December 1, 2020
Today is definitely a hot chocolate by the fire kind of day. Perfect day to be in a log cabin somewhere. I always liked the ambience of ski lodges even if my skiing skills were minimal. I would enjoy skiing if it weren’t for that feeling I have when I get to the top of the hill and think, “God Almighty, have mercy on me, that’s a steep hill.” You would think I’d be ideal for cross-country skiing, but my feeling with that was, “God Almighty, this is a long trail and we’re out in the middle of nowhere and we could just collapse and it could be days before anyone would come out looking for us.”
Nope, for me, winter means hot drinks and cosy sweaters.
Speaking of hot drinks, I love this quote of Abraham Lincoln’s: “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee.”
Jennifer
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December 1, 2020
I'm back on the kiosk. I think they are holding our tablets hostage today.
The major hurdle I have to deal with daily is having anger and revenge in my mind and heart. I have to maintain love, compassion, serenity, patience and also a forgiving heart. That is the most difficult task I have faced and I just have to persevere.
Even some people that knew me or knew us as a couple thought that I finally had enough or had another woman and believed all the rumors of having a motive.
[Samira was arrested for domestic violence twice.]
Even though the evidence and the truth shows I'm innocent.
I’m trying to not get bothered by a hundred inmates asking who is next and complaining and eavesdropping and jealous they can't type and no one to type to. The average inmate has no one to regularly respond to and they get on the kiosk to dream about ordering songs and listening over and over to little 10 second free samplings that they offer us to try and get them to buy this music at exaggerated prices.
Doc
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December 2, 2020
I can't even remember where I left off my last kiosk session. I cannot believe that in a society and a democratic form of government that they allowed and continue to allow this travesty to continue. I pray every day for someone that is in a position to make a change and undo this injustice, expose it or bring it to someone’s attention who can. I think most people don't want to get involved because they think it's a controversial case. If they would only just take a little time and look into the true evidence and facts they would realize it is only controversial because the media and the legal system and prosecutor and police made it that way. It should have been a straightforward cut and dry case of a burglary gone bad.
I think that society does not want to see true justice anymore. They love a gossip story and something that creates a drama, a sellable story.
Doc
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December 3, 2020
I woke up at 3:44 AM for no particular reason and got up to go to the loo. Occupied. Of course. It always is in this house. That was when I regretted the cup of tea I had enjoyed before going to bed.
… please believe me when I say I understand your darkest moments. Over the years, I have been pushed to all emotional limits and even though I’ve had my faith, it's not always easy to be God’s servant and push on and keep going.
… my keyboard sometimes sticks—sounds familiar, eh?— and today, when I went online to check the blog mail, instead of ‘gmail’ it came out gama, for some reason. Part of it was autofill. So I ended up learning that gama is Spanish for spectrum and that there is an organization called GAMA and that they are the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. Anyway, there was no blog email except for ads but I noticed that in total we had 42 visitors yesterday. So that was a good day.
Jennifer
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December 3, 2020
Good news. We got our new loaner tablets today!
Bad news. The transfer is troublesome. I lost my pictures, video grams, all my drafts (letters incomplete to the media/lawyers). I'm in the process of tracking them down in old email attachments. The new screen size is a little larger maybe 1/2'', 3 X the memory (thank God so far that has corrected my downloading and memory cache issues), 5 X battery life and much thinner (not such a plus for my large hands fcol) Losses: no equalizer for music adjustments, new screen keyboard weird and sensitive (but larger for my large fingers) td, no ability to turn off wi fi, can't adjust volume, brightness, download processing time on screen. NO FREEKING VOLUME CONTROL ON THE SCREEN. I HAVE TO CHANGE IT ON THE LITTLE TINY BUTTON THAT WILL SOON WEAR OUT ON THE SIDE OF THIS THIN TABLET. Otherwise it's still about the cheapest generic tablet you can imagine.
Doc
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December 4, 2020
OK, I’m passionately trying to avoid some click bait right now. I’m at a site where there’s a video about “History questions people always get wrong.” I really want to know what they are, but it will lead me down a rabbit trail when I only got online to look up some recipes. And here’s “Diana’s secret love affairs.” Of course, Diana’s secret love affairs should remain secret. So that would be devastatingly impolite of me to click on that. Lol “Quotes from your favourite movies,” though, that’s relatively harmless. I won’t click on it, but here are some of mine:
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Lord of the Rings (Faramir): “In this hour, I do not believe that any darkness will endure.”
