November 17, 2002

Hey Rob Fans,

Again, a long time since my last update. Sorry about that. Life has been playing a lot of cruel tricks on me a lot lately, and I have not made time to get to this. But here I am!

Lets see...Rob is finally getting the magazines I sent him. There was a problem though (big surprise!) The prison people did not like one of the articles in Stuff. So instead of removing the "offensive" material, they sent everyone's magazines back to the publisher! I performed a little experiment. I went out and bought the issue at the store, removed the pages, and per Rob's instructions, attached a page over the front cover saying that such and such pages were removed complying with the codes blah blah blah. Well, it worked! Rob got the magazine I sent about a week later. (He is the envy of the other inmates this week). I am also sending him printouts from the show "24". We really enjoyed it last season and apparently the inmates who hog the tv like it too! The only problem is that is starts at 9:00, the same time as "count". So the guys usually miss up to 15 minutes of it depending on which CO is doing count. (some of them like to drag it out)

Sadly, Rob's grandfather passed away Monday. His parents flew in for the funeral (Thursday) and we made every effort to get Rob excused to attend. The people in charge at the camp gave their okay, as did Rob's probation officer. But the warden decided that because Grandpa was not on the phone or visitor lists, Rob was not close with him. (the man was 95 years old and lived in a nursing home!!) Oh well. It probably would have just been a tease anyway.

Rob is looking at possibly moving to a different. Bunk soon. We are not sure how the politics work yet, but the guy in the lower bunk asked him if he wanted it. I hope it means a more restful sleep for him if he does move. He is always so tired when I talk to him.

Rob got his first credit from work a while ago. It was something like $14.00 for the month! (based on 12 cents per hour) I still recall my conversation with the unit manager in September. She told me that Rob would be working there and would be able to support himself! That is pretty funny. Rob's boss told him he wants to put in for a raise for him. I guess, if nothing else, it shows that Rob is cooperative and trying to do a good job. He needs all the brownie points he can get if he is ever to finagle a furlough out of there in March. :)

~Shannon