Half Way There

We’ve survived five weeks of working at Amazon and are half way done. The countdown to the finish line can now begin!

As I have said, the work is hard, but the paychecks will be very nice. My main problem is working the nightshift. I did finally get a definite answer that they won’t move me to the dayshift. So, five more weeks of sleep deprivation. Oh well, this too shall pass.

At least we don’t have mandatory overtime for this week. Since Thursdays are our scheduled night, we have to work on Thanksgiving. However, we don’t have to go in until 7:00 pm (that’s 2 hours later than normal) and we’ll be getting overtime pay because it’s a holiday. Tomorrow Amazon is serving a turkey dinner to the employees during lunch break.

Things this last week were pretty crazy. They were training about 40 new employees in our area, so everything was a bit mixed up. They keep talking about “peak” and how hectic it is. We’ll see.

The weather has been bizarre. We had several days of strong winds between 20 to 30 mph, day and night. All that wind noise didn’t help with sleeping. Then, yesterday it was in the mid 70s and we were wearing shorts. Today it’s cloudy and cooler.

We’ve still been able to ride our bikes to work most nights because lows are hovering in the 40s. We did have a few nights of near freezing temps, but so far haven’t had a need to take in or insulate our water hose. Kevin has bought all the supplies needed to insulate the hose, so when the time comes he’ll be ready.

Other than work, we haven’t done too much. Just relaxing. We rented Captain America from Redbox last night and both of us had trouble staying awake to watch it :)  The movie was actually pretty good, but we’re just so tired.

I have made a few purchases on Amazon using our 10% employee discount, so that’s been nice. I have several more items on my wish list, but am waiting to see if the price goes down for Black Friday. Yes, Amazon also has Black Friday specials. I ‘m not going to buy too much, though. Can’t be spending all of our earnings shopping :)

In case you were wondering what my last post was about, it was an ad through a site called Blogsvertise. I’ve posted ads for them before. Each ad I post pays between $10 and $15. They only send me ads to post every month or so, but it sure is easy money. The way for you to know it is an ad is that the title will have a star * before and after it. If you see the stars, you’ll know its an ad, and it’s up to you whether you read it or not.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

*Taking My Daughter To See The Nutcracker*

Guest post written by Dean Cooper

My daughter is a real girly-girl. I guess that I shouldn't be surprised by it because her mom is the same way. I've even learned how to braid hair just so I can help her get ready for school earlier in the mornings. If only my fraternity brothers could see me now! (But I'm sure that some of them are doing the exact same thing, too.) So I thought that it would be fun to buy some tickets for us to go and see The Nutcracker together for Christmas.

We're going to go and see the ballet together just a few nights before Christmas, so I had to go ahead and order tickets to go and see it. While I was online looking up that stuff, I ran across the website http://hearingaids.miracle-ear.com/. I looked through it some and after that I decided to go and get fitted with some hearing aids. I've had the feeling that I need them anyway.

I haven't told her yet and am waiting for a few more weeks before I do that. But I went ahead and secured the tickets and I can't wait to see the look on her face when I tell her we're going to see The Nutcracker!

And The Winner Is…

Last Wednesday Amazon had an event they called the Holiday Kick-off. We do not work on Wednesdays, but employees were paid to attend the event, so we walked over to see what it was all about, and get an hour of overtime pay.

It was actually a fun event. Members of management were dressed as elves or reindeer. They pulled a sleigh into the warehouse. In the sleigh was the plant manager dressed as Santa. Behind the sleigh was a local high school marching band playing Jingle Bells.

The event lasted for about an hour. There was a skit by some of the managers and some games in which plant employees were chosen to participate. They also drew names for about 20 to 30 prizes including cameras, Kindles, TVs and Xboxes.

Drum roll here…..Kevin won a Kodak Easyshare camera. Cool. We have a camera we like better, so the Kodak will be sold. But, it was nice to win a prize.

It seems Amazon tries to do some nice things for their employees. They announced there will be some meals served during the peak season between Black Friday and Christmas and more prizes given away. A little can go a long way for morale during a busy season.

