1/1/2012

Happy New Year! What's a better way to celebrate the New Year than doing nothing. Well I watched movies, tried to to catch up on my blog, which regular readers will know I failed miserably at, and avoided my job. Last year ended with a new employee, a new shift and a new outlook. OK, maybe the same outlook but everything else was different. Oh and A who was on the afternoon shift is now on the morning shift and is talking about moving to Wyoming by the end of January. If this happens then there will be another shuffling of shifts.

Normally people move up according to seniority but things are a little fuzzy. Diane has been there the longest, of the non morning shift crowd, but she works a second job so she probably can't work the morning shift. Next is P but both the manager and the owner hate her and don't want her on the morning shift. There is V on the afternoon shift but I have worked there longer than her plus she also has a second job and probably won't want to move to the morning hours. That leaves me and I might get the job just so the management can piss off P and hopefully she quits in anger. Oh it's a fun job sometimes. Of course there's always the possibility of a friend of the owner getting hired and I get screwed again.

Anyhow I started off the New Year not working.

Found money. Nothing since I didn't go anywhere.

1/2

And we are off to a good start. Last year there was a whole thing about P clocking out V at the end of the afternoon shift. There was a lot of anger and possibly a few threats. Today P clocked out the woman on the morning shift a half hour early and didn't clock herself in. This means the woman on the morning shift has to write in her time which in turn ticks off the accountant. Just two days into the year and things are already interesting.

Then, if that wasn't enough, Amy had asked A to cover her shift for an hour on Sunday. Steph, the new employee showed up at 10 and wanted to go to work but P refused to close out her drawer. She insisted that since she was on the #1 register she should close out second and it was her turn to stay late. Steph couldn't count in a drawer and A was working until 11 pm so it was a whole situation. P finally did close out her register but took her usual half hour to count out so she milked the clock for almost a full 45 minutes. Why that woman still has a job...

If that wasn't enough fun V, now on the morning shift had run the wrong card for a fuel purchase. Like most stations in America we require either a cash deposit, prepay or a card in order to turn the pump on. Well it seems two people had left their cards and when V ran the first purchase she used the wrong card. This might not be so bad but the people took the card and left, to parts unknown. When the next people came up they not only couldn't pay for their gas but they were going to have to cancel their card and who knew when the other people would find the mistake. The owner had to step in and apologize for the error and the company was going to get stuck with two fuel purchases, which would come out of V's check. What a mess. I'm glad I had yesterday off.

Did I mention that I am starting to get a cold. The worst part is I need to cough every time a customer comes up to the register. Trying to suppress a cough and tell people what their total is isn't easy. And I have five work days to look forward too. Yea for being sick.

This guy came in and started chatting, he just wouldn't stop. He told us all about his truck, the trailer, the type of drilling pipe he was hauling, how much his brother in law made off the deal, how far he was travelling in a week and so on and so forth. Amy finally abandon me and went to hide in the cooler. Finally the guy ran out of stuff to talk about and sat in his truck for a half hour. Then he came back in and told me all about something else, I have no idea because I kind of tuned him out. He finally left again and I was never so glad to see taillights exiting the lot.

Someone came up to the counter and complained that there was blood in the restroom. Amy went to check it out and sure enough she said there was blood all over the sink. She had to go clean it, that was her punishment for abandoning me at the register with a chatty customer. I don't remember seeing anyone come in with any wounds or leave holding any injured body parts. It's a total mystery.

Amy decided to clean the shelves and found more stuff jammed between them. Most of it wasn't that old but seriously, are we the only shift that cleans? We wrote it off, since it was all expired and tossed it out.

A customer came in and I kind of panicked. He handed me 6 $100 bills. They were all brand new and when I looked at the serial numbers I was just about to call the cops, they were all the same. But it turned out the last digit was different on each bill, they had come straight from the mint and whatever bank had them hadn't mixed them into their old bills. It was a rare incident for sure.

