Sunday 2/18
Not only sick last night with terrible cold/sore throat, but we had a big rain and wind storm which made our cell even colder. Today pretty much a nothing day, ended up taking 3 one hour naps fighting this thing, which helped, but a long ways to go I”m afraid. This is my 4th virus in 6 weeks, clearly something is going on with my immune system. This week should be a big project working with my doctor to address their letter and treatment plan for my immune issues.
Monday/Tuesday 2/19& 20
Not much to add from Sunday, other than a fellow inmate gave me some Robitussin to fight these cold symptoms, life saver!
Wednesday 2/21
Today at 7:30 am I got to watcha fellow inmate who has been here 10+ years leave for a half way house in Colorado where he is from. Now 34, been inside nearly 1/3 his life. Interesting to watch all the guys say their good byes and wish him well, almost like a mini ritual. One of the rules is that after knowing someone on a daily basis for maybe years, when they leave they can’t communicate with a prisoner, so basically its good bye forever. He’s a solid young man with his head on straight, so I sure hope he stays that way. His going away gesture the night before was making all of us home made burritos, damn good I might add:)
The rest of the day was your typical cluster. 8 am waiting to go outside, eventually guard told everyone to go to their cell for a count/lockdown. You can imagine how that went over. 9 am cell opened and guard ordered everyone to go outside for 3 hours or so. Apparently the prison has a certification/inspection Friday and they wanted 3-4 hours to do “maintenance” , code word for cell inspections in prep for real inspection Friday. Guess we aren’t supposed to have a small broom to sweep our floors or a spray bottle to spray and wash the floor as they were taken. Oh well lots of them floating around thankfully:)
After 10 am, track was shut down, so we huddled in weight area, early chow at 11, and back outside. At 12 we got option for gym or movie, so I took movie, Unstoppable. With Denzel Washington, about a run away train in Stanton PA, not bad movie to be honest.
Finally got back into our unit at 2, ready to start our day! As everyone says, awful hard to keep a routine aorund here!
Thursday 2/22
Finally feeling much better! Another inmate left this morning, he’s in for 20 years, getting transferred to Illinois to be closer to his family. Its amazing to me given how little drugs he had at arrest generate 20 years for first time offender. Crazy rules in my view. Based on my time with him, I can’t imagine him being a repeat offender after 5 years in so far. Was nice to see big smile on his face last night when he got confirmation at 7:30 pm.
Seems like over the next 30-45 days, most of the “white guys” will be moving on- either out to a halfway house, camp next door,or transfers to other prisons. Too bad as we have a pretty compatible group of guys at this point. They really try and teach the old guy all the silly rules out of respect, but I can tell it drives them nuts when I do something I shouldn’t like walk in front of the blacks when they watch TV, or walk into a Hispanic’s cell by cutting thru a group of them watching TV. I should have caused at least a couple riots by now:) Really is amazing to see the amount of transfers in and out each week/month, clearly a big time consumer for the counselor and case manager.
Friday 2/23
It’s kind of silly to me, but Friday, even in prison, seems more “relaxing” than the rest of the week. Maybe its just mental after thinking that way all these years. Woke up to a Happy Anniversary from my loving partner. 7 years to the day we met at Tommy Bahamas! I’m finding these special occasions/days/events hurt when in prison-just another reminder of something taken away and that you can’t share or experience. A lot of guilt for the effect on everyone each time comes into play as well.
My ex attorney, white collar friend has really been helping me prep for my medical letter/treatment plan. Getting close finally to finalizing. Turns out his BOP lawsuit in Portland is with the same judge I had, what are the coincidences? So trying to help him with that as best I can.
Commissary went well today, so I indulged in my ice cream at 8:30 am(no freezer)- I’ve decided every other week to have one:) Kept me full so skipped chow.
We finally had a regional guy in the prison today for inspection. Given how the guards were all stressed, I thought they’d have sniffing dogs,writeups for violations etc.. Nope. He just walked by casually, barely looked in our cell, certainly wasn’t concerned about our broken windows or cracked sink or that our cell needed painting, that’s for sure! Oh well, still nice to get over.
The afternoon was gorgeous,so spent 2 hours working out and enjoying it! Rest of the day was 3:30-5 lockdown,meat lasagna( pretty good I’d say) and reading/TV. Just finished a book, Heard You Paint Houses( means murderer for hire who sprays blood everywhere in Mafia), by Charles Brandt. Biography about Ed Sheerhan, a mafioso who killed Hoffa and really his Mafia life story. Good book if you like that kind of history:) It’s always amazing to me how so many people, Mafia members in particular, live their life sinning left and right, but at the end of life, come to God for forgiveness and peace. Why do we want to be God all our lives only to surrender when we can’t be God any more? Why did God wire so many of us that way to begin with?
Saturday 2/24
Today was a pretty relaxing day. Morning of writing/reading and email till 9:30, then lockdown till 11. Got to finally chat with my longtime friend and pastor which was great, then 2 hours outside working out again!
First time I skipped all 3 meals, as there are plenty of guys making food for lunch and dinner. Generally, everything is $2-3 each, so had 3 tranquillas for lunch and 2 tamales for dinner. Frankly better than most Mexican restaurants I go to and much cheaper!!
My brother in law got me a great book, The Last Stand, which I spent the past 2 days reading. Really interesting if you love Redwoods and environmental protection and family held businesses, turns out I remember reading 15 years ago or so!
Praying for freedom and Liberty and to see my Fam and Friends soon! BJ