We finished our fourth week and have received our second paychecks. Tonight we get to work our first mandatory overtime shift. I’m not too excited about that. I wasn’t expecting mandatory overtime until Black Friday. The plant was shut down from midnight Saturday until 5:00 pm today for scheduled maintenance. Therefore, our shift has to work overtime tonight to make up for the lost time. Oh well, the payoff will be nice.

I’m still struggling with the night hours. I don’t think I’ll ever adjust to it. But, only six weeks to go. And, being able to take the winter months off is the carrot at the end of the stick. It’s worth it to us. Quite a few people have left. This work is definitely not for everyone.

We’ve been riding our bikes most days. Highs have been in the 60s lately, with lows in the 40s. It’s beautiful riding to work, but a bit cold coming home. However, it’s only a few blocks, so not that bad. The full moon has been absolutely gorgeous the last few nights.

 

 

Last night we went to dinner with Janie and John Dean. They are also fulltime RVers, about our age with two sons. I first met Janie online through our blogs. Last November, we met them in person in Las Vegas. We’ve kept in touch, and when they heard we were working at Amazon, they thought they’d also give it a try.

We went to Jack’s Place in Liberty, Kansas which is just a few miles from the campground. Jack’s is a bar in a very small town. They serve food, and the burgers are quite good.

After dinner, we came back to our camper and taught Janie and John how to play Wizard and Sequence. It was a great evening spent with great people! Lots of laughter, which is always a good thing. It was nice to get out and do something fun. I even forgot how tired I was for a while :)

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Short Trip to Arkansas

This weekend we visited our good friends, Dick and Wanda, who live in Bella Vista, Arkansas.  They used to live in Wisconsin, and we met them about fifteen years ago when they joined the camping club we belonged to.

Several years ago they sold their home in Wisconsin and spent a year traveling in their motorhome. They found they really liked the Bella Vista area and bought a condo.

Bella Vista is a little over two hours from Coffeyville so we left Saturday early afternoon and came back last night. On Saturday afternoon they took us to Bentonville, Arkansas which is the headquarters of the Wal-Mart Corporation.

There is a Wal-Mart museum in downtown Bentonville located in the first Walton’s five and dime store which opened in 1950. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera so I only have a few pictures taken on my phone.

 

 

 

It was very interesting to learn about Sam Walton and how he and his brother built the Wal-Mart empire. I know there are a lot of Wal-Mart haters out there, but I must say I got the impression he was a nice guy, with good values and an excellent business sense. Since he opened his first Walton’s store in 1950, Wal-Mart has grown to 8,700 stores worldwide with gross sales of $450 billion in 2010.

Our next stop was the Crystal Bridges Art Museum building site. The museum is set to open on November 11. Alice Walton, daughter of Sam Walton, had the idea to built a museum of American art in Bentonville. The Wal-Mart Foundation has donated $1.2 billion to make her dream become a reality. It’s really quite something and will made Bentonville a destination for many tourists and art lovers.  I read that part of the donation was to ensure admission to the museum will be free.

There is a trail through a beautifully landscaped public garden to get to the viewing deck to see the museum. It’s a very impressive complex with two ponds formed by the Crystal Springs. Barbara Bush was there on Saturday for some type of special function prior to the opening of the museum. There was a police officer stationed at the viewing deck.

The fall colors were spectacular in Bella Vista. What a beautiful part of the country.

Saturday night we all felt a shaking sensation. Turns out there was an earthquake in Oklahoma, and we felt it in Arkansas. I’ll be interested to hear what people around here have to say about it.

On Sunday we played 18 holes of golf with Dick and Wanda. They belong to a couple of golf leagues so we were part of their outing. Kevin won $9 for the lowest net score. The skies were cloudy, but temps were in the 60s, so we had a pleasant day and a great time golfing with good friends.

After golf we went to a local pizza place, enjoyed some delicious pizza and watched the Packers beat the Chargers. We had no idea how many Packer fans there are in Arkansas.

