New Computer Purchased

Jon went to Frys today to get my HPE-170f model computer. It should be pretty cool. He is going to ship it out tomorrow. I am excited about getting it.

I went to the SO to write up my ticket I wrote the other day. I also got the hours for the reserves for ought-nine updated. I talked to Cooper about setting up a board for moving to first class. He at first said that until the gas prices go down he isn’t going to do it. I said that I would like to get first class so I am eligible for some of the paid things. I think he was messing with me. Then he said “we will get it done”.

Later he said that I probably wont pass my first time through. I said I understood that, but I figured that if I had one I would know what I need to work on to improve.

I left the SO and went to the rig checks. We went to station one to get some tarps that were missing from Rescue from when we were having the pipe breaks. We ran a couple calls tonight. It was another night where we had some calls in the wee-hours in the morning. I decided to stay up late after we got back from the last call. I was up until six in the morning. I got into an E-mail conversation with Kuhrt during this time.

Teaching First Aid

This morning I worked with Darren from the WSU PD to teach first aid to the police interns. We started at seven in the morning. I went with Darren to get him some coffee. Then we were getting the room ready. I moved the table and knocked his coffee onto the ground. That sucked. I didn’t mean to do that and I felt really bad.

The first part of the class was bad because everyone was so tired they were not really into it and they all had blank looks. But as we got closer to lunch and after lunch they were really getting into it. Darren and I traded off with some of the sections giving examples and talking about some of the key points. As the class was coming to an end an echo response came out on the radio.

I helped Darren clean up the classroom. We went to the WSU PD station where I got a copy of the class roster. I went home and started to look up information about a new computer. I’ve spent the last couple days trying to find a new computer and I’m having a hard time because of all the information I’m finding on the Internet.

I got a call from Richards. He wanted to know if I wanted to go see a movie with him. I said that I would. We went to see the Book of Eli. It was interesting. I didn’t know what to expect with it. It was an interesting movie. I was thinking in some ways it reminded me of Mad Max. But it had a different plot. It kept me entertained through out.

I went home and spent some more time looking for the computer. I decided that I would get the Gateway model I found on their site, but I couldn’t find it anywhere online. I finally called Fry’s and I learned it was discontinued. But Fry’s had a brand new HP with the nearly identical specs. It was an Intel Core i7 with nine gig of RAM. It has a one-TB HD with Windows Seven. It has one-point-eight gig of video memory with two DVI plugs. It has a DVD burner with LightScribe. It is a pretty sweet system. I asked Jon if he would get it for me and send it to me. He is going to get it tomorrow for me.

John came over and we started to play cards. We tried to get a game going but only Richards was able to come over. We played until three in the morning. We played Acey-Deucy. Blake got hose four times when he said “Pot It”. I was laughing so hard.

At the end of the night I was up about two or three bucks. It had been a while since we last played cards.

Follow Up in the Valley

Because my computer crashed on me I didn’t have work to do and I wanted to do some follow up. I contacted Melcher about going out and doing the follow up. I went to the SO and made some phone calls and set up one interview.

We went down and did some interviews. We looked up information while we were down there trying to find evidence. We also hit Panda Express for dinner again. This case has been interesting because it our first we have been able to investigate with people to interview and leads to run down.

On the way back I saw a car going pretty fast. Turned out it was fifteen over in a forty-five. I stopped and had a chat with the driver. Then we got back to the station and I headed home because it was nearly eleven and I had to get up early for the first aid class tomorrow.

Solo Patrol

I got up this morning to deal with my computer problem. I went to get a new IDE hard drive. But those are not as easy to find as they use to be. I had to go to Cactus Computer to get one. I put it into the computer. But the machine wouldn’t go. The fans fired up, but the green light showing the computer is on wouldn’t light up. I worked on it for a while, but it wouldn’t work. I finally unplugged everything and started with pretty much just the base computer but that still wasn’t working.

After talking to Cactus Computer I found it that the socket nine-three-nine motherboards were made when there were bad capacitors. It turned out nearly all them were bowed out. I was told that was the reason it was bad. So I went to R-Tech because he had some new motherboards that would work for my computer, but they didn’t have the right video card slot. So I didn’t get one. I speced out a computer there. But it would run about five hundred and I am not sure that is the best way to go. So I thought I would look at some new quad cores.

I went home and started to look up new computers. But it was information overload. There are so many different models and I don’t want to get a no-name computer.

I left to go to the SO for our meeting. When it was done we did our training. Then I went out on the road with M. Brown. We went north on one-ninety-five then south on twenty-seven. He was feeling bad. He got permission for me to continue the night by myself. I was so stoked to be in my own car. I did an hour in Albion then hit two-seventy. I made a stop and wrote a ticket. On the way to the station I got one more. Both were double-digits over.

I wrote up my tickets and it was nearly three in the morning. I called the Nez Perce jail about listening to some phone calls that the jail records. I was told to see a specific person on dayshift. So my plan it to go tomorrow.

