Saturday, March 1
Awesome visiting day with my son and granddaughter here from Florida. 5 hours of relaxing conversations, and a granddaughter who we now know loves Legos:) Guess what she’s getting for a birthday present?
Big drop in temperature weather-wise, so back to sweats, thermals tonight. No movie for some reason, and skipped chow, so pretty much a TV and reading rest of the day.
Sunday, March 2
Very productive typing morning, on a cold showery one at that. Church 12-2 then outside 2-3 and got lucky as the sun came out in-between the clouds.
Out of the blue, got mail from my co author on A Better Tomorrow book. Great surprise! We’re both fired up to finish the book and get the site up and running! With my appeal paperwork done, its a perfect time to sprint to the finish!
Funny how things work, but had an “aha” moment after reading a legal newsletter yesterday. My friend Steve, the 68 year old CPA, had his BP-9,10, and 11 declined from an alleged weapon in his cell in Victorville. Despite the folks here saying there is nothing in his file from a due process paperwork perspective, out of the blue paperwork showed up he had a disciplinary hearing and that he was found guilty. The report didn’t require his signature. But the other related documentation to the incident report does. So he is requesting a copy to see if that exists, if not, then due process wasn’t followed. Always something to chase down around here seems.
Monday, March 3
With my appeal work done, and now being able to begin being involved with A Better Tomorrow again, I’m relaxed yet excited to focus on the ABT book and finish it up! As I look at my priorities I’ve focused on:
Done
– Appeal Filings
Ongoing
– weekly journal and blog post
– helping 10 inmates
– continually chasing medical treatment
– workout routine
Projects
– finish ABT book
– complete 2 book reviews/month
– prep for Canadian treaty transfer application
– Update my Release Plan
Today, 9-10, is about getting copying and books at the Library. Outside 1-2 with lots of typing in-between. Its amazing how much effort it takes to print, cut paper and tape together, copy as one page, print a mailing label, all for one letter to the ACLU. Heaven forbid I screw up somewhere and have to start over by going back to my Unit to get on email, hit print, and go back to the library…. Crazy:) Today I literally had to walk 3 places in the library begging someone with authority to open a locked cabinet to give me scotch tape:) After all that, turns out I loaded the ACLU attorney’s name in the computer with a typo, so I get to go back to the Unit and fix the draft email and do again…. Hopefully finish tomorrow now!
Today I received a legal newsletter and learned the BOP has started its DOGE cost cuts. Specifically the 23000 guards nationally have been getting a 35% retention bonus , my guess since COVID, and its now gone. Will be interesting to see the impact besides many quitting.
Tuesday, March 4
Last beautiful day before 2 storms come the next 5 days. Tomorrow/Thursday and next Monday/Tuesday,
Really seems as if the BOP is being shaken up. I saw it in terms of things not running as smoothly, staffing shortages again big time, Yard being closed 2x a week in the evening and so forth. I always scratch my head when they either have 3 guards in the yard or 1 for maybe 1000 people. Its either overstaffed at 3, wasting $$. or understaffed at 1, reducing safety and security:) Happens elsewhere inside as well.
Now that I’m done with the appeal, I find myself feeling de focused abit, or I have writers cramp, not sure which:)
daily writing my journal is easy, the blog and ABT book keep dropping to the bottom of the priority list for some reason. Everything else seems to get done but those. Hopefully it just temporary:)
Got a good cardio workout in this morning 9-10 followed by weights at 2-3. Still taking weights carefully due to my back issues, so only doing 2 reps today to see how it feels tomorrow. If ok, I’ll go full boat Thursday after the storm.
Watched Trump’s speech to Congress last night. We have one inmate here , he’s from LA and a UCLA grad, who was 100% positive Harris was going to win. Now he has Trump Derangement Syndrome(TDS) big time. Even when Trump does something positive like rescue a hostage or recognize a kid with cancer its terrible. I’ve learned to have my cell mate sit between us so he has to listen to him rant and argue, and I just smile:)
To help him/others, I’m putting a scorecard together of all Trump’s promises so I can separate TDS from actual. I may not agree with everything, but to me its not so much the goals people have problems with, its seems to be more the “HOW” being the trigger for some. I totally get that Trump may ruffle feathers at times. But after 70 years of decline as a nation, I’m more ready for results than style points, especially as I think about my grandkids!
Wednesday, March 5th
Ever since January 1, BOP cut our phone minutes from 500/month(8.5 hours/month) to 300/month(6 hours). At 15 minutes each call, that’s down from 8 calls/week to 5/week, or 12 fewer/month. Makes a real difference. Prior to the change, they promised us the ability to buy the 200 minutes we lost but of course they never tested the software to allow this and it doesn’t seem to work. Three months later and still no fix, and when I asked the Assistant Warden he had no idea when it might be fixed. Its frustrating at times, as I call both kids weekly(8 calls/month) and my girlfriend/partner(twice/week or 8 calls/month), so that leaves only 4 extra calls for friends or personal needs etc.
