Spreading Mulch

The upside to getting up early, working out, and working outside in the hot sun all day is that I am able to fall asleep very early. For the second day in a row, my friend/roommate turned in at 9:00 p.m., and I was not far behind, turning in 30 minutes later. When I finished my writing I listened to the radio, but as I was listening, I found myself falling asleep. I put the radio away and then went to sleep. I had a good night’s sleep only waking twice during the evening. I didn’t quite make sleeping three hours in a row. I made it 2-1/2 hours the first time and just less than three hours the second time. I am getting used to my new mattress, and the only issue I am having is with the pillow. The pillow is too big, and I wake up with a neck ache. This past weekend my friend did “surgery”. He placed the stuffing in a pillowcase and served it up. This was much better than the very firm pillow I first received; however, I think we made the pillow too big, and this coming weekend my friend will perform more “surgery” to rectify the problem.

My neighbors have now abandoned their early-morning workouts. I have to hand it to them because this week and last week they were able to get up and work out on Monday but slept in the rest of the week. Now they haven’t even set their alarms for the 5:00 a.m. wakeup call. I don’t have a backup to my own alarm system. (My own alarm system is me waking up at 5:00 a.m. everyday on my own without the assistance of an alarm clock). I am a very light sleeper, and there are a few guys in the dorm area who get up at my time, so I can sense when it is time for me to wake up. My own internal alarm did not fail me this morning, and I have now bypassed the debate of whether or not I should get out of bed. I automatically get out of bed each morning.

This morning I got up and went outside to run. I went over to the office to notify the C/O on duty that I would be running around the track. The C/O on duty was outside, and I approached her to inform her that I would be running. She then told me I couldn’t start running until 6:00 a.m., which was in 30 minutes. She stated the yard did not open until this time. I sort of know this, but over the past three weeks, I have been running around the track before 6:00 a.m. without incident. The rules are so hard to keep track of with 10 different officers interpreting the rules 10 different ways. Obviously, I could not argue with the C/O this morning, so I just said, “Okay”. Since I was outside I decided to do an abdominal routine. During this routine, the same C.O came up to me and told me I could do that “running thing” because there weren’t any alarms set around the track. I thanked her and finished the ab routine. After the ab routine, I started my run about 15 minutes behind my normal schedule. By the way, the C/O this morning was very nice on both occasions, and unlike her colleague, she was very cordial. I am sort of weird. Okay, that is an understatement. I am very weird when it comes to my exercise time. I like to have a 90-minute allotment and try not to fall short. I have been going over this amount in the past two days, but today I could not because I would be cutting it too close to missing breakfast. I embarked on the run and ran for 87 minutes which was great. The weather is getting warmer even in the early morning hours, and this morning I got a good sweat. I did a combination of hill running and flat running. I felt good after I finished.

Of course, when I finished, I embarked on the showering, dressing, and going-to-breakfast routine. Breakfast was back to the hot cereal/potato servings for me. I was able to give my omelet to my friend in exchange for his hot cereal. Since it is a Wednesday, the PB & J is not offered. This meant I had to prepare my own sandwich again. I did have a leftover PB & banana sandwich from yesterday, but I wanted to make additional sandwiches just in case I got hungry. After breakfast, I returned to my room and made two PB & banana sandwiches. I placed these in my lunchbox with a South Beach protein bar. My lunch was all set, and my friend and I went outside wait for the work call. We had to find some shade because the temperature was, indeed, heating up.

The work call finally arrived a little later than normal because Wednesdays are moving days. This is the day some inmates get sent back to the big prison. This happens for various reasons such as utilizing a cell phone, testing positive on a drug test, or drinking alcohol. I’m sure there are other reasons, but usually, those are the big three. The C/O’s random drug test inmates, and over the past week, two crews were tested. This means at least 32 inmates were drug tested, and today, one of those was getting sent to the big prison. As it turns out, the inmate had been here only for one month, and this is the second time has been booted from a fire camp. I’m not sure what will happen to him since this is his second time. I do know first-time offenders who test positive for drugs have to go back to the big prison for at least 90 days, and this time could be added to their sentence. If they stay clean after returning to camp for more than 180 days, they can get this time back. It really is a shame than anyone tests positive for drugs here. This is the best possible place to do time in the California Prison System. Also, for inmates such as me who serve half of their sentences before being eligible for parole, fire camp is the only place in the system which reduces that time even further. This is enough of an incentive for me to not mess up. The sooner I get out the better because this gets me to my family sooner. Unfortunately, this sentiment is not shared by all inmates because people are getting rolled up for this reason almost every week just like today. The prison system is giving inmates a chance at fire camp, but those who continue to test positive for drugs should not be at a fire camp. They should be in a drug program. Anyhow, the camp lost one inmate today which delayed the roll call.

