white carbon paper letter day

It may be my imagination, but the letters from Brandon seem to be getting shorter and less frequent. However, this may be due to more motivation kicking in to work his situation as best he can, as he explains, so I will type his most recent letter in full:

Hello family,

I thought I'd start this in the afternoon today. I can't go out to yard because of commissary, so I'll use my rather unimportant free time. That's an interesting phrase for a place like this; "free time".

You'll be happy to know I finally requested a teeth-cleaning appointment. I also inquired to the counselor about a job in CI Laundry and took care of a few other things I've been procrastinating. The response to my job-seeking from the counselor seemed promising. I was re-routed rather than simply shot down. My cellie, Shane (a maintenance guy), told me the hiring process is based on "staying power". That being an inmate who has a significant amount of time and is statistically less likely to make 1st parole or CCC due to a problematic offense. Simply put, whoever has the potential to stay employed longest (as well as previously experienced inmates) gets the job. I'm hoping this all goes well.

We've been having some sort of freak heat wave up here, it's freakin' crazy! As you may already know, winter's reputation precedes it in the Highlands. It's 50-60 degrees outside and there hasn't been a flake of snow since late October. Sure, it's not a bad thing, I just hope this isn't the overture to some Mojave Desert-style summer. Can't be much worse than this past summer. Sitting up on the hill, dying, watching heat waves ripple up the from the black top of the track. All the grass is dead. You can't wear state boots. The sun cooks 'em so badly you can get minor burns. A few times I walked down to the water fountain for a drink and came back more dehydrated than when I left. You could imagine, like in some cartoon, a bird flies out from the shade of a tree and explodes into a ball of fire, landing roasted on a platter in front of you. Yeah, it gets that hot. I'm a winter person, I'm getting gypped.

Alright, that's another letter down, more to come when the opportunity presents itself. Tell everyone I said "hi". See ya!

Your loving son,
Brandon

Back to mom-he did mention the advantages of having maintenance guy for a cellie when we last visited, such as a toilet that flushes like Niagara Falls, showers as hot as you want, special modifications to all sorts of things. Well, even in prison it's who you know. The cartoon bird is an especially Brandon touch to the letter-I think I miss his sense of humor most of all.