It is Busy

Training at the FD was the BLS Twelve-lead. Before that I got together with one of my new guys and we worked on doing pumping on Rescue. After training tonight we spent a couple hours running on EMS calls. There was nothing too big, but I didn’t get to go to bed until after four in the morning. It was just one of those busy days. This summer was pretty quiet for the most part. But since the students have come back we have been running lots of calls.

BKoe’s Birthday Celebration

I spent much of the afternoon watching some TV. I was trying to get my DVR emptied. Around six o’clock I went to Zeppoz. BKoe was celebrating his quarter century birthday. We bowled a couple games. I did alright. By the last game I getting the highest score. While bowling we were buying BKoe lots of shots. I got him something that I thought would be gross. I got Jager and Goldschlauger in a shot mixed together. Then I got him an Everclear chaser. He didn’t think the gross shot was that gross. Maybe his taste buds were already shot.

I did an HGN on him and he was showing the effects pretty obviously. I videoed it so he could see it for himself.

When we left I watched some more TV trying to burn through more of the shows. I also started to watch a couple episodes of QaF. It has been showing on Logo. But they are doing some editing. It is not in its full effect that it was while it was on Showtime. But it is fun to relive it.

Intern Mock Scenes

I went to the WSU Police Station to meet up for the Mock Scene’s that I am helping with for the Interns. I was playing a suspect in a couple different scenerios. I was having a lot of fun with it. I would pick on something about the officer and then try to get to them through my verbal attacks. One short guy came up with his partner. I looked at him, then he partner, and said “Is it Take-Your-Son-To-Work day?” One guy I was telling him I slept with his girlfriend. One guy I kept calling Ponch. I really was having a lot of fun.

When I was done there I went to the SO and worked the road. I started by washing my car. Then I went to St. John to serve some papers. But right when I got there I was called to Tekoa to be a backup for a call for a possible gun call. I got there and it turned into nothing. I then went to the SO. While there we got called to La Crosse. But just as I got going on that. I got diverted to Little Goose Dam for an illegal fire. There was no fire to be found. I ended up getting my car extremely dirty.

I ended the night with some traffic stops. It was pretty quiet for the most part for me.

Another Day on the Lake

I went to see the doctor about my ankle today. I was told he wanted to do another MRI. I am waiting to hear back that it has been approved by my insurance before setting up an appointment.

I worked Marine Patrol again today. I was working with the sergeant who will be taking over the marine patrol starting next month. It was a pretty quiet day on the lake. We made a couple stops through out the day and wrote a couple tickets. It was fun to get a chance to chat with the new sergeant. When I was done on the marine patrol I headed back to Pullman.

The trip went pretty well. I had no real problems with traffic which I was thinking I might run into with all the stduents coming back for school. I listened to the scanner and watched some TV when I got back. It was pretty quiet in Pullman for being the weekend before school started.

First Marine Patrol Shift of the Summer

I worked on Lake Washington today. I worked with an officer I had not worked with before. I was pretty nervous because I haven’t been out on the water in a long while. But it was pretty quient for the most part. The weather was not that nice so we cruised around for a bit then parked the boat. I was driving the boat. It was a bit of a challenge to park it in its new spot, but I did pretty well backing it in.

I did a lot of reading of the boating rules and the EMS protocols for King County. It was a good day. We hit the water again around five. There were more boats out and we made some stops. We issued warnings. I did the boat safety inspections after the stop was made.

Another Job Interview

This morning I was to have an interview at a company in Kirkland. Brian works there and he got me in the door. He is the one who helped to get me hired at NetUpdate. Now I am hoping that the interview goes well. But that was not to be entirely. Things were moving along smoothly for the first hour plus. Just before it was over he wanted me to do some SQL. I was able to get the answer to what he was asking. Then he asked me to see if a string was the same forwards and backwards. That didn’t go quite as well. I had an idea of how to get the answer, but it is hard for me to write code on a whiteboard with people watching. I think that sort of was sinking me. I don’t know how much pull Brian has there. I guess I will see if I am offered a job.

After that I was thinking I was going to have a meeting with a guy in Seattle. But after I called and left him a message he never called me back. I went through the old neighborhood on the way home. Not much has really changed except the hills are tiny. I use to think they were long and steep.

The rest of the evening I spent watching TV and playing on the computer.

Trip to Seattle

I headed to Seattle for the next couple days. I got up and worked on getting packed. I slept in for a while before getting underway. I stopped in Colfax and dropped off my ballot for the primaries.

The trip over was pretty uneventful. I was able to make decent time the whole way. The traffic was not too bad. When I got to my mom’s house I watched some TV. I am still without my cellphone’s screen. That makes it hard to do much of anything. I am working with Sprint to get my other Touch Pro working on their network. It sucks not having a phone with a working screen.

