Almost like Christmas!
Tuesday was an amazing day for me. I actually received an honest to goodness batch of presents! I did not spend any of my money, did not fill out a commissary list, or otherwise expend any energy to cause this to happen.
With the exception of book deliveries in the Fed system and some underwear sent to me in the county jail, this was the first time an event like this has happened to me in just short of nine years!
The event occurred around 4:00 PM, when my name was called by the officer out in the hall. I arrived on the scene to see a large box and large brown paper bag, both with my name and ever necessary prison ID number. The box was unopened and contained a brand new
Smith Corona Wordsmith 250 Typewriter!
With trembling fingers, I tried to use my ID card to break open the tape. This box had not even been opened or inspected yet! It was brand new and all for me. Okay let me pause at this point to publicly thank Mom and Dad for purchasing this great gift for me:
THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!Once the box was opened (yes, the officer did help me get past the packing tape), I removed the brand new, never used, untouched by other inmate's hands, really all mine (OK, you get the idea) typewriter. The officer then used the handy engraver to carve my ID number into the typewriter.
This typewriter has a pretty swift 50,000 word spellchecker. The spellchecker beeps as soon as you hit a wrong letter, as opposed to waiting till the space bar is hit. This way you know right away which letter is wrong.
The really good part about having this typewriter is now I can send all my blog stuff ready to be scanned and posted.
I want to take this opportunity to thank all the wonderful people that had a hand in typing my poor penmanship.
Since this typewriter has some memory, I am typing out a rough draft double spaced, making any changes, editing the "file" and then printing out a final copy.
There may still be some minor editing to be done, but this should cut down on a lot of the time my editor and all you other helpful people have spent on my behalf.
Any comments or criticism on the writing from here on should be directed to Prison Pete, I hold harmless and absolve the editor from any bloopers or grammatical errors. So let the games begin.
It takes five to seven minutes to print out a full page of text and all editing and corrections are made using a sixteen-character LCD window.
It does have a search function and you can even block out a section of a file and delete it, move it, or copy it.
I can basically use this typewriter from 9:00 AM to 11:00 PM every day, so it is truly the most useful "physical" item I have received in the last nine years.
The brown bag contained extra ribbons, a ream of plain paper, ten pens, and six 100% cotton T-Shirts and six 100% cotton briefs! After wearing the state-issued poly blend boxers and T-shirts, the cotton feels soooo good!