What joy! I got the five books you sent and your letter. You will have gotten some more stuff from me and I am grateful for the letter. It is truly a lesson in patience when one or both of us expresses a problem and how the delay of snail mail lengthens the call and response.

The main difference now that I am in the county jail is that I am so isolated that I have few to no other resources to help either divert my attention or deal with an issue on my own. True this is certainly not your problem or in any way related to you, but I am finding that the positive side to having varied resources is to be able to help one deal with life. At this point my only resources are writing and reading, neither of which provide an instant type of feedback.

So as I write this letter to you now I am feeling ten feet tall and truly blessed to hear from you, I will calm down and send some more coherent stuff. It is hard to explain specifically, but since some of it is not easy to write, the strength to do so comes from the friendship I feel we have built.

I do not want to sound too mushy, but it means a lot to me to be able to say things and not feel like I am in a locker room bragging contest or looking for pity. To be able to share myself with you is something my time in prison has taught me to treasure.

I do not mind you posting your concerns to the blog in the least and I hope you actually drew some strength from the positive feedback you have received. It amazes me that in this era of cold, unemotional, non-personal type of "me first" existence, the blog has unearthed some truly warm fuzzy types. The fact that they may be a small number in relation to the total hits just adds to the fact how special these people are.

Fear Factor is on now, dinner was beef stew, but I got the bland plate, ditched the boiled beef and mixed my mackerel with the mixed veggies and plain rice. I passed up the mystery meat patty for lunch and had a PB&J sandwich instead. One must watch what one eats.

I have not been outside now in over seven days and the only way I know about the snow is through the TV. All the windows are frosted solid. Frosted not by ice, but permanently so.

So now unfortunately I do not have any envelopes to mail this out tonight so it will have to wait until the commissary opens tomorrow. Summer (Cindy) raises two great issues in her post about ADD and appeals. So that should keep me busy on the writing front.

But for now I think I will dive into one of the books you sent.
  ¶ 11:05 AM