Fall update, November 8

Well, I've have several inquiries as to how things are going.  I've been extremely busy the past six weeks.  The first month was spent at my son Jeremy's house driveway parking.  I has a huge house which backs up to BLM land, which also has a nice level parking area just perfect for my little Born Free.  You can't see the pad in the picture, but it is in front of and just to the left of the stairs. The picture was taken about two weeks ago, right after a little dusting of snow.

The first few days at Jeremy's were spent going back and forth to Verdi, Nevada  to empty out my storage units.  We rented a truck and transported all the furniture to Jeremy's house.  He only had a bed, dining table (a previous hand me down from me) and TV in the house , because his girlfriend took everything  when she moved out.  Jeremy went through all my stuff and we sorted, and sorted, and sorted some more and set aside stuff for a garage sale and other items for my other son Conlan who need a few house hold goods. (he is suppose to come out from New Mexico for Christmas) I condensed old files, tax returns, statements, etc accumulated over the past 15 years into a few bankers boxes and pictures.  Some day I'll get those pictures into some albums.  Most of the furniture has found its place in the house, and those pieces that Jeremy didn't want and I wanted to keep found a place in the basement.

The garage sale was very successful, although not very profitable.  I had hoped to re coop the cost of renting the truck but the proceeds didn't cover it.  Oh, well..beats paying storage fees.  The left overs were gladly accepted by the local Goodwill.

After cleaning out the storage units and garage sale I headed over to the coast to see my mother.
On the way I saw this:

A huge pumpkin in the back of a pickup truck on the freeway in the San Francisco Bay area!! Sorry about the poor quality.  The cracked windshield doesn't help, but it has since been fixed.  There were quite a few heads turning.

 The weather was pretty nice in Pacific Grove, although there were a few clouds.  Asilomar Beach is my favorite place to walk and enjoy the surf, and its only a few minutes from mom's place. The "surf was up".

I started the "Elf" work at Amazon two weeks ago.  I was warned it would be hard work, but fun.  So far the hard work has been just that, very hard with long hours.  I am working the night shift from 6:00 P.M. to 4:30 A.M, Wednesday through Saturday/Sunday in the shipping department packing packages for shipping.  I'm averaging between 55-70 pieces per hour depending on the size of the boxes on one line, and 90-100 on another line. The conveyor belt never stops so things are constantly moving fast. It's not hard work, but some of the boxes are heavy and big ...I'm getting biceps.:) Amazon doesn't allow you to take things like cell phone or cameras in the warehouse so I can't show you any pictures. Amazon has hired nearly 300 workampers for its Fernley plant and is bringing in 500 more temps this week.

  I have yet to see the "fun" in the work .  The way the stations are set up there is no time for socialization, except for on two 15 minute breaks and one 1/2 hour lunch in the break room. By the time you get to the break room, your time has been cut by five minutes, and its not pleasant to wolf down your lunch in 20 minutes (you need to leave time for a bathroom stop).   My hands are sore, but my body is adjusting to the weird time. Fortunately, the RV park that I am staying at is really nice, except for the commute distance to Amazon is a 65 miles round trip.  Now that the shifts and days have settled out it is possible to car pool with several other "Elves", which helps ..

On my days off I head over to Jeremy's house and live like a "normal" person, and take walks in the woods, and pretty soon, there will be enough snow to Cross Country Ski or Snow Shoe, with Jeremy's dog Rio.

Well, that's all for now.  Seven more weeks of Amazon, but I still don't know what I am doing after December 23....