Missing SouthPark

November 30th, 2005

When I got to work Brian was here already. We worked on some of the issues that we usually have to work on. We spent time chatting about things as well. It was a typical day for us. Today we were talking about and trying to fix the sort order of loan programs. After some work I discovered what the problems were and we were able to put a theory in motion and run with it to a tester on Thursday.

After I got done working I headed home. I just hung out and watched some TV with the family. We watched CSI:Miami which means that I had to miss SouthPark tonight. I hope to catch it later this week.

Ready to Launch

November 29th, 2005

Ready to Launch is the Microsoft’s launch party name for Visual Studio.NET Ought-Five and SQL Server Ought-Five. For attending the all day event I got a copy of each of those applications. Both of which are expensive items.

It started with getting up early and meeting Jon in Eastgate to take the bus to Seattle’s Convention Center. It took about twenty to thirty minutes to get there. We had to walk a couple blocks to get there.

Once inside we got checked in. Then had a roll for breakfast. It was time for the keynote speech. I was so tired by the end of each event along the way I was falling asleep. I was having a hard time staying awake. We got a lunch supplied to us. Then we had more events to go to. Jon and I ended up leaving before the last one. We walked to the bus and took it a few blocks to where he works. We were only there for a few minutes then we went to catch another bus to get back to Eastgate.

At the event I saw Todd Otis and Michael Langford. Some old faces from college. I also ran into Ricky and Andrew from work.

After I got to Eastgate I got in my truck and Jon lead me around some back roads to get to the Newport Parkway without having to drive through all the lights.

I got home for dinner and watching House on TV.

Feeling Sick

November 28th, 2005

I am waking up early because of my coughing. It is no fun for sure. I do not like waking up because of coughing. Because I was up so early I decided to head to work early. There was a lot of traffic because of how early it was. I hate that. I love driving in Pullman where traffic is very light to non-existent.

I started by getting some dev work completed today. I am hoping to get all my bugs closed out by the end of the month and being done with it.

After work I headed home. I was waiting to hear back from the realtor to see if the guy will accept the counter-offer on my house. I also talked to Dave finally. He has been without his cell phone all weekend so I was not able to get a hold of him. We made some plans to hang out later this week.

A day without power

November 27th, 2005

The breaker box at my mom’s house was being upgraded today so we were without power when I woke up this morning. There was not much to do around the house so I decided I would go see a movie. I was thinking Just Friends with Ryan Reynolds would be a good movie with some possible eye candy.

I drove to the theatre, but it did not start until almost five. It was about three o’clock. So I sat in my truck listening to the Seahawks game and the battle back and forth with the Giants. It went into overtime and I had to go into the theatre so I missed the third missed field goal by Feeley. I also missed Brown’s game winner.

The movie was pretty good. I mainly went because Reynolds was in it and I was hoping to see something like this:


Ryan Reynolds from Blade Trinity

Instead they did not show anything close to that. So I was disappointed. I am not a big fan of the beard he has in that pic, but everything else is just fine. Oh well, maybe his next one will have something more.

After the movie I went home and the power was on. So I watched my Sunday night TV shows and cooked some dinner. I actually went to bed early. It was about one in the morning when I finally went to sleep.

Saw II is disturbing!

November 26th, 2005

I really slept in today. I tried to get a hold of Dave again, but I was unsuccessful in my attempts. I planning on going to see Saw II today. It was as bad and in some ways worse than the last one. It was still along the same lines of punishing people and the hard thing is knowing that they could live if they followed the rules and *listened* but many times people hear you, but they don’t listen to you.

After that was over with I decided to play some poker at Diamond lils. I was doing well for most of the night, then I ran in to a spell of bad hands. The hands I did get that I could play always had really poor community cards. It was hard to see my stack dwindle to nothing. So I rebought in. Just as the table I was on was starting to break up around three-thirty in the morning I made my way back to being even. Then I went to a new table and played for about a half hour. I left down a little bit of money, but not as bad as it could have been.

It was funny this guy sat down with two hundred and forty bucks. He called every hand and played most of them to the end. In some cases he would bet on after the river, but when someone raised him he would fold. Sometimes he would call the raise then show his cards and a lot of the time he had a horrible hand. After losing all that money, he bought in another hundred bucks. He lost that the same way. So then he bought in another sixty bucks and lost that too. He was there for about an hour and a half and dropped about four hundred bucks. It was so bad. It was like taking money for my nephew.

