Going Postal....

Friday is our Amazon group's "going out to lunch" day, so we all headed over to a local eatery called Orville's that serves amazing food.  I had their Philly Cheese Steak, which is not really a Philly Cheese Steak, but whatever it is I'll have it again......very, very good.  We got home around 3:30pm, just enough time for a short nap for me.  It seemed like I had barely closed my eye's when TLE was shaking me awake....I think I could have slept for a few hours if left alone....:D  The day time temps have risen up into the 60's again, and it was a very pleasant, almost balmy, sunny day.  

I guess it was bound to happen.  I guess Amazon is like the Post Office......where the mail just keeps on coming, and coming, and coming,  and then Publisher's Clearing House week hits and someone snaps and shoots up the place.  Last night some nut, apparently of the female variety, wrote on a mirror in the ladies room that a bomb would go off at such and such a time......so we got a message just before our normal break time (8pm) on our scanner screens typed in large font, with capital letters......"EVACUATE THE BUILDING!!!  USE THE CLOSEST EMERGENCY EXIT!! LEAVE NOW!!!!"  About that time I heard the fire alarms start to go off....

I dropped my scanner on to the cart, did an about face and headed for one of the big illuminated red EXIT signs......I realized as soon as I went through the door into the cold night air that I was not properly dressed for the next HOUR AND A HALF!  Shorts and a t-shirt just don't cut it when it's 38 degrees outside.  I exited with about 20 other people on the side of the building between the front and rear parking lot.  We stood there for about 5 minutes all wondering how long this was going to last, and how we were going to stay warm......most all of us were in short sleeves, if not tank tops, and most were wearing shorts.  Eventually our group was instructed to move to the front of the building.  I was hoping TLE had exited through the front of the building and had pulled our jackets off the hangers as she passed.  Well, I was partially right....she did exit through the front of the building.....and she did pull her jacket off the hanger as she passed by the coat rack.

As we stood there fire truck after fire truck rolled in along with law enforcement vehicles....there were red and blue strobe lights flashing everywhere.

There were probably about 500 people milling around in front......I was able to locate TLE pretty quickly and moved in her direction hoping she had my jacket.....I could see from a distance that she had her jacket on......unfortunately as I moved closer I could see she did not have my jacket, so we huddled together and tried to stay warm.  After a few more minutes someone started taking roll, and then all the pickers were directed to move to the loading dock area to join the other pickers on the other side of the building.  Just after we arrived there the "Pick" staff members began passing out survival kits kept in an outside storage building for just such an occasion consisting of solar blankets, actual blankets, watch caps, rain ponchos, etc. and we were quickly getting warm again.   It was a surreal scene looking around the parking lot and seeing all the white blankets, and all that shinny mylar reflecting the flashing lights.   Of course, in a group this big the next issue is the lack of restroom facilities in the parking lot.....:D

All told we were in the parking lot for about 90 minutes before we were allowed back in.  We congregated in the break room, and eventually a higher up staff type guy came in and told us what had happened.  Eventually we were allowed to go back to our respective jobs around 9:30pm.  Frankly I was wondering how they could "sweep" a one million square building looking for an explosive device in 90 minutes.  Makes you wonder, huh?

Friday night I was working down on the main floor picking DVD's, books, calendars, etc.....only "G" rated stuff, while TLE was up in HRV.  The night went quickly after the phony bomb scare incident.  I hope with all the video cameras in the Amazon building they catch the kook and lock them up for a few decades.  

Friday, November 30th, also marked the end of 10 months since we left Riverside, CA on this adventure.  Now we are into December and are running down hill to December 23rd!

Saturday night will mark the end of our first 5/ten week, plus the 1.5 hours we each worked Monday night before being sent home.  I figured it out.....we have been in that building every day since last Wednesday.....of course we had a 37.5 hour break from Sunday morning when we got off work last week, until 5:30pm on Monday, but as of this Saturday we will have been in that building 11 consecutive days.....no wonder I feel beat!!!   Notice I am starting to call it "THAT BUILDING".....it's always lurking there just across the street waiting eagerly to swallow us up body and soul for another 10.5 hours.  Nevertheless, like good soldiers, we soldier on, up one isle, and down another listening to the clackity clack of the cart wheels on concrete, squinting into the screen of our Motorola scanners to see where we are being directed next, scanning the appropriate item, then eagerly awaiting the "beep" and green light that signify we have done our job one more time.  Occasionally we get the dreaded "BEE BOOP, BEE BOOP" sound that tells us we don't know a dildo from a DVD.....that happens a lot around 3am.....:D

Onward and upward!  Thanks for stopping by!