Today my legal team filed our final rebuttal to the governments appeal filing. I’m very appreciative of the legal team, both their passion and hardwork, feel as good as I can where we are. My analogy to the answer “what do I think”, when folks ask, is that the appeal process is like a Super bowl. After all the paperwork is now filed,its “halftime’ and we all feel like we’re ahead based on the legal arguments and case law. But half time leads don’t matter , the second half still has to be played. In close games it always comes down to the refs, in my case the 3 judges. Do they call a “penalty” on the govt. and we win the game or do they do a “no call” and let the other side win? On March 24 we find out who the 3 judges are. Time will tell, meanwhile all I can do now is wait, pray God’s Will be done. Peaceful at times, stressful at times. At some point in 6+/- months, when I least expect it I’ll get an email and that will be it. Crazy!
Fairly mellow day given our rainy weather. Typing and writing all morning. Went to bible study 12-1, but the Religious Services door wasn’t open and nobody was there, so I went to the movie, Secretariat, from way back in the day. Really enjoyed it , even knowing the outcome:)
Thursday, March 6th
Some days writing this journal, not much comes to mind and then other days the cup runneth over:) Today is a cup runneth over day!
Ever since filing the appeal, I’ve had this peace inside me like I’ve never had these past few weeks, and its translated itself into not stressing about things, and more writing, typing, working out,anything really. Couldn’t really put my finger on it, but just kind of went with it, some days more accomplishments than others. Sometime during the day today today, it kind of clarified for me due to a couple things. For once, since being a teenager, I don’t have a job or any responsibility. Zero, none. All my life I’ve been work/career driven, even in here my job was clear-“get out of here” by winning my appeal. So that was my focus. Everyday I thought about it, most days I did something to further it. But that jobs over for now. I know I felt a peace when the first filing happened just before Thanksgiving, so that is part of it. Now with the second filing, I have the same if not more peace. I just pray everyday that the peace is God’s way of messaging that HE’s got this. I know worrying is a sign of lack of faith, and I literally have no worrying going on,zero. Guess we’ll see….
The other thought that hit me today was thinking about my childhood friend in Portland, now a retired teacher/tennis coach, and my girlfriend /partner. Both are retired, but stay busy and active, but in a good way. Not work related, but working out, time with friends, reading, always thinking of others, and it occurred to me that’s where I am now. To some degree i choose how active and/or what I choose to spend my time on, clearly more constraints inside here, but generally the same. I’ve never done that before, and now I can get my head around that whole concept intentionally.
The final thing that occurred today was in my Threshold class. The format of class is workbook driven, with lots of sharing of homework via discussion in class. The topic today was spirituality, and one of the questions was “what internal conflict are you wrestling with?” Second question was ” How does God want you to handle it?’ As we went around the room, its clear a lot of us have guilt not being there for our family, especially the dads who have little kids. I recall especially my first 6 months here that was top and center of my mind as well, but its faded a bit since then. But today it bubbled up again and now I’m reminded how it really tears at one’s psyche, and how significant this appeal outcome really is. But I’m still at peace which is a good thing, though very sensitized once again on what I can do for my girlfriend/partner and kids/grandkids going forward.
So good progress thinking about things, and energized and clear thinking right now. Will see what the next 30 days bring….
Got outside 9-10 thinking we were between showers, got lucky as it rained all afternoon. Class 12-2, no outside 2-3. On and off TV, email, reading rest of the day. Good news is I got a callout for tomorrow at 7am for dental, phase III of my annual exam, teeth cleaning!!
Friday, March 7th
Solid end of the week today. Had good 3rd dental visit in past 45 days, cleaning today. Very professional, and the dental assistant snuck me 5 fluoride packs to use once a week which was very nice of her. I know they don’t always see decent teeth, so I think she was appreciative:) Tried Education/Library at 9, but no guard so closed. So raced back to my Unit during the move, grabbed my sweatshirt, went outside for an hour of fast walking the track.
After chow/reading till 12, went back to Education at 12-1 which was finally open. Got all kinds of stuff done, including scoring 3 hard to get new vanilla folders to better organize some projects. 1-3 went outside for a great workout. First time in 3 weeks I did both track and weights, full reps now that my back feels better. Movie tonight, I am Alone, old one with Will Smith, pretty lousy. Kind of a body snatcher type, not my kind. At least got me out of the Unit and thankfully was only 90 minutes:)
Praying for Liberty and Freedom and to see my Family and Friends soon! BJ
