Over a Month!

I hadn't even realized it's been that long, folks! Boy howdy, over a month. Things settle so fast into the day-to-day scene. There isn't much that happened all through June. Not in Chicken. The entire cast and crew have been here all month and truly, I've never dealt with so few people! I have one co-worker, technically. Chris. In the giftshop there are five, one lady who owns her own space upstairs, the twin 4 year olds, the boss man, the big boss owner, the five at the mine. I think that's it. Almost all the personalities have been figured out. And basically everywhere you go you meet the same personalities, so noting real new to report there, other than the girl who avoids me. I don't know why but I also find I don't really care. She's nice enough - just doesn't seem to enjoy my company. Eh.
The tourists have been slow this year. Today is the last big rush and it's even dead-er than usual. It was supposed to be big because it's the fourth, and all the miners from miles around come in for the big picnic and miner-meeting. Well, picnic means no one needs little ol' me in the food trailer. There is only one toursist truck in the parking lot right now.
Puppies were born. Alaskan huskies. One is theoretically going to be mini. Quite unintentional. They're born to dog sledders, so of course they didn't do it on purpose if they could. Just the runt... I want her. She's scrappy and adorable - goign to be a tan colour with a white streak on her forehead. She's called Thimble right now. But, alas, I know better. I don't need kids at this point in my life. I've been having puppy fever bad lately and with this one, Chris was even going to let me have her! Sadly, reality crashed in on me anyways. Having our van in the lower 48 is going to hinder us as much as it frees us. A dog would be so good for Chris and I, but at the same time would hinder us greatly. Maybe in a year or two. Hopefully. It's too bad though. They were going to give her to us free.
The cart is running at a loss. Most days I don't even make my own salary - I can tell when I close out my till. The funny part to me is that they would loose LESS money by shutting us down two or three days in the middle of the week, but they wont. Shutting us down on our two or three slowest days (Tues/Wed, Wed/Thurs or Tues/Wed/Thurs) would mean not using electric or propane OR having to pay our manhours for two to three days. In man-hours alone, that'd save 450 for two days - and when those days we're LUCKY to reach 200 in sales it seems obvious to me. But they wont. They keep us open when we tell them it's pointless. Granted, we don't fight to hard - we're hourly, not commision. I'll dink around all day waiting for that one last guest at 12 an hour. Sure.
We get a vacation week after next. Last month I had three days off - total. We take one day off each every 7 to 10 days. It's working, and we're not burning out in a hardcore way... But burnout can be subtle too. Dead days day after day, not exploring where you're at... It can get depressing. I don't see the point in coming to work. There are too few customers to really CARE. It's not good. The three-day vacation will be good. We're going down to Valdeze together and I'm very excited. Chris is planning it out and a few of the things he's told me I already feel like I'm going to get spoiled.
The little valley of Chicken is currently surrounded by forest fires. Seven in a 50 mile radius, generally AROUND us. sometimes you can see the smoke rise up and haze out. Last week when it was REAL hot up here Chris and I sat on a picnic table and saw all seven plumes. It was kind of freaky. Today it looks hazy and smells like a campfire outside. Just to generally walk around you feel like your in a campsite. But you can't see any fire. They're still somehow too far away for that, beyond a ridge or something. It sure smells tho.
I've started reading Dean Koontz. I always thought they were scary because they were lumped in with Stephen King. Not so, I've realized. I'm on my second book and I quite like it. Chris convinced me to try them. Both books he's reccomended have been good. :)
So you're caught up. That's my June. Happy July. The fourth is here. No fireworks in the Land of the Midnight Sun of course. I will try to update more frequently. Since we almost got fired I think things could get more itneresting soon.