Starting a Theft Case

Because I didn’t have the direction I needed to get work done today I called Melcher about hitting the road. He said he was good to do it. I picked him up and we went to the county. We went north and west in the county. While in St. John we got a call for a theft in the Port of Wilma. We responded and got a signed report. Then we started the investigation. It was pretty neat. We worked with a cop down in Lewiston. We did a couple interviews of people.

On the way back Melcher and I spent time chatting with each other. We both enjoyed the day and where the investigation was going. We spent nearly six hours doing that in the valley. It was a great time. I have more work to do on it, but I am looking forward to the challenge.

A Busy Night on Call

I went to Keegan’s and we both filled out the application for Whitcom. We turned it in and then went to Winco together. He was doing some grocery shopping for dinner. I had to be on call tonight so I had to leave, but we were talking and I just didn’t want to get out of there. Finally it was close to six and I had to run. He gave me a hug and I was on my way.

This evening we were supposed to have HazMat training. But instead we ran out on some calls. It turned out to be a busy night where we got a call. Then we had to wash the rig. We got home for about an hour and a half and then we were back out on the road. It happened until nearly four in the morning that way.

Starting a New Body for Life Run

This morning I started a new body for life challenge. But I didn’t make it to the gym. But I am making sure I stay with the eating portion. I am eating six times a day with smaller portions and less calories. But I need to get to the rec center and get some swimming done at the very least.

I spent most of the mid-morning and afternoon working on the UI for the S.R. contract. It felt good to get done what I got done, but now I have to do the hard part. That is hooking it up to the database to save data.

I had training at the fire department tonight. We were covering the SCBA quarterlies as well as some practice with the RIT pack. It took a while to get everyone through the training.

When the class was done I went home and messed around on the computer for a while before I went off to bed.

SO then FD

So there I was. Working the road with Rich. We worked a dog complaint first thing. Then we went north to help take a runaway case. After that was done we started to run traffic on SR Twenty-Six.

We didn’t have a lot of luck early on. It was pretty slow going. There was a lot of traffic of people coming back from Christmas Break. But they were not flying so much.

After it got dark we went worked the fifty-five mile per hour area. We got a few stops through that area. Rich had to be gone at six o’clock for something else. That was okay because I had to go to the fire station for weekly rig checks.

I helped finish up the check on rescue and then put the rigs back after the bays were washed out. We got a call before we left. Then we had one more in the wee-hours of the morning. It was a pretty tame night over all. But Christmas Break is over and I suppose we are going to get a lot of calls again.

Keegan the Dispatcher?

I was doing work on the maps for Pullman Fire for while and I also got the photos edited and ready to print. But I need a couple more photos.

Then I went to Whitcom for about an hour with Keegan to show him around the dispatch center. When we parted ways and I headed home.

I went to the fire station to put the maps and some photos from the badge pinning on the computer. I didn’t stay up too late because I was working the road tomorrow with Rich.

More Hanging with Keegan

Keegan and I got together this afternoon and headed down to Clarkston to do some shopping at Costco. After we got back we went to his place and sat around chatting. He is a good looking guy. I would love to do something more than just be friends with him, but I am not going to move it to the next level. I am going to let him make that decision. I don’t want to push it if that is not where he would like to go with things.

I went to the fire station and we did our daily rig checks as well as listened to a police chase that was happening. They caught the guy which was good.

We got a couple calls this evening as I worked to redo the map tests for Pullman. It took several hours to update the maps. I was going to redo the whole entire thing but I realised quickly that it would take way too much time to do that with little gain. So I just retrofitted the old tests with new streets.

Watching the Championship with the Guys

I got up and went to the doctor for my follow up for my ankle surgery. I went to the Three Pigs to have lunch with Jon, Terry, and Jim. After that was done I hit the road to get back to Pullman. It wasn’t a bad trip. I made pretty good time. When I got to Pullman I went to TBAG to meet up with Blake, Blake, Chia, Chris, and their wives for the BCS championship game. We had some beer while watching the game. I have Keegan come down and hang out. It was nice to get him there. He fit in well with them and they told me they likes him. I just wish he was more than just a friend.

When it was done Pitch and I went to Zeppoz to play some cards. Chia came along as well. We played poker until nearly one in the morning. I was up and down most of the evening, but I ended up losing it all in the end.

Keegan and I spent more time texting back and forth for a while as I was getting ready to go to bed.

Movie with Peterman

I got my column completed and turned in for the newspaper. Then I hit the road I had to be in Renton by five for an online meeting. But as I was en route I got an E-mail saying it was cancelled. So I ended up going to the Eagles for dinner instead. First I got my mom’s new TV set up. Then I drove her to the Eagles. We had dinner.

I then it the road and went to the movie theatre to watch Law Abiding Citizen with Peter. I invited him down and I wasn’t sure if we would have our talk or not. We ended up not having it and he didn’t bring it up. I told him I wanted to talk to him about something, but I am having a hard time bring it up. One of these days I just need to bring it up.

The movie itself was very good. It had a lot of twists and turns I didn’t expect. I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect and I was not disappointed.

When it was done I went home and chatting with Keegan online for a short time before going to bed.

