Incarcerated

Thankfully, there is no one in our family in jail....but it's been a strange couple days in our house. Last night, I received a call - an automated recording advised 'this is [insert company name]. Your phone number and all conversation will be recorded. We have a collect call from 'Mark' from the Tehachapi Correctional Facility'. Press 1 to accept call; hang up to decline call'.

My mind raced.....do we know a 'Mark'? Much less a Mark who is in jail? I declined the call by hanging up. Three minutes later, the phone rang again - same thing. Wasn't as uneasy as the first call but still felt uncomfortable. Should I accept to tell the guy that I'm not sure who you think you're calling, but you're dialing the wrong number? I didn't want to do that because who knows how much that call would cost me? And at the same time, I'm thinking 'what if this guy really needs someone to talk to him?' My head/heart wrestled with each other briefly and I again declined the call by hanging up.

He called again this morning - I had let J. know that I had received those calls last night (he was out when they came through) so he knew what the call was when the same recording started again this morning. This time, he declined the call and contacted the prison to let them know what was happening. They have 6,000 inmates and said there was no way for them to find the guy - and they gave us the number of the third party company that handles their inmate's phone calls. J. contacted them and blocked our number so no more calls will come through.

I've been thinking about that guy all day and hope he is ok. Hope he isn't thinking that his family has stopped accepting his calls....it's sad to think he may be feeling abandoned and alone all because he's mis-dialing the phone. I wonder if we were wrong to just not take the charges for a call to let him know that he's calling a wrong number over and over and over.... I'm re-reading this and wondering why I'm even blogging about it....but it's been bothering me and writing here is cheaper than therapy. I will say a prayer for Mark tonight and hope he's OK.

We're readying ourselves for little kids at the front door - making sure the front porch light is on and we have something outside that shows we are participating in Halloween. J. went to Costco and bought 4 big bags of candy - any leftovers will be readily consumed here or by our office mates at work. The kids are out and about - parties, etc. keeping them occupied.

I had lunch with a work friend in Manteca and have been making a little progress on my desk. We're also working on the garage in preparation for tomorrow's massive 'move stuff out of the house'.

An extra hour of sleep/day light tomorrow! I love the 'fall back' part of daylight savings time. I always feel like that extra hour is such a 'gift' and try to make the most of it.....