A First Time for Everything

Although, this is not a first I would want for any of our other RVing friends.
 
We left Campbellsville, Kentucky on Monday afternoon and traveled about 140 miles to Nashville.  We had made an appointment for some minor repairs at the same place that replaced our EMS board last spring.  Since it was going to be freezing on Monday night, we opted to go into an RV park (something we never do when just traveling).  Our appointment was for Tuesday morning and we only had to go next door.  We dropped the motorhome off and went to breakfast and then came back to the RV park’s rec room to wait.  They finished the repairs at about 1 and we debated on staying one more night or making the drive to Jackson about 120 miles from Nashville. 

On the road we went, but only got about 20 miles down the road.  Ed heard a commotion behind us and looked in the mirror just in time to see a white car come across all the lanes and hit our tow vehicle.  He caught us on the rear left tire.  Thankfully no one was hurt.  

We have 2 separate insurance policies. One company insures our car and another insures our motorhome.  When we first thought about full timing in the RV, we were advised to keep the insurances separate because if we had a accident in the car, the insurance on the motorhome wouldn’t go up also.  How many other RV’ers are insured this way?  We never thought about the tow package.  We found out today we could have added that to the car insurance, but for now it’s too late.  The tow package is also going to have to be replaced.  It’s been compromised and we just don’t trust it now.  We may need to fight it out with the other guys insurance to get that fixed.  The adjuster also said we should ask for loss of use and the fees we are paying to the campground. 

So for now, we are settled into the RV park.  We stopped at Wal-Mart and stocked up on food. Probably more than we actually need, but without a car it will be a pain to go to the store.

Bad Verizon!!

We have been without internet for the past week.  Verizon has been good and bad to us.  As you know, we have been in the state of Kentucky since last April.  There are very few Verizon towers in Kentucky and we have never upgraded to a 4 G.  I received a call from Verizon about 4 weeks ago and they offered me a deal for a 4 G air card for free and a monthly fee of $50 for 5 gigs.  If I go over, I can buy an additional gig for $10.  The reason…we have been costing Verizon a lot of money.  I found our that Verizon is billed for the usage of other towers.  Here in Kentucky the towers are mostly Bluegrass Cellular and I guess we have been costing a lot more than our monthly Verizon fee we pay.  So I agreed to this deal.

Verizon sent the new equipment to our address here in Kentucky.  Last Tuesday, I tried to activate the new 4G air card.  First, I knew that I would have to update my cradle point router so before I had the old one turned off, I did that.  Okay, I was ready to activate the new one.  I spent a couple of hours on the phone with different people and I couldn’t get it activated.  Finally, the last person I spoke to asked me where I was.  I told her I was in Kentucky.  That’s when I was told, I NEEDED TO BE CLOSE TO A VERIZON TOWER TO ACTIVATE IT!!!!! What the heck!  So I couldn’t even reactivate the old one.  (They have put a credit on my account for the inconvenience!)

When you are living on the road as we are, internet becomes so very important.  Everything I do is on line.  We went to breakfast on Wednesday morning so I could do my banking!  I went to McDonald’s on Saturday so I could get directions when we leave today.  We are heading out to Nashville today, so I am hoping that I can get my internet up and running tonight. 

I have a weather app on my phone so we have been able to get that. And I have Facebook on my phone so I can keep up that way.  But, once I get my internet back, I am going to have a lot of blogs to catch up on! 

I have my internet back! Yeah!!

Amazon’s Different this Year

At least it’s different here in Kentucky this year.  Every year we have come here, we have almost from the start worked at least 40 hours a week and we started on 50 hours almost before Thanksgiving and Black Friday.  We have been here since August 27th and our last pay period was 77 hrs. That was the most we’ve had!  When we first got here they would give VTO (voluntary time off) and we would take it because we thought that work would pick up.  Then we started saying no to VTO. That’s when they offered to teach us how to stow. (In Amazon speak, this means to put the product away in the bins, where it will stay until someone orders it) We worked 40 hours learning how to stow.  For a couple of weeks, we would receive in the morning and then go to stowing in the afternoon.  Then the beginning of November they came to us and told us we would not be in receiving or stowing anymore.  For a week and a half, we worked with the project team (pretty much minor construction) and then we went to ICQA (inventory and quality control).  This is our home department now.

Within the ICQA department there are many jobs.  First step is a simple bin count.  You go along with a scanner and scan the bin and count the number of items in that bin.  If your count matches the systems everything is good.  If it doesn’t, that triggers a second simple bin count by someone else.  If that is still wrong, the next step is called a “cycle count”.  This means that someone goes to the bins that don’t match the system and physically remove everything and with the scanner, scans each item as it is put back  into the bin.  At this point, if it does not match the system and second person comes to do another cycle count. At this point the systems corrects itself to match the last cycle count.  It’s very important to Amazon that these bins are correct.  When you place your orders with Amazon, almost immediately, a picker (Amazon speak for a person who goes to a bin to pick your item and sends it to packing) is sent to a bin where that item is supposed to be.  A lot of man hours go into keeping these bins straight. 

Now here’s another twist.  At the end of each row of bins, there is an empty bin marked in red.  These are amnesty bins.  If an item falls out of a bin onto the floor, we do not put it in a bin we think it came from.  It goes into the amnesty bin.  My job now is to clear out these amnesty bins and return the items to there original bin.  I do a lot of walking.  Maybe I should get one of those pedometer so I can tell how far I walk.  Do I get extra steps for going up stairs?   Sometimes 4 flights!!

Such is our life at Amazon this year.  A lot different from previous years and hopefully this will be our last! 
Merry Christmas everyone!  Place those orders!