Waiting to exhale....

That's how I feel on our days off.  It's like we are holding our breath waiting for the grind to begin again, only this time "the grind" will only be 5 more days.  We just got an e-mail from the CamperForce office that on our final shift day (Saturday/Sunday) we will finish at 3am Sunday to attend our shift party and debriefing, however, we will still be paid through 5:30am.  If we can swing a couple nights up in HRV that will make this final 5 days even sweeter.

We did our Christmas shopping on Amazon....it took about an hour, and now all the presents we bought are on their way to their recipients.  With our 10% Amazon employee discount, and free two day shipping the cost is not bad, and we didn't have to get in the car in a driving rain storm to do it.

Since we started our Wednesday to Saturday shift Monday always feels like Sunday to me.  I always get up thinking it's football day, but then the realization that it is only Monday dawns on me.....:(  There was rain during the night, and it actually woke me up one time it was so hard.  The rained continued on and off Monday, and then in the afternoon the sky fell for about an hour.....wind, lightning, thunder and torrential rain.  Finally around 5:30pm we ventured out to do some shopping when it was clear it had stopped raining.  TLE goes through a lot of Sudafed here at Amazon, and in Kentucky in general.  Inside "that building" there is a lot of dust in the air from all the fans flowing, and it does affect her unless she takes a Sudafed.  I just get a plugged up nose full of dirt.  Anyway, getting Sudafed when you are out of state is a major issue since they must run your drivers license to be sure you are not buying it to make drugs.  It takes longer to run an out of state license, particularly a California one.  This time it took over 10 minutes to get cleared to buy a small box of Sudafed.

These "Big Ass Fans" are 20' in diameter

Speaking of conditions inside the 1 million square foot warehouse aka: "that building", please understand, Amazon does have a crew continually sweeping, and cleaning, but unless you just shut the place down for a real deep cleaning there is no way to get rid off all the dust and dirt.  As you climb up stairs to the upper levels of the "PIC MODS" you can look down and see the deep dust accumulation on top of the surfaces below.  There are large fans moving air 24/7, so what dust doesn't settle and stick is kept in the air by these fans.  The fans are very necessary, but they also contribute to the dust in the air.  Inside Amazon you will find hand sanitizers everywhere in addition to cans of Sani-Wipes.  TLE and I use the hand sanitzer religiously, and when we pick up our scanners for the day we wipe them down with the Sani-Wipes.  Those Sani-Wipes are in big demand, and go fast.  In addition we each wear company provided work gloves while picking.  If you don't wear gloves your hands will be black with grime at every break.  

We got home around 7 pm from our shopping excursion, which also involved a run to the County Line to the liquor store to restock.  

We watched a couple of NCIS episodes, and a couple of American Pickers then went to bed a little after midnight......that is now considered early for us.  Thought it would be nice to get up around 9, or 10 and have a longer day before we go to work tonight.  With tomorrow's blog entry the countdown will resume once again.

Our time here is now fleeting, and our thoughts are turning once again to the Nomadic life we started last February 1st.  This will be our first Christmas away from home, and our kids.  Soon we will find ourselves in the more tropical climate of Cedar Key, and then on to untold adventures down the west coast of Florida to the Keys, then back up the east coast to probably Maine before we turn west and recross the Mississippi River.  Our plans after Cedar Key are pretty much written in Jello, and our timetable is non existent after Cedar Key, but come along with us and see how it turns out!

Thanks for stopping by!