Party in Endicott

I worked the road today. I started with traffic out Twenty-Six. I made a couple stops and wrote two people. I cannot stand it when people lie anymore. I am more willing to give people who are honest a break.

I went to dinner with Bryce. While at dinner I got information about a big party happening out by Endicott. So I decided I would patrol in that area of the county. I made a few stops and I was around when there was a medical call that came out at the fire station. But overall the night was pretty quiet.

I got off the road just before three in the morning. I got my tickets written up as well as my report for the medical call.

Another Dead Day with BWil

This morning I started working at the fire station in Colfax. It was my third straight morning there. It was only going to be half a day because I am also working the road this evening. I have BWil riding with me.

While we were having lunch we got a call for motorcycle accident. I went out on it with the ambulance. We ended up transporting. I got back just before two when I was supposed to meet with BWil. I got my uniform on and I met up with Brandon. We washed my car and then hit the road.

We hit dinner with Matt and Kelly at McDonalds. I was working on getting some of my cases closed. They were getting to McDonalds so we had to hurry down there. When we walked in they got up and started to walk away. I knew they would do something like that. They laughed and sat back down. We talked about the temp position with WSU PD. I still have not heard back from the PD. I have no idea how I am doing with the process. But based on the fact I have not heard back I think I am out of the running.

It was pretty quiet overall. We did a lot of patrolling on the county roads. I hit Hole In The Ground and Kackman roads. Nothing at all was found. It is sometimes nice to have a rider. We spent time talking about laws surrounding searching. It was nice to have someone to chat with.

Colfax Fire Day Two

I started off the morning with a call that came out five minutes before shift change. We went to the EMS call at Whitman Health and Rehab. When it was done I got back to the station and restocked the EMS bag. Then I worked on doing rig checks on Eleven Zero Three. I also went over some more stuff with Tim.

I spent time on the phone with Jon and my mom about the job offer. I was getting their thoughts on the whole thing. I am still not sure what would be best. I am going to be working a job that will not be helpful with me financially. My mom said that she would be willing to help me out. She offered to buy my house and that I could pay her back. Because of the rates she is getting on her money she said that if she were to have me pay her the same rate she would get from the bank she is getting in interest. She is getting less than two percent. Meaning my rates would be low and it would make it easier for me to make the payments.

I ran one fire alarm with Tim. It was at the Shabby Abby apartments. It was a cooking issue. We reset the alarm and headed back. We had lunch with Bryce. We ordered a pizza. For dinner we had lasagna and garlic bread.

I contacted Chris telling her I still didn’t know what I wanted to do. She suggested that I take the weekend to think it over.

Colfax Fire Day One

I got up and worked with Jen. It was a quiet day. I worked on doing the weekly on the ladder truck. That took a couple hours. We also did lunch together with a couple of the guys.

While working I got a call from Chris from IT with the county. I was offered the job working as the county IT guy. With the low amount of pay I am concerned over whether I should take the job.

I went over and met with Chris about the idea of doing a ten-ninety-nine. That didn’t go over as well as I hoped. But I got a run down of the things I would be doing. I told her I would need to think it over for a while. I needed to decide if working for less money than my monthly bills are would be a good idea.

I was in a conversation with Perry, Bill, and Scott over at the PD. While we were talking Bill said that if I wanted to be a part-time Colfax Police Officer he would be willing to hire me. He said he is selective and he thinks I would do a good job. I am going to consider doing that. I think it would be cool to have that job.

It was a quiet day and night. I didn’t get any calls.

Lose One and Win One

The first game was the one game playoff for the league championship. We were playing against Coors Light. It was going to be a tough game. Based on the guys I saw they brought one of their better teams.

We battled back from a big deficit to come within a couple runs. Then they had a five run inning in the seventh. We ended up losing by five runs. It sucked to lose the game.

But we had to turn around and get ready to play Bomb Squad as a team that we had to beat to get to the championship game. I got three hits and we won by nine runs. It was a good solid victory. I went to My Office with some of the guys from the team. I had dinner then went home and got my motorhome packed to head down to Colfax Fire.

I got my motorhome set up and I planned on being at the fire station for the next couple days to work on my training to be a temp full-time worker.

Got my Motorcycle Endorsement

I got up this morning and I was tired. I was up late last night. I went to do my motorcycle driver’s test. I passed it. That made me happy and now I have my endorsement.

I went home and got some sleep. I was working tonight in the jail. I have my final graveyard shifts. This is the first of my final two days.

The shift in the jail was sort of slow. But I spent the shift writing up my case for the fire on the bridge from last night.

Good Thing it was Just a Party

This Friday I decided to work the road tonight. I decided to head up north. There were several people working the roads. I chose to run some traffic on the Pine City-Malden road. I was inside Pine City reading through my RCWs watching as cars went through town. All the cars going through were all doing the speed limit. Many times during the day I find people flying through town.

