Carole and I prefer to visit at Taft Camp on Fridays, when the prison is least crowded. This past Friday, however, car trouble prevented Carole from making it here on time. We postponed our visit until today, our first Sunday visit in several months. The room was very crowded, and I’m grateful we were able to stay together the entire day. She is my respite from prison.
Toward the end of our visit I admired Frank, another prisoner, cuddling as best as he could with a pretty young woman. Frank and his visitor are both middle-aged, like Carole and me, but they looked like teenagers in love as they held hands, hugged, and sat as close together as they could get their plastic visiting-room chairs.
“Michael,” Frank said, “I want you to meet my girlfriend, Hillary.”
Carole and I walked over to say hello and we chatted for awhile. It turns out that Hillary’s been reading my blog postings to ease her anxieties about Frank’s well-being in the camp. I was happy to tell her that Frank has adjusted in a way that will add many years to his life. He has embraced the virtue of exercise, and walks around the track at least one hour every day.
I’m very happy to hear that others find value in these tidbits I write about prison each day. As a long-term prisoner, I have a duty to apprise others about life inside the prison system, and to share strategies I use to grow while I’m here.
This morning, before my visit with Carole, I hopped down from my rack at 1:58 and resumed my writing on chapter twelve of Earning Freedom. By 6:00 I had advanced to page 560. I then went to the track and ran 10 miles, bringing my tally to 2,440 miles over the past 275 days.
Sunday, 13 September 2009
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