Two steps forward – one step back. That is my motto for this past week. I was blessed when two of my friends, Grant & Galen Hellwarth visited me on 3/29/25 and then Mariana, Annalise & Samuel visited on 3/30/25. It was a weekend filled with good discussions, some laughs and just catching up. I have mentioned in previous posts that there was a bad case of stomach flu that has been going through the prison. I thought I had it beat, but I discovered at about 4:30 on the morning of April 1 that I had not. It was a bad April Fool’s joke — (I have to fart – it’s not a fart – April Fools!). Spent most of the day on the toilet and had an empty Doritos bag in front of me at 8:00 am to catch it coming out topside as well. A very rough day, but I felt better by Wednesday afternoon – enough to go outside and sit in the sun a bit. I thought it was over and that I could go back to work on Thursday. The bug reared its ugly head again Wednesday night and I was sick most of Thursday – using up a roll of TP in about 1.5 days. I went to bed Thursday night not knowing what to expect, but when I woke up on Friday morning, it was like I had never been sick at all. Thus, I went to work and got caught up on things a bit.
As a result of my visits and the sickness, I only worked out twice since last Saturday. I also lost about ten pounds. Started exercise a bit slow yesterday with some push-ups. Not quite ready for sit-ups yet. While I did not get any journals or book reports written, I did finish two books: The Radium Girls and a novel called The Underground Railroad. I will try to get those book reports done later this weekend. Still need to finish my Ben Franklin book report. Because the book was so good, the report will be longer than usual. I have a visit tomorrow, so it will be a bit difficult as I like to do my book reports on Sunday in the library. Since there is no library open on Saturday, I will struggle through the best I can.
There were some changes when I went into the office. One guy had gotten fired & another guy quit. A new guy replaced the guy who quit and I know him – he is a welcome addition to the team and with the two guys gone and him onboard, we will probably actually get more work done in a week.
Regarding getting sick in prison, it is somewhat amazing how guys look after each other. A couple guys brought me some cans of Starry (a Sprite knock-off) and bananas to help. It probably didn’t help much when we found out that a guy died in the unit next door on Wednesday. We saw the gurney take him out. From what I hear, no one “dies” in prison – somehow they are near-death in prison, but sadly die at the hospital. Helps with the prison statistics that way. At the same time, my one crossword buddy, Mark, got admitted to the hospital on Monday about noon with “fluid in his lungs.” As of Saturday morning, he is still not back yet. No one has any word on how he is doing. We hope he is getting the care he needs. Of course, the prison rumor mill is running hard – saying that Mark has pneumonia, he has cancer, etc. No one knows any more about it than the rest of us, but the rumor-mongers act like they know everything with 100% certainty.
As I said before, one step forward & two steps back. Will be getting back into the swing of it today with this journal, a couple book reports and some exercise. A visit tomorrow and maybe another book report & some more exercise to get back into my normal daily routine. Hopefully next week will be better.