The work call arrived, and we boarded the bus. We were told our assignment was the same as yesterday, which was no surprise to anyone. The captain did not hike us today, and it appears hiking is a once-a-week task. We made our way to Diamond Valley Lake area and went into the entrance. As we made our way in, we stopped near the entrance and parked. This wasn’t where we were yesterday, and it became apparent our task had been modified. We got out of the bus and, sure enough, it was. We were tasked with spreading mulch from the entrance to the lake all the way back to the frontage road or both sides. This was about a ½-mile area. We were armed with pitchforks, Mcleods, and rakes. An 18-wheel tractor trailer dropped off the first load of mulch and came back two other occasions. If you will picture an 18-wheel tractor trailer empty, and now picture it filled with nothing but mulch. I am not sure how many cubic yards this encompassed but to say it was a lot of mulch would be an understatement. We had to spread the mulch from the road down into the drainage ditch. The mulch had a wonderful aroma (not!) reminiscent of a dairy farm. It would be accurate to say I was knee deep in poop all day today! The one positive (and there was only one) of the mulch was it was very light.

We worked for two hours and made good progress but were nowhere near completion. Normally we seek shade for lunch, but not today as we stayed where we worked. There weren’t any trees anywhere. The captain had a thermometer and took it out. At 1:00 p.m. today, the temperature was 101 degrees with 25% humidity. Yet, it was hot, and I was not dressed accordingly. We are required to wear long pants, long-sleeved shirts, and gloves while working. The new captain has required us to wear our helmets when working but, thankfully, not today. It didn’t take much to work up a sweat, and I went through over a gallon of water. At lunch, I wasn’t very hungry but knew I had to eat something. I did eat the usual apple, PB & banana sandwich, and the protein bar. I wasn’t exactly into working this afternoon but had no choice. We went back at it for another two hours and were able to spread out most of the mulch. We were still not finished, and it appears two more truckloads of mulch are needed. Thankfully, the person who works maintenance for the lake had a medium-sized, front-end loader, which helped tremendously. If it weren’t for this piece of equipment, we would not have been able to do what we did today.

The workday ended with everyone exhausted including me. Standing and working in the hot sun does wear a person down. Even my friend who is a good worker (he puts me to shame) was exhausted at the end of the day. It appears we will be coming back tomorrow to finish up, and the temperatures should be the same as today, in the 100’s. No one ever said fire camp would be easy, and this is what I expected. Fire season has started, but I have only been in the one fire. Things will get even harder when the fires start, so it will be a very interesting summer.

We arrived back at camp, and my late afternoon routine ensued. While I was picking up my clean clothes, I noticed a memo in the laundry room window. The memo stated that effective immediately everyday is inspection day due to the uncleanliness of certain rooms. This means I have to put everything (all my writing materials) in my locker when I leave for work in the morning. Also, the floor must be spotless. Many of my fellow inmates viewed this memo as a directive from the sergeant, and I will comply.

I am on schedule this afternoon, and my friend and I went to dinner. The dinner was spaghetti in meat sauce with beans, green beans, and salad. Thankfully, the spaghetti and meat sauce are served separately. I passed on the meat sauce and ate the spaghetti plain. The beans were very good. I certainly got enough at dinner. I returned to my room where I now have gotten into the routine of writing before mail call. This gives me an hour of writing time. I went out to pick up my mail which was all reroute from Jamestown. I had several pieces, and they were all from my immediate family. There was a very special letter from my nephew. The letter was well written, and it brought tears to my eyes. My nephew has been very instrumental with my son and treats him just like a little brother. My nephew is a good person. In fact, he is a great person. This letter touched me very much. The other mail was from my mother and sister. I am very blessed in so many different ways, and the saying goes, “You can’t pick your family, but you can pick your friends.” I wouldn’t trade any of my family because they are all extra special. The rest of the evening was filled with writing and talking.