I fully expect him to show up tomorrow night, I don't think he understands what just happened. 

I should mention that he blamed Diane for his not showing up to work. He claims she knew he was sick, even though he never talked to her. It's always someone else's fault with that guy. Oh well, what will I write about now, oh yeah, customers.

Holy Crap it was a busy night. I have no idea where everyone was going or why they were travelling so late. I was stuck behind the register all night long. At least the people were colorful.

The first guy of interest showed up on a scooter. He told me his wife of 8 years kicked him out and he had no where to go. So he had driven from Dallas all night long and was heading to stay with a friend in Colorado Springs. He was freezing, it was around 45 f at the time, and he didn't even have a pair of gloves. I had flashes of Dumb and Dumber. I sold him gloves and gave him an estimate on how long it was going to take to get there. I didn't tell him there was a big hill between here and his destination, no need to make his night any worse.

Another guy came in, he was carrying a rather fancy Bling Bling watch, I had a feeling I knew where this conversation was going to go. He wanted a pack of cigarettes but, or dear, forgot his wallet. He wanted to know if I could give him the smokes until he could come back and pay for them. I told him they would be here waiting until he got back, he didn't like that. He then, which I expected, offered me the watch in exchange for the cigarettes. Considering he was standing there with blood covered knuckles I passed on that too, after all who's window did he punch out to steal it. He got very discouraged and finally left.

The next group to come through were very intersting. The two women look like they just came from Hollywood Blvd. and the two guys looked like they just got out of the state lockup. And they all stank of alcohol and weed. I'm glad I wasn't on the road.

By the middle of the night I had a wad of cash in the drawer and really needed to do a safe drop, but people were still in the store and I didn't want to be flashing around a pile of money. About this time a guy came in sporting a known gang tattoo, and this gang is a pack of murderous thugs. I got somewhat nervous if he happened to see in the drawer so I discreetly pulled the cash out of the drawer and stashed it under some stuff on the counter. About that time a local came in and it turns out he was with the gangster so I relaxed a bit, they weren't going to do anything while Diane was on shift. Finally the place cleared out long enough for a safe drop and it turned out to be over $700 bucks, that is as much as I take in on a normal night. In the end I dropped over $2000 dollars by shift change. It was a very busy night.

It was about an hour before shift change, things were clean-esque. Shelves were stocked as best I could do between crowds and the cooler, well the cooler was still a mess, I just had enough time to throw things on empty racks but not to do a full Friday clean and organize. Heck, there are two other shifts, for once they could lend a hand, just saying.

The woman on the morning shift was on time so Diane had time to go home and clean up before heading to her other job, she is a working maniac. After she left I told the morning woman all about the final visit from Ray and how clueless he was even in the end. We had a good laugh. I told her since Diane was working the Saturday night shift at least one of the morning crew had to show up on time Sunday morning and she promised me she would be there. I swear, as far as things go I am second to the bottom on the employee list and I shouldn't have to be giving people orders and yet...

Finally the hippie showed up late, as usual. The morning woman asked if I got mad because I was always having to wait and I told her I didn't mind padding my check by an hour a day in the least. I finally got home and went straight to bed.

Around 10 am I woke up and had to get up. The art show closed on Friday night and they were having pick ups on Saturday morning. When I got there it was the director, the main assistant and a volunteer. I was hoping to grab my stuff and take off but I had to hang out and tell them what a great job they are doing. Finally when the conversation hit a lull I excused myself and took off. I don't have to mess with any of that for at least a year, heck I don't really have to do it ever again. I just have to remember to not comment on the art scene in my stinky little town in a local forum ever agian. Thank goodness for the internet.

Found money 13 cents and a Bahamian nickle, it has a pineapple on it.

9/24 

 Well, as much as I hoped he would, for entertainment purposes, Ray never showed up. I guess he got the message after all. I fully expect to see him at McDonalds sweeping up the parking lot in the not too distant future.

