Still Green

I should have started writing this a while ago, but time slips through your fingers. We are nearing our halfway mark in a long 15 months. Wow, that is even hard to say. It seems as though we have been gone for a long time now and we still aren’t halfway there yet. Realize this; there are prison sentences shorter than what we are serving…I’m just sayin’. But, time is ticking away and as a friend of mine says, “You can’t stop the clock!”

Let’s go back a little to the building of our little Copper on the hilltop. That place is amazing. It definitely has been the focus of the bad guys’ attention. It has brought joy, pain, suffering, laughter, tears and a host of other feelings you are supposed to repress during times like these. It really is a rose bud in our garden of weeds. We have spent a lot of time up there and it is starting to look like a real place instead of a cartoon drawing. We have lights and most importantly, heat. It has a sewage system, actually, it is just a hole in the ground with a screen over it and some burn cans that catch…well, you understand. It has been a lot of fun to be up there from time to time but, tragedy strikes as usual in a place like this. On the way to The Copper, friends of ours were killed recently by one of those damn buried-in-the-road-death machines. It was a horrific experience for those around here. Luckily for me, I wasn’t here to have to emotionally deal with all that stuff. I was out west guarding dirt. After the tragedy, a time stamp for us really, we have had a bunch of toys pushed at us and we have struck back ten-fold. We immediately went to work and I think we have put a dent in the bad guys’ winter as some won’t get to see it snow again. But, make no mistake, they are very determined. They have put metal to sky over a hundred times (nearly 150). Almost 20 of those have hit the heart of The Copper, but we were buried in our dirt mounds and came out clean…whew! The Copper still stands today and we are motivated to “keep on keepin’ on up there.”

As you can see, The Copper is the hub of our focus here in the desert-mountains. There are other things going on around here, of course. We’ve had personnel moves. I lost Vo-Vo to another team recently. I was terribly sad to see him go as he proved to be a great member of the cell block here and he is already missed. I have also had to send off some other members to the four corners in order to better the environment around here. Not my call on many of them, but they had to go. My complaint is that I have a certain amount of things to do and there are a set number of thugs I need to get it done with. A football team doesn’t play with 9 players, nor does a basketball team take the court with 3 guys. We do! We are forced to pull it off and “get it done” regardless of the expense because you can bet your sweet backside that around the corner is another task to do that will only pile up if you don’t get the first one done. Such is life here. For those that sit up in the Wardens offices, they don’t really care about your pain as long as they can brief some mucky-muck about how good things are. It is the way things are done now and it sickens me, so my only recourse is to finish my projects here, spend a few more years in the cell block and finally petition for my parole and hope for the best. I am hoping that when I am done here they send me to a medium-security facility to ride my time out. But, the Big Green (digital) Machine will pull another rabbit out of its hat and I will be looking a 5-10 more years in the system. Whatever!

While I have my complaints, I also have had some great experiences here and I have met some great people. Usually I don’t give out names or any distinguishing facts and whatnot, but this guy I recently met is an amazing photographer and writer who spent a lot of time with me and we have become great friends. He’s an Irishman that lives and works in London where he has his business. For the most part, “Journey’s” just ride along and get in the way and make stuff up that covers their story. This guy, I will tell you that he has shed his own blood and guts (literally) in the mountains of this troubled country. He was shot in the stomach about 6 months back and has come back to figure it all out. Give him a look at www.johndmchugh.com and read his blog at the bottom. It is really good and will give you some insights into things I don’t speak of here.

So, with all that said and done, I think we are doing okay. We are still mired in the mud of what to wear. I swear if I hear about looking alike again, I may slash my own throat. I am so sick of hearing about how we are no good because our socks don’t match or that the hat I wear isn’t within the confines of what the Cool Kids like. We are back to square one – day one - of Andersonville about this crap. The Cool Kids are in a debate over this coat and whether it belongs in our happy homes. It is issued to the other team’s guys and is the color that The Green Machine likes, but since it isn’t the same as what was handed out to us in the soup line, the Cool Kids are aghast that we have them. Holy she-i-it!!! It packs down to the size of a small football, is like a duck when it comes to the rain and is like bear hide when it comes to the cold. Let me spell it a little more clearly…FUNCTIONAL! But, some book in the Green Library says it is a no-no and some junior-level prison guard might see it and spank us with a memo shouting his disbelief. It is okay to roll out and get hemmed up by a bunch of weirdoes, just don’t do it if you don’t look the same. Message received; parole paperwork being worked! I am tired of this cell block and if some other idiot wants to come and take charge of my chain gang, then please hurry. Please!