Lord of the Rings (Smeagol and Sam): “What’s taters, precious?”
“Po-tay-toes. Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew.”
(My kids and I quote that one a lot. Boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew. The topic of potatoes actually does come up around here, for some reason.)
Oh, and I think you’ll like this one because it’s about perjury in a court case. It’s from A Man for All Seasons about Sir Thomas More who is being unjustly accused of treason. Someone testifies falsely against him and More notices he’s now wearing a medallion around his neck indicating he’s an Attorney-General over a territory. He asks to see it and then says, “For Wales? Why Richard, it profit a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world… but for Wales!”
I think the same could be said for cappleman and newlin and the rest of them. And it wouldn’t even be for Wales. A bigger office space, perhaps?
Jennifer
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December 7, 2020
… I love Christmas and spoiling children with the gifts that they want and dream about without spoiling them with too much. Usually at the end of the day they are playing fort or castle in the box it came in and I'm helping cut windows and doors in a large box that I could have had for free. Sometimes I would take the coolest boxes and crates to make into a whole town or a military base with all kinds of tunnels and designated houses and for the girls castles and Barbie hotels, including accessories to make it into a 5 star resort. lol
On a sad note, I just got an email from a friend from Texas who deals with severe depression and found out a few months ago she owed the federal government over $100,000 in taxes from when her husband went through cancer and mass amounts of medical bills and she did not pay their taxes for that time period and it is a sad situation. Anyway the reason she emailed is that she said she saw 2 programs on my case on Discovery ID and they portrayed me as an American Monster and that the other one said that the investigators and police said that during my entire interview that I showed no emotion or showed any signs that I was upset. See how they lie. The media is evil. She was so upset and believes in me and said she is going to stop watching reality shows because of that. She is rare. Most people believe everything the media and the interviewers and people being interviewed say as the truth.
Doc
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December 8, 2020
Yes, I’ve seen those documentaries your friend mentioned. The American Monster one and The Doctor’s Wife. They’re awful. Not as bad as Mistress Roulette but pretty bad. Dateline NBC was the only one bordering on reasonable. The others were garbage. I think they just go with stereotypes and then run with it and act like they’re the experts when they really know very little about the topic. It’s not investigative journalism. It might as well be fiction. So I’m glad your friend in Texas saw through it.
I got up today just before 5 AM because I thought the house might be on fire. I heard the sound of fire crackling and when I got up to check it out, it was just S who had turned on the large-screen tv and set it to a fireplace screen saver. He was also playing some Christmas music while listening to a Bible teacher on his iPod. He doesn’t even celebrate Christmas and he decides at 4:55 AM to get into the Christmas spirit? And he couldn’t understand why I found it all frustrating. I said I knew he wasn’t being malicious but all I heard was the sound of crackling fire and I got up to investigate and what I really wanted was to be asleep.
“But you get up early,” he said. “Yes,” I agreed. “But I like to get up to a peaceful house, not one that I think is on fire.”
Like the Israelites in slavery, I cry out, “How long O Lord? How long?” Lol (Sometimes I don’t know whether to laugh or to cry.)
Right now the temperature in the room is dropping. I shall explain. When S needs wood for the fire he goes out and chops pieces off of a birch tree he cut down this summer. And when he returns with an armful, he leaves the main door open. It’s hugely ironic. By not bothering to give it a nudge with his foot, he causes our house to lose more heat than he gains with the twigs.
I could get up and shut the door but I have my headphones on which are attached to my computer and so it isn’t convenient. So I’m doing something different. Remember that scene in Lawrence of Arabia where he puts out a fire with his fingers and the guy asks him, ‘doesn’t it hut?’ And he replies, ‘the trick is not minding.’ So I’ve decided to not mind the cold. Rather than sit and resent it, I’m just saying, whatever. And it’s getting colder and colder. My fingertips are practically frozen. (Oh good, he’s actually gone back to shut the door.) But I really got to a psychological space of not minding, of not shrinking from it. That’s what hurts the most for me, resenting something.