Rich people poker

November 25th, 2005

Each month on Friday people in Newport Shores play poker. Newport Shores in on the shore of Lake Washington where the “cheap” houses are three-quarters of a million bucks to start and as you get closer to the water it is considerably more. On the water you are talking multi-million dollar homes. The last few games have been a guys house that is on the water. It is a huge house. It is sort of weird to be in a house that costs millions of dollars. Needless to say I don’t go to many of them.

I sit at tables where people plop down twenty or thirty bucks for a buy-in where that money is mere pocket change. We played two-five Texas-Hold em for several hours. Then everyone left except for me and one other guy, plus the home owner. I was up for the night and doing well.

We changed to no-limit poker with a five-ten blind. We played for another hour or so. Finally on a hand I had that was okay, I ended up losing to someone who got pocket aces. So I walked out even on the day.

Happy Thanksgiving

November 24th, 2005

Today is Thanksgiving. I got up around noon and went down stairs. I watched some of the Cowboys football game before getting ready to head to Jon’s for dinner. We were meeting at two in the afternoon at his place. I was the first there. I watched the football game there.

People started to show up within the next few minutes to the next half hour. We sat around talking and watching football. They had paper on the table with pens so all the kids could draw. I started it out with making an Apple Cup drawing. Once I started to draw all the boys wanted to draw too. We did that until dinner started.

We ate in the dining room and the kids ate on the kitchen table. We had the normal adult conversations. I found out that Andy Savage was a neighbor of Bonnie and Larry. But he had moved out about a month ago. I wish I had known he was their neighbor before.

After dinner we watched some more TV and the boys started in a poker tournament. I helped Justin out. He does not have a poker face at all, but with my help he was doing well. Justin ended up winning the tournament.

While I was at Jon’s, Russell called to wish me a happy Thanksgiving. He had been in Seattle and had a dinner with his family yesterday. He was on his way back to Pullman when he called me.

After I left Jon’s I went home and watched some evening shows and got on my computer and did some Internet surfing.

Sleeping forever

November 23rd, 2005

I had planned on getting up early and making my way to Seattle. But I was so tired that when my alarm clock went off an hour and a half after getting up I decided to keep sleeping. I finally got up around nine in the morning and got going. I got my clothes from home and packed my truck. I found the order for the coroners office came in but there was a problem with the order. All the words that should have been white where yellow. I gave the order to Fran to take to Pete and let him see them.

I finally got out of town around ten o’clock in the morning. That meant at best it would be around two in the afternoon when I would get to work. I cruised along on what promised to be one of biggest travel days of the year. With the pass down to one lane near the rock slide I was worried about the traffic. As it turned out, West-bound was not bad at all. I made it through without any real interruptions.

I got to NetUpdate finally a little after two in the afternoon. I spoke with Roger about the work that needed to be done and did a few odds and ends, but I did not dig in to any real work at all.

I left around five in the evening. The traffic was very light until I reached NE Fourth on the freeway because on an accident. So I got off there and took the back roads. Those were really light as well. I got home in no time and just hung out around the house for dinner.

I did not go out, but I stayed up sort of late doing stuff online and chatting with people.

My Thanksgiving Break starts after tonight

November 22nd, 2005

Today is the last day over here for about two weeks. I am going to be staying out there for the time because of the Visual Studio.NET release party. Plus I am going to be able to hang out with my friends and family.

At work today I did some touch-up work on a bug. I also was requested to do the rig checks. So I went down to do those. I hung out at the station for several hours between doing the rig checks and playing poker with Shane, Brian, Jay, and I, as well as watching some TV with everyone.

After watching House I took off. I wanted to get to bed so I could wake up nice and early in the morning, but I could not get to sleep. Soon, the tones were going off for a delta response. It was not a big deal. Following the call, Shane, Chelsey, and I hung out in the bay talking about our first structure fires and other big calls.

No Training, no nothing!

November 21st, 2005

I was still not feeling great. I slept a total of eleven hours today. I went to the office but I did not really get much done today. When work was done I had no fire training, so I decided I would go to the Coroners office to get the business cards made.

I got them printed off then I went to the control room and hung out up there for a while. We chatted about the people in the jail and the officers and what they are up to. I found out that Brian got a job working as the new Colton Town Marshall.

