Lugh

Lugh of the sun,
Lugh of the sky,
Lugh of the summer days gone by,
Lugh of the Harvest, corn and wheat...

- Author Unknown

Dear Readers, Sar. 08-01-20
Howdy! Happy Lughnassadh! It's a harvest festival celebrating the first harvest. It's also called Lammas, Lugh is a Celtic Sun God.
So here is the latest status on the lockdown - quarantine we are under. We are allowed out of our cells at about 6:30A until 3:30P on Mon.-Fri. We walk to breakfast and pick up a tray outside the Chow Hall to bring back to the unit in the morning. They've gone back to the "regular menu" for that (we get a 5-week rotating menu that comes out every October for that fixed year).
We also walk to Chow around 11A to pick up a luck tray (also the regular menu) and a bag lunch with lunchmeat and a very greasy plastic package of peanut butter (with chips and usually cookie or something).
On the weekends we're let out twice to pick up breakfast and lunch/dinner, and this lasts usually from a half hour to an hour. Otherwise we're locked down for the rest of the weekend.
The Warder here pur out a memo on the computer this past week stating that all inmates are required to wear a mask outside our cells and to remain at least six feet apart from all staff + inmates outside of our cells, or we would be written an incident report.
Although we can wear masks outside our cells, it's near impossible to stay six feet away from each other in the common area of the unit. Guys sit at the round tables (which seat four) an want to watch TV + therefore can't really sit six feet apart. For the record, there are six TVs in the common area; one is Hispanic and the rest are controlled by the blacks.
Someone recently asked about Recreation (hi Sona186!). We get one hour out at Ree per week (on Wed.). I haven't gone out yet, although I really miss the sun + fresh air.
I haven't gone out yet because either I was worried about missing a chance to go to the law library, or because I've noticed that about 2/3 of the guys go out + then it's a mad rush to get a shower stall. I don't want to deal with that. I prefer taking a shower when everyone is gone.
I think they finally got on a regular schedule for the law library. We go for our hour at a time. For two weeks we get to go twice a week (two hours total) and on the third week for just one hour (it's on a rotating schedule for the three buildings). Since I make money (in the form of stamps) by typing, this has seriously hurt my income.

Mon. 08/03/20 5:09p
Happy Full Moon!
So... I was able to get some necessities from Commissary today. They changed Commissary to once every two weeks now + rotating the tiers of each unit to go to Commissary to get your things. They were previously bringing your purchases to the unit + calling out cell numbers to go up + sign your receipt.
Doing every two weeks is a real pain in the butt. What if you forget something? When I went today there were about 45 of us in that room. There was no way we could possibly stay six feet apart.
It would have made much more sense - and been more healthy to have allowed us to each leave after we got our things + walk back to out unit, but no, they kept us all locked in there until everyone was done.
There was a time in the past when we could just walk back to our unit, but they stopped that before COVID + decided to keep us locked in. It makes even less sense to do this now when we're being told we could receive an incident report for not maintaining social distancing.
So... (again), I believe I mentioned that there were supposed to be some moves this past week. We only got six guys so far. There are still some kitchen guys here who haven't been called back to work. Unfortunately, non of them are "sponge-worthy." (that's a "Seinfeld" reference).
However, one of my good buddies from the compound did move down, and since I was the first cell by the door, he asked if he would move in with me instead of the cell he was originally assigned to.
For the record, Couns. Kelley was AWOL that day + the counselor who did the moves (from another unit), put someone in cell 90 so I didn't get to move like I wanted. Damn it.
Anyways, I was a little apprehensive at first 'cause it's one thing being casual friends + another to live together. But so far, J.P., and I seem to be getting along fine. Could it be that I've finally gotten a good cellie?