Jennifer
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December 9, 2020
… snow up to the ankles outside which isn’t bad for a Canadian winter but I’m still glad I got out yesterday and did a bit of shopping when it was above zero and the sidewalks were clear.
Garlic noodles for lunch.
Jennifer
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December 9, 2020
Ok back to the old kiosk. I'm trying to save battery life on my tablet so maybe I can watch Titanic again before it expires.
I know that this is a big undertaking and I appreciate your help. I’ve only met one inmate that even came close to something like my case, with an alibi and evidence and technology to prove his innocence.
Doc
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December 10, 2020
Your case is so ground-breaking and unique that I’m just now starting to understand why law firms hesitate to take on any civil lawsuits for you. It’s not a quick and easy lawsuit for them, like they’re used to.
There is something so messed up about the so-called justice system. When you asked me to look up Dale Folsom, I learned that in 2018 Dale Folsom recklessly drove into oncoming traffic in order to avoid being stopped by police. They got him in the end but it was a miracle that he didn’t kill anyone. And cappleman lets him out to menace society while you sit there. According to this article about Folsom, he nearly hit a deputy when he kept going over the spike strips they laid down on the road to stop him. He was on his way to sell drugs.
I had a reasonably pleasant evening. J and I worked on dinner together. He made one pasta dish and I made another. He has the makings of a chef. We had two kinds of pasta sauce—one in a can and one in a bottle—and he was commenting on how you could tell the quality difference based on the aroma. Lovely to have kids turn out. Lol
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December 13, 2020
… just got back from Mass. Our last one for awhile, as it turns out. The Premier of Ontario is closing down the churches in the Greater Toronto Area. And right before Christmas, alas.
F and S are arguing about history at the moment. I’m not going to relay it all but I’ll say that S is questioning that what is known in history as The Thirty Years War actually lasted for 30 years. Lol
OK, I’m putting together all the movies the kids and I are going to watch for the 12 Days of Christmas. First one will be La La Land, not a Christmas movie, of course, but it’s something I’m looking forward to. I see it’s won 6 Academy Awards. Next will be The Ref, as I told you about. I am covered in dust because I just crawled under C’s desk to a bottom shelf where all the Christmas movies are. I have a pile I’m not going watch again, not because they weren’t good the first time, but they weren’t brilliant. Miracle on 34th Street is good, though. I’ll add that to my to-watch-this-year pile. I loved the train in Polar Express but I’ll save that for another year. Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire is definitely going in my to-watch pile. I like it even more than White Christmas. Oh here’s a really great one called Of Gods and Men, about the last Christmas of some French monks in Algeria. Based on a true story. It makes me cry. Home Alone. I’d need to have some younger children to watch that again. The Santa Clause 1 & 2 will go in my pile to watch this year. I have It’s a Wonderful Life but I’ve seen it at least three times so I’ll give it a miss. I have both Jingle All the Ways, but I’ve seen them too many times to want another viewing, although I do enjoy Arnold Schwarzenegger trying to find that toy for his son. Deck the Halls. That’s with Matthew Broderick and Danny DeVito. Danny DeVito wants to light up his house so you can see it from space. That’s going on my pile. That’s only 7 and I need 12. This exciting saga will be continued in the next one. I know, the anticipation is too much. Lol
Jennifer
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13 December 2020
My spirits are lifted and my favorite quarterback Tom Brady just played a wonderful game and won against the Minnesota Vikings.
Doc
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December 14, 2020
As promised, the exciting sequel to my Christmas movies for this year, using my remaining budget.
I’m at Amazon now. I have about $60 left of the Christmas budget. I’m getting Steve Martin in Mixed Nuts which is a Christmas movie I’ve never seen. Christmas with the Kranks, another Tim Allen one which I used to watch every year when we had Netflix. Oh, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. I’m probably the only person in North America who hasn’t seen that one. I’ll take that. It comes with all the other Vacation movies and I liked Chevy Chase growing up. That reminds me. I loved Foul Play with him and Goldie Hawn. I’ll get that, too, even though it’s not a Christmas one. Now I’m only one movie away from 12. What I really want is Trapped in Paradise with Nicholas Cage. My grandmother and I went to see it back in the days when we went to movie theatres to see movies and we both loved it. But for some crazy reason, this great movie is $40. I need to find a second-hand copy. One that isn’t $60 which is what someone is trying to sell a used copy for.
