Seventy First Visit to Taft

We're down to just 10 weeks, and that gets me thinking about a time very soon, when I won't be coming to Taft every week. Here is a list of things I WILL NOT miss.

1. A dirty car. There's no use washing it, because by the time I get to Taft it will be splattered with bugs and dirt.
2. Vending machine food. There's not a single piece of fresh fruit, yogurt, cottage cheese or vegetables. I either go hungry or eat what I shouldn't.
3. Having to rush through phone calls because we only have 300 minutes per month10.
4. Having someone listen to every conversation we have on the phone.
5. Having our letters monitored.
6. Being on guard to make sure I don't say anything on the phone that might be misconstrued.
7. Eating alone.
8. Sleeping alone.
9. Waking up multiple times every night, and not being able to get back to sleep. (I hope this will change)
10. Paying the bills
11. Dealing with rats or other rodents in the attic or house.
12. Not having someone to bounce ideas off of.
13. Making a list to follow when Ron calls so I don't forget anything.
14. Driving 450 miles every week to see Ron

Now to be honest, there are a few things that I've gotten used to that I will miss.

1. Spreading out in the house, having things all over the place (but neatly)
2. Not having to cook dinner if I don't want to.
3. Not cleaning the house if I don't want to.
4. Turning on the TV in the middle of the night if I can't sleep.
5. Doing things my own way, without questions.
6. Having the TV off most of the time.
7. Playing my radio stations in the car.
8. Seeing my mom every week and my kids and grand kids more often.
9. Having 4-5 hours of Ron's undivided attention every Friday. I love that.

Ron is making a similar list, but I won't publish it until he is released. I bet his list of things he'll miss will be mighty short.

Business is booming at Taft. There are 550 inmates, and this is the largest population since Ron arrived. It's interesting to see the comings and goings of visitors and inmates. Since I visit on the same day every week, I get to see the same people each week. Today, I mentioned to Ron that I saw some new faces, and he said they were all new arrivals. Every week some come, some go.

Ron and I are both so excited about his upcoming release that we both have trouble sleeping, and thinking about anything but him coming home. Before my last 2 bridge games, I apologized in advance to my partner for all the mistakes I was going to make. Focus is very difficult.

One of the things that the BOP says they want to do is to keep families together. Yet they limit phone minutes, visitation, and in the federal system, do not allow conjugal visits. It seems to me that if you want to keep families connected, you would not have a 300 minute limit on phone use. After all, why do they care how much you talk? The inmate pays for the phone, so more minutes would be more revenue to the prisons. Also, limiting the visitation to once a week does not help to keep families together. Many other prisons have much more visitation available. A friend of mine visited her husband 4 times a week (2-3 hours at a time) when he was in Colorado. This makes sense to me. And not having conjugal visits for federal prisoners, what's that all about? They give state prisoners, violent prisoners, conjual visits. I don't understand the system, probably never will, but I question the logic behind many of their rules.