I saw one vehicle pulling a boat trailer. Because other cars were going through I watched their speed. Then I noticed the boat trailer had turned on Stephen Road. I couldn’t tell if there were tail lights on the trailer so I tried to catch up to it. I wasn’t able to. While driving down Stephen Road I saw Hole in The Ground road and thought to myself that I hadn’t been down there in a while. I didn’t find him.

I went back to running traffic. I had two trucks about half a mile apart come through town. The second one was speeding and it stopped next to me. I was told the other truck had been shooting from the road over the property of the people in the second truck. I tried to run down the first truck. I let Whitcom know what I was doing. A couple other deputies started to come my way. I told them what way I wanted them to come in. I was unable to find the truck. I talked to the RP some more and closed out the case.

I went back to Pine City with the other deputies. We talked about what had happened. They left to go find some more action and told me to have find in Pine City. I bid them farewell. I got back into my position and then I decided because of how late it was I was going to not run any more traffic.

I went to Hole In The Ground. I thought I may find the person who was doing the shooting. While going out there I was worried about how well the radio would work. Also I was thinking that if there was a guy shooting down there I might want to be careful.

As I was going along it was dark and I was surrounded by trees and a small narrow gravel road. I was thinking to myself how I wouldn’t want to run into some devil worshippers having some huge conference. It was pretty desolant out there so I had no idea what I might run into.

As I was going down Belsby Road I could see the reflectors of a lot of cars and I saw a fire. I was thinking to myself I found something and I had no idea what it was. I came closer to the bridge and I saw the fire was on the bridge. There was a red SUV next to the bridge and several people around the fire. I radioed that I was out with the fire and made contact.

As I was walking up I saw a beer can on the SUV. I said aloud “probably not tha best place for a fire.” One person responded “Should we put it out?” I said “that would be a good idea.” I saw another pile of beer cans and beer bottles.

After the fire was put out I started to talk to the people around the fire. I interviewed them one by one. One guy admitted to buying the beer and four others who were under age admitted to drinking the beer. So I had four criminal offenses. I gathered the information and sent them on their way.

I went back to the Sheriff’s Office and talked to Cooper about what I did and what my findings were.

Part of Article from Whitman County Gazette

Post Season Tournament Day One

Today was the first games in the post season tournament. The first game was against TLC Green Sox. We easily beat them. Then it was against Chipman Taylor. They are a stronger team. We split the season series this year.

In the game against them we won putting us two and oh in the post season. We have two more wins to be awarded the championship.

Forced a Playoff Game

Tonight’s softball games were both must-win games. First against TLC Green Sox then the Bomb Squad. The TLC team was not that big of a deal. They have been nearly an automatic win for us each time we faced them. The Bomb Squad game was different. They have gotten better as the season has gone along. In fact they were one of three teams that beat us.

But the game against them was close. The score didn’t make it look close, but we scored some padding at the end of the game. Up until then it was close each and every inning. But by winning the game we forced a one game playoff against Coors Light for the league championship. It was pretty awesome for that to happen. This will be the first time we have a chance to take first place against Coors Light in several years. They have really been very strong for several years.

First on a Double Fatal

I was patrolling this afternoon. It was going to be a shorter day because I had to work the fire department this evening. I worked the Wawawai / One-Ninety-Four area for a while. It was slowish. I about just over an hour before I was going to check out of service. I figured I would go to Albion and work there for an hour.

As I was was traveling past the pumps on Twenty-Seven I heard my radio come to life. The dispatcher started to say “Dispatching Fire District Twelve, Pullman Ambulance, Delta Response…” I was thinking to myself that it was going to be in my general area because I was in the D-Twelve area. The dispatcher continued “… Injury accident Four-Six-Four-One Pullman-Albion Road.” I was just over a quarter mile away. I hit my lights and went to the scene. I checked out just seventeen seconds after going en route.

I was first on scene by a long shot. On my way the dispatcher said it was a motorcycle versus vehicle accident with obvious injuries. I didn’t know what was meant by that. I figured that it could be anything from a minor cut to something worse. When I got there I gave a size up. I knew it was very serious by the way people were standing around and by the way the scene presented itself to me.

I gave a size up and then I got out and checked out the injuries and gave an update for the ambulance. I grabbed my gloves and started to work in an EMS role. Once the ambulances showed up I did a face to face with them and went into cop mode. I met up with some of the other deputies who showed up.

Standing at the back of a Pullman Ambulance

I spent the rest of the time on the scene doing cop stuff. I helped with the measuring of the scene and finally helped get the road re-opened.

I went to the funeral home and met up with Pete and Annie. I took an opportunity to exam the injuries to better understand what had taken place. Because of the motorcycle wreck I was going to be last getting to the fire department. I had someone cover for me. It turned out he covered me the whole night.

I spent some more time on the road and helped picking up a runaway in the North park of the county.

