September 2, 2013. Hard to believe we only have two more months here. Still have not heard from Amazon about our start date though, but hopefully that will come before the end of the month. We are figuring on starting there the first or second Monday of the month.
Tried Skyping with Josh & Karen yesterday but the WiFi service here is so bad that we could not even see their faces they so pixilated. The audio kept going in and out and even lost service a few times. That is very frustrating. Don't know what we are going to do in Kentucky for WiFi. We will probably be staying at the State Park and I doubt they have WiFi. Lucy has been getting into my stuff recently and got a hold of my Jet Pack and starting chewing on a corner of it by the lens and now I can hardly see the screen to see what is going on. It still works but it's hard to see what is happening with it. Cannot upgrade until the end of May 2014.
September 6, 2013. We received our start date for Amazon - November 4. We still have until the end of October here, but I will see if we can end our term the third week of October and be out of here around Oct. 29 or 30, so we have some time to get to Campbellsville and set up camp before starting work.
Judi did a new schedule earlier this week with us working 10 days straight, and another couple 9 days straight. Working that many days in a row is not hard on me but Jim has a hard time since he is outside and working in the heat and humidity, either weed eating, mowing, or blowing leaves with a heavy pack on his back. So I decided to say something to Judi since no one else did. I told her that I noticed that our schedule had us working 10 days in a row and she said she had no choice, even though there are 3 of us working in the office now. I said that Sandy & I can manage OK, but the work is hard on the guys - they just cannot work that many days in a row. So she changed the schedule giving us our normal Sun-Mon off, but put me on 8:30-1 five days in a row instead of staggering like she normally does. I said thank you for changing the schedule, and she would not even look at me and said in an angry voice, "just so everyone's happy." She may have a lot of things on her plate but she has no reason to put us on for so many days in a row. I wonder if she even thinks of what she is doing, or just tries to find times for her to be out of the office.
Then with the new couple she had them working two days, then two days off, then coming back to work. What sense does that make? I just don't get it. So now Judi is probably mad at me, cutting my hours and all - I wonder what is next.
It's getting darker at night now and is darker in the morning when I walk the dogs. I try to get out a little before 7 but it does not start getting light until 7, so I am hesitant to trudge up the mountain and let them loose. I am not sure if the big bear is still coming as I see small scat and not the huge stuff a big bear would drop. This morning at 5:00 am something walked past because our alarm & light went off but we could not see anything out there. Could have been just a little critter, but who knows.
September 23, 2013. Celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary yesterday - one of our days off. Did not do anything; just hung around the trailer and did a little cleaning and getting ready for departure. Also on our anniversary was the first day of autumn, and with that came a cool front. Lows have been in the 50s to 60s, very nice sleeping weather. Days are still warm - shorts weather, which I like.
My hours have been cut again - now I am working 8:30 to 12. Seems she is doing this intentionally - I have the feeling she is doing this to force us to leave. I have heard that she is not always good to her workampers and many have just left, even after a couple of weeks, due to her attitude toward them. I guess her personality does not change and she won't change.
Decided to try a new training program with the girls. I have been letting them run willy nilly when I let them loose, and one morning Hayley did not come back for an hour. So now when I take them up the mountain they are not allowed to run off anymore; it's our "stay close" program and I am not allowing them to run off into the woods anymore. We have been doing the new program for a week now and they are doing pretty good. There are a lot of smells in the woods that really intrigue them, and I am proud of them that they are listening to me and staying close.
September 30, 2013. Well now we are at Green River Lake State Park in Campbellsville, Kentucky - arrived here Saturday, September 28, after being asked to leave Tremont. That's a story unto itself, and I may relate it here; I'll have to think about it. This place is beautiful - we are close to the lake and have a lake view and after October this place will only have Amazon people here for two months.
I just logged back onto my web host and they have changed the whole format as to how I access the various sections on the site, and I don't like it. I tried changing the colors on the dates and it took me so long to do it, and I still have not figured out the best way. I don't know why companies have to change things - why not leave well enough alone - stop trying to make it better, which is not always best. Aggravated!
We have met some other fellow Amazon workers already and look forward to meeting more. Terry & Evelyn are at Green River Resort; working the night shift in picking, which is what they wanted. I hope we get the night shift as that is what we asked for. The other Amazon workers here we talked to got picking, day shift.
Walking the dogs is great as there is so much space to walk, and even a trail through the woods. I have a trail map and will start exploring other trails in the park. Biking is also easy and it is fairly flat. We even have WiFi - free of charge for Amazon workers. Thought I was going to have to use my Jetpack, but so far I don't - just for paying bills.
