Drastic Cutbacks. I received your card and accept your apology for not writing, with one caveat. You mentioned receiving a couple of letters from me in January, but failed to mention the correspondence that headed your way back in December! I did not realize my letters to you carried an expiration date. If my memory is working, with the exception of the Christmas card, your last letter to me was written way back in November of 2009.

I have been forced to cut back drastically on my commissary purchases and am missing the freedom of eating when I am hungry as opposed to when the chow hall is serving. I am still doing a few meals of beans or octopus with pasta, but without all the extras and only 3 or 4 times a week.

I need to gather all my letters from the last few months, along with what posts I have sent and get back in the saddle as it were. My only hope for the future is building some sort of support system through the blog or at least bulk up my writing so that being able to publish something in the future is not just a pipe dream.

I did finally get a short note from my brother yesterday. It was the first time I had heard from him since his initial letter. The note said:

Pete,
Mom requested I send this $100 money order to you. Overall she is doing o.k. She tends to sleep a lot and her memory fades in and out.
Take care of yourself,
Bill

"Trying again, last envelope was returned, because I forgot your ID #"

I still have no idea what Mom is aware of; though it is apparent she remembers that she used to send me money. Since this was a second attempt, I wonder if Mom is thinking of the $100 as a monthly thing. The New York Times is still arriving. It would be great to know what to expect so I can budget accordingly, but hey I will work at assuming this will not happen too often. Eating in the Chow hall sucks.

I would love to work together on dreaming up possible revenue streams for you to give you some options if the "expensive American white guy" thing starts to cave in and your job gets outsourced to India.  ¶ 9:09 AM