Thanks Dick and Wanda for inviting us to visit. We had a terrific time!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Technical Difficulties

This has been a week of technical problems. I had some eBooks on hold through the public library. I got an email on Sunday letting me know one of the books was available. That’s great as I has just finished a book.

I downloaded the book to my computer and they hooked up my Sony Reader to transfer the book. When I dragged and dropped the book to the Reader, it didn’t transfer and I got a message the program was not responding. I tried a few times, with the same result each time. As it was time for bed, I gave up and figured I’d deal with it on Monday morning.

When I turned on my computer on Monday morning, it wouldn’t start. I tried a safe mode start and some fixes I knew of, but it wouldn’t start no matter what I did. I have a four your old Toshiba laptop with Vista. I’ve never had a problem with it, but wondered if it would be worth fixing.

Since we’re in an unfamiliar area, I went online on Kevin’s computer and found a few places that do computer repair in the area. No one answered my calls, so I left a few messages. A young man named Mike who owns his own computer repair business in Independence, was the first to call me back. I told him the problem, and he said he would try to fix it. He also told me that Vista is a bear to work with. He even volunteered to pick it up at the RV park as he was driving right by.

He came by Monday afternoon before we left for work and said he’d have an answer for my the next day. We agreed he would call if the cost was over $55. Tuesday afternoon he called and said it was fixed. He offered to bring it back to us. The total cost with tax was $60. Mike sure knows his stuff and gave us great service.

Apparently, some spyware had gotten into my computer. I am pretty good about doing scans and being proactive to prevent this kind of thing, but this time they got me. Mike checked everything else out, and he said it all looked fine.

So, now the computer is working. I hooked up the Reader again, and still couldn’t get the book to transfer. I did a little troubleshooting online, and ended up uninstalling and reinstalling the program. Still no luck.

I emailed Sony and told them my problem. I couldn’t believe I had a response within an hour. They had me reformat the Reader itself. Still not working. I emailed them back and they told me I should call their customer service number because it was too complicated to handle via email.

We had to go to work, so that call had to wait until this morning. By now I’ve had two days with poor sleep, and I must admit I was a bit crabby about the whole thing. Kevin will confirm that :)

I called Sony Technical Support and told them of my problems. Jose had me to go a site where he could access my computer remotely. I could see everything he was doing. He did some checking and thought it was not the Reader, but something in the computer program or the connection. He had me switch the cord to another USB port. Still no luck. He asked me if I was using the cord that came with the Reader. I didn’t know. I found the box, and there was the cord that came with the Reader still in the box.

I had been using a cord that came with my cell phone to tether it to my laptop. It had been working fine, but apparently the cord had gone bad. I changed the cords, and presto! It worked!!!

I am so impressed with Sony’s service. Although my Reader was still under warranty, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to get any help figuring out what was wrong with it. The response from Sony was excellent.

So, now all the technical gadgets are working well again. I love technology; but when it’s not working, it can be so frustrating. I’m surprised I didn’t think of the cord as the problem. I knew about cords going bad, just never thought of it. I blame it on being tired.

Things at Amazon have been a little slow this week. They actually asked for volunteers to go home early last night, and were asking for people to not come in tonight. We’re here to earn money, so we don’t volunteer to leave. I think people are waiting for the Black Friday deals to start, and then the shopping frenzy will begin. We did end up getting sent home an hour early last Friday, but that’s not so bad.

The items I’ve been seeing a lot this week are a new book by David Baldacci and CDs by Susan Boyle and Michael Buble. I may be strange, but sometimes I wonder what the story is behind the orders. Is it a teacher ordering multiple copies of a book? Who are these people buying all the gourmet cat food? Is the person who ordered $180 worth of cake decorating books starting a business? Why are so many people buying cereal and peanut butter from Amazon? Is there a baby boom, because I sure am packing lots of baby stuff? I know, I’m strange.

It’s raining today which is a good thing. This area is very dry. It’s the first rain we’ve seen since before we left Wisconsin.