A Week of Work

This is part of a full week I spent in Colfax working and living in my RV. It starts on Tuesday July 13th and goes through Sunday July 18th, 2010.

The plan was to head down to Colfax in the early afternoon, but I got called in to do a transfer for PFD. I went on it with Chia. We hit Outback before we headed back to Pullman. It was a nice trip being able to hang out and chat with him on the way home.

I got my motorhome loaded and headed down to the fire station in Colfax. I had to be up at four in the morning to watch an inmate at the hospital. When I got to the fire station I got my motorhome set up and then went into the station and started to chat with Tim and Bryce. I let Tim know I would be responding on calls should any come in.

I went to bed only to have my alarm clock waking me up at half past four in the morning. I went to the hospital and waited around for four hours for the doctor to release the inmate. It was a long boring four hours. Actually, the first hour was not too bad as I was able to sit there and talk with Ross.

I went back to the fire station and started to work there. I worked with Jenny on driving the engine and getting familiar with the town and getting familiar with the engine. There were no calls while I was there.

Steve, Scott, Jenny, and I had lunch together. Then Jenny and I took the ladder truck outside and I flew the ladder on it. I left a little before four to work in the jail. It was a slower day in the jail. To the point where I wanted to go home early, but I don’t do that. I just pushed through the sleepiness.

When I was finally able to get to bed I was worried we would get a call because I was so tired. There was a call, but it was an ambulance call outside of the city, so I didn’t have to get up. That was good news for me.

When I finally got up on Thursday morning, I went in and worked with Tim. We did some more driving of the engine. But this time we went to several larger buildings with fire alarms to see where they are located. I also looked for the FDC’s on buildings. We had hamburgers for lunch from Rosauers.

After lunch I was trying to keep my energy level up, but I wasn’t much for getting into any big projects. I had to work at the jail again. It was a crazy busy day. I ended up working an extra hour. We had a hearing, two write-ups for hearings, and an uncooperative inmate. But the time I was done around eleven at night, I got out to my motorhome. I went to bed shortly after getting out to the motorhome. I wanted to hit the road early so I could get a full day on the road in order get a full day in before I had to be back to Pullman so I could work at PFD.

Friday morning started out and I looked for my patrol car. It wasn’t outside. It was out at the county shop. But I had no way to get to it. I was mad because I was told by Melcher that he was going to bring it back when he was done working. He used it to go get his patrol car. But he decided not to and it left me high and dry. I sent him a text and he said he would give me a ride out there in about an hour.

I got a ride out there by Curtis about ten minutes later. I left my phone in my motorhome so Melcher tried to text me and call me. I got my car and brought it to the office. I washed it and got it ready for the shift. I hit the road and went out Twenty-Six. I got some good speeds out there. I had one guy at thirty over. I was told by a trooper that he stopped the same person and wrote him a second ticket.

I got dispatched to a house alarm and went there with Dan. It turned out to be false. We went to lunch together. Then we parted ways. I went South for a while. But it was a little slow and it was getting closer to the time I was going to have to call it quits. I figured I had one hour. I was going to go to Albion and put in an hour there.

As I was driving on Twenty-Seven near the pumps I heard “Fire District Twelve, Pullman Ambulance, Delta response for an injury accident.” At this point I knew I would be in the general area. The dispatcher continued with the address of the wreck. It was very close to where I was. I actually was on scene seventeen second after I called en route to it. It took a total of thirty-two seconds from the time they started the dispatch to the time I was there.

Coming into it I didn’t know how bad it was going to be. I had heard there were injuries. They said there were obvious injuries. But that didn’t mean a lot to be because that could be a cut arm or something more. When I got there, what I saw I was not prepared for, but I knew it was bad.

Following the car accident I headed to the office. I had found coverage at the fire department. I wrote my report. While in the office a case was coming up. Several of us went to it together because of the chance the person might fight us.

It turned out to be a non-event. When that was done I headed back to the SO. That was the end of my night. I went to the mortohome and watched Rescue Me on my computer.

On Saturday morning I got back up and started another day on the road. It was a pretty slow day. I started with doing some traffic patrol. I also did an hour in Albion. We got called to a domestic in Uniontown. Scott and I went on that one. Scott was primary, but I was there a long time before he was. I started to handle the case and then caught him up once he got there. Once the bulk of it was over I cleared and did some more traffic. I wrote one ticket for sixteen over.

It was a slowish night. It was getting late when we went to a call for a runaway who claimed he would run from the cops. But he never ran from us. We hung out in Rosalia for about an hour shooting the breeze and talking shop.

I worked the road for a couple more hours, but it was still slow. I got one more stop before I finally went to the SO and went out of service for the night.

Sunday morning was going to be my final day in Colfax for this stretch because I was going to have to be in Pullman in the evening. I walked to Rosauers for breakfast then got my car and hit the road. I got several stops on Twenty-Six. People who were lying to me about things were making me mad so I started to write them tickets and wrote warnings to those who were honest with me.

