Saturday, February 21st
Looking forward to a longtime friend, business partner and mentor, 92 years old, visiting today. Down from Portland. Meanwhile all my free time yesterday and today were spent reading and typing notes for counsel on my appeal.
At 9:30 not having been called by the visiting room, I called my son to help chase my friend down and see the issues he is having. Turns out he was just boarding a flight down here and was planning to visit tomorrow! Not sure how our wires got crossed, but since I’ll be here, no biggie:) Just hope he has a doctors’ note explaining his metal titanium knees so he can get through the metal detector.
Sunday, February 23rd
Another beautiful day, 75 expected, and nice week coming up. Looking forward to my friends visit again. As it turns out, just not to be. After nothing again by 9:30, I called my son again to find out what’s going on. Turns out he went to the wrong location, the guards were rude and let him sit there for 90 minutes, then told him I’m not there. Frustrated he just bagged it and went home. I feel so bad for him its hard to put into words. Though I have plenty of words for those guards….
Spent the rest of the day editing my 5 emails and notes and finally emailing them this evening. Was a lot of work crammed into 3 days as I just got the delayed legal mail a couple days ago. Oh well, feel good about my synopsis and ready for my call Tuesday.
Monday, February 24th/Tuesday, February 25th
As much as I want to focus on my journal or blog, I’m having trouble caring while I keep thinking about the appeal issues and arguments. Plus I tweaked my back Friday working out so now can’t workout either.
My call at 9 today with counsel was really constructive and gave me confidence the appeal rebuttal to the government’s filing is really well done. Unfortunately, at 1, walking the track as my back is probably 80% now, ran into a guy who is 6 months ahead of me in the appeal process. He literally heard this morning his appeal was denied, which was like a shock to me based on what I had heard. Brought me down to earth real quick, reminding me how hard winning appeals really is, even though I know that in the back of my mind. Ironically, this evening, reading the Wall Street Journal, I read Elizabeth Holmes, the “Blood Lady” from Theranos had her appeal denied yesterday as well. Can’t say I was surprised as I read hers and it didn’t sway me, though she had some good points. I think at some point the judges just decide the facts and make their ruling accordingly. If there’s any confusion about praying the Lord’s will be done, not mine, there it is. Its in His hands.
Wednesday, February 26th
Last evening my cellmate learned he is moving to another Unit this morning, along with 40 others. All these guys get $500-1000 monthly shots for Saboxen, a drug to reduce drug cravings, and the BOP wants a cheaper solution of daily paper based dispensing strips. So one nurse a day will deliver for 40+ people all in one location and save tons of money apparently. He’s not happy as the Unit has even smaller cells and the lockers in the cell are stacked on top of each other, so there is literally no top of a cabinet to use as a table even for coffee.
My new cellmate, Mike, is 59, has been here since December 2024 and I’ve gotten to know him walking the track during construction, and seems like a normal guy. Sure hope so! Always a lot of work when moving cells, today was no exception. I switched lockers and storage location under the bunks. Plenty of cleaning and reorganizing all day:)
Even with my back ache, I spent 2 hours outside , 1-3 working out gingerly, stretching lots in-between. Its been getting better all week, but it’s still there. Gorgeous 80 degree day though fairly windy. Looks like rain back this weekend and next week, guess its the rainy season here.
Thursday, February 27th
Commissary day already. Always takes the morning it seems. Some of the PISA’s from the very first group at 6:45 am were still there when I got there at 8:30 and didn’t get back till 11:30. Almost 5 hours in a room designed to hold 75. There was only 2 guard cashiers instead of 4 which was part of the problem. Plus people like myself have personal shoppers so we get priority:) I was back by 9:30 thankfully.
Class from 12-2 and outside workout 2-3. I’m warming up to this class, its really about things like goal setting, scheduling your week, intentionally thinking about topics like mental health, health/wellness and spirituality interspersed. Class has a lot of discussion and sharing. Homework took 15 minutes at most, and the teacher was polling us to see if it was too much:) Hilarious. We should have class 2-3x per week plus 1-2 hours homework to really be meaningful in my view.
When I had my legal call the other day I asked my Counselor(more an operations mgr. role) how he felt about the new administration and all the changes, given I recently saw 10 of the 20 execs quit/were fired including the CEO. I already see lots of changes, starting with this place at 100% capacity again with 3-400 new people since the first of the year, and lots of staffing shortages. His reply was ” the amount of changes are crazy”, and his eyes told me even more. He’s one of the good guys here, I often wonder why he’s not on the outside in the real world. Works hard, follows through, has empathy at times(not always), and can definitely be firm at times. Based on the legal newsletter I receive and the news, I don’t think we’ve even begun to see the changes:)
Friday, February 28th
Two nights of uninterrupted sleep! I’ve always been a good “sleeper”, takes a lot to wake me up. But having a new cellmate now, I hadn’t realized how much my old cell mate with his bad sleeping habits interrupted my sleep. What a difference!
So I’m fresh this morning and hit my writing hard. First was updating this journal. Next I wrote a letter to the ACLU who recently filed a class action lawsuit against the BOP(for all of us) for not following the First Step Act. They really focused on only one problem,”hiding behind no halfway house bed availability” to delay transferring inmates there. As I’ve written, there are several other “interpretations” of the FSA the BOP has taken at the disadvantage of inmates, so I’m proposing they include these fixes as well. Nothing to lose, maybe the attorneys help A Better Tomorrow somehow, or if lucky they help resolve these other issues as well!
Good workout 9-10 followed by writing/typing till 2, then 2-3 back outside again. Lots of ‘made for TV” today with Trump/Zelensky show all evening:)
Excited for tomorrow as my son and his 2 1/2 year old daughter are flying out this evening so we can spend the day tomorrow together! Can’t wait!
Praying for Freedom and Liberty and to see my Family and Friends soon! BJ
