family

  • The Bug, I Didn’t Remove

    The Bug I Didn’t RemoveA Whimsy-Whirly, Topsy-Turvy, Tale of Delightful NonsenseBy: Emmitt Owens In two-thousand-seventeen, so the story goes,Everyone was keeping score with their…fingers and toes! Of a game nobody wanted, a game with no rules—I said, “I won’t play!” and they thought “he’s a fool”. Ten years before that (or was it eleven?)I found Read more

  • Chill n’Fill: Thankful at Pump #3By: Emmitt OwensEpisode #68(Index #11252025)    Thanksgiving at the Chill n’Fill doesn’t come with tablecloths.     It comes with salt stains on the floor mats and people swearing under their breath at Pump #3.   The bear—twenty feet of winking plastic optimism—stood over the lot in a knit scarf and a beanie Read more

  • Chill n’FillBook 3: Episode 4Dating Disasters and Hard-Won WisdomWritten by: Emmitt Owens(Index #07222025)    Friday night at the Chill n’Fill buzzed with the usual weekend split—half the crowd revved up for adventure, the other half limping in like survivors of labor forced workweek. I was halfway through cramming neon cans of energy drinks into the Read more

  • The Broken Toenail Catastrophe*As told by Gary*By: Emmitt Owens(Index #08082025)    Let me start by saying that what happened at Orange Beach last Tuesday was not my fault. Well, okay, it was technically my fault, but hear me out—any reasonable person would have made the same decisions I made, given the circumstances. The fact that Read more

  • Episode 5.5: Sunday Fishing BluesWritten by: Emmitt Owens*As narrated by Waylon* Waylon Intro: “Well now, folks, gather ’round and let me spin you a tale about friendship, fishing, and the kind of Sunday that reminds you why Alabama’s the finest state in the union. This here story takes place down in Buzzard Roost, where the Read more

  • Mad Mechanics and Midnight Revelations    Saturday night at Chill n’Fill was buzzing with an unusual energy, the kind that comes when change is stirring in a small town. Behind me, tonight’s painting had appeared as René Magritte’s “The Treachery of Images” from 1929—that famous pipe with “This is not a pipe” written beneath it, Read more

  • Bob’s Great Hot Dog Roller Caper    I arrived for my Tuesday shift at Chill n’Fill to find Bob crouched behind the counter like a surgeon preparing for the operation of a lifetime, surrounded by what appeared to be the dismantled remains of our hot dog roller. Tools I’d never seen before were spread across Read more

  • Another Night at Chill n’Fill: Love, Loss, and Labor    It was Friday night at Chill n’Fill, out here where the darkness stretched for miles in every direction and our mechanically-winking polar bear served as the only beacon of civilization for truckers, night shift workers, and the occasional lost soul who’d wandered too far from Read more

  • Another Night at Chill n’Fill: The Joseph Lancour Memorial, The Military Mother, The Veteran and The Protestor    It was Sunday night at Chill n’Fill, the day before Memorial Day, 2025…  and I was two hours into my shift when I discovered Bob’s most solemn tribute yet. Our one-eyed polar bear mascot, the towering figure Read more

  • Another Night at Chill n’Fill: Monuments, Creeps, and the Gray Hoodie    It was Saturday night at Chill n’Fill, and I’d just finished rearranging the candy display according to Bob’s latest merchandising theory. Chocolate bars now lived next to energy drinks in the “depression remedies” section, while sour candies had been relocated to “aggressive emotions” Read more