The night ended with some drunk guy stumbling up to the register. He wanted a specific type of cigarette but we didn't have that brand. He finally decided on something else so I rang up his purchase. As I tried to hand him his change he reached over and grabbed a map off the rack and then asked for a different kind of cigarette. I rang everything up and he got mad saying he didn't want the map, why the heck did he put it on the counter then? I put the map off to the side and tried to hand him his change again but this time he didn't take it, instead he demanded a piece of paper. He then wrote down my and Amy's name and said he was going to report us to the manager for being rude to him, he then stomped out and got in the car and left. I figure later when he sobers up he is going to wonder why he has names in his pocket. The best part is he left me a nice tip since he never did take his change. What a fun way to start off the new year.

Found, or tipped money $1.86

1/3

As I pointed out a few posts ago I had suffered from bronchitis and had gotten behind on my blog. Now trying to catch up I am going back through my notes and trying to decipher what I wrote. One example is that I wrote down "D Comp. I did nothing". I have no idea what this means. Did Diane do something with the computer and I sat back and watched? Was she complaining about something? Oh well, I guess I will take better notes in the future.

Anyhow P of the afternoon shift got written up, again, over the time card and clocking other people out thing. One more and they can fire her without any legal complications. Oh I hope she screws up again. There is also a big note over the time clock that says "Do not touch anyone else's time card. It's none of your business!" Of course I spent the rest of the night giving Amy a hard time, she straightened out my credit slips and I said "Hey, what does the sign say, Do not touch anyone else's slips, they are none of your business" or when she moved my cup I said "Hey, what does the sign say, Do not touch anyone elses cup, it's none of your business" Oh I'm going to have fun with this one.

My cold is getting worse and the cough is getting bad. Of course I have an attack when I'm waiting on a customer, I am trying hard to not cough on them or their money but more than once I had to turn away. It wouldn't be so bad last week but now I'm on the Monday through Friday schedule and have three more days to go.

I had to laugh because Amy was cleaning the shelves and had taped a few things. She went to get the tape again and had completely lost it. She looked all over for it, in the drawer, under the counter, around every shelf. Finally she gave up and put on her jacket and there the roll was. I don't even remember her wearing her jacket, I say the ghost of the old manager did it.

The night finally ended and I could go home and be sick. I didn't have to come back for a whole 16 hours. Wee.

Found money 12 cents and a 1954 penny.

1/4

Today was the first day I was going to be working solo with Steph, the new employee. I never know how that's going to work out. Will they be a hard worker who catches on fast or will they be a lazy slob who wants to be paid for 8 hours of sitting behind the counter. You remember Ray from last year. Anyhow tonight was going to be a test, or so I thought.

When I got to work the afternoon shift told me I had an assignment, the accountant had called and wanted a full inventory of the store, by Friday and I got the lucky task of counting the cooler. I was going to have to count every bottle of soda, every can of energy drink, everything. The manager wanted it done tonight because the vendors were coming tomorrow and the place was mostly empty. The really good news was my cold was now in full gear and I was coughing like mad. This was going to be fun.

I had no choice, I had to leave Steph on her own and hope for the best. I told her if anything happened come and get me right away, but please don't hit me with the door. I put on my heavy coat and gloves and got the clipboard. 1...2...3...did I count that bottle?

The fun part of counting the cooler was someone, I don't know who, insists on putting the wrong stuff on the wrong shelf. It was more than once I had to pull a whole line of bottles or cans off a rack and put them in the right spot and redo my count. It took me nearly three hours but I got it all done, everything was counted and I was frozen. I planned to cough extra hard on the manager in the morning in hopes of getting her sick too. I then rewrote everything so people could read it. Oh well it killed half the night.

Steph told me that Amy hadn't let her do any of the cleaning so I told her what to do and turned her loose. She sang and danced and scrubbed and mopped. It was fun to watch. She said she didn't like doing the cooler or cleaning the lot and I don't like cleaning the restroom so this will work out just fine. Finally the night was over, I gave my list to the manager and headed home so I could sleep and be sick. Another fun night was over.

Found money 56 cents.

 1/5

When I got to work I was surprised to see Amy there. It turns out P asked her to cover the shift. Darn, I was hoping that Diane had told P off who then stormed out in anger. Maybe tomorrow.

