I’m a planner. I like to plan my day – set goals to accomplish or things I need to do; otherwise, I
find myself aimless and end up wasting the day.
I had a lot planned for today. At 7am, when the Education Center opened, I wanted to start my
third adult continuing education course. I also needed to copy some items to give to my Unit
Manager. That afternoon, I also planned to spend in the Education Center as well, with the
exception from 1pm – 2pm when I wanted to see my unit counselor during his open house, so he
could answer some questions I had about visitation. After dinner, at 6:30pm, in the Recreation
Center, I had booked a haircut.
None of that came to pass or will come to pass. The Education and Recreation Center were both
closed today, lots of rumors going around as to why. The most plausible are: 1) They want to
shut down power to those buildings because they are getting ready to hook up a new transformer
to replace one that blew, shortly before my arrival. 2) Today is a day that many inmates are
being shuffled around, and they wanted inmates in their units to make the shuffle more efficient.
Who really knows the true reason. I have definitely learned not to rely on prison rumors.
The shuffle is indeed happening, though it is not affecting me or my lower bunkmate.
Apparently, the Director of the BOP came through a few weeks ago. She was not happy that
some 8-bed pods had up to 10 people in them. As a result, new walls will be put up strictly
dividing the unit into 4-bed pods. What this means for me is that I will now have 3 other pod-
mates (rather than 2 now), but my pod will become larger. I can live with that! My bunkmate
and I won’t have to move, but my current pod-mate will be moved elsewhere and 2 new people
will occupy that bunk. I don’t envy the bed placement people having to move people around –
some even to different units. Seems there are a lot of people with a medical clearance for a
bottom bunk – the elderly, physically challenged, etc., and it’s difficult to accommodate them.
Top bunks (which I have) are not at a premium so I don’t need to move.
I’m told that recreation and education centers will not reopen at all today. Hopefully everything
will be back to normal tomorrow.
The “old” Gary would be very frustrated by the closure of everything today. But I’m learning to
expect the unexpected here. I surprised myself by taking everything in stride. Rather than be
upset, I used this opportunity to socialize, and had a wonderful conversation with a gentleman in
my unit. I offered to help people who were moving. I’ll spend the remaining part of the afternoon
reading, journaling and maybe making a phone call or two; same for this evening. Tomorrow is
another day and I can do tomorrow what I planned to do today. If not, there’s always Monday. I
can deal with this!
