Saturday, August 17
Every once in a great while we have a great day, and today was one of them. I think it started by taking 3 Aleve last evening for my aches/pains from working out, and they were gone this morning! The 8-9 track workout was strong, with a grey marine layer, but warm temp. After lockdown, chow was gravy and biscuits(yuck) but biscuits are fresh made so I brought jam to try for once, which made things much better. I can just see caking on that gravy on my arteries:) Yard from 12:30-3 was beautiful, weights mainly with some laps, and maybe an hour inside the hobby shop with Derek working on the WIX site wireframe for ABT. Then lockdown, dinner, movie, reading my last book. Pray to God Sunday the library is open or next week will be a long week!
Sunday, August 18
Disappointing start to the day as we were hoping Education/library would be open to reload on reading books before another week of being closed, but guess not….. So focused on writing, but only at 50% energy level as a result. I’ve crystallized a framework of a court filing to get BOP to calculate dates to halfway house home confinement much earlier and consistent with the law. Hoping some guys are successful litigating this before I get there, though hopefully my appeal makes that unnecessary!
Good church service today. One of the guys brought me a book he just finished named “Tactics”. Funny how I just run out of books and boom, ones provided. The book is how to pull information out of people to get them to support their statements and opinions, especially in the context of religion, though it has general applicability as well. So far its pretty interesting!
Great workout tonight 6-7:30. Several phone calls to family, and hopefully I wake up to my email drought being over tomorrow!
Monday, August 19
Definitely was nice to wake up to email access:) No incoming emails since May 20, but just nice to feel organized with prior emails I didn’t get to before cutoff, plus sending emails again that were building up on my to do list these past 3 months. I’ll slowly catchup on weekly journals and book reports, but my main emphasis needs to be typing all the ABT chapters. Our goal is to have first draft done by October 1, so we can have friends and family critique. We’ll combine new content from our 30+ influencers we’re mailing in September, plus friends and family, and hope to have another draft by the Holidays to hand to a professional copywriter in January.
Spent some good time with Derek today on various matters. He’s really encouraging me to pursue the medical treatment compassionate release and has offered friends to help prepare. Very kind of him. Next step will be to discuss with my counsel to make sure I’m not upsetting any applecart’s!
Posted my book report “Woman of God” by James Patterson today. Really was a good book!
Tuesday, August 20
So nice to begin hearing back from friends on email! One buddy just landed in Italy, one is traveling in Central Oregon, both beautiful spots. Everyone is getting psyched for college football, mainly the Oregon Ducks, ranked #3 preseason. I just hope its not a let down!
Getting on top of my email from 5/20 and prior. Have to admit feels good to get organized and start catching up on things. Full day inside today and tomorrow. Too bad today was 78 and blue sky. But got some some good writing done on the book and of course email:)
Wednesday, August 21
Another lockdown day but with a tease. At 7:30 they called Education/library, got everyone excited, like me, so we went down there only to be returned by the staff. So disappointing. How do the lieutenant/guards not know what’s open or not? That led to a day in the Unit, by early afternoon is so noisy and demotivating, all one wants to do is be lazy. Really creates the opposite behavior they should be incenting in my opinion. If I could be Warden for a day, I’d not allow cards or domino’s to be played before 5 pm. That would change dynamics for the better big time!
At least I did some power typing every 30 minutes, including the ABT book for the first time. I’ll be happy to get it sent off to ABT so its not just a hand written copy at risk of getting lost/stolen/or taken.
Thursday, August 25
On the good news front, we learned Education will clean up Friday to reopen hopefully Sunday, Monday at the latest. Plus we went outside during the week/in the day for the first time these past couple weeks from 1-3!
The morning was writing, including working on kicking off my compassionate release analysis for legal counsel.
Good workout 6-7:30 followed by watching DNC/Harris’s speech. Now let the real fun begin!!
Friday, August 26
At 7:10 we went from being stuck inside all day for 2 weeks to being kicked outside for the day for the sprinkler project. Except at 7:30 they called for fog lockdown so got stuck in cell all dressed up and no where to go:) I think my new schedule will be to do workout 8-10, lunch, library 1-3 next couple weeks now. A little change doesn’t bother me. Weather forecast is mild(68) all next week which is perfect.
Well I just had the pleasure of helping my good friend Derek put his 5 bags on a cart and wheel them down to R and D(Receiving and Delivery) of inmates:). He in his wheel chair, me pushing the cart full of 5 nylon bags of stuff, unescorted!. Interesting the guards trusted me, must be earning some cred around here! The 2 biggest bags being his legal files:) He said a lot of good byes to the Unit guys, and in the Yard yesterday, as he truly has been a shining light for many. The simple, sometimes more complex, has probably impacted 100+ guys, especially illegals with their language challenge. Of course each of them told their buddies and it became known he is the “go to” guy for help. Ironically just the other day our case manager asked him to knock it off, just days before he was leaving anyways.
For me its bittersweet. I’m so happy for him, he is more than ready, having waited 3 1/2 years for this moment going to camp. That’s a long time let me tell you, especially in here! What a ride he has had! Partially as a result of one BOP lawsuit of his with 11 employees from Sheridan in Portland, and one here for ADA mistreatment his entire time. The hard part for me is we were very close, and I’ll miss our time together. Probably won’t see him for a couple years until he’s out, or one year if we’re both out next summer. Not gonna lie it was hard to say goodbye. Also was surreal walking him down the long hallway and into R and D, where I self surrendered. It seemed so much less intimidating, much smaller, quieter, than I recall. Probably means I’m getting used to this place! Also going to be interesting finishing the book together. Will make for a great story someday:)
Its a couple hours later now, and I’m sitting at a picnic table inside the track, blue sky, 71, nice breeze. Looking around at how beautiful it is, after being kicked out this morning and dropping off Derek.
Back to reality, inside at 3 for lockdown, chow, back out at 6-7:30, then reading for the rest of the evening. Wonder how Derek’s doing getting settled with all the new stuff to learn at a new location?