Steph showed up and we started the shift. It turns out the manager wanted the cooler count and all the prices so I had work to do. They also wanted a count of everything stored behind the counter, mostly crackers, sunflower seeds and candy bars. Amy had done the count of what was on the candy rack so Steph volunteered to count the stuff in the boxes. This was fine with me because I wasn't feeling good at all, the night in the cold had turned my cough into a harsh hack and I think I am running a fever.  As I went through and figured out the prices of the cooler stock she counted and the night went along.

After Steph finished her count, and I had prices for the cooler stock I then counted the sunflower seeds and crackers. This didn't take too long since like everything else the supplies had run low and the vendors weren't due until Friday. With both jobs done we could kick back for the rest of the night, except for the customers and the cleaning.

A guy walked in and he smelled like a bonfire. I seriously had to look around to make sure something wasn't burning. The smell lingered for about a half hour after he left. If that is a new cologne I say it's a fail.

When I went out to clean the lot I found three MRE's (meals ready to eat) laying next to the building. Had someone from the military passed through and why were they just laying there, uneaten? I never have answers to these questions. Needless to say I tossed them.

I did have a laugh and there is an important life lesson in this, it was a cold night, that is important. This woman came in and she was wearing a t shirt, and obviously not bra. It's not that I was staring or ogling, you just couldn't help but notice it. She went in the restroom and while in there she must have looked at herself in the mirror. When she came out she had her arms crossed in front of her and was clearly embarrassed. Her boyfriend or husband or whoever he was came in and bought snacks and sodas and such but she was hiding out in their car. Remember on a cold night if you don't want to blush uncontrollably, wear a bra.

At 4 the manager called. She was at another station helping do their inventory count and wanted me to clock her in. I told her no problem, Steph and I then rushed to get the end of the shift stuff done since we didn't know when she would show up. She came in around 6 and I couldn't resist, I told her I couldn't clock her in, there was a sign that clearly said not to touch anyone's time card. The manager punched me square in the arm for making fun of her sign, plus she thought I really hadn't clocked her in. I laughed. 

Finally I went home to nurse my cold again. I had been taking cold pills and they were zoning me out. On average I was sleeping around 10 to 12 hours and when I am awake I cough out of control. But I think I'm getting better. Just one more day.

Found money $1.30 and a 1954 penny. 

1/6

Still sick and I have no idea why I came to work today, I could have taken Friday off since there are three people on shift, yet here I am. But I have no plans to do anything tonight. I know that's a bad attitude to have on a job but I'm sick dammit!

Thankfully Steph handled most of the customers, Amy did the cooler and the the inventory was done. It meant that I could kick back and just be sick the rest of the night. 

Early on some woman was talking to someone in a car. They rolled up the window and the woman still had her hand in it. We could hear all this shouting a cursing as it pinched her fingers hard. When she came in she was holding her hand, it was a good thing she was wearing thick gloves at the time.

The next customer bought a bottle of energy drink, it came in a glass bottle which turned out to be a good thing. He went out and started pumping his gas and how he did it I have no idea but somehow he got gas all over it. He brought it back and asked if he could exchange the bottle, it's a good thing he talked to Amy because I would have told him no. She exchanged the bottles and then washed the gas covered one off with soap and water, and then drank the energy drink. Ah to be young again, well maybe not.

Around the middle of the night someone came in and I couldn't tell if he was a she or she was a he. I finally asked Amy the classic "Chick or Dude for $100" and she said it was a woman. It turns out that she knows the woman and they use to be the girlfriend of Amy's lesbian friend. She said the girl looked more feminine in high school but as time went by she began to look more and more masculine until now when you have to ask.

Finally Friday was over and I could go home. My big plans for the weekend, sleep sleep and more sleep. Hopefully I would be feeling better by Monday.

Found money 80 cents.

1/7~1/8

The weekend was a blur. I planned on doing several things but instead I slept, coughed and took pills. My brother came by and was on his way to get hay. He asked me if I wanted to go but I had to pass, I needed to stay home. My cough had gotten so bad that I had to hold onto something in the midst of an attack. I don't think this is a cold anymore, I think it's a full blown case of bronchitis. I blame it on having to spend a night in the cooler counting. Anyhow I accomplished nothing but expelling lots of phlegm. What an enjoyable way to spend a weekend. 

No found money.