A Crazy Busy Day

It turned out my trip to Seattle today was delayed until tomorrow. I was going to get going in the morning, but due to the fact I really didn’t get my day started until after the noon hour I was behind the eight-ball. I started with a phone call for my new contract web job. It was clear that I should have read the e-mails. But from the ones I had read I was under a different impression. There are still issues with exactly what I need to get done. I guess I will get the UI work underway and work on hooking stuff up later on.

I went to Sprint to have my phone looked at. The year of some of my texts are coming back as twenty-sixteen. That was fixed by doing an update that was sent to my phone. I also considered updating my phone plan which will reduce my overall cost by about twenty bucks a month.

I went to the fire station to get some parts for a manikin for training tonight. I also talked to Ryan about getting the new maps made up for the map tests. I spoke with the chief about getting the career timesheets set up to work like the reserve timesheets I did. While I was showing the chief how it worked I found an error in a formula. The cells that I was looking for only covered about an eighth of what they should have covered. That meant I had a couple hours of work to update all the timesheets. That sucked. So when I got home I worked on that. It took me until nearly six to get done. But it is complete and I was able to update the server with the new timesheets.

I went to Colfax for fire training. We went over the King Airway. After practicing that I went to the SO to work on my supplemental report from the DUI from the other day. I also got my ticket written up and turned in.

When I got home I got a hold of Keegan on the computer. We went to Rico’s and sat there talking for about two hours. It was good to chat with him. He is a good looking guy. But he is just looking for friends, so I am not going to cross any lines. After we were done I went to shake his hand and he preferred to hug. So I gave him a hug.

Happy Birthday Partner.

Melcher and I went out to work the road today. We went to Albion to try to arrest someone on a warrant. We were not able to get the person, but we thought the person was there, just we couldn’t get him. We did an hour of time in Albion. Then we went to serve some papers. I was starting to feel horrible. I got some pain killers and my headache was not going away.

We went to McDonald’s for dinner. As we sat there for about an hour I started to feel much better. We ran some traffic on Twenty-Six. We found a guy doing twenty-five over and was failing to yield at first. Finally he stopped. Melcher wrote him.

When we were done we went to My Office. I bought Melcher a couple beers for his birthday. As we sat there I saw this guy shooting pool. Looking at him I was thinking he was barely twenty-one. After a while of shooting he came over and asked me if I had a dip. He didn’t see me having any, I think it was just an off chance that I would have one. I gave him a dip and then he sat down with his friend. Both were ten-six-seven. The guy who got a dip from me was blonde and looked like he was muscular. We were talking about what they were studying at WSU and what not. When they asked what we did, I told them I am a computer programmer. Melcher said he worked for a local company as an advisor.

All four of us stayed talking until the bar closed.

A New Friend

This evening we had weekly rig checks. It was only Parrish and I on duty tonight. We had a couple guys coming down to help us to the weekly rig checks. That was nice to have. It only took about two hours. Parrish and I had to go to the main station to get a couple things fixed before we went home.

I spent a while chatting online with a guy, Keegan, on g.com. We ended up having a great long conversation. He invited me to go have a coffee with him. He is only looking for friends. That is cool by me. He seems like a very nice guy.

I am a WSU Cop… For the day-ish

This afternoon I patrolled with Melcher. The only plans we had were to have break with Matt and Shane in Pullman around nine-thirty PM. Melcher started out as the driver. We went West a little bit, then we went North. There was a lot of traffic coming from Pullman because of the basketball game, but they were all doing a little under the speed limit over all. I started to drive after about two and a half hours. I took us on the Oakesdale Road. Then we went on Hume Road. My plan was to hit Dry Creek and sort of zigzag between One-Ninety-Five and Twenty-Seven on our way to Pullman for break.

But before we got off Hume road a traffic offense came out in Endicott. Jimmy answered up for us. So we started to head off that way. It was about someone who was drunk and driving. When we got to Endicott saw the car and stopped it. Melcher took the lead and did his first SFST’s in the field. He made the arrest. So when it was all said and done it was too late to have break with everyone else and we headed to Pullman to get ourselves some food.

Due to the fact it was after eleven o’clock and it is Christmas Break nothing was open but the grocery stores. We grabbed a sandwich. I drove out Two-Seventy and then back in on Airport Road. The frost was getting really bad on the roadways. It was so thick it looked like it had snowed. The roads were getting pretty slick. The major roads were not as bad because they were getting driven on.

I was getting ready to leave Pullman by driving up Davis way when we heard the Pullman cops asking for help looking for a vehicle involved in a burglary that just occurred. We stuck around and went out to the places they told us to look. We spent about an hour and a half looking.

It was getting late and everyone else was starting to do other things so we headed out and back to Colfax. It was getting close to three when we had to check-out of service. En route the radio traffic from Pullman was pretty broken but we heard some references to the deputies and then reserves. But nothing more. We fueled the car and got to the county shop to put it away. We opened the gate as the dispatchers requested all the county units to landline dispatch.

Melcher and I were asked to work WSU while all the local police were dealing with the burglary. So we returned to Pullman and went to the campus. We drove around looking at parking lots and various buildings. We hit pretty much every part of campus and their apartment buildings. We spent about two hours driving around checking stuff out. Then we were asked to do a transport of someone to jail. We completed that and returned to campus. Within a few minutes we were told we could clear as the others have been cleared as well. So then we went back to Colfax… again. And this time we were able to check out of service.

