12/7

Shortly after Amy started I promised to cover her shift on the 7th.  So it was off to work I go. At least this time I was prepared in advance.

When I came in there was a huge patch of ice in the parking lot. It seemed the afternoon shift had wheeled the mop bucket out the back door but they lost control and dumped it everywhere. It was a very cold night and the mop water froze almost instantly. I'm glad I parked over on the side. 

The night started off with three people in a row trying to pay with $100 bills. Luckily they were all getting a lot of gas so I could take them but I was quickly out of change and had to drop from the safe right away. Why do people insist on paying with large bills late at night? 

It was the typical mid week non holiday night, long and boring. Diane was doing her usual so once again I was stuck behind the register. I wish V from the afternoon shift would hurry up and quit so I can work with someone who tag teams the registers. Of course considering the way things have gone in the past I'm not holding my breath.

Eventually I started stocking shelves, I had nothing better to do. Sure enough, when I got out all the candy boxes a crowd of people showed up. I was busier than I had been for several days and had to put my work off to the side. Finally they all cleared out and I was able to finish what I was doing.

Towards the end of the night some guy pulled up to one of the pumps and was waiting outside. He finally came in and told me he wanted to get fuel, he had that "do you know who I am" attitude so I made him leave a deposit. I don't know who he is and there is no use giving me attitude. Boy he wasn't happy about that and I was laughing.

Finally the night rapped up and I could go home and enjoy my one night of the week off.

Found money 16 cents and a 1966 nickle.

12/8

Sleep, sleep and more sleep. Beyond filling up the horses water tanks I did nothing, all day long. I really need two days off.

12/9

Friday night. Diane didn't show up. Alice didn't show up. I ended up working with A from the afternoon shift, who was pulling a double. She's OK, she was the one I got passed over for an afternoon job and I wanted to hate her but it turns out she is cool so I couldn't. We talked about kids, we talked about her other job, we talked about what a nut P on the afternoon shift is. All in all an entertaining night.

There was the annual basketball tournament in town and we had a crowd. A knew most of the people so they were chatting and having a good time, and I was waiting on the spill over crowd. Then my ex bosses grandmother came in, I almost got away with her not recognizing me but then she realized who I was and we had to chat. She asked me how things were going and I didn't say "fine since that scum of a grandson of yours forced me out". Are you proud of me? I was glad that she felt kind of awkward and left right away.

One of the pumps was low on paper again so I went out to change the roll. A told me she didn't know how to do it so I promised that at the next available time I would show her how. Of course we were busy so it would have to wait.

I was joking around about a former manager, Beth, who haunts the building. When its cold or something disappears I blame Beth, she was quite the grouch, and now everyone is doing it, yes I started something. Anyhow A had worked at the station across the street and was telling me how the toilet will flush itself and how some guy got locked in the restroom and they had to call the fire department to pry him out. I asked if she knew why and she said no so I told her the story of the dead guy.

When my local town had a horse race track weekends were extra busy. Motels were full, you couldn't get a seat at a restaurant and the station across the road had a diner that stayed open all night. Well the gas station and the restaurant each had their own restrooms and the two sets were divided by a door, that way if one side closed up the other side still had access to one set of restroms. Both sides took turns cleaning and since there were two sets if one was occupied they just left it for the next round. Well one busy weekend it seemed at least one of the mens rooms always seemed to be occupied but by Sunday it really began to stink so they knocked on the door, no answer. When they finally unlocked the door and went in they found a dead guy, he had a massive aneurysm while using the facilities and had been in there since Friday. Now his spirit haunts the building.

Last week I had mentioned a truck driver who was stuck first in a storm and then by wide load restrictions. Well he was still there but he now had to go back to Texas for a court date so he wanted to know if he could leave the truck. He joked he would be back tomorrow unless the judge threw him into jail. It just wasn't his week. 

Anyhow the night finally ended and once again I worked a couple of extra hours for the morning shift woman, I am going to have a really big check this pay period. Home, horses and bed.

Found money $1.38 and a 1964 nickle.

12/10

Too much working and a lack of sleep has me on edge, so what happened next was inevitable. When I showed up at work I started counting in my drawer except there was a problem. I had ten pennies, 6 quarters and four singles. The first two people with $20 bills would wipe me out and I was pissed. P from the afternoon shift had left me no change and $120 in twenty dollar bills. I lost it. I never said anything to her but I slammed the drawer down and pulled out a couple of the twenties. I started dropping change from the safe and as I did I took the safe tubes and slammed them into the box and then slammed the rolls into the drawer the entire time mumbling about how some people are too stupid to know how to do their own jobs. I made sure P was listening to everything, and then she ran out of the building, I think she got the message. For an added bonus I put a note about being unable to properly open the shift in with my paperwork at the end of the night. One of these days I'm going to work the morning shift and...

I was working with Amy and she was kind of shocked but not too much. After I calmed down we laughed about it and she told me about the last time P left a drawer for her like that, I guess it's a common thing. Then the night got underway. 

Mostly it was quiet, the closer it gets to Christmas the fewer people are travelling. I had to laugh because a group of redneck guys came in and just then Dueling Banjos came on the radio. Don't worry, they used the restroom, bought some stuff and left.

The next guy came in with a phone bud. He was having a conversation and at the same time talking to me. I didn't know if he had just asked me a question or the person on the other end. Needless to say there were a few awkward pauses.

I got some stuff for myself and went to put them in a bag that had been saved, it had been pulled off the roll and was set off to the side. The stuff went straight through and fell on the floor so I got the second bag and it had a hole in it too. What kind of idiot saves a bag with a hole in it? Oh yeah, P had been working the register.

