Cold and Tired

It is burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr COLD. It was 16 degrees but with wind chill factor it was -3!!!!!!!!! We walked out of work this morning to that temperature and the wind was blowing 20-25 MPH. And WHY are we doing this????? Oh, yes, when we woke up this morning/afternoon all the water pipes were frozen AND, AND the truck wouldn't start and we needed propane!!!!!

How's that for a great time in Coffeyville, Kansas, working for amazon.com??????

Nah, I'm not upset it's just part of life and you play the hand life deals with you. You just deal with it and go on. So we cracked the faucets and waited and pretty soon we had water in the shower, toilet and upper sink....but it is now 4 pm and we still don't have water in the galley. Bill came over and took Jim to get propane and jumped the truck. So we are all ok.

Amazon.com has provided us two free meals the last two weeks. It's kind of their appreciation for all our work during "peak", which is what they call the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Food was catered and pretty good. First time it was chicken breast and last night it was baked ham.

Business is going very well for amazon.com; items on order needing to be processed are running between 150,000 and 200,000 a day! And of course, we have to process all the new freight coming in to maintain the product flow. We process about seven semis-full A NIGHT. Last week between the day and night shifts we processed 1.2 million pieces of merchandise. And that is only in this one fulfillment center!

We are tired and need more sleep to recover each day. We go to sleep at 6 am and Jim gets up at noon, but today I woke up at 2:30 pm. But we only have 6 more shifts to work. Bill and Lesle will work the overtime shifts so they have 8 shifts to work...it is too much for Jim and I. But we are handling it. There are many, many people leaving because of the cold. You know workampers and fulltimers don't DO cold. Luckily, our electricity is paid for us because we are using the electric heater non-stop.

Well, the beans with ham and fried potatoes are ready to eat so I best go. Be happy, stay warm and remember you are loved.

Tired and New Friends

Tired is what we are. Last week we only worked 42 hours each and we didn't work the scheduled fifth night...Jim and I just can't/choose not to do the extra night of work. Bless Lesle and Bill's hearts they DID work the fifth night....they were on auto pilot and tired as dogs, but they made $364 between them for that one nights work. That's a month's rent at some rv park in Arizona this winter.

Orders are coming in at a heavier rate this year than last year....thanks to all of you who used amazon.com for some of your holiday purchases. I bought myself two knitting book and they came in from Kentucky instead of from here in Coffeyville.....go figure.

I was scrolling through the Escapees discussion forum and under the Working on the Road topic I found a post from a person talking about the beet harvest and he said he was going to Coffeyville to work for amazon.com. I followed to his blog to find out more and found out he and his wife camphosted near Chama, NM. Well, American Land and Leisure (who we work for during the summer) have campgrounds in south-central Colorado near there. Sure enough more reading brought to light that Larry and Betty Harmon camphosted at Trujillo Meadows outside Antonito, Colorado.

So I emailed him and explained our similarities, and met last Saturday in Independence, KS and had lunch.

It was so much fun to meet someone who worked for the same companies as we do with similar backgrounds. Larry retired as police chief in a Arkansas town last year, both he and Jim being in public service. We all work nights at amazon but in different departments. Betty is a Picker and Larry is in Shipping which are considered Outbound department and Jim and I work in Receiving which is part of Inbound. We had a great time together.

Jim and I, as well as Bill and Lesle, have put in our two weeks notice. Our last night will be Sunday, December 20th; we'll get home morning of December 21st and sleep till noon and then break down and ready the rig for moving. After sitting in one place for two months things have kind of spread out and are not in their proper "moving" positions, so we need to "ready the ship" so to speak. Then early Tuesday morning of December 22nd we'll take off for Alamosa to spend Christmas with Jim's brothers. Don and Ron put on a fabulous Mexican Feast for Christmas Eve and we have missed attending the last two years. Of course, Alamosa being one of the coldest towns in the USA, we'll have to drain all our water, put a couple of gallons of anti-freeze in the holding tanks and use windshield wiper fluid for flushing the toilet while we are there. We'll stay at Chapman Campground, Ron's garage out by the airport, where we have electricity and water. It will only be for three nights, as Alamosa CAN get to 40 BELOW ZERO, we will leave quickly after Christmas and head for Deming, NM, Tucson and then Quartzsite.

We did go to another Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives recommended restaurant Saturday night, but more about that tomorrow. Off to work we go. Remember you are loved!