The rush is on !

Well yesterday was the official start to the crazy Christmas buying season and we started 11 hour shifts at Amazon last night. Whew...who would think that adding just one extra hour to a shift would be such a killer. I gave birth to two kids in shorter time than last night lasted !! Oh my, it was rough. I don't think my head had even hit the pillow before I was sound asleep. This morning I awoke to the sound of a chainsaw being rudely run somewhere outside...tried to get an ear plug in my ear to drown out the sound only to realize I already had one in. Not a good start to the day and we've got another long night ahead of us tonight....last day though and then a couple days off.
Orders were up last night....some people are shopping but the orders were still having us pickers running all over the place. Walked 12.18 miles last night....holy cow. Good thing that neither of us had any money on us cause we sure had a hankering for some fresh donuts from "Daylight Donuts" in downtown Coffeyville. They open at 4 a.m.....cute little place. Reminds me of an old fashioned bakery we had in my hometown growing up. This place is only open till 11:30 a.m. so they truly are a "daylight" kind of place. When we arrived the other morning, just after 4 a.m. their cases were full of glazed donuts, bear claws, turnovers, apple fritters, eclairs, coffee rolls, etc. Yum Yum !! Everything was great too....reminded me of my bakery days and getting up at 2:00 a.m. to make the donuts....but I digress...back to work tonight and we'll have one more week wiped off the books till it's time to go back east. If we have a full nights worth of work tonight that will be 57.5 hours for each of us this week. Whew ! Tomorrow and a couple of days off are sure looking good about now.

Happy Thanksgiving !

It's Thanksgiving day and we just finished having some lunch and will now get ready for work. We signed up to work tonight and last I counted, on the sign-up sheet, there had only been 13 names for tonight's shift. Last night they said that only folks with a 75% or better "percent to goal" will be allowed to work since the quantity of work has been down lately. Our percentage is above this so it means we get to work. That is great since we get time and a half plus holiday pay for working. Last night, at first break, they asked if anyone wanted "VTO" (voluntary time off). Alot of people took advantage of this, even though it was only 7:45 p.m. and we'd only worked for a little more than 2 hours. We stayed but then got sent home at 11:00 because there wasn't enough work. Wednesday is the overlap night for the two shifts (Wed - Sat and Sun. - Wed)so it made for 71 pickers there last night. I'd never seen so many pickers before....wow ! We had made short order of what little business there was last night so that is why we got sent home. Hopefully tonight there will be enough work for the few of us there to take us all night. Tomorrow we start our 11 hour shifts.
Weather is great today...for end of November. Temps in the 50's, sunny and nice. We haven't had any rain in a while so the new area, where we are, is dry now and hard. No rain means the grass seed hasn't sprouted that has been put between the new sites. We like that there isn't any mud and we can get into the rig without sinking in up to our ankles.
Our time here is winding down....just a couple weeks to go. Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving !!

Window Lickers

There are more new faces at work as they steadily ramp up their workforce for "the rush". Most of these employees seem really young....perhaps college kids picking up some work. We had heard that they go out to the local community college and recruit at holiday time. So far the orders are still down so with more people around, we are literally running into each other in the rows as we try and navigate around each other.Not fun...
When you go into the break room most times there is a distinct separation between the regular employees and the workampers. Each sits in their own little group, chatting amongst themselves. We have made friends with several of the "locals". We have also gotten to know a couple of the folks who are here from Puerto Rico to work. The one guy is always picking on us because we can't quite get the pronunciation of his name down. It doesn't roll off our tongues as well as it does his. Since we don't arrive, on a bus, to work each day I guess we are no longer known as the "window lickers". Haven't heard if there is some new name for us but each day rolling into work, by the busload, did give me the feeling of being a migrant worker coming to town to reap the local harvest. For a short time I've come to feel what that may be like for true migrant workers. Needed by the company but not always wanted by the locals....there was some animosity to our arrival when they needed to cut hours back. The regular employees asked why they just didn't get rid of us so they could have their full schedules but management knows the time will come when the extra hands are needed. Not really sure why the nickname "window lickers" unless it was because the bus windows always looked like there were smudges, etc all over them from the countless athletic teams that ride the buses. It certainly wasn't due to us licking the windows...bleck !!
We will work Thanksgiving day...probably all day which is OK by us as we will get overtime pay plus perhaps a pumpkin pie. Who doesn't like to work for food ? Then the following day we will begin 11 hour shifts...5 p.m. till 4:30 a.m...Our goal for the next few weeks will be to keep our bodies rested and prepared for the onslaught ahead. I think a new pair of insoles are in order...I can already see where the arch has lost some of its' height from when new, just 5 weeks ago. I think there must only be a 500 mile lifespan on them...LOL...and Lord knows we've gone past that.

