Water Water Everywhere.....

And not a drop to drink.

That was how our evening ended up, anyway.

I'm not sure which genius decided that a hot muggy day was the best time to cut off all of the water to the camp to repair the water lines. It certainly wasn't very well thought out. Or if it was, I don't see the reasoning.

But about 8:30 this evening they cut off all of the water and started opening up fire hydrants to blow the pressure in the lines down. So there was no water in the sinks or toilets for over 2,000 inmates and 100 staff members and there were huge muddy puddles downstream of all the hydrants.

And the memo stated that it could be off until 8:00 tomorrow morning.

Of course, nobody made any sort of provisions for drinking water or sanitary facilities.

About the time Chucky and I were leaving the knuckleheads in the Hive were all waking up to the fact that they didn't have any water and they were starting to get pissed off about it. And the guys who were expecting to get showers on midnight shift were really starting to whine.

I have a sneaking suspicion that the whole place is going to smell pretty bad come 8:00 in the morning.

Sgt Big J said "Well, midnights won't have anything to do since there won't be any showers!" I replied "I suspect that they are going to spend all night writing conduct violations."

From the way it was beginning to sound when I left, that wouldn't surprise me one little bit.

Hoo boy. I'm sure glad I get to leave early.

Hearing Voices

BG and I have our spots out on the rec yard where we like to sit. I sit to the right of the door, leaning up against the fence and he sits to the left against the wall. That way I'm facing away from the sun and he can lean back into the shade of the building, if there is any.

Unfortunately, That puts my chair right in front of the window for C-7. Not close enough to get spit on or anything (but it has been tried) but close enough that they can see me clearly and hold a conversation.

There have been some really strange conversations take place out of that window.

Take the other day for instance. One of our frequent fliers from the wobblehead house was in there on suicide watch. As a matter of fact, he's the one I keep getting subpoenas for that they keep canceling the court date. Yeah, that guy.

At any rate, he was complaining that he never did or said anything, they just put him on suicide watch for no reason! I looked in his file and while they were locking him up he stated "I'm going to either hurt myself or make you beat my a*s every single day." Go figure. Sounded just like something he'd say.

I could tell he was off his meds again. Every time he gets off them he starts talking about other people hurting him. That was the one thing he always fixated on when he started paddling around in the shallow end of his brain. Other people were hurting him and he always ended up lashing out at someone over it. That's usually why he ended up in the Hive.

He said: "They kept hitting me with their keys, man. Taking my flesh off right to the bone. I don't know why those C.O.'s kept walking by and hitting me. They just kept doing that and I couldn't take it no more. Mother fu*kers kept shooting me with tracers and putting things in me and sucking out all my blood."

Hmm... yup. He's off his meds again!

And all we can do is keep urging him to take them and hope he will land back on this planet again in a day or two.

I'm trying really hard not to get into a tussle with anyone until my arm heals back up again. And I sure as hell don't want to get involved in another court case with him.

After awhile, I just moved my chair so he couldn't see me anymore. Couldn't take too much of that rambling, if you know what I mean.

Some days I almost wonder what it's like to talk to normal people.

My New Theme Song (NSFW)

Just had to throw this up here real quick for your consideration. Ran across this song entirely by accident while prowling for other things.

It's called "Wicked Way"by a young man named Benjamin Taylor. I'd never heard of him before, but I think I'll be listening to everything he's done.

This has to be the most honest song I have ever heard in my life. Enjoy!

Wicked Way

I Won The Toss (I Think)

Well, I would have written about this last night, but Blogger was down for the count. That made me cranky like nobodys business, let me tell you.

By Gawd when I get something for free, I expect it to WORK!!!

I'm like that.

Anyway, after mulling it over in my mind and fighting myself about it all weekend, I decided. And Sunday when I went in, I dropped a bid on a utility job. The one with Fridays and Saturdays off like I have now.

I think it's time. If you have any objections, talk to KP. It's all his fault.

I must have talked myself out of doing it a dozen times over the weekend and came up with all kinds of excuses why I didn't want to leave the Hive. Even when I had the bid sheet half filled out I was trying to delay it. But I was stern with myself and dropped it in the box.

Often I am my own worst enemy. But hey, at least it's someone I know.

It will be a minimum of two weeks before I find out if I got it or not and another two weeks after that before I actually go anywhere else. So another month in the Hive. And then they have to put my spot up for bid and go through the whole process again to get someone back in there and guess who they tend to send in to fill empty slots?

The guy that just vacated it, of course. Who knows better how to work that post?

Ay-yi-yi!