I feel sick today

November 20th, 2005

I did not feel very well today, but I got up and watched some TV before heading to Pullman. I got some lunch from Dissmores then I went to my office and played some poker. But it turned out that I was feeling worse and worse as the time went on. I finally decided to take a nap. When I was asleep I did not feel too bad.

My phone’s alarm clock was set to go off to get me up for vehicle maintenance. I did not want to get up, but finally I had to. I was feeling light-headed and I felt just icky. I went to the station and started on maintenance. I called around to find someone to cover for me. Finally I got a hold of Chelsey and she said she would cover me.

After maintenance I went home and watched some TV and just tried to relax and keep warm. I finally went to bed at midnight.

The Apple Cup Stays in Pullman

November 19th, 2005

I got up this morning and went to Colfax for the EVAP rodeo course. I had to do it with one of the Ambulances and Engine Three. They were running a little behind, but because I was scheduled early in the morning I did not have a problem getting it done pretty quickly.

The rodeo was not that hard. Engine three is a very bad turn radius and it was harder to do the serpentine in it. Then I did the ambulance and that was easy. After that was done I went to my house and get ready for the football game at Martin Stadium. The Greyhounds were playing the Cardinals of Orting. They are in fifth place and they have an eleven and zero record. Pullman is eleven and zero but I believe they are ranked number one or two in the state.

The game started with one of the Cardinals getting hit really hard. Sanders from PPD and I were watching him on the sideline and we were worried about him because he was having a hard time standing. A little later I was called over to check on him. It was good that they wanted me to look at him. It was sort of a cluster, but while I was dealing with that Pullman was getting dispatched to things left and right. They had a structure fire, a car vs. ped accident, and someone who fell in Palouse.

The car vs. ped accident turned out to be fatal. I was worried I would get called out so I got a ride from Lester, District-twelve’s fire chief, to get my truck. I went back to the stadium. As it turned out Moscow Ambulance transported the person to Moscow.

I finished watching the game and Pullman beat up on Orting. Through out the game the announcer would give updates on the Apple Cup. If the Huskies were winning you would hear all the Orting fans cheer. When the Cougs were winning all the Greyhound fans would cheer.

When it was all said and done Pullman beat Orting forty to seven. Once again Pullman dominated the other team. It has been like that for them all season. We were standing on the field when the announcer let us know the Cougs had won the Apple Cup. We all cheered some more. After the game was done Jesse invited me to respond on calls through out the night if I wanted to.

I went to station one and worked on my paper-work for the refusal. After talking with one of the paramedics about it, he scared me about the whole thing. He told me how he would have handled it and how I should write it up. I ended up writing about two and a half pages about it covering all of the things that transpired around the event.

Then I went to my office and played some poker online. I responded on a call with them around nine o’clock. After the call we sat the the Deuce and watched the end of the UCS – Fresno State football game. Fresno was beating USC late in the game, but USC came back and won.

I went to my office and played some more online poker. But I wanted to get to bed pretty soon so I was going to call it a night. That is when a call came in. I decided not to go on it. But as it turned out things got really busy at one time. Like earlier today they started to get a lot of calls at once. They called for all full-timers to come to the station. Then they called for all reserves. I was down at Safeway getting gas. But I went to the Deuce and hung out for about forty minutes, until everything went back to normal.

Then I went to Whitcom. I saw Jamie and Merinda there. I talked with them and the other dispatchers for a couple hours and I talked to Jamie about the game and the injury to see how she might have handled it. I left around three in the morning to head home.

The start of Thanksgiving Break

November 18th, 2005

After having a nice four in a row off from the fire department today I will be on duty as well as working the women’s basketball game.

I met up with Travis around three o’clock to head up to Bohler. When we got there it did not appear a basketball game was close to being started so I talked to Phil on the phone he said it was at Beasley. So off to Beasley. We had equipment, but Travis forgot to grab the keys. So we had to find someone to get us into the first aid room.

When the game started I watched the game from. I would go back to the EMS room from time to time to make sure all was well in there. Travis also watched the game with me. The Cougar Women won the game pretty convincingly.

After the game we went to station one to return the equipment. I dropped Travis off at the Deuce and did my rig checks. I hung out at the station for a while, but it was pretty dead there. I went back to my office and played some poker before calling it a night. I had to get up for the EVAP rodeo in the morning, plus I need to remember to call Brandon and wish him a happy birthday.

