DannyBoyinExile

I was feeling pretty good the other day, because everything seemed to go my way for a change. It rained ALL DAY LONG, which I could easily deduce from the myriad leaks in the roof that drip into the hallway, as I happen to be the guy who is lucky enough to be responsible for cleaning it up.
Which is ironic, because they just spent an untold (and probably ungodly!) amount of money to have the entire unit re-roofed several years ago. Clearly there was some brother-in-lawery afoot, because no roof should leak in so many places, so soon after being redone.
But I went into crisis mode, and kept everything under control. For one thing, I closed all the windows in the hall, which nobody else seemed to think of, and that solved at least part of the problem. Then I gathered Wet Floor signs, which I strategically placed along the hall – though if a person couldn’t see the puddles on the floor, they probably wouldn’t notice the signs, either.
Next I went to the laundry and grabbed an armload of “flood blankets”, which are old, tattered blankets that are torn and ragged to the point that they are kept for just that purpose. I laid them out beneath the various leaks, and most of the water soaked into the blankets rather than puddling on the floor. I grabbed a mop bucket, and kept busy patrolling the halls and mopping up excess water before anyone slipped and fell – because they’d promptly blame it on me…
I was proud to make it through my shift without any mishaps or disruptions in the normal flow of traffic, which was in no small part due to my efforts. It turned out to be a pretty good day, until I came home from work and found out that it wasn’t such a good day after all – I was just the last person to find out otherwise.
It was Sheet Day on my wing, when we exchange our dirty sheets for clean ones, which we do every week. Since I’m at work then, I typically strip the sheets from my bunk and leave them with my cellie, who exchanges them for me. When I saw the sheets that he accepted for me, I wondered how anyone in their right mind would accept a set of sheets that were as dingy and torn-up as the ones he got for me. Clearly, he WASN’T in his right mind, or he would have noticed that one sheet was missing about a third of its length, and the other was the dirtiest, dingiest sheet that has ever had the audacity to call itself “clean”! The dirty ones I turned in were MUCH cleaner, but for the next week I’m stuck with sheets that are in worse condition than the flood blankets I just laid down in the hallway…
To make matters worse, they also did a ” Necessities Shakedown “. That’s where they go inside each cell to search for extra socks, sheets, clothes, or boxer shorts. By doing this, they recoup some of the stuff that has made its way to the wings, and return it to the laundry, where it can be washed and handed back out. Of course, I was wearing a spare set of clothes to work in, and my GOOD clothes (the bleached and tailored ones that I wear to visits) were left in my cell – where they were promptly snatched and taken, never to be seen again.
To make matters worse, I always wear a T-shirt with my good clothes , which was folded and sitting atop them – and it was gone, too! The lady just snatched the whole pile, without looking at each item. What’s really crazy is that before she did the shakedown, she saw me in the hallway, and hit me up for a pair of rubber gloves. I try to always keep some, especially when I’m at work. Being the nice guy I am, I didn’t hesitate to give her a pair – which she then used to search MY cell, take my good clothes, and my T-shirt, to boot!And the day seemed to be going so well, just a few short hours before… I couldn’t do anything but stew on it for the rest of the day, but the NEXT day, I went right to the laundry, to ask her about it. Believe it or not (I couldn’t believe it!), she still had my T-shirt, so I was able to get it back. I still lost my visit clothes, and I’m still stuck with the dingy sheets – but those things are replaceable.
Sometimes the smallest detail can make a good day go bad, but we should expect inconvenience in our lives, and be prepared to deal with it. If we can do that, we can also turn a bad day into a good one. So says DannyBoy.