I’ve been able to call mom and dad 2 times so far but yesterday I called during morning day-room and dad was in the hot tub and both Justin and McK were asleep. I think I’ll wait today till a later time. Mom woke McK and Justin up so I did get to talk to them. It was nice to finally get in touch with McK. I could tell he was being his usual self, putting on a strong facade but I’m sure he is torn up inside. I’m so deeply sorry to be putting him and my parents and those who care for me through such pain. I really wish I could hold him at night again so we could both just cry. I got to talk to Justin for about a minute. He sounded like he was trying to be strong for my parents and McK. From his email it sounds like he’ll be staying at my parent’s place when they travel, barring a job out of state I suppose.
One of the 2 email kiosks has been down since yesterday. It froze up and has been inoperable ever since. It’s causing a bit of a bottle neck in getting emails since it’ so slow to type on the bad touch screen, you can’t even change the cursor position and make corrections, you can only backspace till you’ve erased to the error and retype. And whom do you contact to get it rebooted? They aren’t owned or operated by the prison so how do you get an Access Corrections guy to come and fix it? Grrrr!
I borrowed a book from a guy named Jackson who apparently has a lot of literature. He’s 23 and I guess he used to be a History teacher and comes from a well-to-do and connected family. The book I borrowed was “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr, a Pulitzer prize winning author. It was an engaging read, a story about 2 main characters and their journey through WWII. The timeline of the chapters oscillated between flashbacks of before the war to the events of the war. My only complaint on the style was that too much of it seemed to be delirium inspired, either from hunger or shell shock, which made it very ephemeral. A factual dispute I have is that no matter how gifted a person is, if you just hand them a slide rule they wouldn’t know what to do with it. LOL. A good way to pass a few days though. *smile*
Some of the people I’ve met so far:
Jeff Hawks: A former professor of Engineering at UNO who comes from a fairly well to do family somewhere in rural NE and lives in Beatrice now (or his wife and kids do). Very conservative (would have voted for Trump) and very intolerant of stupid regulations (that’ll be a problem in here. Hahaha). He likes to talk, especially about his trial, but not so big on listening. Ha! He’s a good cellie to have and we get along well (as long as we stay off of politics *chuckle*). He’s got 9-10 so he’ll probably go to OCC. He’s got reasonable grounds for an appeal of at least 1 of his 2 convictions.
Dennis Carrison: He was in Sarpy Co. jail for 9 months and was sentenced by Arterburn just after me then transferred here at the same time and was put in the same cell as me, now we’re bunkies. He’s 67 and his wife of 40 some years died of Alzheimer’s 5 months ago…while he was in jail. He gets evasive and vague when asked how much time he got but the guys in Max2 in Sarpy said given his age it was a death sentence. He was in the Air force for decades and after retiring from there was a resource officer at a high school. He’ll talk your ear off about his past, wife, son, and grand kids. He’s a little too nice to get along in prison I’m afraid.
Robert Jacobs: My last cellie. He’s 50, long black hair and Greatful Dead like beard he’s been growing ever since he got her 5 months ago. He’s Hispanic so he eats with the Latino crew but he speaks perfect English, though with the slow laid back tone of a Native American. He tends to just sleep through day-room hours and isn’t a huge fan of mandatory yard or gym, but he has to go or get written up. He’s very soft spoken and gentle but he looks like he’s been around. LOL!
-break-
Today we had yard at 2:15PM and even though my heel is still bruised I decided to try doing some taiji. After walking a few lap I took my sweatshirt off, stuck it in the fence, then walked to nearly the center of the yard just off the basketball court and did just a few warm ups then started the 37 short form. Initially there was no reaction but not too far into the form some of the guys from units 2, 3 or 4, who’s yard can see ours, started making noises, whistling, challenging me to a fight, etc. One of the guys on our yard, Joker, a small young Hispanic kid, even started imitating me in what was probably mockery…I ignored it all and just continued with even more focus. I’m embarrassed to say I messed up my choreography, probably due to the distractions, but I managed to get back on track. After doing it once, nice and slowly, with the yard guard watching closely, I went back to walking the track. As I walked a pony tailed kid named Tyler stopped me to ask what I was doing an showed genuine interest, though his interest was in the matial application. *chuckle*
-break for dinner-
After dinner we got canteen forms so I put in my order for things like a “real” tooth bush and toothpaste, a radio to get NPR, and a razor that won’t kill me when I shave. LOL! Since I’m getting real shaving cream I turned the tube from the state shaving cream into a nozzle or the shower so that it sends out a stream rather than a mist, which helps keep the water warmer.
Then we went to the gym. Since it’s just unit 1 A side it’s more private, no other units watching, so I decided to do the form again. The only issue is space because one end of the gym is a pair of handball courts, the other end is a 1/2 of a basketball court and after that some weight machines. So I tried to make some room near the weight machines and did the 37 again. This time, aside from a little snickering from Martin, a latino guy from cell 4 who does weights and is stuck on himself, there was no reaction from anyone. *smile* Most importantly the guard once again did nothing. So far so good. *big smile*
Boy I look forward to getting a radio and listening to NPR. that will give me a sense of being back in touch with the real world again. that and doing taiji regularly will add some element of normalcy to life in here. *smile* I can’t really complain since so far I’m safe and it’s a hell of a lot better than CA was.
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