Taking VTO

We took the Voluntary Time Off option yesterday for the first time. Josie and I both were working in the same area all day in the case stock area of stowing and it was pretty slow. They posted a sign up sheet for volunteers to leave work at 1:30 PM - 3 hours early - so we signed up as it would add to our 3 days off which began following work. We had been very tired from the extra physical work we had done during the week, so it made sense for us to take advantage of this option while we can. Word has it that Amazon is planning to begin the "mandatory" 11 hour work days earlier this year. Last year, they began those at the end of November and now we hear that they will start in mid November for this peak season. You may recall that last year we worked 5 - 11 hour days for the last 4 weeks we worked. It looks like we may do the same this year. The time between Thanksgiving and our end date on December 23 is unbelievably busy and the time goes a little faster.

I used the extra time yesterday afternoon to follow up on a couple situations, including the billing dispute with Expedia over our charges for the Puerto Rico trip. Expedia can't find the extra charges in their records - that's  a glaring example of incompetence - so I contacted our bank and they issued credits for the overcharges while they resolve the issue with Expedia. The other situation we had was obtaining some stain from Doubletree to use for some touch-up work we want to do in our fifth wheel. They had to order the stain and we took care of that yesterday.

We have talked about taking a trip to the Costco store in Louisville sometime while we're off. Josie uses some of their own brand lotions and, of course, that's the only place you can purchase them. We don't want to make a special trip for that, so we are looking into other things we might want to visit while in that area in order to justify the trip. It's only just over an hour away, so it isn't too bad. Most likely, we will do the trip tomorrow.

It was nice to sleep in a little bit today. We relish the first day off as a stay home and rest day, so that's probably the schedule for today...