Parole Plans

I saw an advertisement for “Change Your thoughts – Change Your Life – Living the Wisdom of the Two" about a month ago. This book is written by Dr Wayne Dyer who also wrote the Power of Intention. I thoroughly enjoyed that book. When I spoke with my mother on Sunday night, I mentioned this book and God Bless her, she immediately ordered it and I received it yesterday – 3 days later which is extremely fast. I couldn’t wait to start reading it and I started last night. Two thousand five hundred years ago. A God realized being, named Lao-tzu in ancient China dictated 81 verses, which are regarded by many as the ultimate commentary on the nature of our existence. This book is Dr Dyer’s commentary on those 81 verses. This book is broken down into 81 chapters – each one devoted to a verse. This might be read one chapter per day because the information is so vast. T read the first chapter last night and it took me an hour to digest the four pages. These verses are very meaningful and Dyer’s commentary extremely insightful and deep. Having only comprehended the first verse, I can see a parallel with the POWER OF INTENTION. I look forward to the next 80 days as I go through this excellent material.

I took two benadryls last night in hopes of clearing up my stuffy head. I fell asleep very quickly but woke up several times during the night. I did get up at 5:00 am to wake up a couple of crew members and I couldn’t shirk my responsibility. I have developed quite a few wake-ups on a permanent basis.

I slept in until 6:45 and the rest of the morning was breakfast and cleaning the bathrooms. I received a compliment from a former crew member on how much cleaner the bathrooms are. This was nice to hear but I’m not sure if they’re much cleaner than they were. He also complimented me on the fact that ever since I started cleaning the excessive fly problem has diminished. Again, I’m not sure how much I had to do with alleviated this problem; it was more of a timing issue. The flies seem to swarm when the weather is warm and it did get much cooler when I took over. At the very least, it was good to hear the compliment and I am doing my very best. The one fear I had was getting the proper equipment to clean. I have been getting the proper supplies, but today the hose broke for the fourth time. I’m not sure why but this being a fire camp, we have a difficult time finding a good high pressure hose. I can’t use a regular one because this would be too much pressure so I am using inferior hoses which springs leaks. Today this sprayed all over me which was very comical because I was soaked through. Thankfully, I have a very able helper who obtained a much better hose so we could finish. I have to say the bathrooms aren’t exactly sparkling but they are clean enough.

I was feeling much better as the day progressed and using the high pressure very hot hose to clean the showers actually helped to clean out my sinuses. This acted just like a vaporizer and the humid conditions did me a world of good.

After my workout, I showered for the second time of the day. As I emerged from the shower, I noticed the counselor had arrived in camp. She comes every 2 weeks and I missed the last time because I was out on a fire. I needed to see her to start parole plans. I last saw her about a month ago and I was informed then to come back next time they were here to fill out my parole paperwork because somehow the plans were missed. Unfortunately, she didn’t bring my parole plans. I understand this system is overcrowded and the workload of the counselors is abundant. I need to stay on top of things because paperwork does get misplaced. I once again inquired about transferring my parole to another state and the topic of restitution was not brought up. The counselor is going to try to transfer my parole to either Nevada or New Jersey. I need to see the Counselor on October 18th with addresses in the state I want to transfer. I had the job offer from the recovery center in Las Vegas before I was sentenced. I have written to the contact on three separate occasions regarding that position but haven’t heard back yet. The key to my parole is being with my family as an entire family unit. The secondary key is having a job. Ideally it would be wonderful to step right into a job upon my release and the opportunity with the recovery center is ideal. If the transfer to Nevada or New Jersey doesn’t come through, my dear friend has offered me a place to stay until my family comes back out to California at the end of this school year.

The meeting with the Counselor was over and I returned to my room to compose letters to my children congratulating them on their first day of school. My intention is to write them once a week for the next six months. I always feel fantastic after writing to them and today was no exception. I do enjoy my new routine because I have more time to better myself. My focus is much better being in camp and my growth in recovery is being accelerated. The blog and quite possibly my life here at fire camp maybe considered boring but this is anything but boring to me. Later at night I ate outside by the waterfall while I read a magazine. It was a good end to a good day.