(Interlude of intense searching, including going to other places.) It ain’t going to happen. But all is not lost, I can get it on my Apple account for $9.99 (rent for $4.99) so I’m going to go with buying it.
Jennifer
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December 14, 2020
Yes you are a rare bird to be such a movie buff and you have not seen National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase. What a classic. I love all of the Christmas classics, but the cartoon ones especially the Peanuts/Charlie Brown Christmas specials because he talks about the True Meaning of CHRIST MAS!!!
I have been on an emotional roller coaster after finding out my mom has covid, I talked to my father and my daughters Hyrah and Skynnah today. I also watched 4 movies this weekend, 2 new ones and 2 I had already seen. Where'd You Go Bernadette, Jerry McGuire, A Star Is Born and The Great Gatsby. Oh. and did I tell you about Cinderella Man? All great movies especially if you can watch them for free. They inspired me.
Doc
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December 15, 2020
Yes, I know what you mean about Peanuts and the real message of Christmas. Bil Keane was the same with Family Circus. I used to buy all those books for the kids when they were young. It was a family of four children and so were we.
Oh no, I just read about your Mom having covid. I’m so sorry and I’ll be praying. Yes, that’s an emotional roller coaster. Stay strong. It’s hard when you can’t do anything but as James 5:16 says, the prayer of the righteous person is powerful in what it can achieve.
I’m listening to Sacred Emotion right now. Did you ever see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat? I saw it when in it came to Toronto. It was fabulous. I loved it, not just for Donny, but for the great songs, but I had to get back to college so I only saw it once. But later I bought the DVD for my kids to see it, too. I’d love to travel to Egypt and maybe after that, to Arabia, and retrace the steps of Lawrence. There’s an exquisite saying amongst the Arabs—and this is long before there were any oil sheikhs—that the desert is the Garden of Allah. Why? Because in the desert you find only Allah.
I bought a delightful postcard on eBay of two furiously galloping horses with their Arab riders, kicking up sand. It’s called Between the Wells. Isn’t that wonderful and almost Biblical? I think of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and how it was such a big part of their lives to have wells.
I’m totally going to watch Where’d You Go, Bernadette. I saw the trailer for it awhile back and thought it looked good. And it’s on Prime. Jerry McGuire isn’t but I’ve seen it twice and loved it both times. A Star is Born. I always wanted to watch that and now I see they’ve made a remake. Did you see the Barbra Streisand one or the 2018 one?
Jennifer
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December 15, 2020
I am having a hard time tolerating the behaviour of my roommate. I cannot keep things from going missing and I lock my stuff up and keep an eye on the room at all times. I hope we get this resolved. He is just like Tiger when it comes to that. I confronted him and he denied it and insinuated others did it and I went directly to all 3 of them and they denied it also and I can be pretty intimidating when I have to, with not losing my Christian witness. I have a lot to lose by getting physical with them.
But they appreciate my wisdom when it comes to medical issues and the medical care we get here is way below standards and minimal for cost savings.
And most are half my size. My roommate looks like he weighs probably 120 lbs and is 6' 1" I know if I do something they will probably have me on the national news for beating up a gay guy. You know how they twist things in the media despite that it will only be because he was stealing from me.
Doc
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December 17, 2020
… I ended up having to handle the situation and unfortunately I can hardly type because I broke my 4th metacarpal of my right hand. It is swelling and hurting bad. I also sprained and hyperextended my right knee by being in the tight confinement of the cell. T.C. and I got the situation resolved and now I hopefully won't have anything being stolen out of our room.
I am going to try and avoid going to medical because they will x-ray it and just put it in a half soft cast with no treatment and ibuprofen while it takes 2 weeks for the x-ray results to come back and by then it will be almost healed. Since it is as cold as a meat locker/freezer in the dorm the swelling will be minimized. I have some tylenol so I can diminish the pain some. I only have a few ibuprofen to help with the swelling but in high doses NSAID’s (Non Steroidal Anti Inflammatory Drug(s) ) sometimes mess my stomach up ferociously.
T.C. scrapped pretty good until I got him down and then he apologized. He confessed to stealing my canteen items because someone he gets his drugs from put him on point and he admitted to it. Prison life is so stressful sometimes. I learned I am out of shape since my boxing training days.