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!

Little House on the Prairie in Kansas

I remember watching Little House on the Prairie when I was a girl. The TV show took place in Minnesota. I’m sure I read some or all of the books, but I don’t remember much about them.
So, I was surprised to find that there is a site about thirty miles from here where the Ingalls family lived for over a year from 1869 to 1871.

It’s just a little site in a rural area outside of Independence, Kansas. There is a reproduction of the cabin the Ingalls lived in, as well as a historic school and post office that were moved to the site from the surrounding area. The school is on the left, the post office in the middle, and the log cabin on the right.

Can you imagine a family of five living in this little cabin? I think it’s probably less square footage than our RV. And, we don’t have three children living with us.

There’s only one bed, so I’m thinking the children slept on mats on the floor.

Not a very comfortable looking chair.

There was a map that showed the places the Ingalls family lived. I didn’t realize how much they moved around. The lived in Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and North Dakota. I love finding these little out of the way places. This is someplace we never would have visited if we were living our old life. But, what the heck, since it was only thirty miles away, why not.
On the Amazon front, we finished our second week and have both received our first paychecks. Yeah! I have not gotten any response to my two emails regarding switching to days, so it looks like we are stuck on the night shift. While it’s not ideal, I’m managing and we’ll end us with some extra money for working nights, so it will have to do.
It’s interesting to see the many items people order. According to what we were told at orientation, Amazon’s business is up 60% over last year. So, I guess not everyone is hurting from the bad economy. We packed a lot of the new Steve Jobs and John Grisham books last week, as well as the Captain America DVD.
Last night, Amazon arranged for the party room at the local Pizza Hut, and invited seasonal camper workers to attend at your their expense. Our friends Janie and John are also working at Amazon, and they had just arrived on Thursday. So, the four of us went to the Pizza Hut gathering. There were more people than they had room for in the party room, so we ended up in a booth outside of the room.
We didn’t get to connect much with any of the other workampers, but we had a nice time with Janie and John and enjoyed a good meal together.
Tomorrow we start week three. Time is going fast. Before we know it, we’ll be done working, and have spending money in the bank.

Meeting Fellow Workampers

We’ve been off of work for four days in a row. I’m actually getting a little bored. I didn’t pull out any of my quilting stuff because we won’t have this kind of downtime again, so we’ve just been taking it easy. That’s a good thing, since tomorrow we start our next work week.

The weather has been fantastic. Highs near 80 degrees every day and mostly sunny. We had a little rain overnight, but nothing severe. We were fortunate that the storms went to our south. About an hour south of us they had baseball sized hail.

We’ve been taking walks around the campground every day to keep our feet in shape. While out walking, we’ve met a few other couples who are working at Amazon. I had read comments from two of them regarding working at Amazon on the RVDreams.com forum. We also met our youngest son’s girlfriend’s aunt and uncle, who are also full-time RVers. They got here two weeks before we did. Small world, isn’t it :)

On Friday night, we sat outside for a few hours and chatted with our next door neighbors. They’ve been fulltiming for about a year and have a toy hauler in which they haul their Harley Davidson motorcycle. Only the husband is working at Amazon. Did I mention that there are quite a few couples where only the husband is working? I was surprised by that.

It’s nice to meet other fulltimers. It’s a good opportunity to share information and learn from others. On Saturday there is a gathering for the Amazon Camperforce workers at the Pizza Hut in Coffeyville. We’re planning on attending.

We watched some Redbox movies this week, the latest Transformer release and Bridesmaids. We were a bit disappointed in Bridesmaids. It had it’s moments, but dragged in quite a few parts. Also, in my opinion, some of the intended humor was more ridiculous than it was funny.

The Green Bay Packers game is not on TV in this part of the country today. Kevin has his satellite radio all set up so he can listen to it. This is exactly why he got the service, can’t be missing those baseball and football games.

I’m cheering for the Texas Rangers to win the World Series. The Cardinals beat our Brewers, so they’re on my **** list!

Go Packers!!!!

Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!