Finally the end of the shift rolled around and surprise both of the morning crew showed up so I went home.

Found money 30 cents

12/11

Amy had made a deal with P to trade out a couple of hours. Amy would work from 2 until 4 and P would work from 10 to 12. I tried to convince Amy to "forget" and show up at 10 just so I wouldn't have to work with P but she took the time off. So for the first two hours it was very very tense. In order to really bug P I first checked the restrooms to see if they had been cleaned, then the coffee and the ice in the soda machines. I knew she was getting mad that I double checked their work but that was the idea. I then I went and hid in the cooler for an hour. Finally at midnight Amy showed up and I came out. 

The only interesting thing that happened during the night was a group of heavily tattooed guys came in. It begged the question of why you would want to get a tattoo across your skull but who am I to ask. Just then a group of rednecks came in and I was just waiting for trouble to break out. Thankfully all was peaceful.

With Christmas coming the radio has been playing holiday songs all night long. I will say this, there are a lot of crappy "cutesy" versions of The Twelve Days of Christmas. I almost wish it was Dec. 26th just so the madness would stop.

Toward the end of the night  a guy came in and his card was rejected. He had to pay cash and then was able to get his fuel. Then the very next customer came in his card was rejected too. I was hoping it wasn't a computer problem but the next customer's card worked just fine. What an odd coincidence.

Morning crew, home, sleep. My life has become somewhat routine.

Found money 15 cents.

12/12

Another typical Monday. It had started snowing as I was driving out of my yard and it kept it up all night long. It was bad to the east and the south but drivers were telling me it was clear just 20 miles north. Needless to say with the bad weather it was another long slow night. Diane cleaned and I stocked. Fun times.

My first customer of the night was a truck driver with a fleet card. I tried to call it in but the automated system kept rejecting the amounts I punched in. Worse is that a crowd of people showed up and they were all talking loud, while one guy got an extra large cup of ice out of the machine. I couldn't hear anything. Finally, after I lost my temper, I just waited for an operator to come on and gave them the information, I hate computer automated phone services, they are a major waste of time. Sure enough, as soon as I was done the place cleared out, they had just gathered in to give me grief.

 A guy did arrive in the middle of the night and buy four quarts of transmission fluid. He had blown a seal or ruptured a line but either way he was trying to fix it with basic tools and what he had in the back. After an hour he got it to where he could drive down to the auto parts store, that wasn't going to open for another 5 hours. He was covered in transmission fluid and had to go wash up, which ticked Diane off since she had just spent an hour scrubbing the whole place down. I wished him luck.

At 5:30 the phone rang and I automatically got ready to tell the morning shift woman I would cover for her but then I remembered it was Monday and she was off. It was just the manager checking in about something before she came to work. The morning crew showed up and I went home.

I did make an intersting discovery tonight, hot chocolate makes me sleepy. Unfortunately I discovered this around 3 in the morning and had to spend the next three hours fighting falling asleep standing up. I was never so glad to get home. 

Found money $1.02 and a 1962 nickle.

12/13

Another typical night, except for the fog that was so thick you couldn't see across the street. I don't know if it had to do with the weather but the pumps decided to run slow all night long. I was cursing them, the customers were cursing them, nobody was happy.

I was trying to count the cigarettes but Diane had disappeared and I had to wait on all the customers. After the third interruption I just gave up. After everyone left Diane reappeared and I finally finished the count, an hour later. The next time I work with her I and I am having to wait on all the customers I am just going to leave the count for her. I hate to say it but covering Amy's shift and having her shift covered, Diane is starting to get on my nerves, what happened to V quitting?

Then a trucker came in with a fleet card and I called it in. At least tonight there weren't a lot of people chatting in the background but for some reason Diane decided to count in her drawer right then. It wouldn't be bad but she decided to sky bomb her change into the slots and it was loud. If you ever heard a slot machine pay off, that's what it sounded like, Plunk Plunk Plunk, the whole time I was trying to hear on the phone. I had to once again skip the automated system and talk to an operator, seriously the company should just drop it already. The driver was taken care of, Diane had counted into her drawer and the night was off.

Thanks to the rain, snow and heavy fog the roof was leaking. Every bucket and available trash can were all over the building catching drips. The management could get it fixed but that costs money...

Some drunken idiot came in and tried to use his card to prepay for gas. After about five rejections he finally got the idea it wasn't going to work and someone else paid. It's a good thing he wasn't driving or I would have had to call the police.

It was the usual customers including a guy who wanted to get some items and the after I rang him up he decided he wanted to fill up and pay for it all at one time, why don't they just get the gas first? Then half way through pumping he decided he wanted to add a quart of oil right away so I had to ring that out and put it on suspend along with his snacks. Finally he finished and pays with a hundred dollar bill. I didn't wish him happy travels.

My last customer of the night paid all in quarters so I ended up with a drawer full of change. Fortunately I had time to roll the coins but the morning shift was not going to like me.

After a long night the fog finally lifted. A driver told me that just 20 miles north it was so clear you could count the stars but it was foggy until the Texas state line. I guess the clouds stopped right along the Colorado state line.

The night wrapped up, the morning shift showed up and as I was waiting for my truck to warm up, and melt the sheet of ice that formed on the windshield, I drank a cup of hot chocolate and got ready to go home and go to bed. Sure enough the chocolate kicked in and I was out like a light. Tomorrow I get a well deserved day off.

Found money $2.14