Christmas Day.....

6:47 am - Wednesday - December 26th - Ontario, CA - 46 F, 71% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the north by northwest........sunny today with a forecast high of 66 F!  It is the day after Christmas and we are enjoying the early morning views of the local San Bernardino Mountains as I compose today's missive.  We will taking the 'red eye' back to Nashville at 9:30 pm.

Ahhhhh, Christmas morning, and our annual Christmas Brunch at Chris' home in Rancho Cucamonga, CA.  This has been our Christmas morning tradition for many years now.  Chris is an excellent home chef, and he makes one of the best Posole (Mexican Chicken Soup) I have ever eaten, and this year's batch was the best ever.  I am not, as a habit, a breakfast soup kind of person, but I am on Christmas morning.....oh yeah!

We were awake after only 5 hours of sleep, and getting ready to drive from Tim's home up to Chris'.....about a 15-20 minute drive....for brunch.  We arrived just before 9 am, and the rest of our family shortly thereafter.....

 Mimosas for everyone....

 Our oldest grand daughter, Cynthia and her family -  left to right: Cynthia, Jameson, Daniel Jr. and Daniel (husband)

 Our youngest daughter, Sharon, and her family - left to right: Rod, Brayden James, and Sharon

 Our middle daughter, Kate, and her family - left to right: Elijah, Kate, Nick (husband), Jolene, and Charlise

 Our youngest son, Tim and his wife, Laila who will give birth in about 4 weeks to our newest grandson, and 20th member of our family

 Our oldest son Chris (left) and his family -  left to right: Cynthia, Rochelle (wife), and Christopher

19 strong, and in about 4 weeks 20 strong

......we ate, laughed......there are always 14 conversations if progress when our family gets together, and I love it.....we opened presents and were especially attentive to the reactions of our young grand children and great grand children as they opened their Christmas treasures.  Soon it was time for our annual Christmas pictures.  Our growing family  is now 19 strong, with a new grandson (Crosby) to arrive in the next few weeks making us 20 strong.  As I look at the group picture above I cannot help but realize that for TLE and I joining forces 47+ years ago this picture would not exisit.....these relationships and families would not exist.  I cannot imagine it being otherwise.  It is both humbling and gratifying to see our children prospering and raising such wonderful families.

From Chris' home we hitched a ride with Kate and Nick back to their new home in the Jurupa Hills overlooking the Jurupa Valley.  This is the home they purchased after they sold the home we sold to them a few years ago....

.....I neglected to take any pictures, but here are a couple Kate posted on her Facebook page a while back......the house has a small footprint, but it three stories tall with a two car garage.  They have a wonderful west looking view of the Jurupa Valley, which will enable them to enjoy many wonderful sunsets for years to come.  The first picture is of the exterior of the home, and the second (a dinner party a while back) shows the view of the valley.

We hung out with Kate and her family until 1:30 pm when we made the drive back to Ontario for Christmas Dinner with Nick's family.  We had a lot of face time with our kids, grand kids, great grand kids, and inlaws.  By the time we reached Tim's home around 4:30 pm we had eaten way to much food, and were just ready to relax.  Tim turned on their Jacuzzi for TLE and I to enjoy and that is just what we did.  By 8:30 pm we were in bed trying catch up on a little 'shut eye' before our return flight Wednesday evening.  I'm sure there will be a few more naps Wednesday before we leave for the airport.

Our trip home has been everything for which I had hoped, and more.  Time is going by way too quickly, but life is good, and my heart is spilling over with happiness and satisfaction.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Christmas Odyssey.....

6:48 am - Tuesday - December 25th - Ontario, CA - 53 degrees F, 84% humidity, wind 7 mph out of the west by southwest........cloudy with occasional rain (sound familiar?) with a forecast high of 62 F today.

We were up early in anticipation of our cross country trip via American Airlines to SoCal (Ontario specifically), which departed Nashville at 5:15 pm.  I took care of disconnecting from the city water as it will be under freezing at night while we are gone and I did not use our heated hose.  But, before disconnecting I refilled our fresh water tank up to 140 gallons for our three day drycamping journey to Cedar Key when we return to Nashville from our hectic round trip dash to California for Christmas with our kids.

