Days in Segments

This morning, as I prepared the oatmeal and potatoes to go along with the fried eggs (yuk), I found out that the kitchen supervisor, who I get along with very well, is transferring to the central kitchen. Her last day with us will be this Thursday. This is somewhat unfortunate because she is such a nice lady and things run so much smoother when she works. I don’t know who will replace her, but hopefully it will be someone more organized than the weekend relief supervisor. (As an inside, I really can’t believe that I am commenting on the state prison’s kitchen staff. It does seem odd, but what else do I have to think about?)

I am not sure if I have described the supervisor and if I have, please excuse my repetitiveness. She is an older lady, most likely in her 60’s. Of course older is a relative term and is certainly not old, but she is older than me. She is definitely a grandmother and appears to get along with most everyone. She jokes around but when she wants something done, she gets it done. As I have mentioned previously, we get along very well, and she treats me like a person not an inmate. I will be sorry to see her go. I am sure there will be some adjustments necessary when the new kitchen supervisor starts next week.

As a matter of planning (for lack of a better word) I always look at the menu for the week. I like to see how many lunches contain tuna and peanut butter. This week there are four but one of those falls on a Sunday of which I was going to take off. I will still get the peanut butter, but I won’t get an extra because I wouldn’t be working. So, I was thinking about taking off on Saturday because the lunch menu is baloney and I always give that away. Besides the fact, that the breakfast menu contains chipped beef (again yuk) which I would have to put in the oven then into the six inch pots.

Isn’t this sad? So far I have written about the kitchen supervisor staffing issues in state prison and how the weekly menu influences the day I take off. I guess my priorities have changed? Sad but true, it’s the little things like these that keep me going each day. Here is another little matter - tomorrow’s breakfast items are coffee cake and grits. The cake is only warmed in the oven for 10 to 15 minutes and grits are very easy to mix. Of all the hot cereals, grits are the easiest followed by farina. The cracked wheat and oatmeal are the hardest because they are the thickest. Who says you don’t learn things in a place like this?

I was thinking about how my day is broken into segments. It starts at 3:45 am with the wake-up taps so I can go to work in the kitchen until 9:30 am. I return back to the dorm and immediately get undressed so I can workout until 11:00 am. (Another aside – I learned a new pushup called “Navy Seals”. It starts as a regular pushup but on the up movement you bring your right knee towards your chest and then go down. Then on the next up movement you bring your left knee towards your chest. Then finally, the third pushup is a regular pushup. These movements force the person to make a full up and down extension, which is very hard to cheat on. In addition to working the chest muscles, the knee movement works the lower stomach. I have been doing 400 regular pushups followed by 300 “Navy Seals” and my lower stomach was sore (I do like it when my muscles are sore). This could be yet another addiction. Okay, I started this as an aside but I have to discuss something that I miss a great deal which is riding the recumbant (sp?) exercise bike. Without fail, I have been doing this for the past 17 years and it has now been 2 ½ months since I have exercised on one of those. I like this much better than running because it puts no stress on my joints and it feels like a better aerobic workout. Chances are I will not be back on a recumbent (sp?) exercise cycle for a while but I do miss the sweaty mess I regularly made.

Where was I? And, I do apologize for the diversion. After finishing my “prison workout”, I take a shower or birdbath, depending on the status of the bucket. Today I took a cold shower because I couldn’t wait for the bucket. The cold shower is very tiring and I still have no idea when or if the hot water will be turned on. After the shower, I do my bridging workout until 1:30 when I make lunch for myself. It consists of peanut butter or tuna fish with an apple and some type of snack. Around 2:00 pm, I will either write a letter if I have any outstanding or I will work on some more bridging while I wait for mail call. That comes around 2:15 and usually (not today) I get at least one piece of mail and sometimes more. I will read my mail and then compose any letters which need to be written. I will do this until 5:00 pm when it is time to prepare for “chow”. Preparing for chow consists of keeping the bunk area clean of any hanging clothes. Each day I have to wash my underwear, socks, tee shirt, and work jumpsuit. The only way to dry them is to hang it from the bunk. However, when we go to chow, the CO’s do not allow us to have anything hanging from the bunk. I take this down and place it at the head of the bunk until I return from chow where I will again hang it until morning. “Chow” is between 5:30 pm – 5:45 pm and lasts 15 minutes. When I return, I place my clothes back on the bunk in order to dry. Then I begin writing my blog.

I will write for a while depending on how I feel but most times I am finished by 8:00 pm. At this time I brush my teeth in order to get ready for bed. Some days I will speak with other inmates or my Bunkie until 9:00 pm when we have to return to our bunk for the final count of the day. While lying there, I will normally talk with my Bunkie and a neighbor or read a little. Then by 9:30, the overhead lights go off and the night-lights come on. At this time I go to sleep and sleep soundly for about two hours until I consistently wake up to go to the bathroom at least two more times before getting the wakeup tap to start the whole process all over again. (Yet another aside – this top bunk thing is also getting old because hopping down and getting back up in the middle of the night has its drawbacks.)

There you have my typical day in short form. There are things which happen everyday but are really very insignificant. All in all, the days are going by faster. One last item I would like to write about is the misconception of prison being a solitary place.
It is quite the opposite (at least here). There aren’t any solitary moments with the exception of using the bathroom while working in the kitchen – only one inmate at a time. All the other times – morning, noon, and night – there is absolutely no privacy. The only semi privacy I get is when I run on Yard Day. Other than that, there is always another inmate within four feet of me at all times.

The more I think about it; maybe this lack of privacy is why some of the inmates keep coming back time and again? Unfortunately, some of these guys have no one and in a place like this they are accepted. In addition to being accepted, they get three meals a day (two of which are hot) a roof over their heads, and pretty much no responsibility. This really may sound crazy, but who knows some inmates actually like it in here. However, I would do anything (legally) to get out as soon as possible and I would do everything in my power to ensure I never come back. The only way to ensure this is to continue my recovery like I have been doing for the past 19 months. As long as I stay in recovery, I will not be back to this horrible place.