October 13, 2013. Today is Ellie's third birthday and Josh & Karen's 6th wedding anniversary. Jacklyn & Joe drove down there for the weekend to visit. Wish we could be there with them to help celebrate.
We are in Crisplant again working the night shift. First day of five hours was hard; we were not used to using our arms so much putting the boxes together and packing, but by the end of the third day of our five hour shift, we are getting more accustomed to the work. We had Saturday off and today we start our four day 7-1/2 hour shift. Next week we start our 10 hours which we will stay at until the end of December.
Meeting a lot of other fellow Amazonians here in the Park, and enjoy talking and getting to know them better. We seem to have a commradarie amongst us; from young kids to us old farts. We have a single guy here (Alex) in a pop up - 28 years old - who is just traveling around before settling down. Earl & NoraJean next door to Alex are in their late 50's - they do enactments. Earl's hair is down to the middle of his back. Across the road are another young couple Dan & Jonell who decided to retire early and travel around the country. He used to be a math teacher and Jonell was a nurse. Also across the road is Kristin & Ronald. Kristin is 31 and Ron is on his second family with Kristin. They traveled around before kids and then bought a house; decided they did not like it, so they sold it and moved back into a travel trailer. They have two kids traveling with them - Ron is 7 and Aubrey is 1-1/2. Ron Sr. is working at Amazon and Kristen stays home and is home schooling Ron Jr.
Another young couple moved in behind us - Jeff & Tracey. They are in their early 30's and pregnant with their first baby. They have traveled the country living in an old VW bus and before coming to Amazon bought a refurbished school bus that they now live in. Tracey is a biologist and has worked at various interesting jobs around the country and Jeff is a musician.
We met a young couple (late 20's) last year who had just gotten married and were traveling around the country. Last I heard from them they were in Yellowstone this past summer and will be traveling south in Arkansas this winter.
Yesterday we finished our last 7-1/2 hour shift. Day before they asked for VTO (voluntary time off) so we took that and left at 10:00 pm but last night stayed until 1:30am. It was actually quite busy and I had a lot of premiums to get out. Premiums are orders that people pay extra to receive quickly.
Days off are Thursday, Friday & Saturday, and this Sunday we start our 10 hour shift.
Back to Daily Journal 2013
Tried Skyping with Josh & Karen yesterday but the WiFi service here is so bad that we could not even see their faces they so pixilated. The audio kept going in and out and even lost service a few times. That is very frustrating. Don't know what we are going to do in Kentucky for WiFi. We will probably be staying at the State Park and I doubt they have WiFi. Lucy has been getting into my stuff recently and got a hold of my Jet Pack and starting chewing on a corner of it by the lens and now I can hardly see the screen to see what is going on. It still works but it's hard to see what is happening with it. Cannot upgrade until the end of May 2014.
September 6, 2013. We received our start date for Amazon - November 4. We still have until the end of October here, but I will see if we can end our term the third week of October and be out of here around Oct. 29 or 30, so we have some time to get to Campbellsville and set up camp before starting work.
Judi did a new schedule earlier this week with us working 10 days straight, and another couple 9 days straight. Working that many days in a row is not hard on me but Jim has a hard time since he is outside and working in the heat and humidity, either weed eating, mowing, or blowing leaves with a heavy pack on his back. So I decided to say something to Judi since no one else did. I told her that I noticed that our schedule had us working 10 days in a row and she said she had no choice, even though there are 3 of us working in the office now. I said that Sandy & I can manage OK, but the work is hard on the guys - they just cannot work that many days in a row. So she changed the schedule giving us our normal Sun-Mon off, but put me on 8:30-1 five days in a row instead of staggering like she normally does. I said thank you for changing the schedule, and she would not even look at me and said in an angry voice, "just so everyone's happy." She may have a lot of things on her plate but she has no reason to put us on for so many days in a row. I wonder if she even thinks of what she is doing, or just tries to find times for her to be out of the office.
Then with the new couple she had them working two days, then two days off, then coming back to work. What sense does that make? I just don't get it. So now Judi is probably mad at me, cutting my hours and all - I wonder what is next.
It's getting darker at night now and is darker in the morning when I walk the dogs. I try to get out a little before 7 but it does not start getting light until 7, so I am hesitant to trudge up the mountain and let them loose. I am not sure if the big bear is still coming as I see small scat and not the huge stuff a big bear would drop. This morning at 5:00 am something walked past because our alarm & light went off but we could not see anything out there. Could have been just a little critter, but who knows.
