My New Home. It is going to take a few weeks to become acclimated and to discover all the rules and regulations, real rules and unwritten rules, and what benefits I may have available here in my new home.

I want to take a few days to be sure I do not write anything that in some way may piss my new neighbors off. But I will be writing uncensored letters to you to be sure you will not miss any of the gory details of my new home.

So far I know we have none of the typical Federal prison resources here; there are no jobs, no vocational/technical (VOTECH) classes, no musical instruments, etc. The only programs are one pre-GED class and one GED class. That is it. Anything else, you are on your own.

So I might look into buying an electronic keyboard since that would be silent (i.e. I could play through headphones) but I have decided to make that a lower priority. Top priority is food, clothes, typewriter, and legal work.

I am eagerly pursuing the typewriter and radio deal. I will hopefully nail them down later today. Once that is taken care of I will then be able to type everything. I might send you some handwritten notes too, but we will see how that goes.

It looks like I will pretty much have the ability to type from 8:00 AM till 11:00 PM. Since I will be typing on my bunk or on tables near other bunks, I probably should not start typing till noon. That is just one of those little things I was talking about. We are packed in here like sardines, and I already got criticized for being in my locker this morning.

The bad news is that even when I get my radio and cassette player, I can only use it by my bed or at the tables I am writing on now.

I went out to walk from 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM. Snow started falling and there were about five other inmates also out walking. The yard is pretty large compared to the one in my last place and I will be able to do a decent perimeter walk in an attempt to lower my cholesterol.

Okay let me try again to describe our dorm. As I wrote last night, we are in a gym or auditorium room with nice high ceilings, two-and-a-half to three stories high. There are fifty-five bunk bed and locker combinations. One set, lucky number 55, is actually set into the corner of the room and is certainly the most private.

The rest of the fifty-four bunks are all along free standing eight-foot high walls in the center of the room.

The two end rows are single, as the outside perimeter is reserved for tables on one end and doors to the bathroom, shower room, and universal weight room on the other. The weight room could really be a nice thing for a weakling like me once I figure out when there is a free slot.

The building is totally air conditioned and while it could always break down, I am told it keeps the sleeping area comfortable all year round. They only give you one thin blanket, but you can buy another one. I am going to need that.

Luckily, they found my Flonase nasal spray. It got separated from me during my transfer.

We have at least one "chick with dick" here that at first look I thought was a female staff person supervising the cooking room; boy, was I wrong!  ¶ 3:48 PM