I don’t write many people, but I was getting so sick of being lied to. I only worked the road for about five and a half hours. I had lunch with Matt, Ricky, and Welter from WSU. I worked my way back to Colfax after lunch. I worked to make a couple more stops before calling it a night.

I grabbed my motorhome and went back home. I unloaded the motorhome and then went to the fire station. There were some people on OT so they made dinner. They were eating at the Deuce. They invited me to have some dinner with them. I had also bought some M&Ms from Dismores to have during rig checks.

It was only Strom and I at rig checks. It took a while to get them all done, but it wasn’t too bad.

My Office Softball

My Office has spent most of the month winning softball games.  This team is set to break a bunch of offensive records for My Office.  We are even going to break some from the ought-three team which was nearly unstopable.  

Through out the month there have been different people stepping up and making the big hits or big defensive plays.  Million was pretty much a top player each and every night. 

There are only four single-game team records.  They all fell on the Twenty-Ninth.  It was an incredible night.  We scored thirty-six runs, twenty of which came in one inning.  It was crazy. 

As a team we are eight-and-one by the end of June and I was batting six-fifteen at the end of June.  On the softball field things are doing well.

Family Reunion in North Dakota

There were not a lot of posts for the month fo June.  Looking back I don’t even know what all the issues were, but I wanted to get caught up on the month.

I went on a trip to North Dakota for a couple days.  Jon and I met up in Salt Lake City and flew into North Dakota.  We were there for a family reunion.  We started the night by going out to dinner as a large group.  Jon and I checked into our hotel room and spent a lot of time with Grandma Anderson.  We played card games and just hung around talking.  Larry, Dale, and Karen were all there.  On Saturday we went to Makoti for the actual family reunion.  We saw the place where grandma and grandpa Anderson grew up.  Makoti is a small town in North Dakota a ways from Minot.

While there Jon and I saw our uncle Wayne and cousin Tom and Sheila.  One night we went to a couple of bars with them.  It was great to see the family.  We went to the Mouse River where Tom has a place where he stays on weekends.

After we were done there we went to some races.  The track in Minot was under re-construction.  We had to drive to another town.  Sitting in the stands there was a ten-six-seven sitting next to me.  He had the most piercing blue eyes.  I could not stop looking his way.  I cannot believe I wasn’t caught watching him.  His eyes were absolutely incredible.  Just incredible blue.

I had a great tim seeing family in North Dakota.

Good Day on the Course

I played golf this morning with Ron, Joe, and Mitz. Ron and I were on one team. The team who got the best score on a hole won that hole. There were no hold-over holes, so you only earn one point per hole, if someone won it. Ron and I ended up winning by one or two.

My drives were going great. I had several great chip shots as well. I only had one bad drive the whole day. I was only doing about seventy percent swings and it made all the difference in the world. I had a great round. We finished up around two and I went home and relaxed for a while. I was going to meet the guys at Zeppoz before this evening’s softball game. Cougar Country is playing Zeppoz.

I went to Zeppoz about two hours before game time. I had some pop and chatted with everyone up there. We headed down to the City Playfields about thirty minutes before game time.

We scored the first two innings holding them from scoring. But then they scored five to go up by two runs. They tacked one more here and there. We tacked a couple runs on. But we ended up losing by one run again. In games with the other two A-League teams we lost by one run. We just need a couple timely hits.

Following the game I went to Cougar Country for dinner and home to watch my Sunday night TV shows.

Grand Slam!

This morning Kevin and I headed down to Lewiston for a softball tournament. It was a one pitch tournament where you started out with a three-two count with no foul balls. There was a mat, that if the ball it it or the plate, it is a strike. It was all about swinging at anything close.

In the second game we were doing well. The bases were loaded. I came to the plate and saw a good pitch. I swung and it came off the bat well. Before I knew it the ball was flying over the fence in left-center field. It was a grand slam! That felt good to poke one out.

One thing about being the catcher while playing softball is that I get a chance to sometimes chat with people from the other team and if there is a ten-six-seven I am able to get a closer look. Plus I really get a chance to see how people set up in the box and how they hit. It is interesting all the different styles people employ while hitting.

Whoa is Me

The only plans I had today was to go out with Chia and go to bed early because I am working at the SO tomorrow. I took a little nap around four o’clock because I was pretty tired. At around five-thirty I got a text message. It was one I was halfway expecting. Sure enough Chia was backing out. So I was pretty disappointed. I don’t get to go out very often. I was excited to go out and hang out with someone, another thing I don’t get to do very often… And it doesn’t happen. I wanted to get some dinner, but I had no idea what I wanted. So I went to Dairy Queen and overate.

