Long Time No Post.
It is now 8:30 PM and I have been working on typing you this letter sine 6:30 or so. I started off pulling out all the letters that I have written since the start of May or so. That was the last time I made an effort to file all the letters in the various individual folders. The biggest stack is the letters written between you and me.
I ended up reading through a bunch of what I had sent out to you, both the letters and the posts, and it is still amazing to me how insightful, coherent and downright interesting some of my writing is. Some of it is also pure dribble.
I may be a little off base but is does seem you have been not spending too much time on what I have been writing to you. I am not expecting you to comment on every single thing I write, but I would appreciate some feedback once in a while even if you let me know you have read a comment or issue and would rather not go into it with me.
I do think I might just have some insights that might be worth kicking around a bit. I do not expect that anyone accept my thoughts as gospel, but it would be interesting for me if you would comment once in a while if you think I am misunderstanding a particular situation, or yeah, what I write is what is happening but my advice sucks. I can handle that. It is the silence that is baffling.
Kind of like our discussion about the relationship with you and your wife. We have not talked much about it lately, mainly (I think) because you have not mentioned much about it.
You have been a great friend and I feel we have been both able to grow through the letters we have written. I know there are still some questions you would like better answers from me, and I know it will happen at some point, and certainly respect your right to not go into certain areas with me, even if you have brought it up in the past, but I would appreciate it if you would just let me know where you are at on the various issues we discuss.
The other thing I am still having a little trouble with is exactly which letters you have received when you write. I can probably keep the most recent letters in a little better order and know if you are one or two letters behind when you write.
I have been so out of it lately, I am not sure what I had actually typed and what was just locked away upstairs in the gray matter and never made it on to the paper. That was part of the reason I had to go through the letters tonight. I had three files in the memory of the typewriter. I was not even sure if I ever got them proofed and printed. I did find what looked like proofed copies with a letter to you so I assume you did get them.
On the Access database project, one of the officers up in the chapel area made a big stink about me working on the machine and the Chaplain ended up having to meet with the Deputy Superintendent over the issue. The bottom line for now is that I am not allowed near the computer since I am not assigned as a chapel clerk.
The Chaplain claims that it had nothing to do with me personally. He did say that he would still like me to design the database and that after a month or so, I should prepare a proposal that he would take to the Deputy Superintendent of Security and get the approval ahead of time.
I would still like to see about getting some type of programming book and it does appear the machine has Windows 98 and the Access might even be the 2000 release. It would certainly be a good exercise for me to have to put the project down in writing.
This is one area that I really miss the Fed system. With the exception of institutional wide concerns, counts and other security problems like fight investigations or concerns that had the whole prison kept in our cells, the departments were able to deal with the inmates that worked for them (or the staff could use for one reason or another) as they needed them.
Here, both the Recreation and Chapel are staffed by civilians, and it is the officers that get to decide who does what. Same thing in Maintenance. We have two bosses, the civilian staff and the officer that is responsible for us.
Confused yet? Eyes glazed over and do not really give a shit? It just makes anything out of the norm that I might be able to do a major undertaking, and therefore raises the bar as to if the civilian wants to undertake the battle. On the other hand in the Feds I would not even get the chance to work on a computer hooked up directly to a printer.
