diff --git a/pipeline.go b/pipeline.go
index f2feeb4..8413125 100644
--- a/pipeline.go
+++ b/pipeline.go
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ var pipelineRecoverableErrorCodes = map[string]bool{
 func (p Pipeline) isRecoverableError(err error) bool {
 	r := false
 
-	l4g.Debug("isRecoverableError, type %s, value (+%v)", reflect.TypeOf(err).Name(), err)
+	log.Printf("isRecoverableError, type %s, value (+%v)\n", reflect.TypeOf(err).String(), err)
 
 	cErr, ok := err.(*kinesis.Error)
 	if ok && pipelineRecoverableErrorCodes[cErr.Code] == true {
@@ -48,8 +48,11 @@ func (p Pipeline) handleAwsWaitTimeExp(attempts int) {
 
 	//http://docs.aws.amazon.com/general/latest/gr/api-retries.html
 	// wait up to 5 minutes based on the aws exponential backoff algorithm
-	waitTime := time.Duration(math.Min(100*math.Pow(2, float64(attempts)), 300000)) * time.Millisecond
-	time.Sleep(waitTime)
+	if attempts > 0 {
+		waitTime := time.Duration(math.Min(100*math.Pow(2, float64(attempts)), 300000)) * time.Millisecond
+		l4g.Finest("handleAwsWaitTimeExp:%s", waitTime.String())
+		time.Sleep(waitTime)
+	}
 
 }
 
@@ -119,7 +122,7 @@ func (p Pipeline) ProcessShard(ksis *kinesis.Kinesis, shardID string) {
 			l4g.Error("NextShardIterator ERROR: %v", err)
 			break
 		} else {
-			time.Sleep(5 * time.Second)
+			//time.Sleep(5 * time.Second)
 		}
 
 		if p.Buffer.ShouldFlush() {