Hardening......

4:06 am - Tuesday - October 23rd - Campbellville, KY - 39º F, 91% humidity, wind 3 mph out of the south by southeast.......clear with a forecast high for today of 67º F......yup, you've got it......the early mornings have begun.  We will walk to work this morning leaving about 6:10 am.....we punch the clock at 6:30 am.  Only working 5 hour shifts today, Wednesday and Thursday. They all it 'work hardening'.....the 10 hour shifts begin Sunday!

I forced myself to get up at 6:30 am Monday, earlier than normal, in preparation getting up really earlier than normal on Tuesday.  Monday we had our orientation which began at 12 noon, and ran until 5 pm with all the appropriate breaks older folks need, but, as often is the case, I get ahead of myself.

I was up early, as I said, to begin to get used to arising when it is still dark.  Even though I was up before 6 am most work days in Southwest Harbor the sun was already risen, so it was never dark.  In fact, it was barely getting dark when I went to bed there at 9 pm.  Seemed like it was always light.  Quite the opposite will be the case here in Campbellsville, KY.  It will be dark when we walk to work at 6:10 am, and it will be close to dark, and eventually dark when we come home after 5 pm.  The only time we will see the sun is on our 'weekend' (Tuesday through Thursday), unless they call an MOT (Mandatory Overtime) on Tuesdays.  Our first eligible Tuesday for MOT will be the 30th.  

We spent the morning relaxing, reading, and mentally girding ourselves for the next 8 weeks.  We both know in spite of how much we walk there is no preparation for standing, and walking on cold concrete for 10 hours a day except actually doing it, and 'doing it' begins this Sunday.  We will average somewhere between 11 and 13 miles of walking per day.

We were ready to head to our orientation at 11:50 am, so jumped in the VW (probably the only time we will drive to work during peak season) to drive about and eighth of a mile to the employee paring lot, and were walking through the front entrance at 11:55 am.  Our employee badges were already made up for us using our pictures from 6 years ago....

My employee picture....the same one they used here 6 years ago!

.....and we were off to the races!  Well, not really a race.....kind of a slow walk, if you will.   I must say, they have done a good job over the years of making orientation flow along a lot more quickly than it seemed to then.

We had a rather small orientation class of around 10 people, which does help to reduce the number of questions, and keeps things moving along.  We took a tour of the facility, which seems to have changed a lot in appearance from 6 years ago.  The cafeteria where we met initially has been totally redone just recently.....in fact, the whole entrance area has been modernized, and updated.  I had forgotten that this Amazon facility was one of the first 4, or 5 in the nation and has the designation as a 'Legacy FC' (Fulfillment Center).

The afternoon seemed to fly by quickly, and suddenly we were released at 5 pm and on our way home.  We were immediately reminded of why we don't like to drive to work here....getting out of this parking lot can be time consuming.  When we worked at Amazon in Fernley, NV we drove 30 miles to work, but the parking lot ingress and egress was quite easy there.  After waiting in line to merge onto South Columbia and then quickly turn right onto Heartland for what seemed an eternity we were home and quickly slipping into our new evening routine.  We watched  three recorded shows ('Last Ship', 'NCIS: Los Angeles' and 'Hell's Kitchen').  TLE whipped up a quick dinner, and I was in bed by 8:30 pm.  It's going to take me a little while to get used to going to bed that early, but I actually was asleep within 15 minutes of my head hitting the pillow.

Our schedule for the rest of the week will be 'work hardening' Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday which will involve only working 5 hour shifts.  We will be off work Friday and Saturday, and then begin to work our full 10 hour shifts on Sunday and Monday....we will then be off work, theoretically, from Tuesday through Thursday unless there is an MOT on Tuesday.  The work week here runs from Sunday to Saturday, and we are paid every Friday, making our first payday November 2nd, and then every Friday after that until our last check. 

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