We were out the door on our drive to BNA (Nashville International) around 2:30 pm.  After securing a parking spot in the long term parking lot we boarded the shuttle to the departure terminal, had our boarding passes printed, hustled through security, and were at Gate C-6 by 3:15 pm.....we like to get to the airport early so we don't have to rush......I hate rushing.  There was a 'Tootsies restaurant right next to the gate so we ordered a late lunch consisting of two Chicken Caesar salads, and two glasses of water.....

 Sitting in Tootsie's waiting for our order

......by the time we finished our salads it was about 40 minutes until boarding began for the first leg of our journey.....Nashville to DFW (Dallas/Ft. Worth).  The flight, fortuately, was only about half full, so we were able to spread out and relax...

 Waiting for takeoff on our first leg

....when the beverage service came to our row I asked for a Scotch expecting one small bottle of Dewars, and paying......what I got were two bottles of Dewars for FREE....Merry Christmas to me!  The Scotch and a good book helped make the one hour and forty minute flight go quickly.

We landed at DFW around 7 pm and had and hour and 10  minutes until our flight began boarding at 8:10 pm so we dropped into the Chili's right next to gate C-35 and ordered a salsa plate with chips, of course, and coffee.....strange combo, right?

Unlike the first leg of our trip, the flight from DFW to John Wayne International was fully booked, and if it is even possibe, I think the seats were smaller than the first flight. I had the misfortune being assinged a window seat, so I sat there for 3+ hours in discomfort before we touched down in Orange County at 9:55 pm and began the long taxi to the gate.

By 10:15 pm we were ensconced in our daughter, Meredith's car, and on our drive to my son Tim's home in Ontario, CA where we will spend two days and two nights before our return flights to Nashville.  We were in bed by 11:30 pm (1:30 am Nashsville time) dreaming of Christmas brunch with our children and their families.  Life is good!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.

Amazon debrief......

7:37 am - Monday - December 24th - Nashville, TN - 31º F, humidity 84%, wind 2 mph out of the south by southeast......heavy fog with a forecast high today of 48º F......sunny later in the morning.  It is Christmas Eve and we will be boarding a plane this afternoon to fly home to SoCal to spend Christmas with our kids, grand kids and great grand kids.

It rained most the the night Saturday night, and continued raining until mid afternoon Sunday.  Accompanying the rain was a cold, blustery wind which only served to keep us pinned inside most of the day.  I went outside twice....once to hook up to city water so TLE could do a wash (ran a gray water hose back into the bushes behind our site), and second time to retrieve our one piece of luggage in preparation for packing Monday morning for our plane trip late afternoon back to SoCal.

We entertained ourselves by watching no less than 3 English Premier Soccer matches with the 3rd being Tottenham Hotspurs vs. Everton FC.  Everton scored the first goal, but then the Hotspurs came back with 3 of their own to lead at halftime 3-1.  Both teams matched their individual first half scoring output in the second half making the final score an unlikely 6-2 in favor of the Hotspurs.  It was a great game if you were a Hotspur fan....😊

The rest of the day was filled with one Hallmark Christmas movie after another, and that was pretty much the rest of our Sunday, which concluded about 9 pm when I began to doze in my recliner....time to get to bed!

It's probably time to debrief you on our latest Amazon experience.  You will recall that we had requested to work the night shift, and 'stowing' as our job, but instead we got day shift picking.  It is always a roll of the dice with Amazon, because they assign shifts and jobs based on their current needs the week when you begin working.  Had we come a week earlier, as our friends Ed and Suzanne did, we could have gotten the night shift, but may have been assigned to 'packing'.  All that being said we understood coming in that we might not get that for which we asked, so we just adjusted our thinking and got behind our new assignment.  

