Oy! A Day Off?

What a day off. Just to be non-correctional for a change. Went to an estate auction. It was blue cold out side (somewhere between 0 and 10) so I figured not many people would show.

WROOOONG!

The place was packed. And the place was packed before the people got into it. The hall was only rated for 175 people and I'll bet there was 200 if there was one. Hokey smokes!

The auction was the estate of some woman who apparently had a bad case of OCD and her main hobby was watching QVC and buying things. They said it was a two bedroom apartment and was packed floor to ceiling with stuff. And she bought multiples of things and most of the stuff never even made it out of the packaging. They told me there were just paths from one room to another.

We went there at 9:30 in the morning, half an hour before it was to start and we were number 72 in the bidding. And there were alot more people without numbers. And we went there because they had a treadmill that my wife wanted.

And guess....... just guess, which item out of the thousands there was the VERY LAST FREAKING THING they auctioned off?

Need a hint? I didn't think so.

We managed to get home about 6pm. So a good eight and a half hours milling around in that crush of rude people. Had me a bit on edge, to say the least. In the mean time we bought several cartons of books, a leather box with some old pictures in it, a small box with some silver coins, about 50 various kitchen utensils and more books. There were so many boxes of books the guy got tired of doing them one at a time and said "This whole table full of boxes here.... whaddalya gimme?" The wife bid $17.00 and bought the lot. So when I came trudging back from dumping the last load she pointed to the table and said "I bought all those, too." I almost cried. I need to buy stock in Advil.

It took some clever stacking to leave a space fort our daughter to ride. And we had to go home and unload the books and go back for the treadmill. Oy!

I ended up getting six really good really big books and a whole set of Time-Life "Lost Civilizations" books. And about $20.00 in old silver coins. And some old pictures for a friend of mine at work who's into that sort of thing. And a treadmill for the wife.

It was worth it, I guess.

But I'm gonna be sore tomorrow.

Good News - Bad News

We're losing an important member of our crew to another job outside the house. It's one of those good news/bad news things. He's getting a promotion and making more money, but he won't be there at our back anymore.

I'm talking about Super D, our house nurse.

I know... I know... I was just kvetching about the nursing staff in my last post. D wasn't like that. He is an ex-military medic who's been in combat and been in the trenches and worked other correctional facilities all over and knows what life is like inside. He's no "Hug-a-thug". He knows how these guys tick and worked with us to keep them in line. But he was also more than willing to help an offender who had a legitimate medical complaint.

He's the consummate professional.

He'd probably blush and threaten to kick my butt if he saw that.

But it's true.

Because D was so good at what he did, our house ran smoother and safer. He reduced the number of offenders being taken out of their cells for spurious reasons. Before, we would have to take them out and down to the nurses office for anything, including the dispensing of OTC medications. Mostly because the nurses were too lazy to take them to the doors. D would handle 99% of their complaints at their cell doors quickly and efficiently.

And he wasn't afraid of the offenders, either. He could handle himself in a tight situation.

I wish he was a C.O. In this place, I can't think of higher praise.

But he's gotten a job offer in another post with more money and we'll only see him a couple of times a month, if that. And the Director of Nursing (mistress prickly-heat) has decided we're to have a rotating staff of nurses, so nobody has to work Adseg all the time. So we never know who we're going to get. But I'll bet the ones who don't like us are going to be coming down more often than not.

So long, Super D. We'll miss you, dude. Be careful out there.

Turf Battles And Sour Grapes And Poop Boy Strikes Again!

Here we go again.....

Remember my post about "Buck"? And how I thought it had gotten resolved? Well, apparently there was and is more to the story than I knew.

See, this is what happens when I miss a day. Things happen when I'm not there.

Anyway, I was under the impression that he had just been sent back up to our infirmary to spend whatever time he had remaining in his too too mortal coil. Apparently I was mistaken. Our infirmary said that they didn't have room and they couldn't keep him. Since we were not going to take him back in the Adseg unit, they got him shipped off to the infirmary in another prison a few miles down the road, their infirmary being larger than ours and all.

Well, it seems that he started doing the same thing there as he was here, ie: laying in bed naked and cussing and spitting at the nurses, throwing food, etc. And the end result of that after only a few days was that they don't want him either. They tried to send him back and our infirmary wouldn't take him. And a rumor reached my ears that the other prison had a car in their sally port warmed up and waiting to whisk him back to us for two full days before they gave up hope. Now the medical staff at that prison are furious with the medical staff from our prison and rather than take it out on each other, they've decided it's all our fault for not taking him in Adseg and letting him die on us.

We're to blame.

The medical staff here (as well as the pshrinks and some of the couselors) are not state employees. They work for outside companies who bid for the state contracts. So they aren't really "us". Well, some of them are. There's a few of the nurses and some of the pshrinky-types that are getting to be like one of us. But for the most part, they are just contractors. I'm not dissing contractors at all. I'm just saying they aren't on the same treadmill as we are and things here don't affect them like they do us. Like I said, some of them seem to be on our side and understand what it's like "inside". They're the good folk. They tell us things.

Take for example the tidbit that the head of our medical staff (who doesn't seem to like CO's at all and Adseg even less) is blaming the whole Buck situation on us and is now out to "get" us for throwing a monkey wrench into her plans. So she's sending nurses down to our house who don't like us and don't even try to get along with us and who will use anything to report us for not doing our jobs.

Real nice woman. Temperament like a wolverine with prickly heat. And about half as attractive.

Whoo, that was unprofessional, wasn't it?