I think lately I have been eating very poorly. I need to get control of myself, but my stress level is very high. Not getting the fire job, my savings getting low, unemployment ending, being a mo, and no close friends nearby have weighed me down. If there was ever someone who would be a candidate for ending it all, you would think the above would be good reasons. But that is a long-term solution to a short-term problem. I look at others who kill themselves and it is such an irrational decision. Many times if those people waited for a bit thing would get better.

Also there is the fact that there are things to live for. There are many people who have it way worse. I must count my blessings. I still have reasonable health. I have a house, car, truck, motorcycle, quad, motorhome, and more. There is nothing to complain about. I also have softball. Too bad it is not held more often. Well, the whoa is me is over with.

I went to bed around nine-thirty and spent the next four hours trying to get to sleep. I was tossing and turning trying to forget about everything that has happened over the last few weeks.

Lots of EMS Calls Today

I spent some time sending this afternoon applying for some more jobs. I also found out the one I really wanted in Bellevue was a no-go. I sent the message about being willing to work on a short-term trial basis to prove myself. I hope that will show I am willing to do what it takes and that they give me a shot. But I am not holding my breath after I got the E-mail saying they were not going to be doing any more interviews for the position for a while. I was wished luck in my continued job search.

This afternoon while I was trying to relax and watch some TV, I heard Pullman get called out for two ALS transfers. I contacted the station about doing some drive time this evening with some of the recruits. I was told there were also two transfers from Pullman to Gritman. Not long after that Colfax got toned out for a transfer from Pullman to Gritman. So I called in and said I could meet them at the hospital if they needed. They took me up on it. We did a transfer. Returned and did the second transfer.

When those were done I went home and got some dinner before heading to station one for the drive time with the recruits. We drove around Pullman in one of the large ambulances because they need more time in it. We were out driving around until eight-thirty.

I watched some more TV and then headed to bed just before midnight. We got a call just after midnight. It was upgraded from a delta to an echo. When the call was complete I got home and took off my boots. Before I could sit at my desk to work on the stats we got called for someone who fell. Just before we had a chance to leave that call in the ambulance a second call came out for an assault victim. We left one rescue guy with the first call and went to the second one. Both were taken code-three to the hospital. That is rare for us to do that.

While at the hospital a guy who worked there asked if I was a cop. I jokingly asked if I gave him a ticket or something. He said I did. So I was trying to remember more about it. He gave me details, but I couldn’t remember it. He said it happened about two months ago. I told him I would look it up to see if it was me. He gave me his last name. When he did that, I started to remember it. I think I remember giving him a ticket. I don’t remember a lot of details around the stop. I hope that after I read my report I will remember some more.

Decent Day in the Jail

My only plan for the day was to write my column and work at the jail this evening. I got the column written and submitted. I wrote about the Arizona immigration law.

I was catching up on some TV shows when I got a call saying that I didn’t need to come in if I didn’t want to. But I had already planned on it and scheduled my day around it. So I went in.

It wasn’t a bad day at all. I sort of enjoyed being there. I did a hearing on a write up an officer had. I did some rounds and helped to serve dinner. They were also giving out some Hep-C tests for the corrections officers if you wanted one. I figured working in the line of work that I do, it would be a good idea to get a baseline.

Cleaning Up

I spent this morning working getting some job applications sent out. I am working to find a job. I had high hopes for a while, but now I am not so sure something is going to happen.

I spent this afternoon washing my rig. I also got some stuff inside the rig cleaned up and looking good. I then worked on my driveway to clean it up. It was something I needed to do for a while. But now that it is done it looks good. I worked on my lawn, but I still need more work on that.

I completed my work in time to get my uniform on for softball for tonight. I picked up Steve and headed to Moscow. I went to Tri-State to drop off the jersey’s to get numbers put on them. Then it was off to the field for the game. We were playing against Agripro. It wasn’t even close. We went out in the first inning and batted around. I played first base. I didn’t hit the ball too well. I was hoping to kick butt with the batting average this year, but so far, not so good. I was trying to hit a homerun two times when I came to the plate. That didn’t help.

After the game Bruce and I talked about the idea of a tournament and maybe doing a late season softball league. Bruce wants to try to do something like that in Pullman.

I went to Pullman and got ready to work the fire department. But it was nice and not-busy. That was good.

Final Grave

Today is the end of the second and the beginning of the third day that I am going to be working graveyard. I got off work and went home. I watched some TV then slept for four hours. I watched more TV and got some Pipeline. I went back to bed around five in the evening. I slept until nine and started my day.

I went to the jail working the final of my three graveyard shifts. I was working with Mark. It was a laid back night. I pretty did four rounds and that was about it. There wasn’t a lot that had to get done around the jail. I left at six in the morning and headed home.

Just Like Back in the Day

Just like when I use to work full-time in the jail, I did another twenty-four plus hour day. I got home from the jail and went to Moscow for my softball game. We ended up losing the game. It really wasn’t close. I played first. I didn’t hit worth beans.

