Oops has it been ten days since my last letter.
I am looking at my handwritten letter. Either there is another letter or perhaps I misdated that one. No, in all likelihood my funk has led to delusional thinking that I am writing more often to you than I am. Boy that is a surprise.
I just received a letter from Abby, and she ended up spending a few days in two different hospitals to be diagnosed as having severe stomach problems apparently related to the loss of proper nerve functioning related to lifelong battle with diabetes. The medicine they are giving her is only a stopgap measure, as you are not supposed to take it for more than three months.
She went to a local hospital over the weekend only to end up being transferred to a major medical center within the area. I do not know if you care but she lives in a town apparently in the middle of nowhere, and the nearest hospital can only handle more mundane ills so she was transferred by ambulance to the larger facility.
I still have not heard from my brother, or even my brother acting as the letter writer for my mother. It appears at this point that I am never again going to be able to have a two way communication with Mom.
From the "cheer up things could be worse" department, well sure enough I cheered up and they got worse. I received my monthly statement today and it turns out for some unknown reason my weekly $15.20 pay from my mess hall job had now been reduced to $13.30 a week. On the one hand I should be grateful I have been kept on the payroll without doing any work, but on the other hand, if I am supposed to be paid x amount, then pay me that.
I have to get my ass in gear and answer with more detail the issues I raised on my earlier letter.
Ray and I had a pound or so of venison sausage today in a tomato sauce with a pound of pasta, 1/2 each. There was some extra sauce which is about to have two cans of beans added to it and with a sleeve of saltines become a late supper. It is my second known encounter with deer meat and I have to admit it is pretty good. Of course since it has been years since I have had anything that resembles red meat, this is certainly a treat.
Our regular officer has been off the past two days, (Wednesday-Thursday) and will be back tomorrow so I will probably be doing a whole bunch of floor scrubbing and waxing. Also the 11 PM to 7 AM regular guy is back in a few hours after his two days off so I will probably be up till 3 or 4 am doing stuff in the day area too.
I did get a letter off tonight to Jerry in California, so I will see if that pans out to another person to reach out to.
Oh wait a MINUTE there was another letter which included my response to my brother!
My typing without proofing leaves something to be desired I know. But I figured a few typos are better than no letter at all. I just do not have the patience at this point to proof and retype a letter I am struggling a bit. It seems I am a positive supportive presence in Ray’s life and Abby makes a comment about how I write to her more than her son John and she wants me to write more, that once in a while I need a place to go to recharge my batteries. That place/person just does not exist right now.
On the one hand I want to yell at the powers to be that hey you let me do all that great programming for you for six plus months, you are still using it, I got little benefit for the value you received, and yet you now treat me like a black sheep of the family. Please let me do what I am good at. Let me build up my own self esteem since everything else around here is based on the premise that we can tear it all apart.
So I hope you had a good holiday, I guess you had a few off, and now it is time to think about back to work.
So now that you have gotten two letters this week, I am going to see if I can get some more out to you on Sunday evening.
