Another Week Gone By

It’s been a long week. I rode my bicycle 8 miles two days in a row. That was probably too much because I felt wiped out on the third day. On Friday I drove down to Salem, a round trip distance of 96 miles. I came home and made Shabbat dinner and by the end of dinner I was as tired as I ever was during chemo. It was hard to sit upright in a chair. In fact, I did my old chemo trick of lying down next to my chair at the dinner table. It’s not like I’ve regained my energy, either. It’s been a slow day today and I’m still in my pajamas at 4 in the afternoon. It’s raining hard and I feel uninspired to go outside. I’m so done with rain right now.

Yesterday I took a printing class at Project Quest and started a four color linoleum block printing process which was very challenging. It was fun though, and got me in touch with my inner artist. When I complete it I’ll post the results. I went to the garage to dig through my art supplies for my wood carving set (which works great on linoleum blocks) but it was too much of a mess in there to find it. David helped me sort through it until the dust caused him to sneeze violently so we had to get out of there. We did manage to find some old sketchbooks of mine, some dating back to high school days. That was pretty fun. I should post some of those drawings. I used to be able to draw, but it has been a while. I think having children was so absorbing that I got out of the habit.

I went down to Salem to attend a sentencing hearing for a client of mine who had relapsed on meth and got into a fight with his girlfriend. He tried to drag her into the house where they both lived. For that he was convicted on four counts of kidnapping. Kidnapping is a Measure 11 offense carrying a minimum of 7 ½ years. Four counts equals 30 years. And then he got a robbery charges because he smashed her cell phone. This all took place during a fifteen minute fight. She suffered no more than a few bruises. She initially cooperated and gave the cops the information they needed to bring charges, assuming that my client would do a couple of months of jail time, as well he should for assault. However, the DA threw the book at him, much to her horror, and asked for the judge to give him 600 months, or 50 years. I went down to take the stand to let them know that he was amenable to treatment and ask that his Measure 11 offences be served concurrently. If he was sentenced to 50 years it would cost the taxpayers (that’s you and me if you are an Oregonian) upwards of 2 million dollars to incarcerate him. As it is, he was sentenced to 22 ½ years. This was so bizarre. This is at a time that Oregon is spending as much to incarcerate 13,400 as it does to educate 438,000 college students. I was pissed. He's really quite a nice person and had tried so hard to make it. Unfortunately, relapse is part of recovery. He really didn't have enough support once he was on his own. He relapsed after he was off my caseload.

As they say, when the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Oregon needs some more tools in its toolbox. This client should have (in my estimation) served a six month jail term first of all. (Research shows that it takes about six months clean time for a meth addict to be heal from the effects of meth so that he or she has the mental capacity to process treatment.) After jail, I would send him to long term treatment (six months to a year) and then mandate him to transitional housing and an outpatient group once a week for up to 18 months along with transitional services. Locking him up for 22 ½ years is such a waste of resources that it breaks my heart. It’s not only an abuse of this client, it’s an abuse of the taxpayers.

So that’s it for my soapbox. I spoke at a MACG meeting on Wednesday about RAP’s success in helping to establish transitional housing in Clackamas County. After my little speech, one of the residents came up and told me how much he appreciated living there and how important it was to his recovery and getting back on his feet again. I found myself sitting with the Phoenix Rising folks, all of the ex-cons and realizing how much I enjoy that population. I felt a rekindling of my enthusiasm for working with them. I may go back to that work once I go back to working.

On a completely different topic, I met with Dr. Hanson last Wednesday to discuss breast reconstruction surgery. If I’m going to do it, this summer is the time. I’ll get a reduction on the left side and an implant on the right. I want to go to a smaller size since I don’t want to deal with a large implant. I set a date for the surgery: June 15th. That will give me time to take my CADC II exam on June 12th (to upgrade my qualifications as a drug and alcohol counselor).

Finally, I’ve been looking at electric bicycles. I don’t have the stamina I used to have. I found myself driving yesterday because I find the hill going up to my house very daunting when I’m tired as I have been these past few days. I hate to use my car for short trips, and most of my trips are short. Anyway, an electric bicycle is something that intrigues me. I’m looking at one that’s meant for people who want it to ride as much like a regular bicycle as possible. The one that intrigues me is a Giant Lite: http://www.electricvehiclesnw.com/main/lite.htm. It’s not a time to be buying new stuff, but I’ve definitely put it on my wish list.