I hung out at the field for a bit talking to Billy, Ron, Bruce, and Heather. I got home and stayed up until noon when I was done being on call for the coroner. I then went to bed. I had been up for about twenty-eight hours. I was going to get about four hours of sleep before I would have to get up and head back to the softball field. Tonight I was playing a co-ed game against Ernie’s team. They are the number one team right now.

We played them tight. It came down to their final at-bat in the seventh. We had a three-run shot in the top of the seventh to put us up by one. Only to lose it with a two-run basehit.

I went home and got into my jail uniform. I went to the fire station where rig checks were going on. They were just completing them. I talked to the new guy about him starting to respond on calls. I went to Colfax and went to take a nap in the basement of the jail. I got up just before eleven and replaced the guys in the jail.

I was working with Brett again. It was pretty quiet for us. I did the first set of rounds and the last set. I also brought in Transformers Two. We got to watch that as the night went on. I headed out around six in the morning.

Oops, No Sleep for Scotty

This morning was cold and windy. I had a softball game first thing in the morning in Moscow. I am playing in a softball tournament. We were doing well on the first game and at one point had a lead of nearly twelve runs. But as time went on we allowed a lot runs for the other team. We were not scoring like we should have been. We soon gave up the lead and couldn’t win. We had a one game break and then played again. We won that game. Then we had another break of two games. We played again in Moscow. It was not to be. The rain started to fall. We were all getting wet and it was already cold. We lost the game by getting twelve runned by the Coor’s Light team.

When the game was done I told Matt I would work the road with him. I want to help the guys who need hours to get out there. I got my uniform on and Matt came over to pick me up. It was a long time since I put that thing on. We got to the SO and got the car ready. It turned out my map book and log book were in the car still. It has been nearly a month since I last worked. That car only got two hundred miles on it in the last month.

Just after I got to the SO, Cooper came into the Chaplain’s office where I was getting equipment. He closed the door and asked me what was going on. I wasn’t sure how much I wanted to tell him. He told me that if I have a problem that I can and should come in and talk to the guys. They are there for me. He said that a lot of the guys had been asking about me. They wondered why I hadn’t been working. They also saw I wasn’t quite my normal self. It is clear that he was good about keeping my wish of not telling people about my situation. He said Rick wanted to know what was going on and Cooper kept it quiet. I was very happy about that. Talking with Cooper was very helpful for me.

Matt and I went to dinner with everyone and then went to Albion to work there for an hour. We headed towards Pullman when my phone rang. It was the jail and they wanted to know where I was. It turned out my graveyard shift that I thought I was doing tomorrow night was supposed to be tonight. That royally sucked. I hadn’t slept since the morning. I wasn’t going to get any sleep at all and I knew that would mean I would be up for a long time. Also, because of all the softball on Sunday I figured I wouldn’t get a lot of sleep and I would be hurting.

I went home and put on my jail uniform and headed in. I was working with Brett. I was doing well for the first several hours. But as four o’clock in the morning was rolling around I was starting to get really tired. I had to be there until six in the morning. It sucked.

Indian Jail Birthday Theme

This evening I headed down to Eddy’s for the goodbye party for Ken. We were having dinner and dessert. We had some stories about Ken and he told us about the latest in his life and his family. Pete said we were going to frame an on-call schedule for Ken, but we couldn’t find one that he was on. Everyone started to crack up. That was a good roast. At the end of the meeting we talked about my situation at Pullman Fire. Annie and I spoke for a while longer outside. She is such a super great person. I love working with her. She said that when the time comes and Pete retires she would love to see me become the next coroner. She said she would help me in any way she could to help me do that.

Then I headed up to Zeppoz to hang out with Mitzel at his birthday party. It was his fortieth. The theme is a jail theme. People dressed in orange. They got Mitzel black and white stripes to wear. We laughed and jokes about the theme. I had a chance to talk with several people from the gang while I was there. It was nice to get a chance to hang out with everyone. I left around eleven to get home so I could get up early for softball tomorrow.

Alexithymia

This morning I went to the fire station to complete a class that I missed on Monday due to being out of town. It was on Wildland Urban Interface. It lasted about two hours. After the class I met with Heston to learn what I could do to interview better. He suggested getting some more certs. Maybe showing how I am using the certs I have. He said being very clear about my intention to making the fire department my number one priority. It sucks that actually demonstrating that fact doesn’t amount to anything. I just have to say it is my number one priority. It is not about what I have done or what I have shown I will do. It is about what I say I will do. Lesson learned. I let the him know I am actively searching for a job and I don’t know what my future holds as I now need money and I am going to be more willing to accept a job.

After that, I headed home to send a couple E-mails to the people I interviewed with. One was to the first interview that went real poorly. I said that I understand I didn’t do well in the interview, but I can code. I sent some more samples of code and let him know that code I wrote in the document he gave me to fill out was not a copy and paste from the Internet. He E-mailed me back and said I am not a good fit for the team I interviewed for, but there may be another spot for me.

