Saturday, August 3
Nothing like a visit with my girlfriend. Nice relaxing 3.5 hours, and she’s back tomorrow as well! Was a beautiful sunny day, would have been so nice to leave with her and hit a couple local wineries nearby followed by a nice dinner in Santa Barbara. Oh well….
Ended the afternoon by skipping a lousy dinner and having pizza from our favorite mexican provider:) pepperoni and green pepper and onion,using flour tortillas as the crust. Great pizza and a movie. Nice and relaxing Saturday!
Sunday, August 4
Finished a wonderful visit with my girlfriend which made for a great weekend. The extra time of a second day really makes a difference discussing things in real depth and just catching up on lots of little things as well. Just hard to do with 15 minute calls every day or every other day.
As with many people, she struggles with how a Loving God could allow my situation to exist, something I’ve heard over the years in lots of tragic situations from others as well. I’ve been feeling I owe her a letter to explain this isn’t God’s fault, and how he uses situations like this for good, so I’ll get on that soon. I think its a good blog topic as well.
Derek and I are getting coordinated on everything before he goes. Today was more First Step Act policy which we will try and complete this week. We’re getting some good documentation by BOP itself supporting the proper way to calculate FSA credits, even though it appears many case managers don’t follow these policies. More on that as I see how it applies to my situation.
Otherwise a normal Sunday afternoon/evening, church, lockdown, dinner, workout, reading. About 250 more Sunday’s by my calculations if my appeal isn’t successful:)
Monday/Tuesday, August 5 and 6th
Two pretty normal days for me. Spending Monday mostly on the book, Tuesday researching First Step Act and Second Chance Act credits towards getting out early. Between the law, Federal Register, and BOP policies themselves, I’m shocked at the differences on the same topic even! Some differences are good for inmates, others not so much. no wonder there is so much inconsistency in halfway house/home confinement release dates. Wednesday I’ll start summarizing my questions for counsel and even my case manager.
Two more weeks until my email suspension is over, hallelujah! First couple months were tolerable, but now its getting old!
Tomorrow one of the guys is leaving for halfway house after 12 years. So happy for him, but he’s not even getting his hopes up until he’s 100% sure its happening,given previous last minute delays. The good news is tonight the phone system told him his code has been disconnected, which is pretty good confirmation. Of course now he can’t communicate with anyone picking him up, so hope its handled:)
Nothing more on the medical front , either from here or my doctor. Amazing how things drag and drag in here…..
Wednesday, August 7
Probably the nicest weather day we’ve had. Blue sky from the start, 75 degrees, no wind, about 70 during my evening workout. Perfect!
On the good news front, an answer to prayers as Derek found out he is moving next door! So happy for him, but reminds me what I’m missing being stuck in a low security facility. Will be interesting to see how we continue to team together on A Better Tomorrow , the business plan, the book, when we can’t email each other or call:) Fortunately we’re pretty far along. We reviewed our WIX sitemap today plus list of Top 30 Influencers we are sending letters soliciting input from, so hopefully September we can mail them and have a site map they can reference as well.
Otherwise pretty normal day all the way around. Reading wise I’m re-reading a book, The Success Principles by Jack Canfield, co author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and taking notes this time. His main career is leadership training, and this book is one he uses while doing seminars. One of the early chapters is defining your life’s mission, from which of course a lot of your decisions will come from. There is such a contradiction defining one’s view of their life mission and reconciling that with a faith based perspective. Serving God’s will for your life vs. your own will has always been the $64 question for me. Trying and trying to convince God to help me accomplish what I want or thinks best, or listening for God’s word and accomplishing what He wants, knowing that’s what will be blessed and successful. Throw in writing this at age 65 vs. 30 its definitely a challenge for me right now.
Thursday, August 8
Our normal guard is off, and the temp can’t seem to count inmates, I swear! Yesterday he took 4 times to get it right. Hard to take a nap when we have to keep standing up every 15 minutes for an hour:)
Fog lockdown for 90 minutes this morning, first in awhile. I was in go mode so just stood at my locker and finished last 2 chapters of Section 3 of the ABT book, plus summarized First Step Act summary and questions for my attorney.
I’ve been praying for months that we get a Bible study going and finally had an answer to prayer! A retired local businessman/now farmer has been doing guest sermons for 30+ years here and will now do bible studies at both low facilities on campus. He is early 70’s in age, and very sharp and knowledgeable. Guess he was forced to stop coming during Covid, and they just started allowing him back earlier this year in 2024. Today was our first study, 10 guys, some wild backgrounds on a couple of them, but he is a great teacher. Will be different than what I’s used to as usually I know and am close to the other guys in the group, but not this one:) But should be good to attend regardless!
Met with my counselor on my medical BP-9 which keeps getting rejected. I think I know why…. 60 days now with this Administrative process and basically nowhere, maybe 3rd time is a charm!
Friday, August 9
When they called the Yard open
at 8 am, after being closed all week once again during the day, I immediately knew I’d skip the library this afternoon and go outside. So 12:30-2 did about 15 laps plus my normal squats, lunges, step ups each lap with pushups. Beautiful afternoon to boot! After dinner went out again 6-7:30 and did weights. I sure miss these twice a day workouts, but with the sprinkler renovation still having another 12 months, it’ll be on and off for a full year!Bummer.
Spent time in the library 9-10 rewriting my BP-9 for the third time. no results from trying to bring to leaderships attention and none from medical staff as well. Welcome to my world,
Kind of funny I was reading a chapter in Purpose Driven Life about “envy”, and why it useless plus goes against God’s design of oneself. Even though I’m very happy for Derek moving next door, I find myself being a little bummed. Sure didn’t take long for God to remind me I’m exactly where HE wants me to be. That chapter couldn’t be better timed!
Praying for Liberty and Freedom and to see my Family and Friends soon! BJ