Meanwhile work goes on. A woman got a cup of cappuccino and as she is standing there she says "this cup has a hole in the bottom". Sure enough it did and the coffee was running all over the counter. Calmly, not shouting in a rude manner, I told her to get another cup. Why isn't that the first option people think of, seriously. So I got to start the night by mopping up the big puddle, this is the second day in a row something like this had happened.

So I tackled the cooler, a lot of stuff came in last week. Normally this is the Friday job but with only two people on shift and the crowd we had I just didn't have the time. Hey, maybe one of the people from one of the other shifts will take care of it....yeah right. I cleaned and straightened and stocked and an hour later I hauled out two loads of cardboard and shrink wrap and the shelves are back in order. As usual I had to pull several items off the racks because someone figured they would just fill up a slot with something rather than what went there. Done again, for at least another week that is. PS, becasue I talked to the Coke guy you can get Sprite Zero at our station, why am I the one discussing this stuff with the vendors?

Here's something in never understood, if your drawer is low on a certain coin or bill it's a guarantee that every person that comes in will require change in the exact denomination you are low on. If it's pennies their total will come to something like $1. 51 and they will pay with two dollars. If you are low on $10's their total will be 9.75 and they will pay with a $20. Every time. But here's the thing, the minute you get money out of the safe suddenly everyone will pay with exact change.

So, I was low on quarters and sure enough every customers total was between 1 cent and 24 cents. I finally had to bust open a  roll of quarters and I kid you not, just as I finished doing it the very next customer, in line, not 10 minutes later but the person right behind the person who took my last quarter, paid $3.50 in quarters, and everyone else paid in exact change. By the end of the night I had re rolled the $10 in quarters and had $7 left over. Sheesh, it's as if they all get together and plan it. If I didn't know better I would say it was some cruel Truman Show thing.

Speaking of money a customer paid with a $2 bill. I figured I was going to have to drop it in the safe at the end of the night, giving me an odd total. The U.S. government printed millions of dollars in $2 bills and nobody ever used them, except for the post office and the welfare board. So when one pops up you just hate it. Well, halfway through the night some customer saw it in my drawer, I had it on the far edge in the empty cash slot and he got excited. He bought it from me and I was happy to get rid of it. Sometimes things work out well.

Since my coworker had to go to her second job I had strongly suggested the morning crew show up on time and what do you know, they did. Well one of them did, in the end I hung out for an extra hour again. I would complain, heck I would rip the guy a new one but I get paid overtime for it so he is the companies problem. I got home, hit the sheets and didn't budge until after 1 pm. All in all not a bad night. 

Found money 5 cents and a 1956 penny 

9/25

 I can't figure out what it is about weekends that makes people lazy. I walked in at the usual time and the afternoon shift wasn't ready. They hadn't counted down one of their drawers or put ice in the coke machine hopper or about a dozen other things. Their excuse was a creepy homeless guy had been hanging around earlier, they even called the cops. If you are going to work at a gas station right off an interstate you had better get use to creepy homeless guys and learn to deal with them. 

Anyhow a half hour later I was finally in the register and off and running. It was a quiet night and I even managed to finish up straightening the cooler. It should last until tomorrow. If I thought someone would read it I really would write the 10 Commandments of the walk in cooler.

Here's an observation, women and men ask directions differently. When a woman asks how far a place is she wants the answer in time as in how many hours to... When a man asks you how far they want it in miles. When you give directions to a man you use compass points, turn east then turn north and so on. When you give directions to a woman you give it in geographical landmarks, turn left and then go to the traffic light and make a right. This isn't a sexist thing, it's just the way it is.

The station was a brand name place but the brand name is dropping us. So all day and all night people come in and try to use their brand name credit card, and they no longer work here. I figured out the best thing to say is "brand name is dropping us as one of their stations and their cards no longer work here". Most people accept this answer and pull out either another card or cash but ever now and then you get a grumpy person. They complain about the signs, "How come you don't take down brand name signs". My answer is that they have to come and do it and there is no telling when that will happen. Even the grumpy people can't argue that since I, the wage slave behind the counter, has no control over the situation.