I also E-mailed the company that I interviewed for in Bellevue. We didn’t cover any of my code. So I sent a sample of the code, the sample I put together for the interview. I also reiterated some of my strong points letting them know I would do a great job if given the chance. I don’t know how far that will go. I am very hopeful for that. But I am not holding my breath too much.

I heard back from them as well. It pretty much said that the code would be forwarded. I just hope they forwarded my E-mail message as well.

I went to the jail and worked this evening down there. I went to Rosauers to get some dinner because I didn’t feel like chicken. While there a couple of the deputies were getting dinner. I was asked by one of them when I was going to work next. He is the one that I have sort of had a internal problem with recently and the reason why I have been staying away. So I just sort of changed the subject and said slightly under my breathe that I have been busy.

I was in a mood that was one I could not describe. I have so many things going through me right now. There is the frustration over not getting the job at PFD. There is this feeling like some people are nice to me, but are not really friends, even though I would love for them to be friends. There was the desire not to be at the jail. The personal issue I have on the patrol side. The hope for getting the job in Bellevue. The desire to stay in Pullman to complete this softball season. The sleepiness that I had going too. I feel like I need to just get to the top of some building and scream and yell my lungs off. I need to thrown things and be violent with clay pigeons. I just need to get this feeling out of me. It feels like I have tucked it deep inside and on the surface most people don’t even know these horrible feelings I am having. I am playing it off very well. If I were to act the way I was feeling people would know there was a problem, but there is nothing that anyone can do about the fact I didn’t get the job. Though I feel like a total loser for not getting it. I feel like the politician who should have won an election, but someone else ended up winning showing the politician that people really don’t like him as much as he thought.

Special Day at the Pigs

I went to lunch at the Three Pigs with Jon, Terry, and Jim. Normally they go Thursday’s but today was a special day because I was in town.

The boys had some playoff baseball games tonight. I went to Justin’s game. Jon is one of the coaches of the team. I watched several innings of the game. Then I left to go home and work on some of the code that I needed to bring in to the interview that I have tomorrow. After I was done making sure it was clean I sent it to Jon to have him look at it. He said it looked good. I packaged it up and put it on my thumb drive ready for tomorrow’s interview.

Final Seattle Interview

I had an interview this morning at one other place. It was in Bellevue. I really want to get this job. I like the location and I like the size of the company. They sat me at a computer and had me do some SQL queries. I was going okay on some of them and not too good on other ones. They allowed me to do some searches for the answer if I didn’t know for sure. When it was done I don’t think I was as fast as they would have liked. I didn’t have the best of feelings when I left, but I am hopeful. I hit the road and headed back to Colfax. Because I was in my interview clothes I stayed in those to work the jail. I ended up staying in control for the whole night. I didn’t have to do any rounds. That was a nice change.

Job Interviews

I drove to Seattle late night so I could go to a couple job interviews today. The first one was at Microsoft. It would be working for one company and then getting sent to be part of a team doing work for Microsoft. This was the technical portion of the interview. It didn’t got too great. The question was about lists and array’s. I just don’t do them enough to be able to discuss them very well. When it was all said and done the interviewer spent most of the time at the white board writing stuff and I ended up writing two words. I haven’t heard back from them yet. I doubt I will.

The next interview was with a company in downtown Seattle. It was for a company that has an ecommerce website. The guy who does it now is a Brit. As the interview went on I started to see him as hotter and hotter. His accent was just great to listen to. Then it was his hair. I just wanted to stay talking to him. But it was not to be. The interview ended. I just wanted to stay though because the more I talked to him the more attractive I was finding him. The style he did was fun. He showed a simple webpage that had some calculator functions.

In the evening I was watching House. While that was on I texted back and forth with Peter a little bit. Then I talked to Russell. He was in Bellevue. We met up there and caught up. When I showed up he ran out to meet me and gave me a hug. We went inside and talked. He was telling me about his schooling and the networking that he is doing. We went to my rig and continued to talk for about another hour. I was telling him about my situation with the job interviews and my situation at Pullman Fire and my long term livelihood in Pullman. I let him know that I am resigned to the fact that I will be moving back to Seattle soon.

Early Sunday Rig Checks.

We are doing an early rig check today. I got to the station around three o’clock and started to do rig checks on the engine. I got it almost completed when the other guys showed up. We were going to meet at four, but I wanted to make sure I was done in time to get to softball. When rig checks were done I went home and got my softball uniform on.

I headed down to the field and we had ten people on the nose. I played first base the whole time. We won pretty easily. I didn’t hit the ball great, but it was fun to get out on the field. We are undefeated so far this year. We had a good team for sure!

I then hit the road and headed back to Seattle. I had several interviews over the next couple days and the first one is at nine in the morning in Redmond at the Microsoft campus.