Doc
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December 18, 2020
I’m SO sorry to hear about the pain and the altercation.
Yes, I do know how hard it is to have to work with your weaker hand. In my case, that’s my right hand since I’m a leftie.
… Right now C is raging against S’s dehumidifier which is giving her dry skin. I’m not pleased about the dry air either but I am covered in coconut oil which I said they were all free to use. I’m worried someone might sabotage that dehumidifier. Lol
The stats for the blog are fascinating. Most visitors are from the US. But there have been 8 people from Uganda.
I’ve been praying for your mom. How’s your dad holding up with it? I’m praying for him, too.
Jennifer
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December 18, 2020
Ok what to talk about today… my hand hit the railing that I was holding my cup in, right on the spot where my fracture is at. I'm in misery right now and the tylenol is not even helping now.
Now I have 2 bad knees and my hand is swollen like a balloon and black and purple from the bruising and bleeding internally from the fractured bases of the 4th and 5th metacarpals.
I hope they are non displaced transverse fractures, because if not they may require surgery with pins and or internal fication with plates and screws.
Sorry for typpos im using my left hand only. I saw medical and they put me in a half cast and said they agreed my hand is broke.
Doc
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December 19, 2020
I looked up metacarpal fractures, base fractures and I see how the fingers are numbered. I’m glad you have the cast and I pray that it will speed the recovery.
I was going to read some C.S. Lewis today. While I was poking around on my Kindle trying to find him I ran across a biography about Charles Williams, one of Lewis’s friends. My Kindle said I hadn’t read it but when I opened it up, it seemed familiar. But I kept reading anyway. It’s a wonderful start to a book. War time England at Oxford. A lot of young men in uniform. Hitler has just invaded Poland. But that’s not what people are talking about. They’re in a lecture hall and the room is buzzing with anticipation. And then in stride two men in gowns, both relatively famous. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. Between them is a tall, lanky Englishman, not in a gown because he’s not a professor. Lewis and Tolkien take a seat in the front row and Williams, the third man (the title of the book is The Third Inkling) keeps going to the podium. When he starts speaking, he doesn’t have the posh English accent but almost a cockney one because, in fact, he has grown up poor in London. And he has notes but he puts them on the podium and never refers to them again. His talk is on the poet, Milton. And he knows Milton as well as he knows any of his dearest friends. He’s passionately urgent about his poetry and recites some of it for the students, making “it a hypnotic incantation, but also a sensuous delight, enjoying it as if the sounds and rhythms of the words can be savoured like nectar…”
It really brought to my mind how some themes are eternal. These students were living in perilous times but they were mesmerized by the timelessness of the poetry. The theme was chastity and the power of strength that comes from it. When he’s done speaking, Williams leaves his audience “dazed, exhilarated, inspired” as he strides for the door and Lewis and Tolkien follow at a more leisurely pace behind him to convene at the nearby pub.
The fascinating thing about Williams was that he himself wasn’t chaste. I think there’s a certain power in being able to defend something that isn’t one’s personal lifestyle, to see the beauty in it.
He had a very unique kind of Christianity which I’ve embraced one particular aspect of. (I’ll explain later.) He wasn’t sophisticated. He worked in a publishing house, smoked all day, and was only teaching at Oxford that day because some faculty members were off serving in the war effort. He had no university degree but he read endlessly and was a self-taught expert in English poetry, as well as being a modest contributor himself. I think it shows that in an imperfect world where things are a bit askew, beautiful ideas can still be held up as glimmering aspects of perfection.
Anyway, as far as his theology goes, it’s that idea that we can carry someone else’s load. We can take their fear or inability to forgive and carry it for them for as long as they need us to. Williams had a whole circle of friends who followed his ideas and Lewis even did it for his wife, Joy, when she got cancer. He physically bore the pain. It’s interesting spiritual physics. It’s part of why I started writing to prisoners. I knew that their victims would have a hard time forgiving them but I could extend a forgiveness in their place. In other words, I could treat them like human beings even if their victims couldn’t.
Jennifer
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December 21, 2020
im going to compose this letter with the left hand in typing posution and peckong with the end pf my cast on the kousk keypad sorry gor errors amd this is rae.ly hurting I am so frustrated and have been praying to God for patience and solitude. My rooommate is the most difficult person to tolerate but not as bad as Tiger. TC has a heart.
