The internet at the park has been down for several days, so I had to wait to make a new post.  We had been using our phones as a hotspot, but then we received a message from Verizon that we used 1.9 of our 2 GB, so we had to shut that down as well!

We are just strictly in work mode for now, no more playing tourist until we are done at Amazon.  If all goes well, we will be working 16 of the next 18 days.  We should find out in the next week what our tentative end date is for our workcamping job at Amazon.

Black Friday was a busy day for us, as well as Cyber Monday.  I had been averaging 11 miles of walking per day at work. On those 2 days, I hit 15 miles.  In our welcome packet that we received when we started, we had a sample of BioFreeze pain relieving gel.  Well that got used up in a hurry after this week!  We worked 5 days in a row, and had a restful Wednesday and Thursday off.  Our highlight of the week was getting propane, as we completely ran out.  (lesson learned:  running the furnace really sucks up the propane!).  We have since purchased a space heater from Amazon!

It was also nice to see the sun on Wednesday.  It is dark when we leave at 6am, and dark when we arrive back at the camper at 5:30pm.  We didn’t realize how much we missed seeing daylight, until we had our off days. Makena also enjoyed having us home during the daylight hours as she was able to get some extra play time outside.

We are now working 6 days in a row, as we have 1 day of mandatory overtime, and 1 day of voluntary overtime (for the workcampers).  The regular Amazon employees must do the 60 hours of overtime.  But it is only for 2 weeks, and we have a full jar of Icy/Hot, and a full bottle of ibuprofen ready for the task!!!

Another highlight for us this week was the arrival of Columbo: The Complete Series!  We have picked so many of that set, that we decided to order one.  The only problem we have with it, is that we are so tired when we get home we fall asleep while watching it.  It takes us about 3 days to get through one episode!  The set consists of 35 DVD’s of all 7 seasons of the tv show, as well as 23 made for tv movies!

Amazon had a job fair last Monday for the workcampers.  It was nice meeting with some employers such as Yellowstone Park and Indianapolis Motor Speedway.  Things to keep in mind for future years!

We hope all is going well for everyone!

Quote for the day:  “Just one more thing…..”  Peter Falk

The end is near, as we only have to get up early on Saturdays for 4 more weeks!  The volume is picking up at work, and there are so many people in the building now.  When we started on September 30, you could pick for several hours without seeing anyone.  Now there are people all over, and another group of 20 or so temporary employees started today in picking.  We had over 130 pickers this morning.  When we started, there was about 30 in the morning.

The last 2 Saturdays Dan and I, along with a few other pickers, have volunteered to work in ICQA, which is the inventory control/quality assurance department.  With this job, we take our scanner, go to the bin on the scanner, count all the items in the bin, enter it on the scanner, and move on to the next bin it assigns us to.  Unlike picking, there is very little walking around.  It is a pretty easy job, although you have a lot of bending/squatting to look into the bins closer to the ground.  And there is no time required to do this job.  With picking, your scanner tells you what item to get, and where it is located, and it will have a little timer telling you that you how many seconds you have to pick that item.  ICQA is very laid back, and you get to browse more at the merchandise.  But we both prefer picking, as we like to keep moving.

We only get one tv channel here, the CW, which plays endless episodes of The Peoples Court.  But they are constantly running commercials advertising the live broadcast on NBC of The Sound of Music with Carrie Underwood on December 5.  Today I noticed a bin full of the audio CD’s of the “music from the live event”.  So I’m not sure how live it is!  It is available now as a pre- order.

I also had time today to look at the Susan Boyle “Home for Christmas” CD.  I have picked a lot of these, and it looks like a pretty good Christmas album.

Originally, we were to have off next Tuesday, and work Black Friday instead.  That way, Amazon didn’t have to pay is overtime.  But now they are offering voluntary overtime on Tuesday, so we signed up for that.  In December, we will have mandatory overtime on Fridays.  There are 2 weeks that we may be able to get additional overtime, so we could be doing six 10 hour days each week….ka-ching!!$$$

Quote for the Day:  “The best preparation for good work tomorrow is to do good work today” – Elbert Hubbard

As with Halloween, Thanksgiving has come early here in Campbellsville.  Amazon had a catered Thanksgiving meal of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, green beans, stuffing, pumpkin pie and apple pie today, for all the employees.  It was very good, and we both appreciated the gesture by Amazon.  My pedometer read 11 miles at the end of our shift, so I figured I burned off everything I ate…could have had another piece of pie!!

Amazon also paid tribute to all the employee’s that are Veteran’s, and gave them a special pin.

Today the 12th and final group of workcampers started, so Amazon handed out the 2013 Amazon Camperforce t-shirts to all of us as we left.  People were very excited about the color of the shirts this year, turquoise.  There is a day in December that we are all supposed to wear them.  Amazon has lot’s of activities planned in December for all their employees, to keep us going during peak season.  It should be an interesting month.

Tonight they are predicting an “artic blast” coming thru, with temperatures below freezing.  We might even see a snowflake or two!  This just gives us further incentive to keep looking at more campgrounds in Florida for February!

Last week we did go to the National Corvette Museum and the Corvette Assembly plant in Bowling Green, KY.  I have been having problems uploading photos with this slow as molasses internet, so I will wait to post on that until I can get the photos working.

We signed up for voluntary overtime on Thursday.  We have to call the morning of, to see if it is still on, as it could be cancelled.  So place your orders folks, so we can keep busy!

Last night we had dinner in town with another couple, Phil and Rudee.  I have been following their blog for a year or so, and they are now working at Amazon for the first time as well.  It was great getting to meet them in person, and listening to their adventures.  You can check out their blog at http://workinrvers.blogspot.com/

Tomorrow is our “Friday”, which means “happy dance Tuesday”!!  I have a few other ladies that join in with me on the happy dance!  It doesn’t take people long to catch on to doing a little dance at the end of the workweek!

Quote for the day:  “On this Veterans Day, let us remember the service of our veterans, and let us  renew our national promise to fulfill our sacred obligations to our veterans and  their families who have sacrificed so much so that we can live free.” – Dan Lipinski