I went to the SO and did my paperwork for the evening. I was able to crawl into bed at seven o’clock in the morning.

Happy New Year “Oh-Ten”

I went to the fire station and put the timesheets I created for the reserves into their folders on the computer. I also had some scans for my Pullman Fire History archive that I placed onto the computer as well.

I worked on my annual review of the year. It is where I look at all my posts for the whole month and choose one to use as a highlight. Some months it is easy while some months have multiple options and I have a hard time choosing. It usually takes and hour or so to go through everything. It was clear being a reserve deputy was a major part of my year last year.

At around six I went to the fire station and did rig checks. Scott and I hung out there for several hours watching some bowl games on TV and talking. Before we left we got an EMS call. We transported and Rescue went to the hospital as well.

When we returned to the station we cleaned the rig and called it a night. That happened to be the only call we received for the evening.

Ought-Nine in Review

Jan – Mr. President – I wanted to be the class president. There were two possible candidates that most likely would have been voted for. Myself and one other guy who works in the jail right now. He also would have been a very fine pic. But it is something I want to do. The vote was held by Ross putting out the ballots. When the counting was done it was nearly unanimous. I am now the Ought-Eight Reserve class President.

Feb – Final Mock Scenes – Today was going to be a long day. I was expecting to be done around three or four in the afternoon, but today was the day I was going to prove I could do the job, or I would prove I need more work, or that I am just not cut out for being a cop. I have spent sixteen hours a week for nearly the last five months

Mar – First Day on Patrol – Following the swearing, Jimmy was doing a couple things at the SO before we left to hit the road. We went north on One-Ninety-Five looking for speeders. We pulled over one car, my first as a reserve deputy. I was the cover officer. I went to the car and the passenger was talking with me. The person was given a warning.

Apr – My Latest Oil Change – I have lifetime powertrain and bumper-to-bumper warranties. It has a DVD player built into the radio. I have a rearview camera and backup sensors. It has the Hemi with MDS so it shuts down some of the cylinders when they are not needed to help save fuel. It seems to have some get-up and go. It feel great to drive it. Plus it has the newer traction control system so I feel better about driving it on the bad roadways.

May – First Code Run – we got to the first address we needed to go to Endicott for a call to back up the others there. We were going code and just passed some cars on SR One-Ninety-Five. After we got past the Albion road a burglary in progress was put out in Albion. So I had to turn around and go back to Albion. So I went code past the cars I had just passed.

Jun – Contract with MH Terminated – Since April of Ought-Four I have been working as a software engineer for NetUpdate and then I was moved to MostHome when they bought out NU. I worked with them until I got notice today that my contract was going be terminated. The application that I worked on since I started with NU was a mortgage application. That was then sold to a competitor a couple months ago. I told MH that I wanted to remain on with them. But as it turned out the project I was put on just got sold off. So they are cutting their ties with me.

Jul – Second Class Reserve – I was told I was moved up to second class. They shook my hand and said they had great expectations for me. They all believe that I will do a fine job. That was great. Now, I just need to start to set up times to ride so I can work my way to first class.

Aug – Final Shift as a PFD Temp – We got on scene in the ambulance and were made into the backup team. We went to the attic where the seat of the fire was. Eric, who was on his first day back, was on the nozzle and put the fire out. It was still pretty small, but growing. It was lucky that we got there when we did and that the fire was not in the wee hours of the morning when it could have really taken off. I ended up putting in an hour and a half of overtime. So my full-time tally was one year, one month, four days and one and a half hours. It has been a good run.

Sept – Bushwood Golfs Again – I was hot on my short game. The problem is that we would use after we all hit a drive we would pick one. From that point each person hit his own ball to the hole. I didn’t do too poorly. I was able to keep up in score. In fact my putting made me lead some of the holes. I had some very nice putts including two there were around thirty footers for birdies. It felt great.

Oct – IM Championship Bound – I hit the ball well, as did the team. Our defense was very good. We went on to win and go to the Semi-finals. We were playing a team that had been using an illegal bat. Once they were called on it, in the previous game, they couldn’t hardly score. It turned out we shut them out. We scored nine runs. We didn’t hit the ball as well as I would have hoped, but we won. Ryan said it best, this is the most worried I have felt in a shut out. We never had a big enough lead that put me at ease. Not until we scored the ninth run and the other team no longer had a chance to win because of the eight-run limit.

Nov – Gay Firefighter – Then I was asked a question about how I feel I am treated being a gay in the fire department. I said since I have been outed to everyone I don’t feel that I have ever been treated poorly due to being gay. Chris let me know that he has known for years. He said that pretty much everyone on the fire department on the career side knows. He said there are probably only a couple people who don’t really know. He said that they probably have been told, but think that people are screwing with them. It is without a doubt that the information is told to everyone. I am not sure who actually tells the others but the information is freely available. But once again no one treats me differently.

