Eeeeeeek! #2 & Day 1 at RNO1

Yep, there was a second one, but I'll spare you the postmortem pictures this time around.  So, after finding a second one we decided it was high time we opened everything up.....I mean every drawer, cupboard, closet, and bin.  TLE took the inside and I took the outside.  After emptying 11 of the 12 basement storage areas I found the 'nest' in the bin where I keep the plumbing related stuff as well as extra hoses.....now I know where some of the fuzzy stuff on the inside of one of my tire covers went......:-)  Once the nest was found I began vacuuming out every single bin, and found small mouse droppings here and there which indicated the two miscreants had taken pretty much the full tour of our basement regions.  TLE found a few mouse droppings under the large pan drawer beneath the oven, and a few under the sink, but none in the all important pantry.

As a precaution I went over to Lowe's and bought 2 more mouse traps to deploy for the next few days and nights to be sure we have got them all, and of course, we'll be looking for the telltale mouse droppings as well.

All of that excitement carried us into the early afternoon and it was only a little over 4 hours until we would begin our second drive into Amazon to begin our training for our 'new to us' job.....stowing.  Two years ago when we worked our first 'Peak Season' at Amazon in Campbellsville, KY we worked in the 'Outbound' department as 'Pickers', and we had hoped, since we already knew how to do that job, that we would be given the same job again, but sometimes it's better not to get what you want.  This year we were assigned to work in the 'Inbound' department as 'stowers'.

We left home around 5:05 and were exiting our car in the Amazon RNO1 parking lot by 5:42.  This particular Amazon Fulfillment Center is comprised of two buildings.....the west building is called 'Nevada', and the eastern building is called 'Utah'.  For our first 'day' (actually night, right?) we were to meet our trainer, Bruce, on the Utah side, but on all future days we will be doing our 'Stand Up' in the Nevada building.  'Sand Up' is the place where all employees in 'inbound' meet up before they begin their shift.  The managers relate any pertinent news of the day, and lead us through few safety tips, as well as stretching exercises. 

Each Amazon Fulfillment Center has a four digit alpha/numeric code, and although this facility is located in Fernley, NV it's alpha/numeric designation refers to it as "Reno #1, or RNO1.    This facility was first opened in 1999, and I think this was the 2nd or 3rd facility built by Amazon, so it is one of the smaller Amazon Fulfillment Centers square footage wise.  This 15th 'Peak Season' will be the last at this location as they are opening a much larger facility in Reno proper.

Each year RNO1 has what is called 'Peak Kickoff', which is essentially a one hour celebration of the history of this particular facility, a kind of a 'ra ra' type of event intended to get you pumped up and excited about the next 7 weeks.  They had one skit entitled "Amazon 'Yesterday' delivery"......kind of a humorous takeoff on "Amazon Same Day delivery".....I'm sure if you let your mind wander a little bit you can imagine how funny this really was.  Essentially packages arrive at your door the day before you even think of ordering them......:-)  

Then it was off to spend time with our trainer, Bruce, who spent the next four hours giving us our first glimpses of what 'stowing' is all about.  It will be our job for the next 7 weeks to place items in bins throughout RNO1 so they can be 'picked' by the ubiquitous 'pickers' when they are ordered by our online customers.  Instead of being told by our hand held Motorola scanners where to go to pick an item, we decide where to go to 'stow' them.  Actually, after one night of stowing I can tell you with some confidence that I like 'stowing' way more than 'picking'.  Of course, having already spent 11 weeks two years ago at Amazon 'picking' 10's of thousands of items it was a lot easier to learn the 'basics' of the stowing process' this time......the 5 hours flew by, and we were home by 11:30.  Within a few minutes it felt like we had never left Amazon almost two years ago.  We'll spend two more nights this week (Thursday and Friday) learning the intricacies of stowing all different types and sizes of items, and then we will hit the decks running next Monday on our 10 hour shifts.

We stayed up until well after midnight trying to somewhat adjust our body clocks to what is coming......

Thanks for stopping by!