I am becomming so prejudiced from this environment. I try and do righht and good but these evil predators try and take advantage of a person who shows any form of love, compassion or forgiveness. I really worry for my dim existance here. I hope of I don't make it that you and mt family will continue to push posthumously for my aquittal/innocence.
I know that sounds kind of gloomy but i'm not in a good environment here. I am what they think is a rich white guy who is a nice guy so they want to take advantage of that.
I even try and mentor some that I feel have potential but they will be the first ones to take yoour kindess for weekness and betray, steal or borrow and not pay back.
I hate typing like this and taking 5 X as long to type I will have to go to medical one of the other inmates said to get X Rays today and I had better wear my splint and be a good patient. lol
Doc
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December 22, 2020
Funny story, last night K pepper sprayed us all. (Don’t know if that’s an acceptable topic, so I’m not sure this letter will get through.) She didn’t do it on purpose. Our house is so dry. And she loves hot peppers. I made some guacamole and we had some wholegrain nacho chips to go with them. K can’t have a meal without something hot and if I ate like she did, I would have no esophagus left. Anyway, she’s frying up these hot peppers and it started with just one of us going a-hem, clearing the throat, you know. And then another one of us coughed. And then two of us were coughing. And then we were all coughing. And I could feel it going up my nose and down into my throat. And even K was emerging from the kitchen coughing. And S comes into the living room and sees us all coughing and bellows, “what’s going on” and gets annoyed when everyone just keeps coughing. K said to him, “it’s your dehumidifier. The air is too dry.” Because she’s cooked hot peppers in the past and it didn’t do that to us.
“No, it’s not,” says S, automatically defensive. He goes into the kitchen to investigate and comes out coughing. He says,”It’s the oil. You’re using the wrong kind of oil.”
K tells him its coconut oil which is good for cooking. It’s olive oil that isn’t. S tells her she should be cooking with the fan on and returns to the kitchen under conditions that have reached the point where we’re back in the trenches of WW1 being gassed. He turns the fan on.
“It’s your dehumidifier, mate,” says F, who hasn’t called his father “dad” since 2016. S finally concedes the dry air might have contributed to it but mostly it’s because K didn’t turn the fan on. No one at this point can be bothered explaining she’s done this before and not had a problem. For one thing, my sinuses were being cleared out. My head felt clear for a change, so there was an upside, for as long as it lasted. After a bit more coughing we all got on with our evening.
Jennifer
* * *
December 23, 2020
S is being ridiculous again. He came and waved the water bill in my face. I told him I couldn’t read it without my glasses. So K took it and it was 500-something for 3 months. C has already looked into this in the past when he complained about water bills. In some parts of Ontario, they pay close to $1,000 for three months. I told him that we’re lucky to have a freshwater lake so close to us because when the British first approached Ibn Saud in the desert about his oil, he didn’t care about the oil. He just wanted the British to dig wells for him so they wouldn’t have to drink brackish water. (I also explained to S that Ibn Saud put the Saud in Saudi Arabia, in case he didn’t know that.) S said that we take too many showers in this house. He said he himself had given up regular showers and that he hasn’t changed his clothes since early last week.
“That’s nine days ago,” I said exchanging glances with the girls. We didn’t know whether to laugh or be horrified. “
“We do too much laundry,” S said.
“It’s the towels,” said K. “Not the clothes, the towels.”
I suggested he put some hooks up in the bathroom and we’ll all have a towel of our own rather than people just tossing their towel in the laundry after taking a shower.
He agreed that that sounded reasonable. I said I would have bought hooks for the bathroom ages ago but he would have told me I bought the wrong kind. He agreed that he would have done that, yes. So now he’s stuck. We have a solution to the problem, but he can’t go out and buy hooks because he’s boycotting stores due to covid. He’ll have to buy some online. Anyway, at least he can’t complain about the water bill until he has his hooks up.