Dec – Search for Missing Hunter – I was teamed up with three young men. It turned out it was the son of the missing man and his friends. They wanted to put a member of the SO with each team going out searching. We were sent down the road a ways to start our search. The son was leading the way as he knew the area well. We made our way along some level ground. There was about four inches of new snow. It was covering rocks on the ground so we had to be careful where we stepped.

This years review shows many things that were related to being a reserve Deputy. I guess that is the major thing that has happened to me over this last year. I am now a sworn reserve law enforcement officer. Many of the writings I had through out the year dealt with the class or going out to patrol. I also had an unusual suicide where I was able to trace the night leading up to the death of a young man. It was very unusual and probably affected me more than any other death I investigated. It didn’t make the list this year because the fact that I am a gay man who is a firefighter is something I am always thinking about. When it was finally brought up with some people I have never talked to about it before it was a big conversation to me. It was nice to hear his perspective. Ought-Nine was a good year overall. I had some frustrations at the fire department, but they were overall small in the grand scheme of life. I am jobless, but I do have a new contract where I will finally start to bring in some money again. It has been a year that I am happy with.

Final Day of the Decade

I went to the fire station and met with Brenda about the reserve timesheets. I also met up with Ryan about the map tests and the upcoming fire academy. I am going to be making the timesheets for the reserves this year. I also was integrating the timelog into the timesheet Excel workbook. But more importantly something I have been working on is the ability to fill out the timelog and have it automatically fill in the timesheet. That is now completed. I also let Ryan know about some of the things I didn’t like about the academy in the past. I also let him know the map tests are worthless for proving guys know the roads. So often they pass the test with one-hundred percent, but still are clueless when they get on the street.

I went home and started to work on the new spreadsheet. I had the basic stuff done for the timecard. I just did some tweaking on it to make it closer to the ones we currently use. The timelog has some updates to it. Then I started to put the two together.

I was trying to create a master workbook that would have every one’s name and employee number. It would also include the pay. Then if information needed to be updated on any reserve it would only have to be updated in one spot and the workbooks would get that information by linking to the master. But I was running into problems. That is because I didn’t want to hard code each firefighters workbook, I wanted to be able to have one spot where I put the firefighter number in their workbook and Excel would then take that number and concatenate it with the column number in order to get the correct data. But that is not nearly as easy as it sounds. I found a function called INDIRECT, but it only works when the master spreadsheet is also open. That is not going to work for what I want to do.

Finally I had to give up on that idea for this year. I just made a master in the workbook and the data would be updated there. So it is still only one place to update the pay information for people. But if four people need their pay information updated it will require opening up four spreadsheets rather than one. But I got the whole set done. I hope the guys like it. I know several thought it was cool with mine, because I was testing out the process. Now that I know it works I asked Heston about doing it for everyone. He said go ahead. Several of the guys who saw me using it this last year wanted me to do that for them. So I am sure for the most part guys will like it. But as with all change there are some guys who hate change and will complain about it no matter what.

I went to the Deuce and met up with Suggy for working the WSU Men’s Basketball game. They were playing Oregon in the Pac-Ten opener. The first half was not very solid for the Cougs. But in the second half they started to come alive. They had an eight-zero and a ten-zero run. Soon it was tied up. With about thirty seconds to go the Cougs had the ball. But they ended up wasting too much time on the clock. That caused them to have to take a poor shot and it was missed. That put the game into OT. In the first OT the Cougs had a five point lead, but it came down to a dunk by Casto in the final second of the game. The Cougs were up by two and the crowd went crazy. There was three-tenths of a second left on the clock. But the Cougs were assessed a technical foul for celebration. They gave the Ducks to free-throws. The guy made both and they tied it up and went to a second OT. The second one was closer. But the game ended when the Cougs had the ball with less than ten seconds to go. It was tied. The Cougs missed the shot. The Ducks got it and drove hard to the bucket. They made it and got fouled. They celebrated without penalty. They made the freethrow going up by three with, again, three-tenths of a second. But the Cougs couldn’t come back and lost. I was so mad. It was crushed. It felt the highest of highs only to be crushed.

During the game I talked to Kuhrt and he was seeing what I was doing for New Years. I told him that I had no plans. He said I should come over. He said he would get in touch with me after the game. I went home and completed my project to work on the timesheets. I got a text from Kuhrt to come over. I headed that way. When I got to his place we watched some TV and talked shop. I asked him questions about the way he learns and remembers traffic laws. We had a couple drinks. At midnight we toasted the new year. It was a nice evening with the Kuhrt’s and their pets.

Another Day Patrolling in the Snow

Melcher and I met up at seven in the morning to patrol. It was pretty quiet. We were stopping a lot of cars. It was sort of a ticket day as we wrote a total of five tickets. When the day started it was snowing lightly and the roads were snowy and icy. When I was up on One-Ninety-Five I had a car go by me at seventy-five. I turned on it. With how icy it was we had a hard time doing the turn quickly. We were slipping and sliding. I told Melcher if the car kept going that fast we would not get caught up to it because I wasn’t going to go that fast to get it. But we did catch up to it. I wrote the driver for that one.