Our first time at Amazon was back in October of 2012 in Campbellsville.  We worked the night shift that time and were pickers.  I really did not like picking that time, in fact I loathed it.  On the other hand I loved 'stowing' when we worked at Amazon in Fernley, NV.  I determined at the outset that I would give 'picking' a fresh look and make an effort to not loath it this time.  As it turned out after 8 weeks of doing picking I did not mind it much.  Maybe it was the familiarity with the requirements of the job that made it seem easier this time, I do not know.  In the end most of the jobs at Amazon are repetitive task jobs, and are all boring.  It is the nature of the repetitive task world.  For me it really just came down to a predetermined mindset on my part to be positive and to enjoy the experience as much as I could.  We made good friends, as we always do, and it is those new friends that is the takeaway from the whole experience.

We spent most of our off days resting and recovering for the next week of work.  In all we worked five 5 day weeks, and three 4 day weeks.  We never worked more than 10 hours in any shift.  We could have, if we wished, worked a 6th day some weeks, but we chose not to do that, because when you work six days at Amazon it begins to feel like you are never leaving the building, and I did not want to deal with that feeling.  

When we applied to Amazon this time the hourly wage was only $10/hour, but as the entire world knows now, Jeff Bezos decided to raise the minimum wage at Amazon to $15/hour.  Had we worked no overtime we would have made the same amount of money had we been paid $10/hour and worked tons of overtime.  With the $15/hour wage working overtime put us up to $22.50/hour!  We ended up making more money than we expected, and at this writing we still have one paycheck to go for our last three days, plus our $1/hour for every non-overtime hour worked, plus $1.50/hour for every overtime hour worked.  TLE and I both agree that 7-8 weeks of the Amazon experience is all we can take.  Our first time at Amazon back in 2012 we worked 11 weeks, and that was way too long.

To work at Amazon as a stower, picker, or even a packer you have to be in decent physical shape.  It is not an easy job.  There is a lot of bending over, crouching, kneeling at times, and lifting.  Some totes can get to almost 30 pounds.  You will be handling up to 120+ totes in a 10 hour shift.  There is no way to prepare for standing and walking on cold concrete for 10 hours a day except actually doing it.  To somewhat prepare TLE and I do lots of hiking, and try to stay as fit as possible.  When we hike we always use hiking poles so that our upper body and arms get used.  We both think this is good preparation for the rigors of Amazon, and so far it has worked for us.  The thing you cannot prepare for is how tired your feet get, and for some, how much they can hurt for the first few weeks.  Our first time here we had to soak our feet in epsom salts every morning after returning home from our night shift.  This time we may have soaked them 3, or 4 times at the beginning, but not a all the last 5 weeks.  My biggest physical issue this time were my quadriceps (thigh muscles) from all of the crouching to get into the A and B bins.  I spent my off time doing a lot of deep knee bends and that helped a lot, and as a result the last 5 weeks were pretty tolerable.  

There is really no way to prepare for the job mentally.  It is mind numbingly boring, and unless you wish to spend hours watching butter, or ice melt (of course you do not) in preparation for working at Amazon you just have to figure out how to do your job competently and day dream at the same time.  The time of day is displayed on your Motorola scanner, but I only allowed myself to check the time after I had filled, and dropped off three totes to the conveyor.  It usually took 15-20 minutes for that task.  Sometimes I would get into a rhythm and not check the time for 30, or 40 minutes at a time.  It just helps create the feeling that time is passing at a reasonable rate when you are not checking the time every 3-4 minutes.

Another piece of advice that worked for me.....at breaks and lunch do NOT talk about what you picked, or anything about your job.  Talk about anything else to give your mind a small vacation from the job and its attendant boredom.  After each break, and lunch you will feel much better about returning to work.  At first you will find yourself wanting to talk about your job, but you have to get past that urge.  Get to know your co-workers instead.

