08 MDA LOCK-UP

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Okay this is another one that did not include my bike Effie. But it was a fun time so I wanted to write it up anyway.

Well, I got roped into this by my boss, Beth. I got this phone call as I was in bed trying to get over the food poisoning I had gotten. No I did not cook the bad food, this time. The caller told me how much fun it would be and that Beth was going to be arrested too. I agreed after I was assured that Beth was going. I figured Beth would not get me into something too hard if she was going too. When I talked to her a couple days later Beth told me how much fun it would be and how we would rope Carol Glidden into it and really have a blast. Oh, yeah Carla a bartender from the Legion was already going she was the first, the one that started the whole thing. So this would be the 4 of us we would be arrested, driven to KCTV channel 5 and then we would have to work to get bail. That bail was $1600 for the 4 of us.

Within a couple days we get phone calls from out Parole Officier Lisa. Lisa is encouraging us to start raising money now and not wait until we are arrested. Carol was the first one to jump in with all kinds of ideas on how to raise money. She asked at the Legion Auxillary meeting for its members to contribute toward our bail. Many contributed, but most still preferred to keep Carol locked up if they could. Carol is just that kind of person. 😊 So the night of the AUX meeting we raised $46 I think. One AUX member, Rose, made a fabulous Bingo seat cushion and Bingo bag to raffle off at one of our bingo nights. I went in on a WED night and sold the tickets. We raised $86 there I think. Carol didn't help with the raffle because she is sick. Within the next week we would learn that she has namonia, I know I didn't spell that right, but you know the lungs full of crud illness. The raffle and prizes went really well. I was very pleased. We had over a hundred dollars now.

I was really disappointed though, I didn't want to go to the lock in and be the pathetic looser who doesn't make the $1600. When I called in and let Lisa know that Carol would not be attending because she was truely sick, I had a nice chat with Lisa. I let her know that I was disappointed that I had not been even close to the $1600 and if they chose not to have me participate that would be fine, I understood. At the time I had about $125. Lisa was estatic. Did I know that $25 pays for a set of innoculations for one child??? And she could not even tell me how many places the $100 could be used and what a difference it would make!!! Lisa is the right person for that job. I went from being embarrassed at my lack luster performance to being very motivated to go and get what little more I could. She said that the $1600 was just if I had been interested in getting the trip to Cancun, but it was not expected that every jailbird would reach that, it was penical to hit if I could.

I am staying with my aunt because she is 77 and has a broken leg. But what she doesn't have is internet, thats a real bummer. Part of the stuff that MDA mailed us was the set up instructions for our personal lock up website. So it was later before I got the website set up. I didn't have any special pics to put on it but it allowed people to make a secure donation to MDA. Here is the website, I don't know how long they will keep it going:

Cindy's MDA wesite

if it doesn't work then just copy and paste
https://www.joinmda.org/2008missiontelu/cindydietz/
into your browser.

So I set up the page and then mailed it to some of my friends. I got a donation, so my time was not totally wasted there. I also hit up some of my freinds and family in person, I got a few more dollars.

The day of the lock in is the day before I am leaving on a 10 day trip to Canada and the 105th Harley Davidson anniversary in Milwaukee WI. So I am pushed for time and really would have liked to back out but I didn't want to abandon those other that were going. The day of the Lock-In I show up for work, they are going to come and get us at 1PM, at the Legion. I go in early so I can get my job done in time so I don't have to go back to work when I come back after the lock up. Beth comes in and informs me that her Grandmother had a stroke the previous night, she isn't going. 2 down, still 2 going.

One of the bartenders, Karen, helps me at the last minute so I can get this all done. At 12:35PM I am sitting at the bar drinking a coke, trying to cool off. I have my donations, my camera and the stuff MDA had mailed me. I remember Beth saying that she told them we would be waiting outside, because I thought how dumb that was, if they are going to pick us up in a patti wagon then they should come in a make a deal of it to help raise money from the bar crowd. I went outside at 12:57 and a few minutes later a black limo came by to get me. Carla still hadn't showed up. When the driver said he was there to pick up on Cindy, I asked if he had a warrant for a Carla too? But he didn't, so she had cancelled out too. Out of the 4 of us I am the only one actually getting arrested. And in a limo!! Much better than a Patti Wagon, maybe not as fun, but much more comfortable.

I am the last pick up for this car and we head right to the TV studio. We were greeted at the door by the booking officiers. I was the last to get booked and then I was escorted to the area for my booking photo. Given the choice of the black and white penitentary uniform or a orange work release, you can see what I chose. They asked me for a cheesy or pathetic expression. I gave them a pathetic one, then asked if they would take a couple pics for me. After the picture they said I could take any table to start raising money, but I told them I had already did what I could and I had it with me ready to hand it in. I was shown to the collection table and my little envelope was taken and counted, I felt for the lady because there were at least 50 $1 bills in the stack. It was all cash but a $5 check I had been given. It totalled at $169, I was asked to initial the total on the log sheet she had been using. This is only mentioned because it gave me a chance to see the totals of several other jailbirds.. The $169 was the second highest total on the list, indeed there were far more that didn't even reach $100. The highest was $300. I was so glad that Lisa had chatted with me earlier about the donations I had gotten. I didn't get to meet Lisa, she had headed back to the office by the time I got to the Lock-Up. I asked the ladies at the collection area if I could include another jailbird on that total, she had worked to raise the money but was sick and couldn't come this day... they were glad to add Carol as a teammate to total we had collected.

After turning in my money, they pointed me to the food table and I went to have lunch. They had the cutest little burgers and the largest chicken breasts I had ever seen. I had one of each and some chips with spinach dip. While I ate I called Carol to tell her what the total was and that I really appreciated her efforts, so the money was turned in as a 2 person team. A few hours later she called and said she was admitted into the hospital and would be there a few days, so they can give her some heavy duty antibiotics. She has been sick for over a week, prayers for Carol please if you have time.

The ride home was in a streeeach limo. This sucker was long. I took a few photos of that too. 😊 The limo took me back to the Legion where I posted my lock-up mug shot on the bulletin board and then went home to work on getting ready for the trip.... but too excited I had to write this blog first. MDA is a great cause. If you get the call, that they want to throw you in jail, let them, it will be fun.

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Photos

MDA Booking Staff
They sign us in and issued us the plaqard that we held up in the photo.

The food line
It was over there along the rail. All the food was donated.

The Photo area
The jail bars were PVC plumbing pipe painted black. The handcuffs didn't work, but they stayed on long enough for the photo. They were a lot of fun.

The Jail
This was the whole area, not very big, but there was a lot hard work going on.

My Ride Back
Oh yeah, I can deal with this. I had it all to myself.