Later had lunch with BKoe and KStew. It was a pretty nice day over all. We didn’t have any calls to deal with. I am pretty much a call killer.

Christmas Vacation is Over

This morning I got my rig packed and got ready to drive to Pullman. I got to Colfax around three in the afternoon. I worked on the reserve hours for the sheriff’s office. I went to Colfax Fire and hung out there for a while. Scott and I talked for a while about D-Twelve getting a Colfax Ambulance.

Later we had a coroner’s meeting. Anna brought in a cake for my birthday. We went over some cases and got our coverage set up for the month of January. It was a normal two hour meeting.

When I got home I downloaded a program for my cellphone that turns it into a wireless hotspot. That way I can use my laptop when I am not at home nor near other hotspots. I hope to get it set up to use while I am patrolling.

Seeing Mr. T.

I went to Issaquah to return my extra set of router bits. I bought some blades for my saws and a couple various tools. Then I met up with Mr. Thuot in Issaquah at Starbucks. We were there for several hours talking about life and health. We talked a little bit about ICS systems and his speaking tour that he did where he went to several cities to talk about dealing with major events at a school setting.

I hung out with Dave this evening. Tomorrow is his birthday. We went to Shari’s for dinner. I had pizza with my mom so I just had some pop. We sat there talking about life and work. Then we went to see the movie The Hangover. The Regal Thirteen theatre is now a second run theatre. They had lots of older movies there. When the movie was done Dave and I said our goodbyes and I headed home for the night.

Seeing Pond After Ten Years

I went to Burien to meet up with Chris. He was taking me on another ride along. It is so a great pleasure to be out there with Chris. I love to see him working. He has found his calling by being a cop.

It was pretty quiet over all. We responded on some minor calls, nothing too major. A call for harassment, a truck that hit a fence when it rolled after it popped out of gear, there were a couple warrant checks on people, and we looked for a car that flew by us. We found it parked next to a house. The guy lied about the car. He said it didn’t run, but it was warm. Then he said it runs, but he doesn’t drive it because the tabs are expired.

After riding with Chris, I drove South near Spanaway to see an old roommate. I had not seen him for about ten years. It had been a long time. We had been roommates at one time while I was staying in Pullman for the summer when I was first staying in Pullman for the summer. He is a mo. He always was interested in me, but I wasn’t so interested in him because back then I was not a big fan of being gay. Not that a lot has changed, but I am a little more comfortable. But I still have issue with being with another gay guy. I would love to find someone who I would love to be with, but I have yet to find that guy.

Softball in the Winter

I thought my softball stuff was put away for the winter, but there was a softball pick-up game in Seattle that I was able to play in. It was put on by a guy who plays softball in the ECSA. Several others who played also are in the ECSA. Two of the guys really caught my eye. One was an athletic guy. He play shortstop for my team. He had the couple-day facial hair growth going for himself. I would have placed him in the cute category. The other guy was a little more of my kind of guy. He was blonde hair and blue eyes. He had a nice smile and also was athletic. He wasn’t over weight, but he had some bulk about him. He wore a baseball hat with a well rounded bill. He was ten-six-seven.

We played about an hour and a half of softball total. I was hitting the ball well. I had a fielding error. I let a ball go under my glove. But I had a great time.

I headed up to Bellingham to see Joe and Doug. I was also doing a ride along with Joe. I got to their place and we chatted about their house and about their cats. Then Joe and I hit the road. It was a pretty quiet night over all. I got a chance to see him do a DRE evaluation for someone suspected of being on drugs. I headed home at three in the morning.

Merry Christmas!!!

When I got up this morning my stepdad was making brunch. We had bacon and crapes. I helped to clean up then we opened gifts. I made out pretty well. I got cold weather underarmour, patrol gloves, router bits, patrol boots, tennis shoes, US Mint proof set, Apples to Apples, Trivial Pursuit, and a new shower head. It was pretty much every thing I asked for on my list. I have two pair of patrol gloves and two router bit sets. I am going to return one router bit set. I may return the patrol gloves for a different pair or get something totally different.

I sent and received lots of Christmas wishes. I also received an invite to play softball tomorrow. I am looking forward to that!

I went to my room and watched TV. Billy was coming over for dinner. He got here just before five. I was watching Quincy so I waited until that was done before I went down stairs. We were having fatback with gravy and potatoes. It was a good meal.

We all watched some TV together. Around nine o’clock I went to my room and started to watch some more TV as I was falling asleep. I wanted to stay up later than I did so I could be more ready for my ride along tomorrow.

Christmas Eve with the Family

This morning the plan was to go shopping for some stuff for my mom and stepdad. I decided to brave the mall and go to Southcenter. I posted that on facebook and people were sending messages about me wearing kevlar and to R.I.P. Southcenter is a little more rough than when I was younger, but it didn’t seem bad at all yesterday.

As I navigated through out the mall and some of the stores I found myself face to face with ten-six-sevens. There was one that had a perfect face with perfect skin. I was in awe. Maybe that helped to make the trip there so nice.

But as I walked around from store to store looking for ideas I was coming up blank. I couldn’t find anything that I wanted to buy. It sucked. So I texted Jon who said I should get mom a gift card. I ended up getting one for Bill as well.