September 23, 2013. Celebrated our 34th wedding anniversary yesterday - one of our days off. Did not do anything; just hung around the trailer and did a little cleaning and getting ready for departure. Also on our anniversary was the first day of autumn, and with that came a cool front. Lows have been in the 50s to 60s, very nice sleeping weather. Days are still warm - shorts weather, which I like.
My hours have been cut again - now I am working 8:30 to 12. Seems she is doing this intentionally - I have the feeling she is doing this to force us to leave. I have heard that she is not always good to her workampers and many have just left, even after a couple of weeks, due to her attitude toward them. I guess her personality does not change and she won't change.
Decided to try a new training program with the girls. I have been letting them run willy nilly when I let them loose, and one morning Hayley did not come back for an hour. So now when I take them up the mountain they are not allowed to run off anymore; it's our "stay close" program and I am not allowing them to run off into the woods anymore. We have been doing the new program for a week now and they are doing pretty good. There are a lot of smells in the woods that really intrigue them, and I am proud of them that they are listening to me and staying close.
September 30, 2013. Well now we are at Green River Lake State Park in Campbellsville, Kentucky - arrived here Saturday, September 28, after being asked to leave Tremont. That's a story unto itself, and I may relate it here; I'll have to think about it. This place is beautiful - we are close to the lake and have a lake view and after October this place will only have Amazon people here for two months.
I just logged back onto my web host and they have changed the whole format as to how I access the various sections on the site, and I don't like it. I tried changing the colors on the dates and it took me so long to do it, and I still have not figured out the best way. I don't know why companies have to change things - why not leave well enough alone - stop trying to make it better, which is not always best. Aggravated!
We have met some other fellow Amazon workers already and look forward to meeting more. Terry & Evelyn are at Green River Resort; working the night shift in picking, which is what they wanted. I hope we get the night shift as that is what we asked for. The other Amazon workers here we talked to got picking, day shift.
Walking the dogs is great as there is so much space to walk, and even a trail through the woods. I have a trail map and will start exploring other trails in the park. Biking is also easy and it is fairly flat. We even have WiFi - free of charge for Amazon workers. Thought I was going to have to use my Jetpack, but so far I don't - just for paying bills.
October 13, 2013. Today is Ellie's third birthday and Josh & Karen's 6th wedding anniversary. Jacklyn & Joe drove down there for the weekend to visit. Wish we could be there with them to help celebrate.
We are in Crisplant again working the night shift. First day of five hours was hard; we were not used to using our arms so much putting the boxes together and packing, but by the end of the third day of our five hour shift, we are getting more accustomed to the work. We had Saturday off and today we start our four day 7-1/2 hour shift. Next week we start our 10 hours which we will stay at until the end of December.
Meeting a lot of other fellow Amazonians here in the Park, and enjoy talking and getting to know them better. We seem to have a commradarie amongst us; from young kids to us old farts. We have a single guy here (Alex) in a pop up - 28 years old - who is just traveling around before settling down. Earl & NoraJean next door to Alex are in their late 50's - they do enactments. Earl's hair is down to the middle of his back. Across the road are another young couple Dan & Jonell who decided to retire early and travel around the country. He used to be a math teacher and Jonell was a nurse. Also across the road is Kristin & Ronald. Kristin is 31 and Ron is on his second family with Kristin. They traveled around before kids and then bought a house; decided they did not like it, so they sold it and moved back into a travel trailer. They have two kids traveling with them - Ron is 7 and Aubrey is 1-1/2. Ron Sr. is working at Amazon and Kristen stays home and is home schooling Ron Jr.
Another young couple moved in behind us - Jeff & Tracey. They are in their early 30's and pregnant with their first baby. They have traveled the country living in an old VW bus and before coming to Amazon bought a refurbished school bus that they now live in. Tracey is a biologist and has worked at various interesting jobs around the country and Jeff is a musician.
We met a young couple (late 20's) last year who had just gotten married and were traveling around the country. Last I heard from them they were in Yellowstone this past summer and will be traveling south in Arkansas this winter.
Yesterday we finished our last 7-1/2 hour shift. Day before they asked for VTO (voluntary time off) so we took that and left at 10:00 pm but last night stayed until 1:30am. It was actually quite busy and I had a lot of premiums to get out. Premiums are orders that people pay extra to receive quickly.
Days off are Thursday, Friday & Saturday, and this Sunday we start our 10 hour shift.
Back to Daily Journal 2013