As far as footwear for Amazon....well, everyone has their own preference for the type of shoes they will wear, but one universal rule is whatever shoes you buy get them 1/2 size bigger than you would usually wear, because your feet will grown in size from walking 10+ miles per shift.  If your shoes are too tight your feet will hurt at lot!  Personally I wear my Keen hiking shoes when working at Amazon and that has worked well for me.  I saw a lot of people wearing hiking type shoes, but also many who wore some name brand running shoes, or tennis shoes.  Another thing to do (I don't personally do this) is to rub Preparation H on your feet each day prior to your shift to keep the swelling in your feet at a minimum.  TLE does this and swears by it.

Most people who work at Amazon wear shorts and a t-shirt while working.  It is quite warm most of the time inside, but some also carry a long sleeved shirt in case they get into an area of the 1,000,000 square foot building where it is cold, and there are few places like that.  The point is to be as comfortable as you can while working.  I have always worn shorts and a t-shirt at Amazon, and rarely wish I had anything more (long sleeved shirt).  If you can avoid thinking about your clothing, or shoes while you work you have won half the mental battle.

Will we do Amazon again?  Hmmmmm, I'm not sure I know, but probably.  Not for a year, or two for sure, but we will probably do it again, especially if they open up some Camperforce opportunities out west.  Amazon is not for everyone, but if you can take 7-8 weeks of boredom it is a quick money earning opportunity.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.

"Long as I remember, the rain been comin' down....."

7:13 am - Sunday - December 23rd - Nashville, TN - 43º F, 85% humidity (must be higher....it's raining!?), wind 5 mph out of the southeast.......heavy cloud cover with rain (again) with a forecast high for today of 45º F.....

CCR* - Who'll Stop the Rain?

......the opening lyrics of this well known CCR* song have been running through my mind for some time now.  It seems it has been raining since we got to Campbellsville, and that trend has continued here in Nashville.  As I write to you this dreary, drippy, rain drenched Sunday morning about Saturday's comings and goings the rain is still comin' down.  So, I know what some of you are thinking, and you would be right......I do know this CCR song was really a protest song against the Vietnam war, but you know by now how my mind works, so give me a little poetic slack here, okay?

Saturday was a wonderfully sunny day, and if you consider 53º F warm, then it was also a warmish day.  After days, and weeks of temps in the 30's and 40's and lots of rain, some sleet, and some snow a sunny, cloudless day is a wonderful treasure not to be frittered away, so we determined to drive back up I-65 about 1 hour to the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green, Kentucky.  I have a particular fascination with the first generation Corvettes (1953-1962), and particularly the first 4, or 5 years of that generation.  The Corvette is currently in its 7th generation of evolution....

Here at last!

 Myron Scott is credited with coming up with the Corvette name....the Corvette's namesake is a British Battleship Corvette class ship

.....and there they are....the 1953, 1954 and 1955 Corvettes!  I love the styling on these early Corvettes, and if I had a choice I would own a white 1953 Corvette......

 The 'Mako Shark' Vette

1958 Corvette

 1959 Corvette

 2nd Generation Corvettes.....

 Corvette Stingray split window set up for racing

 1 millionth Corvette....so glad it was white!

....on February 12, 2014 a sinkhole developed beneath the museum causing 8 Corvettes to fall into the massive hole......

.....ultimately 5 of the Corvettes were damaged beyond repair, while 3 were lightly damaged and restored over several years......

 The sinkhole can be seen down this 30' pipe

....all 8 Corvettes which fell into the chasm are on display for public viewing....took a short video of the display.....

 Love this 'Lemans Blue' color

 The rarest color used on a Corvette in all 7 generations....this is one of only 723 Corvettes painted with this Silver Green in 1982....there were over 25,000 Corvettes manufactured that year, and it was the only year that color was offered.  Thought it was one of the most beautiful paint colors I saw Saturday.

 1989 Corvette ZR-1 hold the 24 hour average speed record....175.885 mph

....we finished our tour by taking turns sitting in a 2017 C7 Grand Sport Corvette on display for just this purpose......

 7th Generation 2017 C7 Grand Sport Corvette that one may sit in if one so wishes, but please do not slam the door (as the sign says)

 It's okay to dream a little, right?

