So much food coming in. It is now 3:50 PM and the calling for legal mail, packages, and chow are all about to start. Mail call is not till 4:10 PM or so. I am going to take a break and get some water to drink and make a quick pit stop. Then since I am not eating their meal tonight I will return to do some more typing and figure to feed myself sometime around 6:00 PM.

There is a special cantata on the ratio at 4:00 PM tonight so I will probably shower right after the 5:25 PM count, eat some dinner, and then return to do some more typing!

Well, I did get four books from Hamilton today and also the Saturday and Sunday New York Times. The label still shows the old date, so go figure what that means.

I did not get in the shower yet and will try again right after the count but if not, I can skip a day. I did not break into a sweat at all today.

I know it is selfish, childish, and a couple of other "ishes", but it is nice to get stuff in from the outside. I am not complaining about anything. I am working hard at getting back into my blinder mode.

While the array of stuff you can get sent in here is much greater than the feds, I was good at Beckley at recognizing that while I would love to have eaten all the chips and other junk food, my body would hopefully last longer in the long run for not having all that crap poured into it. Here with so much food coming in from the outside the variety is harder to ignore.

I am having a hard time deciphering the mood of the two guys that I have been cooking with. On the one hand I get the feeling of a change in acceptance, but at the same time recognize that Frank in particular seems bothered by my ability to keep myself busy. I am not overly worried about it.

I did ask Roger before the last commissary buy if I could use his hot pot on occasion and he said it was okay as long as he and Frank were not cooking anything. I sort of felt that the three of us were cooking together. I was a little puzzled by that statement. I have not asked for the pot, and just used the hot water out of the communal coffee pot to soak my rice. It would not work for the pasta.

Another problem is that most of the sauces and add-ins to a meal all come in cans too large for a single serving. Unless you are sharing with another inmate, the choice is to not use mushrooms, sauce etc. or to end up with too much. As an example, I used a whole four ounce can of mushrooms with my can of tuna and rice tonight. That really was too many mushrooms. I know, another one of those food issues that does not really amount to much in the overall scope of things.

I am going to try and retype the two-and-a-half pages the typewriter ate yesterday. That way one letter will actually be finished.

Well, the little engine that could, cannot any more tonight. I am tired and I am getting a headache. I am not sure why, but let me get this out to you and call it a night.

The ribbon is really nice looking when it works. I need to find a generic supply place and order a dozen. I would still use the carbon paper for the drafts, but the ribbon is definitely the way to go for final output.  ¶ 11:20 AM