Jennifer
* * *
December 23, 2020
I am at this kiosk and the little finger of my right hand kills me when needed thank God the only keys on the far right side of the keyboars american standard that is are all mostly puntuation keys and as you know from this paragraph my use of punctuation and run on sentences is genuinely me. lol
Doc
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December 24, 2020
I signed up for Netflix for a month and started watching The Making of a Murderer. “…this system is designed to perpetuate a conviction as opposed to examine whether or not somebody could in fact be innocent…” Dismal quote from Avery’s lawyer. Like you, he was under pressure to admit he did it and if he did, they’d let him out. But he didn’t since he wasn’t guilty.
Tonight the kids and I are going to watch a Christmas Eve Mass streaming from St. Michael’s cathedral in Toronto, which I’ve never actually been to but would like to visit someday. My father went to the St. Michael’s choir school nearby. Then tomorrow we’re watching a Christmas Mass by Bishop Barron. He’s in Santa Barbara, CA. I guess they’re in lockdown, too, if he’s doing it online.
Jennifer
* * *
December 25, 2020
Merry Christmas to the Armstrongs and a very special Christmas to you, Jennifer.
Doc
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December 26, 2020
The letter P is extremely painful and stays hurting for at least 100 characters after I hit the P or delete key in upper right corner is almost unbearable.
I am hoping the X RAYS do not show a displaced or communuted fracture/dislocation of the joint.****Update was taken out to medical today and confirmed even the worst, I have a commuted and compression fractures of the 4th and 5th metacarpal bases at the Metacarpal carpal joint. Unfortunately I now have an outside appointment with an Orthopedic surgeon to probably have surgery and put a plate and screws to hold the pieces intact as it heals. I would like to request external fixaters but I don't think they will allow that in prison. The doctor was Filipino decent with thick accent. I was going to try and get into a conversation with her about that but she said earlier when I was talking about my hand that I "was" a foot doctor not a hand doctor so I would have to let the Orthopedic specialist talk with me about my hand and what treatment options I have.
Doc
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December 26, 2020
I’m sipping coffee and watching Making a Murder which is actually 20 episodes, not just 10 as I originally thought, because there are 2 seasons. I have a month to watch it because that’s how long I signed up for. Algorithms are a bit of a bore. Now when I sign into Netflix, they bombard me with true crime television shows. They don’t know me, alas.
I just witnessed an outrageous manipulation of words in Making a Murderer. We hear Steven Avery being interviewed by Associated Press. In the context of his nephew being manipulated by the officers who interrogated him, one of the questions asked by the reporter is, “Would you describe your nephew as smart?” There’s a pause as Steven Avery thinks. “Um, not really.” The media then turned that into Steven Avery saying his nephew “isn’t very smart” and his nephew’s lawyer said the meaning of the words “not very smart” is Steven Avery’s way of telling his nephew there will be possible consequences if he testifies against him. Well, you can see how insane that is. Avery answers a question with “um, not really” and it gets turned into a threatening message from inside the prison! What that tells me is that the best thing anyone can do is tell their own unedited story because anything else can be manipulated by either the media or by the lawyers.
Jennifer
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December 28, 2020
Good Sunday morning to you,
I am reading this inspirational book about a psychiatrist that went through the horrors of being a prisoner at Auschwitz during WWII and the psychological analysis of what he and the others went through that survived. I think it is a good read for anyone high school or older.
I will continue some of the enjoyable and stressful times of my life in the Philippines when I was there playing basketball when I was 19. My grandfather had been stationed there in the war and was right about rain, it did rain a lot and along with the smog it was at times downright miserable. Your clothes never seemed to dry. In my hotel room under air-conditioning that worked decent, things would dry, but as soon as you stepped out into the lobby even of the hotel you could smell the petroleum distillates in the air and feel clammy and damp. That was Manilla everywhere back in the 80's. My grandfather said it was not like that during the war because there were hardly any cars or combustable engine transport. They had electric street trolleys and mostly bicycles and hand pull carts.
I told you about the dog situation with beating them alive to tenderize the meat before they ate Fido. Crazy. I went to their live markets but it wasn’t as crazy to me with growing up in rural America and farm country and watching my grandmother ring the heads off of chickens and them walking around normal acting for several minutes without a head until they keeled over. I really enjoyed the Filipino people and adapted to their culture which had a lot of influence by American GIs living and being based there and having lots of mixed babies over the years.
There is a famous bay there where the battle took place called Magellan Bay and I scuba dived there. Another crazy story. They have fish there that they eat with the head on and serve it that way and call it La pu La pu. I love fish but I don't like the little fellas looking at me while I eat it.