Day of Rest

Boy are we exhausted ! Worked 50 hours this week and Linda and I figured that each of us walked at least 50 miles. Last night was really bad. I would start on row 77 and the next pick would be in row 120 something...then back to the 70's. That 40-50 row see-sawing kept up for a while until my scanner told me to go down a level to pick coats.Whew !! Two days off now then back to work for overtime Tuesday night.
Weather was great today...had the windows and door open. No wind either. We treated ourselves to a paraffin dip for our hands and feet. My hands are so sore...cracked and tender from the book jackets slicing into my finger tips and plus lifting some of these huge books is really hard on your arm and hand muscles.
It is amazing to see the impact of media and marketing on the books we see going out the door. Obama books are big now....if we see someone on Ellen or Oprah, we know we'll be picking that book over the next couple of days. "Extreme Measures" is a heavy hitter and the Jeff Dunham comedy DVD (the ventriloquist guy) is huge. I've seen the guy on TV and don't really see the appeal but someone is spending money on it....I picked 40 at a clip the other night of his Christmas DVD. There are a lot of neat items out right now for Christmas. "The Family Guy" - total world domination pack is a whole bunch of DVD's inside this giant plastic head of one of the characters. Cute if you like that show. There are complete sets that have come out for a lot of the old TV shows. Hawaii 5-O...Wild, Wild West...I Spy...Mission Impossible TV series....Mod Squad...Adam 12....CHIPS....These are just a few of the ones I've pulled lately. Brings back memories....There is one area that has all of these types of items and that is my favorite area to work. Never know what new items will have come in. Will be interesting to see if the Christmas business is down due to the economy. Can't see how it couldn't impact on things. Good thing is that the price of fuel has drastically dropped. Last we were out and about, gas was $1.87 and diesel was $2.69. That was two weeks ago so it may have dropped more since then.
Just five more weeks to go here in Kansas !

Overtime Begins...

Usually Tuesday is one of our days off but there is overtime available, in the stowing dept., so we'll work it. Stowing is putting the items in the bins and then tomorrow we'll be back to picking....pulling the items out of the bins. There is supposed to be a big ramp up going on with incoming orders, hence the need for overtime. Not knowing what the Christmas season will bring, we thought we might as well take it while it's available since we don't know how much there will be. There are supposed to be 800 more workers starting at the end of the month so there might not be any need for overtime once they start.
No sightseeing the last two days off...we've been pretty exhausted this week so we just did grocery shopping yesterday, laundry on Sunday and relaxing in between. It rained yesterday so we are surrounded by mud again. It sticks to our shoes and gets tracked into the house, along with the gritty stones from the gravel outside. It's a constant task to keep things vacuumed and stones off the floor so it doesn't damage the laminate flooring. This week we are the drivers for the carpool so I cleaned out the truck and got that ready for the six of us to ride in.
Temp is 54 here today....dreary and overcast. Sun is supposed to reappear tomorrow and temps in the upper 50's. Still not bad for mid-November.Overnight temps have been above freezing so we haven't had to fuss with the water lines just yet. That is good news...just need it to hold out like this for another 5 weeks till we leave. There are only six of us in the new park. We see folks drive through and check things out but no one else has moved over. When the new crew comes at the end of the month, I'm sure we'll have some new neighbors then. Not many other places for them to go since all the other areas are pretty full.
Sunday night a bunch of the workampers went to the local Mexican restaurant for dinner. We were in the banquet room in the back. Had a good time meeting some folks we hadn't met before. Two folks from Amazon came and had dinner with us which was nice.

How Many Items Can An Amazon Picker Pick ?

The October totals went up the other night for "Top Picker" and look who got it. Linda's first full month on the job and she knocks the stats out of the park. In looking at the stats for the other shifts, she had more total picks than anyone else. What a woman !! And this even when she missed some picking time running to the med office to get her bee stings tended to....can't wait to see what her November numbers are.
Don't get in her way....she's on a roll and not letting any grass grow under her feet.

New Location

We have moved into the new park that the city set up next to where we had been. We were told last week to be ready first thing Monday morning to move. Construction of the new park was still going on so the Monday turned into Tuesday and then into Wednesday. Not surprising since the park was supposed to have been completed September 1 so what's a few more days.