So she sent down a nurse on Adseg Committee day to try and run sick call, which consists of having us pull the offenders out of their cells and down to her office so she can see and/or treat them for their various ailments. Most of which seem to be getting out of their cell to see a real woman up close, btw. We told her "Nope! Aint gonna happen! Not on tuesdays, and everybody knows that!" So she called her boss and reported that. She's been around long enough to know that. She was just doing it to give her something to report. The wench!

And when Ol' Poop Boy started his shenanigans again, which ended up with him getting moved twice, two conduct violations and being placed back on full suicide watch, she threw a fit about that too, apparently. Filing reports and making phone calls and complaining about how we were mistreating that poor lad. And him being so infirm and all.

See, he's still on the trail of his MASTER PLAN. Trying to fake being mentally ill didn't get him kicked out of prison (LOL!!!) so now he's faking medical problems. He's filed numerous forms to be seen by this doctor and that one claiming this infirmity and that and the house nurse we had at the time (that's another post) was seeing him and shooting him down because none of them were real. It's pissing him off that we don't just get tired of dealing with him and send him home. Apparently that had always worked for him before. Today it just got him moved to C-wing where he peed out the door and covered his camera and held his food tray hostage. That got him the two violations. And when they said they were going to bring in a team with the shock shield, he said he was going to kill himself. So they went in and stripped him out and left him in a smock again.

Poop poor Poop Boy. He's just misunderstood.

It was an interesting day, all in all.

And it turns out the phone line wasn't working when I tried to call in the other morning, so I probably won't get in trouble for calling in late. The Boss Lady told me "If they try to write you up, have them talk to me first!"

She's awesome.

Sick Day 1

Called in sick this morning. Woke up feeling like crablegs with all the meat sucked out of them. I really bad wanted to go back to sleep, but I couldn't. I got up at 5am and tried to call in but nobody was answering the phone. Strange. Anyway, I kept trying to call and call and it would ring and ring....

WTF?

I kept calling and the more nobody answered the more nervous I got. I thought there must be something seriously wrong or the phone lines were down.

Finally, at about 7:05 (about the time I usually get down to the house) somebody answered the phone. Talked to the captain and told him I wasn't coming in. We're supposed to call in an hour before shift. I explained that I had been trying since five. He was mystified. My guess is, I'll get written up for calling in late.

No big deal.

Anywho, I think I'll go take a nap. I should have saved myself the aggravation and gone to work. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow.

Hey!

"You didn't post anything on the blog yesterday. What's up with that?"

That was the first question I got asked this morning.

"I've gotten used to reading it every night. Reading it is therapy for the rest of us."

That made me feel kind of good.

I'm glad it helps other people sort some of the crazy out of their heads. It's a real wonder that more of us don't go postal. Hell, if we acted outside that way we are treated inside the term might be called "going correctional" instead.

Maybe by being surrounded by so much crazy every day and having to act crazy or worse, act sanely, keeps us from going over the edge. There have been times when crazy would have been so easy. Someone would be acting monumentally stupid and my gut reaction would be to pull him through the chuck hole like a pipe cleaner, tie him into a squeaking ball of little bone grinding against bone noises and kick him down the stairs. But then I'd stop and think and say "And what are the caseworkers going to tell your grandmother next week when she calls and asks how you are doing? You think she's going to be happy with you?"

That works, now and then. You always gotta be thinking.

Think I'll turn my brain off now and go lay on the couch. Got a touch of the flu or something and my head feels like it's full of broken watch springs. Be safe out there.....

A Real Sumbitch Of A Day

Normally fridays are a pretty relaxed day. The end of the week.. Nobody wants to do anything... Hah!

Not today.

Today everybody in the world wanted to come to the Adseg house for some reason or another and camp out forever.

They came down to team seven major violations and took forever on each one. The investigator came down and talked to everyone in D-Wing. Three..... no, four! Pshrinks. Seven lockups with number eight coming down the walk as I was leaving. And some knucklehead who got locked up and said "I'm not going into any cell except the one with my friend in it. And you can't make me." He was still sitting in C-wing on the restraint bench as I left.

I think Sarge read five or six violations, maybe more. That plus lunch, two counts and two med passes and two room moves.

And to top it all off, the freakin' Warden come wandering up into the bubble while I'm running back and forth opening and shutting doors like a man possessed. He starts talking about our new camera system and how nice the picture is, and playing with the remote control..... Just about drove me to distraction.

After he hangs out for about half an hour, he takes out a piece of paper and makes some notes and asks me "Any complaints?"

I successfully bit back the obvious retorts and thought for a sec. I said "We gots no freakin' paper towels! And they say we are going to run out of latex gloves! That aint good!" I think we may score some supplies out of the deal, if nothing else.

I was glad when he left. Nice enough guy, but he picks the wrong times to come hang out sometimes.

Was real happy to see third shift come in.

Yaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!

I'm going back to evening shift! Yahooooooo! Had to take my daughter to get her permit (cringe) and swung by to check my mailbox. The job orders were out! Back to my old job doing rec in the Adseg unit.

It's funny. I did rec for four years and by the time the wife and kids talked me into going to day shift I was ready for a change of pace. Was sick of rec. Was sick of the unit. Was sick and tired of the knuckleheads who were ten feet tall and bullet proof until you opened the door. Then I got talked into bidding on the day shift job in the same house. Then I got sick of day shift and was ready for a change of pace again. And everybody practically begged me to bid on the rec job again and come back to evenings. So I did. And I got it and I'm happy about it. I just keep going back and forth but never getting anywhere. Some day I'm sure I'll finally get completely fed up with working Adseg and go somewhere else.

Apparently this isn't that day.

I'm funny like that.