Thai restaurants here in the States serve a fish plate very similar that Samira loved. It was too spicy for me even in the mild version. The meat was good just too spicy. When Samira was pregnant we had to go to that restaurant at least 5 times a week and the owner, a little Thai lady would make Samira a special plate of that fish extra spicy and anything I ordered she had the chef go especially light on the spices or none at all. lol col I miss her and her crazy little innuendoes. The pregnancy with Hyrah everything had to be super spicy or flavorful. The little Thai lady said the baby was going to be special and full of life and beautiful from her craving spicy food while in the womb.
For Skynnah she craved fried fish sandwiches from a fast food restaurant here called Captain D’s, decent seafood at a cheap price. Her last trimester, she would send me out late at night for a fish sandwich almost every night and I would have to drive over the speed limit and usually go to the one in Thomasville because of no traffic lights even though it was 37 miles away. The one in Tall. was 13 miles but with all the traffic lights the other was more time efficient. I would get there sometimes after closing and I knew the owner in Thomasville and the manager was a nice black woman and she would make me 2 to go even if they were closed if I knocked on the door because she knew those cravings from pregnancy.
Anyway, getting back to the Philippines. I experienced some of the craziest political turmoil of its time. Marcos was being impeached and exiled from the country in a civil/national revolt to expel him and his ruthless rebel army out of power.
Doc
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December 29, 2020
You asked if Samira had ever visited Nebraska. Yes, Samira met my family in Nebraska. And also they came and stayed in Florida. One time a woman who had babysat for my daughter sent me a text when Samira and I had been married for about 2 years and she was about 6 months pregnant. It was on Valentines Day and my parents had returned from a luxury cruise to the Bahamas they had gone on for their 50th wedding anniversary. I had set up The Arabian Knights dinner and show in Orlando for them and us.
After having a wonderful night and a wonderful show, Samira wanted to send her niece some money Western Union to help with her college expenses (we did this frequently). When I went to wire the money is when this unprovoked and arbitrary message came in from this woman saying just "I Love You". Samira went ballistic, honestly at that time I did not have a clue who the message was from and was not on my contact list. The woman had changed #s from when she helped babysit. I told Samira to call the # and ask. I had nothing to hide.
Samira was in her bipolar mode and hormonal pregnancy mode that night in overdrive and tried jumping out of the moving Hummer at 70+ mph on the interstate, and I had to grab her and pull her back in the truck…
Doc
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December 30, 2020
Wow, that’s quite the story about Samira almost jumping out of the Hummer like that.
As I watch this Netflix show, I ponder the fact that as a human, there is something in me that wants to believe in Justice. In the same way, I want to believe in Truth and Love and Goodness. But in a sinful world, all of those things come at a cost, as a personal sacrifice of some sort. Goodness and Truth and Love all require some work. They aren’t effortless.
“We could all say that we’re never going to commit a crime but we can never guarantee that someone will never accuse us of a crime and if that happens, well, good luck in this criminal justice system.” One of Steven Avery’s lawyers, Jerome Buting said that.
My day so far has been rather grey. Not emotionally, thankfully. But we don’t go out as often now that it’s gotten colder. I took the recycling out today to the curb and that was my fresh air. Anyway, hibernation mode has set in. Not that I plan to get as fat as a bear. I’ll feed my soul instead of binging. lol
Speaking of which, I splurged and bought myself a volume of the letters of C.S. Lewis. He wrote back to everyone who wrote to him and his letters are lovely and thoughtful and at times, wistful. I’m slightly distracted by the way Marmalade is treating my slipper as if it’s a mouse. The slipper that is actually on my foot. I wouldn’t mind so much if the slipper weren’t on my foot. Lol Oh good, he’s leaving my foot to go off and eat some real food.
Jennifer
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December 31, 2020
I have a call out shortly so I may be going for my outside surgery consult. Probably won't have surgery today, but if I do, keep me in your prayers. I just typed a bunch of p's and they hurt worse than the delete button because I have to turn my little finger in for the strike. OUCHEEE!!!
Good thing that your name or first, middle or last is not Penelope Pansy Popinopolos. Oh that hurt to type for a little joke. col lol col
Doc
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