Forty Second Visit to Taft

Last week I mentioned that Ron's concept of time has changed. It's really more that he values time more than ever before. He has measured time in minutes, days, weeks, months and years and knows how each amount of time feels. As of Saturday, Ron had completed 300 days of his sentence. When I visit on Friday, he will have 200 days left. When he is back home in June, he will never view time the same. We talked about this last week. In the past Ron would often go reluctantly to a dinner or party with people he did not know or like. That will not happen anymore. He will not spend precious time with people he doesn't like or doing things he doesn't want to do. When you have lost 17 months of your life to incarceration you look at things very differently. This is something I will have to remember and be sensitive to. How often do you go to a party you really don't want to be at? We've all done it. My attitude, and Ron's, used to be "It's just a couple of hours. No big deal." Well, to Ron a couple of hours IS a big deal. I thoroughly understand this. It's not a matter of being selfish, because Ron is a very compromising person and has done many things he hasn't wanted to do. We all have. But now he realizes how precious time is, how it's something we never get back, and how he wants to make every minute of the rest of his life count. I will support him in this. "Time as at once the most valuable and the most perishable of all our possessions." John Randolph

Friday Ron and I spent some quality time with our family that he wouldn't have missed for anything. Our son Brian, his wife Beth, and twins Ryan and Spencer, age 4 1/2 months, came to visit Ron at Taft. This was the first time Ron had seen the twins, and he was a little anxious about the visit, mainly because he wasn't sure how Beth would feel about visiting Taft, but her casual, relaxed attitude immediately put him at ease. And the twins! He couldn't wait to hold them, rock them, play with them. He thoroughly enjoyed it, and looks forward to another visit from them in the spring. We took a few family pictures before the end of their 2 hour visit, which Ron will treasure. After they left, Ron said he was "over the top" on the happiness scale. I asked why, and he said he didn't know, but I sure did. What could make anyone happier than a visit from his children and brand new babies? It's visits like this that keep Ron going, counting the days until June. According to Ron's calculations, tomorrow is day #299. We're getting there!

If you're a lover of lattes and frappes, stop by The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf on Tuesday, November 9. They will be selling their specialty drinks for $1 (lattes and ice blendeds), with the money going to charity. A great cause and a yummy afternoon pick me up. Enjoy.