10.25.1992

I'm still on the night crew schedule at the store. Yesterday I went to sleep at three in the afternoon and woke up at ten that night, got to work by eleven. Lots of unusual stuff has been going on at the store, and some weird shit has happened to various employees outside of work.

Last Saturday afternoon I hung out with The Colonel. I consider him to be a good friend and a great co-worker. We were out bullshittin' for most of the afternoon. The Colonel mentioned earlier in the day that there was something important he wanted to talk to me about but I forgot he brought it up. Until we got back to his place, that is. When we got to his condo The Colonel proceeded to inform me that he was gay. The Colonel is always pulling pranks on us so I really didn't think even for a second he was serious. I sat across from him at his livingroom table, beer in hand and I told him "Shut up you fag". I started laughing. He repeated that he was gay. I didn't believe him and I kept up with the "Shut up you fag" routine. That was when I got a shock. The Colonel started to cry. Here I was, sitting across the table from my boss, staring at him as he wept. A horrible, dirty guilt swept over me. The guy was serious and I ridiculed him for it. I wanted to pretend like I had never been there and I never heard him say "I'm gay". I felt low. I kicked him when he was down.

I never expected to hear something like this from The Colonel. I mean, he's into guns, old big-block cars, World War II stuff, and other heavy-duty shit. He's totally straight acting. Sure, it was weird I never saw him going out on a date with a woman but I didn't think about it much. It wasn't any of my business.

Everybody at work would probably persecute The Colonel if they found out he was fruity. So I'm gonna keep my mouth shut about this. I think if the rest of the guys knew, they'd make his life miserable at the store. I guess he wanted to tell me about it because it made him feel better someone finally knew the truth about him. I told him it wouldn't change anything about our friendship or our working relationship but I don't know. This is kinda strange.

Beano's been having woman troubles. His wife has been cheating on him and they have two little kids. From the sound of things she isn't too clever about covering up her tracks. Beano was able to find her at the guy's house recently and confront them both. The homewrecker didn't take too kindly to Beano's visit and he pulled a pistol on him and started shooting. When Beano and I were leaving the store the other day he showed me a couple of bullet holes in the back of his truck. They were pretty good sized holes punched into the metal just below the rear window of his cab. He's real lucky he wasn't shot. I asked him what he is going to do about his kids safety and if he's pressing charges against his wife and the guy, but he didn't get into any details. I better not be too nosey about it.

Good old John has been having his own woman troubles as well. He's been walking around the past couple of weeks with a sweet shiner under one eye. I was meaning to ask him about it but the story already got back to me. Guess he's been having marital problems of some sort and his wife was so pissed off at him she hid in the shrubs over by where he parks his pickup truck. It's over on the bakery side of the lobby, that's where I usually park too. Anyway she was hiding up against the wall of the store in a couple of the shrubs and when John was getting into his truck she jumped out at him and hit him in the head with a beer bottle. Miller Genuine Draft I think was her choice. Looks like she clocked him good. I have no idea whether or not he deserved it but I think it's really messed up. If she's coming all the way down here to the store to do that to the guy I hate to think what must be going on at home.

And I thought I had woman problems. Sheesh.