Being formal

Ever since we dropped anchor in Campbellsville way back on October 3rd my laptop is no longer on the dinette table, which is where is had been for much of the year and 8 months we have lived full time in our Newell Coach.  My laptop is now on what I would call a TV dinner table that sits in front of the driver's seat, which is rotated sideways while we are stationary. It has made the dinette much more accessible, and has allowed us to have more formal meals.....mostly dinners.  TLE took this picture so our friends would know we do eat like civilized people.....in fact you will see several items on the table we have purchased over the past year to add a little charm and grace to our eating experience.....crystal salt/pepper caddie (The Peddler's Mall - Campbellsville, KY), a single crystal candle holder (Thrift Store - Oak Harbor, WA), cut crystal wine glasses (Goodwill - Vancouver, WA) red placemats (Walmart), china plates (the plastic ones are gone), wine bottle with aerator (San Sebastian Winery - St. Augustine, FL), wine from Trader Joes - Louisville, KY, formal silverware courtesy my sister Hilary.  We started out with the stuff we used while "camping", but since we are just living, and not camping we have tried to upgrade  to things with a more permanent feel to them.

We were excused from work at Amazon an hour early Sunday morning, and were in bed by 4:30am.....I slept until almost noon.....TLE was up way, way before me.  We spent the day napping......watching the NFL (me), reading (TLE) and just being lazy (both of us).  There were a lot of close NFL games yesterday including the night cap between the Ravens and Steelers, which the Ravens won 13-10.  That was one grind it out, physical game!  It was in the 60's yesterday so I got out the BBQ and grilled some chicken to which TLE added some Spanish rice, a nice chopped romaine salad, and a Trader Joe's Zinfandel.

I know I have been painting a pretty bleak picture of our experience at Amazon the past couple of weeks.  I am attempting to portray the experience without any sugar coating, and maybe I have gone a little overboard, or been a little too dramatic at times.  Overall our experience has been a positive one, and we have been treated very well by the Amazon Camperforce people.  And, to their credit, they spent a lot of time going back to our initial interview trying to convey how difficult, and physically demanding this job is.  Of course, we understood intellectually that it would be difficult, but there is no substitute for real life experience.  In a couple of weeks Amazon will be hosting a job fair for us work campers to give us an idea of other short term work opportunities that area available across the country.  We are very interested to check those out.  There is a reason WORK is called work.....if it were play they would call it PLAY.......our goal in taking this temporary job was to replenish our savings, and put aside fuel money for the next couple of years.  An added benefit are the new friendships we have made, and continue to make.  The atmosphere here at Heartland RV Park is similar to that of a rally, so that adds another pleasant element.

This week we will still be on our new Wednesday through Saturday schedule, but we will work a half shift Thanksgiving night (Thursday), not starting until 11pm, but we will be paid time and a half since our shift starts on Thanksgiving!  Next week as we transition to 5 ten hour days we will only be off Sunday, going to work Monday and Tuesday.....off again Wednesday, and then working Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  The next week we will be working Tuesday through Saturday, which will be our schedule the last 3 weeks, plus any overtime we are given.

OK, time to start that second pot of coffee.....thanks for stopping by!