The past few days have been particularly trying. My wife & three children visited me on 1/19/25 and it was great to see them during my first visit. We had a wonderful time, but the downside to this is how you feel after they leave. I was not prepared for that and I was depressed for another day or so.
While not watching TV in prison is one of my goals, I took the liberty from this to watch the inauguration and the College Football Championship on on 1/20/25 – especially since my alma mater, The Ohio State University, was playing Notre Dame and ultimately beat them.
I was listening to the TV via radio from my room when I heard that the J6ers had been pardoned at about 7:30 pm. Allan was one of my good friends in prison, so I ran up to his bunk where he was sitting. I told him to “get the hell out of prison because he just got pardoned.” As you can imagine, he was ecstatic. I helped him pack & he gave me some of his clothes, legal pads, pens, etc. We said our good-byes in case he was gone by the morning. As it turned out, he was released at about 1:00 am. To quote Milton Friedman’s character in the Shawshank Redemption, “I sure do miss my friend.”
I have been ravenously reading/finishing books and hope to complete 3-4 book reports today. It has been difficult to get time on the computers because there have been quite a few issues in prison that prevent movement, so more people are on the 5 computers for our 200 person unit than normal since they do not have much else to do.
Yesterday, I applied to work in the office in Unicor – a prison factory system at federal penitentiaries all over the US. They make furniture, clothes and other parts for the US government/military. I should hear something in 2-3 weeks, but they appeared interested. This will take up ~6 hours per day, which should make the time go faster.
As part of my entry program, I am still going to doctors at the clinic for general check-ups, etc. Had an ECG ultrasound because they thought I had a heart murmur. Will know more about that in 3-4 weeks.
I finally got my first issue of The Economist. Started reading that last night and will finish that tonight. I don’t get much news otherwise, so it was a welcome event.