Saturday, August 31
Today was first weekend of college football plus the Saturday of Labor Day weekend. So I decided to pretend I was home and do what I normally do. Some “honey do’s” in the cell to clean and organize, watch second half of close games, combined with catching up with my typing from the week. Even had a good power walk 2-3 and a nap!
Felt good to relax and get organized. Watching football isn’t as easy as home when I can watch whatever and whenever, as some guys have their team, like UCLA , some prefer Baywatch reruns, and my Oregon Ducks weren’t on any of our channels, which was a bummer. They were playing Idaho anyways, so no biggie. Ours lead white guy who had been here 12 years was a big football fan, so it was much easier to have football on all the time, but now he’s gone.
Quiet on the email front today. Guess most people on the outside are enjoying their Labor Day weekend:)
Sunday should be library 7-12:30 where I can crank out a couple chapters hopefully, assuming a guard shows up. Then church. I think on Monday I will clean up what I typed Saturday, do 2 good workouts, think about status toward my goals from July 4th. Should be 4 days outside this next week, unless we have lockdowns due to staff shortages like we did after July 4th.
Sunday, September 1
Always nice to begin Sunday at 7 am in the library. Peace and quiet as only 10-20 people here.Got all kinds of things done including research on the First Step Act credits going from 10 to 15 days/month in my case. My case manager says need 365 days until it changes, I found court cases at 180 days, including the BOP agreeing. That’s about 30 extra days or one month earlier for me to camp and out to home confinement some day:) Of course if my appeal turns out, I won’t care….
After 5.5 hours there, went to church. Our attendance has grown enough they moved us from the small chapel to the movie theater/auditorium holding 250. So will be fun watching God do his part to fill it up! I ended up skipping my workout and watched the USC /LSU game, definitely the right decision:)
Monday, September 2
Labor Day and all Holiday’s are weekend schedule which means extra lockdown in the morning, so stayed in and did email/writing until 9:30 am lockdown, then 2 workouts, 2-3 and 6-7:30.
Didn’t get around to updating my goals, so need to still do that. Direct TV seems to be negotiating with ESPN and related channels, so we had no sports all day. Silly…. My daughter and her boyfriend got me all set for their Fantasy Football league with the family as well. Should be interesting not having a mobile app!
Tuesday, September 3
A little fog count 7-9 am in the cell, followed by a beautiful 80 degree day. Guess we get fog when its cold or hot, basically most all the time:) Right when we thought we had the weather figured out! Well at least we didn’t have to go outside the whole day today. Looks like this phase of electrical is done so we will have 8 weeks of installing new water pipes next at some point…
Big medical day today. Had x-rays on my shoulders as a result of my session with Dr. Watson in July. As the technician said, “wont see any inflammation on x-rays” which is the main issue from my autoimmune/mold toxicity issues. At this point they haven’t sent the request for for medical records in 7 weeks, and my next scheduled appointment is January 2025 with Dr. Watson. Since the BP-9’s haven’t been successful, my attorney’s will be writing a letter seeking treatment for me. By January will be one year of no treatment, crazy.
However, while in the hall waiting for x-ray, the Assistant Medical Director came in and brought me to his office. Voila, my hearing aids were sitting there and I finally got them, albeit 8 months later! But definitely better late than never, and he is the one who persisted for me thankfully. After a day of charging them, I’ll be back in business!
All afternoon/evening was about typing past journals and sending 4 legal emails after my call with attorneys last week. Sprinkled in 2 workouts, 2-3 and 5-6:30 as well:)
Wednesday, September 4
Despite a 7-10 am fog lockdown, another beautiful day at Lompoc. 82 plus 12 mph breeze, pretty nice! Had a brief beat down inside our Unit just before lunch for some reason, 2 Hispanics, right in front of the guard station. Guess that’s code to let the guard know and stop before things get worse. Its really a thing that guards get mad about if you either don’t tell them ahead of time or hide it and there is a big injury problem. Guess they don’t get paid enough to prevent fights:)
Afternoon at the library helping finish a 2255 (request replacement of counsel) for a Hispanic guy who barely speaks English and says he didn’t understand his plea deal/attorney ignored him. A translator helped me help him with his filing which was an interesting process. Followed by a good workout 6-7:30. another day….
Thursday, September 5
Started the day at commissary. We only got 50% of $180 today for some illogical reason tied to taking inventory next week. Then we have to wait 3 weeks for the second commissary this month, so we will be 3/4 of normal quantity, and of course they are out of a lot of items due to fiscal year end Sept. 30 as a government agency… At least its a short month:)
Standing in the commissary room, think 10 feet by 100 feet with 80 guys in there, I was reflecting if prison best reflects an affordable public housing substitute or a Motel 6 version of Club Med:) On the one hand its all inclusive room, meals, recreational. On the other hand a lot of guys are here because otherwise they would be in low income or public housing or no housing. Plus having to pay their own food, transportation, medical etc.. Since they have no money or skills, they end up doing drugs or some other crime for a quick buck , get caught and end up here. Makes me wonder how affordable housing with “prison perks” might work on the outside to help solve the homeless problem, Section 8 problem and so forth. Having been here for 8 months, I can see how so many have no skills, no desire to get skills, but then become a burden for society. Really pretty crazy on many levels when you think about it. Definitely part of the BOP issues they have to address without the authority to do it in my view.
Rest of the day till 5 was in the Unit typing or writing. My cellmate arranged with a couple Mexican chef’s to make an amazing soup for an early dinner. As usual, fresh vegetables,rice,fish, and spicy:) Tasted amazing and was really helpful for my head cold.
5 pm opening NFL game, Kansas City vs. Baltimore. What else to say but Hallelujah, pro football is back! Of course 47 was the under /over and their score was 47, so my under lost by 1. How the odds makers can be so accurate is beyond me:) Oh well, still fun!
Friday, September 6th
Beautiful day, no fog for once, 88 degrees, the hottest day of the year, and its September! Fortunately being in a concrete block structure building with shadow on our cell all day, plus dropping to 55 at night makes it all pleasant. Explains why cool winter days are so cold though.
Education is back to being closed, so we can’t finish that legal 2255 project and we have a couple typos to fix. When I got my haircut yesterday, right across from education, I looked in and no one was working, but it was still closed. Really frustrating if you’re tying to get things done for a deadline!
Ever since I got my email back a few weeks ago, been doing a lot of typing to catchup on things, but not much book writing. Interesting how my brain works that way. The folks at ABT haven’t been too responsive either which is part of it. Hoping everything is ok there.
Made it outside twice today to workout, evening was especially gorgeous-75, no wind, beautiful sunset. Not a bad way to end the week!
Praying for Liberty and Freedom and to see my Family and friends soon! BJ
