Which Day is It? On mail days, breakfast is served at 7:00 AM. The lights come on at 6:30 AM. If you choose, you are allowed to skip breakfast and remain under the covers till 7:45 AM.

If you are still under the covers at 8:00 AM, the officer comes around and pounds his night stick on your bed to let you know you are violating one of the few strictly enforced rules here. You are not allowed to be under your sheets or blankets past 7:45 AM.

This certainly does not stop any of us inmates from going back to sleep. We use a combination of coats and towels as blankets and off to sleep you go. At 11:15 AM there is a sit-up count. At this time you must sit up on your bunk for all of five minutes.

Lunch occurs at 12:00 and then you are free until 5:25 PM when the next count occurs. This one is also a sit-up count. Lunch and dinner (served at 4:00 PM) are optional.

So far today, I have skipped both breakfast and lunch. I cooked my own lunch of pasta and chopped pieces of a certain creature of the sea in a honey mustard hot sauce.

I washed all the items used in connection with creating this lunch and have been typing since 12:30 PM. I will be taking a break 4:00 PM as dinner tonight is three cheese ravioli and four ounces of orange sherbet for desert.

I will have to put on my state-issued greens for dinner. I am currently attired in my maroon cotton shorts and a T-shirt. It is very warm today, over fifty degrees outside, and the last pile of snow is reduced to a dribbling puddle heading toward a drain in the courtyard.

After the 5:25 count, I am free to do my own thing until 9:45 PM when the last count before lights (11:00 PM) out occurs. For this count you only have to be on your bunk, sitting up is optional.

Basically, the only two rules all day are be on your bunk at count time and wear your state-issued pants when going to the mess hall. You are allowed to wear your own shirt to chow. There is actually the third rule which is not to be under the blankets till after 9:00 PM each night.

Since the above is the mail day schedule, I should mention that the mail is handed out at 4:00 PM each day.

On non-mail days, the first meal of the day is breakfast and lunch combined. It is served at 10:00 AM, with the lights first coming on a few minutes before. You could stay under the blankets until 11:00 AM.

In addition to the mail day counts, there is an extra on your bunk, sitting up count at 3:15 PM. This is due to the fact that non mail days are visiting days. Visiting ends at 3:00 and they like to count to be sure no inmate managed to get out with his visitors!  ¶ 8:12 PM