New Surroundings

I woke up in my new surroundings which are sort of like the old surroundings with the big exception of having a window which allows real sunlight to come through. The cell is essentially the same size as he County Jail; 6 feet wide by 10 feet long. I was very surprised to see the sun had risen before we were served breakfast. I am not sure what time breakfast was served because there are no clocks anywhere. There is only a thermometer on the wall not a clock. I am not sure if this is good or bad because time has meaning in a place like this. In fact my sentence is one of time but it is not time of day rather just time. Each day is another day closer to being back with my family and now that I can actually see the sun come up and go down I know when the day has ended and when a new one has begun.

In the County Jail, breakfast, lunch and dinner were orchestrated at essentially the same time each day. I don’t know what time breakfast was served and as soon as breakfast is served, a sack lunch is placed in front of every cell. This means lunch is at our discretion. Breakfast and dinner must be served hot according to the CDC regulations while lunch is not. Based on the three meals that were served today, the food is certainly better than the County Jail and from what I understand it gets better at the next stop.

Breakfast consisted of a hot cereal (farina), banana, two slices of wheat bread, eggs (scrambled), and potatoes with cheese. I traded my eggs and potatoes for some cereal and a banana so I had plenty. Lunch consisted of four pieces of wheat bread, tuna (no mayo), slice of American cheese, apple and a honey graham cracker. I was happy to see the tuna without mayo so this was a good lunch for me. Dinner was a little suspect (for me at least) hot dogs, pork and beans, vanilla cake, and spinach. I ate the hot dog rolls and the spinach. I gave away everything else. I was okay because I still had the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches back in the cell. Also another positive is they do not serve milk with every meal only at breakfast. In the lunch bag and with dinner are packets of range flavored sugar-free mixes. These mixes are good and they contain 100% of the recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C. I was very impressed to see these mixes and they were a welcome diversion for the milk at every meal.

After dinner I went back to the cell and made the peanut butter and jelly (without the jelly) sandwiches for my dinner. It doesn’t appear I will starve here. After eating this I asked my cellmate if he knew where I could get a book and he told me he had one. The book was “Bleachers” by John Grisham. I don’t know if I should count this as my 15th book “Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. I had to leave this book behind at the County Jail. Hopefully, someday I will be able to finish it. Tonight I read the entire John Grisham novel “Bleachers” and it was a very pleasant way to spend the evening.