It wouldn't have been so bad except we had to go back to work on Wednesday, after having our days off Sunday - Tuesday. By the time they finally got everything ready it was about 2:45 when we could move over. We were coming over just as the roller and grader was finishing the road in the new area. Keep in mind this is all happening while we are watching and hearing of a severe storm moving into the area. The rain drops start and the wind is just howling....blowing 20+ m.p.h. We move over to a site we had picked out.....great views of neighboring fields and situated so we'll get the sun in on the couch side of the rig all day long. Nice !!

We get set up, get our showers, get lunch and pack our lunch for work and leave for work at 4:30. There is talk of a tornado warning being posted for the Coffeyville area and while working I can hear wicked thunder outside....even over the noise of the conveyors and fans blowing. We go on supper break at 10:00 p.m. and about 10:15 the power goes out and stays out till 11:30. We go back to work but not for long...one part of the plant is down and we end up getting sent home at 1:30.

We come home to a mud pit...the rig is surrounded by mud.Once the sun came up we could see that the neighboring fields now looked like a lake. The lady next to us, in a small class C had sunk in up to her step. I went out to do some work around the rig and couldn't even get to the truck it was surrounded by mud. I climbed in through the passenger side and went to back it out to drier ground and it was mired in. Later on I saw the city manager driving through the campground and told him that he had his first tow job with pulling our truck out.

It's four days later....the wind has been blowing (it never seems to stop here) and the mud is dried up. We had the option to move back but it is so pretty here that we're going to stay. Linda feels like a kitty cat when she sits on the couch, in the sun's rays, and curls up for a nap. So quiet....so pretty. Just hoping that when it rains we don't have more problems. We will know soon enough. They are calling for rain tomorrow.

Today we went to Tulsa to see the sites. First we went to the Blue Bell ice cream facility in Broken Arrow, OK. This is one of 3 production facilities in the country for Blue Bell. The others are in Texas and Alabama. It was a nice tour...we were working on several different flavors when we were there. At this facility they produce 68,000 quarts and 112,000 pints daily so it is a busy place. When we finished the tour, we were taken to the ice cream parlor and gift shop area we got to sample some ice cream. I tried the Snickerdoodle flavor and Linda White Chocolate Almond. Both were excellent !! If you find yourself in Broken Arrow, take the tour...well worth the $2 p.p. it cost.

Next we went to the Tulsa Air and Space museum and planetarium. They had some interesting displays of actual cockpits that you could climb into and check out. Here astronaut Linda dons her space suit and gets into the space shuttle to try her hand at docking the space shuttle to the space station.




There were some neat displays for hands on activities for kids to learn about different elements of flying and air flow. I could see where this would be popular with school groups. Tulsa has been very important to aviation over the years. They were given the task of building certain components for the space shuttle and was also the site where bombers were assembled during WWII. Women, as depicted by Rosie the riveter, were instrumental in helping to assemble the planes when there was a lack of manpower. It was a fun day....again the weather was great (77 degrees)and it was fun to see another area of Oklahoma.
Tomorrow we are supposed to move our rig over to the new park that they have been working on. We want to get that done in the morning and get set up as we go into work tomorrow night and there is rain scheduled to come into the area by tomorrow afternoon. I'll post some new pictures once we get moved to the new area.

Weather is perfect here again today...in the high 70's.We have the door and windows open...nice breeze outside. Supposed to stay like this for the next couple days and then possibly drop into the 60's. We could take this weather all winter...
Work is progressing on the new camping area although they are not working today (Sunday). We had been told to move tomorrow but that won't be happening. It looks like there are several more days of work that need to be done.
Linda got stung again at work by a red wasp. Last Wednesday she got stung by one and by Friday it had turned into cellulitis and had affected an area the size of her hand on her forearm. She went to medical office at work and they lanced it; found the stinger was still in it and removed it. That took place at 5:00 p.m.....by our next break at 10:00, it had spread even more. Red, puffy and warm to the touch. Taking the stinger out helped it though. By the next day it was starting to improve. Now, a week later it was starting to get back to normal and then last night another red wasp stung her when she pulled a book out of a bin. Same spot on her arm..went to medical office again but no nurse in (happened at 2:00 a.m.)Manager who was there got her some Bendryl and alcohol to swab it with. Is red today but luckily the stinger did not go in her arm this time. Seems to be a lot of these red wasps at work and they sure like Linda.....
Since we are PA natives, we were cheering for the Phillies during the World Series. We were working the night of final game...found out who won when we had our supper break. Since both of my kids are living in Philly, they told me how crazy the city got after Philly won....absolute pandemonium broke out. We found out last night that one of the guys there is originally from Binghamton so we were chatting with him about that.Small world....
Well, sun is setting over Coffeyville. Linda is back from doing laundry and the race only has about 50 laps to go. Time for supper and relaxing.