However, there are those customers who feel it is their responsibility to make sure I am fully aware of their inconvenience regarding everything in their life. One such customer complained about the cards and the sign and then went and pumped his gas. Of course this wasn't enough, he had to come back inside and claim the pump was pumping air, this is a common claim of those who want something to complain about. I told him it was impossible and that the pump has a bleed off valve for any air pockets and if it's flow rate was interrupted it would shut itself down and that the meter only works when liquid is passing through. Well, he then claimed the pump continued to run numbers after he shut the handle off. I knew at this point he was just a complainer so I did my standard, "I will have to pass your complaint along to the management", yes back to my "I'm just a wage slave standing behind a counter and don't give a rats ass about your made up complaints". He gave me that "well..." look and I gave it back and he left.

Don't get mad at me if you have a really nice car because this is a just in general observation but the nicer the car the bigger the asshole. The guy who was trying to come up with something to piss me off so he could go off on some kind of "I'm so superior to you" type of rant was driving a shiny brand new red Corvette. It never fails, the people in broke down, held together with duct tape and wire, vehicles are the nicest people you will ever meet. Guy in flashy sports car, whiny complainy obnoxious and so on.

Anyhow, remember a few paragraphs when I described a couple of the customers as hookers and recent parolees? Well they came back! Or at least the two guys came back, hopefully there aren't a couple of women in a shallow grave somewhere in Texas right now. The funny part was they paid all in five dollar bills. I told my coworker that I wondered if they had been down a G string recently, maybe they were taking their stripper girlfriends to a special show. She was rather grossed out by the comment and didn't want anything to do with my cash drawer after that.

And to end off the day a guy walked up to the counter and told me "I'm going to get a cup of coffee". He wasn't buying anything or paying for anything at the time so I really had to wonder why he had to make that announcement. He wasn't even asking where the coffee was, he just felt the need to inform me of his actions. Ummm....OK.......

The morning crew showed up on time, which they do on Monday, but just Monday, so I got out on time. I only had to run their register for a short time and since most construction jobs don't start until after sunrise there hasn't been the usual morning rush. I was in bed and sound asleep within a half hour. I am looking forward to Monday night because it's when the new employee starts and I get to do training. Weeee.....hopefully it isn't another Ray.

ps, As I said before once I like to find those Where's George bills and check them out on the internet. So I found a 1999 $10 bill that was really worn and looked like it had quite the journey. I came home and checked it out, how long had it been since someone marked it? How many miles had it travelled? I figured this was going to be good. Turns out the bill had traveled a total of around 200 miles and had first been posted on the site two days earlier. Yes I was disappointed. 

Found money 22 cents and a 1947 penny. I need to get me one of those coin books. 

9/26

 Training day. 

Ray's replacement started tonight. She was actually hired last Thursday but was sick so she didn't start until Monday. This didn't bode well, look I used the word bode and correctly.

Anyhow it turns out that she is a wonderful person! She showed up on time. She learned the register within an hour. She didn't tell us, Diane and myself, how smart she was. And her only complaint of the night was that she wanted to do the sidework and was bored behind the counter. This might just work out.

Since it was training day I mostly just kicked back and made sure everything ran smoothly. If it's the right person teaching can be fun, heck you get paid for 8 hours and you don't have to do anything, because you are training! I still did the cooler and dumped all the trashed plus filled up the racks in case you thought I really did nothing all night. All in all a good night.

It was also a good night for training because it was kind of slow. There were some interesting carnival guys who rolled thru on their way to some fair somewhere but otherwise most people just wanted to fill up and get out as soon as possible.

At the end of the night the hippie actually showed up on time, miracles of miracles! And I had just spent the entire night saying how he always came in late, maybe Ray getting the boot scared him, again. This should last until Sunday morning.