I got home and watched the Rockford Files then headed to Jon’s for dinner and the gift exchange. We had Chinese food and everyone sat around talking. We talked about guns and computer programming.

I got router bits and patrol gloves for Christmas. I also got a birthday present of Office Two-Thousand-Seven from Jon and his family.

I headed out around ten o’clock to head home. It was a nice time with the family.

I’m an Eagle

I went to the SO today to drop off my stuff from my last two coroner’s cases. Then I went to report writing to write up a ticket that I wrote on Monday. After that I went into the jail and made the calendar for late night requests. I have been making that calendar since ninety-nine. I also updated the photoboard with for the year of two-thousand-ten. The board had years that ended in ninety-nine. I have been fixing it since the turn of the century.

Then it was off to Renton. I got home and then went to the Eagles. I was getting initiated today. I had dinner then waited to be initiated. After the initiation I went to Fry’s Electronics to get a radio for Jon for Christmas. I looked at some computers while I was there as well. I have been thinking about getting one, but the one I currently have really is just fine. The fan is loud, but I can fix that for a few bucks and I would save myself from spending a ton of money on a computer right now.

Movie Night: The Hangover

I was supposed to be on my way to Renton today, but due to the coroner’s case last night I stayed in town an extra day. I worked the coroner’s case for part of the day. I went to Moscow and got a Christmas gift for BKoe. I also got myself a copy of the movie the Hangover.

I was asked by Reed to cover him on the fire department. So I invited Melcher, Rose, and Gecas over to watch the movie with me at my place. So it was an impromptu movie night. The guys came over and we watched the movie.

The only calls we got were all for a fire alarm at the Village Centre Theatres. We were dispatched there three times tonight. We only ended up responding once, but we kept getting toned out and waking me up.

Three Hats Today

This morning Melcher and I hit the road. I was working out there until five o’clock. I am on call for the fire department starting at six. We hit the road and ran some traffic on twenty-six. We met up with BKoe, KStew, and Monte for lunch at Cougar Country. We ran a fresh arrest to Colfax for BKoe. Then we went north and ran more traffic. We made a couple stops along the way. We got back to the station and I was out of there around five. I got to the station and rig checks were done.

Robinson and I hung out at the station for a couple hours. But we didn’t have any calls while we were there. I went home and I was online chatting with someone on facebook when a call came in for an injured person with blood. As I got to the station I heard the person wasn’t breathing and was cold. We got cancelled quickly as it turned out the person was dead.

It wasn’t very long before I went to the scene as a coroner. I told Pete that I was on call for the fire department and I might need to leave if a call came in. I worked the case for a couple hours on scene and then at the funeral home. After I was done with the funeral home the tones went out for a fire alarm. I went to the station and we headed out on it. We were cancelled nearly right away. That was all we had for calls, but because of the coroner’s case I didn’t get to bed until late.

Hanging with B-Shift

This morning I was going to bed at seven o’clock in the morning. I got up just before one o’clock PM. I went to the fire station and gave them some fudge to try. When I was there Chia asked if I wanted to stay for a movie. I did. We watched Inglorius Basterds. That is a pretty good movie. I watched it a while back in the movie theatre as well.

When the movie was done I went home and put in a couple loads of laundry. I wanted to get that done before my trip to Renton on Tuesday.

I had planned on watching my Sunday night shows, but that didn’t happen because they were re-runs.

A Cop on a Car Accident

I went out on Patrol with Melcher today. It was sort of a last minute thing. I wanted to go out and I made the call. He was up for it. We met up and hit the road. Today was “ticket day”. We were going to hit it hard. Turns out we wrote one ticket on about six stops. That is pretty par for the course. I was really getting hungry, to the point where it felt like I was getting some reflux going on. We went to Subway and had some dinner. Just after I completed my last bite a call came in for a rollover car accident with road blockage. We were the closet cops there. We got on scene first and started to check stuff out. I went to run the plate on the vehicle. I said “Idaho plate, through… [I started to realize I was going to say something stupid] Idaho. Well duh! I already said it was through Idaho. The Colfax Rescue guys got there and poked some fun at me after the call.

Melcher and did traffic control around the accident for about two hours following the ambulance’s leaving. Then we were on our way in to town. We heard one of the deputies asking for a couple more units. He asked them to expedite. We made our way there after asking if they wanted us. That was our final task. We spent the rest of the evening at the hospital dealing with a person who had been transported there from the jail. We were mostly just standing by. I was there until six-thirty in the morning when I things were finally winding down for the most part. I was tired. I wasn’t expecting to be out that late for sure!

Happy Thirty-Sixth Scotty

This morning I had a critique for a car accident. It was the one where the guy hit the two pedestrians. When the critique was over I stuck around for a little while talking to some of the people there. A couple people wished me a happy birthday. I was also getting a lot of birthday wishes on facebook as well.

Ryan met up with me at my house right about eleven. We took my truck to get the alternator worked on. Then it was off to my place. We made some fudge. But the first batch was not right. I cooked the base ingredients too long. It was dry. I tried a second one and more or less did the same thing. So I messed up back-to-back batches. We went to Moscow to Hastings to look at some movies. I wanted to buy the Hangover. We then went to Walmart. But they didn’t have the unrated version available.