Wed. 08-05-20 4:55p
Hey y'all! I'm sitting here on my bed as Aretha Franklin sings "A Deeper Love" on C3PO. J.P. is sitting at the desk.
J.P.'s "hustle" is to do electronic work + he leaves hi stuff + does his work at the desk. If I were him I wouldn't leave my stuff laying out all the time. It invites problems if you've got an asshole C.O.
"Radio" guys like J.P. can make good money. I've heard that it's no problem to make over $200 a month. There's always a need to fix a radio or headphones or something. We can't afford to keep buying new earbuds every time a wire gets loose.
OK, so Hurricane Isaias hit the Carolinas on Tues. + came through this part of Virginia as a Tropical Storm early Tues. morning. Naturally, they used this as an excuse to keep us locked in our cells that morning.
There was a hint of what was coming on Mon. when they made an announcement before lunch that we should bring our laundry bags to Chow to also pick up a box of breakfast for the following morning.
The next day, they kept us locked in our cells + came around at about 7:30A + handed out milk. At about 9A, they had a "stand up" count. By that time the sun was coming out. They finally let us out of our cells at 10A.
Again, nonsense. All we got was rain + possibly some high winds. Wouldn't we have been safer our in the common area instead of locked in our cells with small windows + on the outside wall? Just sayin'...
It happened again today. Another lockdown.
Shortly before 12:30p there was a brief power outage. They often do this on purpose. Every Thurs. they shut off the power to "test the system" + turn it back on. That doesn't usually lead to a problem unless the sensors (or whatever) on the fence go down.
However, today is Wed. not Thurs.
So the power goes out + comes back on + a few minutes later the C.O. yells "lockdown." They had a "stand up" count some time after 2p + let us out at about 2:30p for an hour until we got locked down for the night at 3:30p.
Honestly, if the power comes back on + we're already locked in the unit, there is not much reason to lock us down further. We go nowhere without staff escort on supervision.

Sat 08-08-20 4:40p
Happy Birthday Becca! I hope you had a good one!
I'ms sitting here in the cell locked down for the weekend as Patti Labelle sings " If You Asked Me To) on C3PO. A former flame of mine used to play that song whenever we got together many, many years ago when I lived in Austin, TX.
I recently finished reading all of the seven original books of the "Harry Potter" series by J.K. Rowling. Say what you will, they're all really good books. I'm now rereading "Fifty Shades of Grey" by E.L. James. (I only have the first book, but I've read them all). When they first came out, those books were made out to be all "hardcore" but they're really not. I will admit, though, that Christian Grey gets my non-existent vagina all excited.
OK, so I'm sure I've mentioned the issues with the charging stations for the MP3s - especially a couple years ago when mine was stolen.
Originally they had the charging station out in the common area attached to the control desk (called the "horseshoe") which is rarely used. Then, for some reason, they moved the charging station to a corner over by the ice machine which made it much easier to steal them.
To solve this problem, they put a bunch of individual boxes (the size of mail boxes) in that area that you could put your lock on to avoid your MP3 being stolen. This was a good idea, but it did create one problem because guys would keep their locks on the boxes so no one else could use them. However, if you hooked up with a guy who had a box, you could charge your MP# in rotation with a few other guys who used that same box.
Then, they decided to change that. I was told that the boxes were a problem for staff 'cause guys would charge (illegal) cellphones in there. Well, the COs have keys that unlock the locks, so to resolve that problem all they had to do was have the CO check the boxes every now + then.
Instead, they installed the old open charging stations back in the common area on one of the supporting columns. So we're back to where they're easy to steal again.
Also, to make matters worse, they only installed 10-15 plugs when there's over 100 guys per unit. This wasn't as much of a problem before because they had radios which used batteries then, but now they've stopped selling batteries so more guys were forced to buy MP3s + the rechargeable radios (which they sold for a few months, then stopped + issued a memo that we were required to mail them home after spending all that money, which many guys ignored).
So all this means that it's really tough finding a plug to charge your MP3 now since they put so few in. I was told that their response when asked about this was "too bad."
For the record, a few months after they started selling these win-up radios for $60+ or so. I sure as hell can't afford that.
As usual, more BOP nonsense.
They sent one guy to the quarantine unit this week. He gets out next month so now they're leaving you in quarantine for a month - after we've already spent over four months in quarantine.
Also... they had a unit "Town Hall" meeting on Fri. + posted notices that there would be changes to our quarantine schedule starting Mon. It appears that we're going back-wards instead of forward, but I want to see how it works myself before I try to explain it.
Until next time, I wish you...
Love + Blessings
KJ