Friday, February 23, 2024
I worked a short day today. I got to school and Louise was already there! We have never been in the same school subbing before. I was very excited. I zoomed right over to see her in 5th grade. Fifth grade is hard. Louise is brave. We had Breakfast and Books. Lots of books were purchased and all the doughnuts were eaten. Total success.
Keith texted midmorning to let me know that we’d just gotten a bill for $303.80 from Budget Rent-a-car for towing. The towing that didn’t happen. The towing that was going to happen after the guy said, “We will have you towed,” but didn’t mention that we would pay for it. I wonder if it would have been more if we’d actually been towed. Keith called and the guy said he would cancel it. I will wait for it to reappear, marked as overdue.
Keith and I joined our friends, Carla and Mark, and went across town to take a tour of the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Shakopee. Man, it was cool. No photos were allowed on the floor, so I have nothing to share. There are about 200 picker stations, where humans grab the ordered items and put them in bins and send them on the miles of conveyor belts. The pickers take the stuff from “towers”, which are four sided collections of bins, filled with lots of whatever. Somewhere else there are “stowers” who are filling the towers. Orange robots are under the towers (they look like big roombas), driving them around by reading UPC codes on the floor. They spin their four sides and drive around each other like a giant slide puzzle, then stop in front of a picker to have items picked. It was mesmerizing to watch.
There is enough metal in the conveyor belts to make two Eiffel Towers. The yellow bins zooming around was great to watch. Boxes sliding down slides was great to watch. A printer printing out labels in 1 second and poofing (air driven) them onto boxes was great to watch. Our tour guide emphasized that everyone’s job is just a tiny piece in a very big process. Everything is checked and weighed and double checked and really, it’s a wonder anyone ever gets the wrong thing.
Since we finished just before 4:00, we thought we should go for dinner to avoid being stuck in crosstown traffic. We went to a Mexican restaurant not far away and it was delicious. My burrito was so big the leftovers will feed Keith and I lunch tomorrow. Another total success.