Sunset

Sunset

Saturday, October 8, 2016

AMAZON: MURFREESBORO, TN

AMAZON: MURFREESBORO, TN

We have arrived. We are staying at Tennessee Hills Campground. As the names suggests there is a long windy dirt hill road to get to the campground. Once we got there it's a nice open area and quite. Perfect for us as we will be working nights. A few downsides there is no trash dumpers. We have to drop our trash off at a wast deposit. The hours they are open is the time we are sleeping. Looks like we will have to load up a large garbage bag and drop off once a week, like most "NORMAL" people do in their homes. WI-FI is usable for emails, web searching and posting this blog (fingers crossed) at such a slow speed we'll see how long it takes to load videos to YouTube. No streaming or downloading. For TV we get only a few channels. For us working nights this will be the best place to stay. We are here to work the next 9 weeks so anytime we can get quite during the day to sleep is great. We will not watch TV or use internet (unless it's a off day), being far away it will make us to eat out of our RV and not drive to eat out or spend money shopping. Best of all we were told by the campground owners that it does not snow, something we were worried about being in TN.

First day of orientation and I thought we where going to be late. The car would not start and our neighbor came out to give us a jump, but we could not find the battery under the hood. (We have an HHR). After a quick view of the manual the battery is in the trunk, but can jump the battery from under the hood. The positive was easy to find, but the negative.... other campers started to come out and one called his wife to come back to give us a ride. When we returned I was able to read the manual and watch YouTube video to get the battery jumped. Then, we were off to Wal Mart body shop to get a new battery. Hiromi stayed in the car as we left the car running in case it would not start again. Once I got the battery it came with free install, but we were seventh in line. The body shop cashier took the battery outside to our car and installed it himself. At first he was heading to the hood of the car until I told him the battery was in the trunk. He was a bit surprised, but after I took the spare tire, jack and plastic wall he completed the job in a few minutes.


Murfreesboro Amazon orientation is different from the other place we have worked. Day 0 was only a five hour day covering leadership, safety, loss produce, HR, creating login and unfinished paper work. Other places safety school is completed in the same day after lunch, but at Murfreesbro safety school is held on your first day of work.  Another thing that is different in other places the first week is a 20 hour week 4 days 5 hr shift. Here it's day 1 10 hr safety school (that seems to be to long as I taught the class last year and I was completed around 2 hours) Day 2&3 5 hr shift and day 4 10 hr shift. I'm not complaining about the hours I like it, we get an extra 10 hours on the first week. We are here to work as many hours as we can to make as much money as we can. I know from my past years, work as many hours as I can at the start of the season, because at the end I don't want to be there any longer than I have to. My wrist and hand have failed me in the past with injuries. Good news is this year we are ICQA, basic quality insurance. Checking the bend for the correct count of items and making the bins neat for easier access to product. OH, and add note... CamperForce gets a raise this year from $10.25 to $11.50 an hour. Since we are working nights we get $.50 extra and making $12 an hour ($18 hr overtime). I sure need it as we start this season in the hole (new car battery). I'll need my first day and half just to break even.

After we work a few weeks I will post an update and anything in the area that we do on our off time.