......of course, after any great sightseeing excursion good food and brews must be in the offing.  Prior to our drive up to Bowling Green TLE had scouted out, on Yelp, some micro breweries to checkout on our way back to Nashville.  She settled on a place called 'White Squirrel Brewing' which Yelp gives a solid 4.5 stars on 230 reviews.  We arrived there around 3:45 pm and were quickly seated.  TLE ordered a pint of their Scotch Brown Ale, and I a pint of their Nut Brown Ale.  Both were worthy of a 5 star rating.  For entrees I ordered one of their Specials.....Black and Bleu Bacon Burger, and TLE their Fish & Chips.  Once again both worthy of a 5 star rating.  The Black and Bleu was one of the best burgers I have ever eaten.....seriously!

Great brews and entrees....a perfect end to a wonderful day

Since we left Amazon I have pretty much been eschewing the wearing of shoes.....regardless of the weather, or temperature I have been wearing shorts and flip flops when we go out.  My feet are quite grateful for their new found freedom.  Saturday was the longest I have spent on my feet since my last work day at Amazon, and the 90+ minutes we spent walking around the Corvette Museum began to draw protests from them towards the end.

We were home a little after 5:30 pm from our sightseeing travels.  I have wanted to visit the National Corvette Museum for years, so Saturday was another item checked off the proverbial bucket list.  The experience was everything for which I could have hoped, and it was definitely worth the $8 (senior price) per person admission fee.

Thanks for stopping by!

*CCR = Creedence Clearwater Revival

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.

Serendipity.....

7:16 am - Saturday - December 22nd - Nashville, KY - 33º F, 85% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the south......sunny today with a forecast high of 52º F.

It rained all night Thursday night and into Friday.  We had decided in advance of Friday we would stay in Friday.  The weather was rainy, cold, blustery.....just plain miserable.....not exactly conducive to getting in and out of a car, and sightseeing.  

Then I got a private message on Facebook from long time reader Steve.  We met once before several years ago when he and his wife, Suzanne, came to Tahoe Valley Campground in their Class A diesel pusher, but it was a brief encounter while I was driving around in my golf cart doing my job as Ranger.  Since then we have tried to hookup a couple of times when our traveling paths seemed to be crossing, most recently this summer while we were in Southwest Harbor, Maine, but the timing just didn't work.  I had received a message the day prior from Steve advising he and Suzanne would be overnighting in Nashville just a few miles from where we are staying.  I confirmed our location, but didn't hear back until Friday morning.  Steve suggested we have breakfast, and asked if I knew of any places.  Well, we've been here just a couple of days and haven't even thought about going out for breakfast, so I didn't, but I quickly jumped on Yelp and found a breakfast/brunch place called Sidekicks Cafe just 2.5 miles away.  I messaged Steve back suggesting we meet at Sidekicks at 9 am, and he agreed.....

I failed in my duty to take an 'usie' at breakfast, so here is a picture of Steve and Suzanne from Steve's Facebook page

.....it was now 8:30 am, so TLE and I sprung into action and where out the door by 8:50 am driving in the rain over to Sidekicks.  I love it when serendipity strikes bringing the unexpected!  The last thing on our minds was going out in the rain for breakfast, but in the end it was a wonderful surprise.  Steve and Suzanne are the kind of folks you feel as if you have known for years.  We talked non-stop for about 90 minutes before Steve announced they needed to get going as they had a lot of miles to cover Friday....they are heading west to the SoCal desert for a couple of months.  We will probably be there in late March, and made plans to try and hookup again! Thank you Steve and Suzanne for reaching out.....we loved being able to chat and get to know you both!

We were home before 11 am enjoying the warmth of our Newell coach, and slipping out of our slightly damp outerwear and into something dry and comfortable for the rest of the day.  We watched some more Christmas movies.....can you ever watch too many?  I don't know the answer to that question yet.....

It continued to drizzle the rest of the day, but by 5 pm it had stopped and the drying out process had begun.  The weather forecast have given us the promise of a dry, sunny day on Saturday, and we are primed to do some more sightseeing.

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defray our travel expenses to a small degree.