Maybe in two months or so I can get into this utility thing and relax a little. Go places where they don't expect me to know anything once in awhile. Kick back and let someone else make the decisions. Get out from under the microscope.

Of course I don't really know how to do anything other than work the Hive. It will be like coming out of the academy all over again. I'll have to learn new things and work with new people.

Besides, it will be sort of fun to watch and see who ends up with my job. I hope it's someone with their head on their shoulders and not up their hind end. BG has a low tolerance for stupidity.

In the meantime, I do feel better having made the decision. At least that part of it is off of my mind. The rest is in the Majors hands.

It's All About The Choices You Make

I've always tried to urge the offenders to realize that they are making the choices that put them in the predicaments they are in. Especially in the Hive. Almost exclusively they put themselves in there for doing something stupid or getting involved in something stupid.

I don't know why I even bother.

They either ignore me or they are too stupid or immature to get it.

I just keep hoping a little light bulb will come on inside one of those tiny brains and I won't ever have to deal with them again.

Then I would get some brand new twit to take his place, I'm sure. We are never short of customers.

I've been thinking alot about my own choices the last couple of days.

KP and his big easy grin woke me up a little to a few of the people who work here that aren't stressed out all of the time. That was on my mind all last night.

And when I came in today there are new job bids up on the board and I believe I saw a utility bid with my same Fridays and Saturdays off.

I'm seriously thinking about it. I'll mull it around this weekend and decide when I come back.

I will let you know, of course.

In the meantime, here's an interesting little conversation I had with an offender tonight. This guy came down to the Hive on Close Observation status and he's been on the same status for a couple of weeks now. All he has in the cell is a foam mattress, a blanket and one set of clothes. That's what they get. The guy has been no trouble on our shift or any other that I know of. I've hardly ever heard him even speak. He's just there in a camera cell, sleeping for the most part.

I open the chuck hole to give him his cheese sandwiches and cookies for dinner and he says to me:

"CO, I want to check in."

Perplexed, I glance into the cell to make sure there's nobody in there except him. And I ask "Check in? From who?"

He says "The people."

"What people?"

"The population. I want to check in from population. I want to stay here."

A little light (see above) comes on in my head.

"Oh, I get you. Well to do it right you have to write a note. And to get pen and paper you have to get off Close Obs."

He starts to look a little stricken. "I can't check in then?" I thought he might cry.

So I said "Just wait til the psych comes to see you again. Make sure you tell them. They'll take care of it."

He smiled a big smile and said "Okay, CO! Thanks!" And went off to eat his sandwich.

That one almost had me. I half expected to see someone else in there with him.

Egad. I think I do need a break.

He Tempted Me

Ran into KP again this evening. He was doing the mail run.

It isn't hard. You load all the mail bags onto a golf cart and drive around the camp. When you get to each house, you call on the radio and they come out and get their mail.

Easiest job on the camp.

He tools up to the Hive on his little golf cart and says "You ought to try this utility stuff! All you have to do is drive around and look cool! Nobody expects you to know or do anything. It's a piece of cake!"

The last thing he said to me before he drove off was "You ought to try this for awhile! It will do you alot of good!"

I think it was the wide relaxed smile that got to me.

All night long while I was dealing with infantile knuckleheads listening to them scream and kick on their doors and curse me and demand this and that, his smile stayed in the back of my mind.

All of the times I have threatened to leave the Hive and run off to a safe quiet house somewhere else are catching up to me again and I am left in a dilemma.

Could I take safe and quiet? Would the boredom make me cranky and crazy? Or would I just get fat and lazy and slip into a comfort coma?

I couldn't handle that.

But he surely did tempt me. The ba*tard.

Got A Few Laughs Anyway

The day wasn't too bad, as far as days went. Managed to get a few laughs in on the way.

Ran into KP on my way in. It was the first time I'd seen him since he got pulled. And the very first thing out of his mouth is "Has anybody sung to you and told you they loved you today?" I rolled my eyes and said "No, and don't you start!"

At least he hasn't lost his sense of humor. We hung out and traded bad jokes before Chuck and I headed down to the Hive.

The mess from last night was getting finally cleared up as we got down there. There were more check-in games after BG and I left. The one lockup that came down just as we took off refused to go into a cell with anybody else then said he was going to hurt himself in order to get a single cell. That caused all kind of mess and then midnight shift came in and moved a bunch around and apparently screwed up doing the room moves in the computer.

Luckily for everyone involved, count cleared. But I'm not sure how.

Oh lawd. I'm sleepy. These last couple of days have been rough. There were more things that happened, but I'm going to save them for another time.

This big nasty Hive monster is going to bed. It's been a harsh week and it's only half over.

Siggggghhhhhh....................