We went to my place and I tried a third batch of fudge. But because I was scared to cook it too long, I think I went too short and it was a little too creamy for what I like. But overall it is going to work out.

We then got ready to go bowling at Zeppoz. I met up with the Young’s, Richards, Gollnick, Keeton, BKoe, the Caessens’. Ron and Heather came down as well as Dan and Michele. Jessie also came by. She brought me some crack for my birthday. We bowled several games. I wasn’t bowling very well. But BKoe did awesome. He had two games over two hundred. He also got a game with no open frames. After bowling for several hours we called it a night at Zeppoz. Ryan had to leave to drive back to Spokane. Richards, Gollnick, and I went to Sports Page. We played several games of pool over the next couple hours. In the first game I played I nearly ran the table on John. I was sinking all my shots. But as the night went on I got worse and worse, without the help of alcohol to get worse.

It was a good birthday. I was happy to get a chance to be with friends. They make it special.

Recovered…

It took several days but I think I am finally getting back to normal. I have been running pretty hard for the last several days and I needed to just relax and not work or do much of anything. That was today.

I was going to meet up with the guys from the Reserve class but it turned out being cancelled. So I got to the station and no one else was there from the class. I hung out with the guys from the station for a little while. I invited them to come out to my bowling party tomorrow.

Happy Twenty-Fifth Pritch

This morning we had a critique for one of the two recent fires at Terrace Estates. It really didn’t bring out a lot other than some communication issues and dealing with the cold.

Later on I had a transfer in the city with Chuck. I got a rescue crew to come along to help us with lifting. It was a round trip to the hospital and back to her residence.

After the transfer I had some time before I had to head off to the Rimrock Search critique. On the way down I called Chia to see what he was doing on Friday. He then said they were out with Pritch at Zeppoz for his birthday. They said I needed to come. But because I am going to the critique and on call I didn’t think I would make it out.

I was near Zeppoz when that conversation took place. I popped into Zeppoz and wished Blake a happy birthday. I said hello to the other guys who were there before hitting the road for Colton.

This critique was a lot more involved than the one from this morning. We started with a slide show the Sheriff put together. Then they talked about how the search was started. Then on to things that went well. That was pretty brief. Then we talked about things that didn’t go well. There was a bit of a longer list.

Several of the things they came out with were valid. One was communication problems. One was not having an ambulance or a visible designated EMS team for the searchers. Then there were a couple things that caused some grief that I was involved in. One was the use of the Spokane mountain rescue team to help with the recovery. I spoke up as to what my thoughts were. Pretty much when we are in recovery mode, there is no hurry and safety is of the utmost importance. Then there was one issue I brought up where I blocked the only pathway to get people out of the area where they searched. I got committed and I couldn’t move. That caused some people to get upset because they wanted to get out of there and they were forced to wait. I explained what my mistake was and how I intended to correct it in the future. Pretty much, it was, me being the last unit out of an area like that.

When the critique was over with I think people were overall happy with the command and the decisions made. We learned a little.

I came back to Pullman. I called up another guy on the fire department to see if he would cover for me so I could go out with the guys. I was able to get coverage. I went to the hill. I met up with the two Blakes, Chia, Chuck, Timmy, and Mully at the Coug. I had two beers while there.

Later we went to ValHalla for some more action. I didn’t drink anything there. Ross was working and we talked for a while before I made my way to the other guys. Chuck and I were talking about his upcoming promotion to Senior Firefighter. Chia was getting ready to go so we said goodbye to him.

After we left there we went to Mike’s. While at Mike’s a guy who Ben introduced me to a couple weekends ago was there. He saw me and came over to say hello and wish me a happy birthday. He is ten-six-seven and a very nice person. I enjoyed playing pool with him when we were at Mike’s before. He told me to remember him when it came to softball season this Spring. I told him I would for sure.

Blake, Chuck, and I went to TLD after we left Mike’s. We got a burrito to go. I went home and went to bed.

Daytime on the Road

I worked the road today with Melcher. We met up at ten o’clock and hit the road. We took a nine-one-one hang up. That was about the extent of our major responses. We hit lunch in Pullman. I drove for a while. We drove south towards the state line. I also drove us by the search area on Rimrock Road.

I was going to make a stop. But the driver stopped just after I got turned around and we were in a dead spot. I was able to get out as I was making the stop, but nothing more. So soon they were sending units to check on us. The Sheriff, the chaplain, Colfax Police Chief, and a trooper were all coming. Melcher took the stop and wrote a ticket as fast as possible. Then we got into radio communication where we were able to let them know we were okay.

I was supposed to have a meeting on the phone with the company I am doing the contract work for. But before the meeting time I got notified that it was cancelled. So Melcher and I stayed on the road longer. I got back in time for board and business at Colfax Fire. We covered the end of the year things such as the Fireman’s Toybox and the yearly elections.

After the meeting I went to the SO and worked on some reports that I had to complete from previous nights out on patrol.