October 20, 2002

Hey Rob Fans!

I have not had much to report lately, as things have been pretty much uneventful for Rob. He has sent me a drawing of the layout of the place. He has said it is not nearly perfect, but gives a good idea of what it is like in there.

Rob is still having trouble adjusting to sleeping under the conditions at the camp. As you can see, his bunk is near the game tables, VCR and CD player, as well as entrances to the bathrooms. The Corrections Officers do a count of the inmates a few times each night as well. So between inmates playing cards all night and the jangling keys and flashlights of the guards, it is hard to sleep. Rob has purchased a pair of ear plugs he wears to help drown out the noise, and covers his head with a blanket, but he still wakes up several times a night.

His job at the power plant has been mostly uneventful. He does have an office to sit in when there is nothing to do. He has been bringing a book with him and seems to be getting by with that. At least he is not being told to do any kind of funky manual labor stuff. --But he is hoping his boss will actually start coming to the office and giving him more interesting things to do to help pass the time. --As we had been told, boredom is his worst enemy there!

The C.O.s can be kind of nasty too, however. Rob has come close to getting sent to the hole on a couple of occasions. One time he was in the office where he had been assigned. A bunch of other inmates went in there to hang around and avoid doing their assigned jobs. A CO came in and was shouting at them all to get out and back to work. Rob said something like "this is my office!" Well, that did not go over well! He corrected himself when he had the opportunity---"I meant to say, this is my assigned work station". He was told to watch himself in that regard in the future. I am sure any person would feel a great sense of anxiety in a situation where they have to think things through before acting or saying anything. I suppose extreme self control can be good skill to learn, if it doesn't drive you crazy first!!

Rob is actually doing really very well, considering. I think he had said he is over 17% though this part of his sentence. It is neat to hear him being the optimist with me being so glum lately! Maybe it is survival instincts or something. But he really is handling this mess far better than I would ever have imagined!

Hey, he just called! I let him talk to the cats a little. They miss him and get all confused whenever I do that. :)

Anyway, letters have dropped off, but visiting had kicked in. Rob is getting regular visits from some of his friends now, which really helps him feel in touch with his world at home. (thanks for the visits--you know who you are!) He keeps saying he wants to call some of you, but I hog most of his phone time.:) We really don't get much time to talk, and I really need to hear his voice during the week.

That is all for now.

Shannon