So it was about 5, shift change was coming and I had already counted down my drawer for a quick exchange, and the jerky guy showed up. He isn't a jerk if that's what you thougth I meant, he sells jerky along with various candy. He stared unloading his wares so the manager could look them over and see what she wanted to put in the store and what she was going to reject. He had some hard candy from Cold Stone so we were chatting about ice cream and taking bets on if he would reject it or not, she did by the way so I won.

Anyhow the morning shift showed up, including the hippie. So there were 5 people plus the jerky guy and his assistant all piled in behind the counter. The hippie was running the second register, the new girl, I think I will call her Amy after a character on one of my favorite TV shows, was learning how to count down her drawer and do the end of the shift paperwork and the manager was trying to do her early morning stuff and tell the jerky guy "no, no and no". I figured I was just in the way so I worked my way to the time clock and got the heck out of there. I like training day. 

Found money, 30 cents. 

9/27

 So I couldn't get away with the "I'm still training" excuse tonight. Amy had learned the register well enough to solo, except for trucker cards. For those of you who never dealt with cross country transportation of goods professional truckers have their own credit type of cards. Most people call them fleet cards since they are used by, well fleet drivers but I like to call them trucker cards since that is mostly who we deal with.

The problem with trucker cards is that they don't just swipe through the register like a credit card, well mostly there are a few that do. Anyhow the problem is that each card has to be approved in it's own way. Most stations do have a swipe and enter your information set up but not us. So you have to use either the seperate swipe machine or actually call the company to get an approvial number. And believe me, truck drivers get between $300 to $600 worth of fuel so you had better get the approvial number and you had better do it right.

There is a regular driver that comes in every night and his card is a "call in for approval" one. I wasn't going to make Amy try to do it on her first night so Monday I handled it and just told her what I was doing and why I did it but tonight it was her turn. I told her to just call the 800 number and follow the instructions. What I love about this service is you have to enter all the information from the card number and the expiration date to the amount and the invoice number, then you get put on hold while waiting for the next operator. I have done so many of them that I know what the computer was saying even though I couldn't hear it and I could tell her what she needed to punch in.

Amy got put on hold and then when she finally connected with the live operator they made her repeat all the stuff she had just punched in. Don't you just love modern technology. She finished up and got the drivers signature, rang the amount out of her drawer and then did the safe drop, you ring it out of your register and put the hard copy of the reciept in the safe for the manager. She then went to do something and I got the next driver who had the same card. What a surprise, when I rang it out of my register I missed a digit so at the end of the night my drawer was $500 off, but there is a record of the whole transaction so I don't have to worry too much.

I also did the cooler, yes, everynight. OMG! OK so I'm use to the Friday disaster but it was Tuesday! How the heck did someone manage to make that big of a mess in just one day? An hour later and once again it's in order, why just....just why? 

The end of the night rolled around, it was another quiet night without any real strange customers. Well there was that one guy who looked like a homeless drifter complete with ratty deads, a hemp poncho and a stray dog. I figured he had been dumped off by some driver who was at the end of his run and had to park for the night but when he went outside he hopped into a car that is probably worth more than I make all year. Seriously, it's one thing to be a wanderer of the earth but to be a poser? Sheehs.

Anyhow, as I was saying, the end of the night rolled around and once again I was the first out of my drawer. Except this morning the day shift has to do several things from paperwork to settling the totals on the trucker cards and I got stuck on their register. It seemed that all the construction crews and gas drillers showed up at the same time. I was rushing through ringing out their stuff and making change. Why is it that people give you "that look" when they are standing in line but when it's their turn they take their time counting out their change. Finally everythign cleared out, the morning shift opened up the second register and I could go home! I have readjusted to the night shift and can sleep all morning. Yes I can brag that I sleep well after noon, the only draw back is I am wide awake on my day off at 3 am in a small town and have nothing to do. Thank goodness for the internet.

I should start a new painting. 

Found money, $1.17