Radio Show on the air with Leif again

November 17th, 2005

After not working with Leif on the air for a few weeks because either he or I were gone we were back on the air together. We spoke about the recent votes that happened because we had not had a chance to discuss them. Then we talked about the XBox that he won and the trip to LA for some huge XBox convention. Lucky him.

After the radio show I headed to the office to get some stuff done before I had to the volleyball game. Ben and I were working it. We got the equipment we needed and then went to Bohler Gym for the game. The Cougs have not been great this year but they won in five games. So it was neat to see a victory.

Also, the Cougar Marching band played Turn the Beat Around for me. I was happy about that. I asked Andy if they would play it. He did his magic for me. After the game was complete we dropped off the equipment at station one, then dropped the van off at the Deuce before heading home.

A day of nothingness

November 16th, 2005

On my schedule for the day? NOTHING! Well, I have to do my normal job, but that is all. There was nothing else planned for the rest of the day. I got some bugs completed and saved.

I did get a call from Kyle and he asked me to cover for him. I told him that I would do that. After a call had come out, him and I were outside talking for about thirty minutes. I let him know that I was happy he was discrete when he was mentioning that he saw me out and about once in Seattle. So he had probably seen me at R Place. He did not say that but left it to me to figure out what he was speaking of.

I told him that though several on the department know about me I don’t want the new people to know and I hope that over time it is a mostly forgotten fact. I think for the most part people do not know either that no one brings up the conversation at all. Either way I am happy with them not knowing. I let Kyle know that.

EVAP Training

November 15th, 2005

With Pullman’s EMS training cancelled I decided I would hit fire training in Colfax. When I got down there I found out it was the EVAP training. So it was good that I decided to go to it. The training was pretty short over all. Ken went through all the slides and discussed everything. The actual driving portion will be completed on Saturday.

After the training I watched House with Ken. Then he brought up the Bible and accept Jesus as my savior. We spoke about the different topics for several hours. One thing I danced around by tried to get Ken to speak about it was homosexuality. Finally at the end of the night when he was talking about some religions that allow for gay clergy, he said it was wrong to do that because you are letting a sinner like that lead. So I now know where his view on homosexuality is. I have thought about bringing it up with him, but I am afraid the word will get out to everyone else on the department. What is amazing is that with such little separation there is between Pullman and Colfax and all the people who know me, that the city of Colfax and all the people who work there seem to not know about me.

Hose Testing

November 14th, 2005

Man, I did not want to get out of bed this morning. I kept sleeping and sleeping. I think this weekend really got to me. Finally around noon I got up and started my day. But I was un-motivated. Plus my PayPal-like account was set-up so I could play some cards. I pretty much did things other than work today.

Around six o’clock pm I went to the fire station. I went with the engine to station one to do some hose testing. It only took a couple hours because we were testing the five inch hose only. All the rest had been tested. We also spent some time rolling hose that had already dried in the hose tower. In all it was a pretty short day for me.

I went back to my office when I was done doing the hose testing to play some more cards. I did not do great today, but I must get more patient. I am playing too many hands.

Lots of cleaning

November 13th, 2005

I slept until about two o’clock pm when I received a phone call from Pete. He had a few questions about my field report from my last case. After clearing it up for him. I decided it was time to get up. I made some lunch and watched TV for a couple hours. I was going to go to Colfax fire and hang out, but I decided to stay at home until I had to go to Pullman for vehicle maintenance.

I wanted to get to the fire station a little early and get a start on my work. I knew it would take a while because we needed to take all the equipment out and clean them and the compartments then put everything back. The compartments were horrible. The middle one where we keep a larger number of hand tools had hydraulic fluid on the floor of the compartment where a sixteen ounce bottle spilled. It took almost a half hour to just get it cleaned up, let alone the tools that are kept in the one compartment. After doing just one side of the rescue I helped with the cab. That took a total of nearly two and a half hours. Normally it would take two and a half hours, give or take, to do the whole rig.

After we were done cleaning, we had to go to station one and get some supplies. Then we went to the hospital where I got my yearly TB test read. Negative again.

When we got back I hung out for a while at the station. I was starving so I was about to leave when we got a call. It was up at the rec center. We did not transport. So we went back to the station and that was it for calls for the night.

I decided to write another entry in the Palousitics blog. It is a local political blog that I was asked to join last week. It can be seen at http://palousitics.blogspot.com/.

Final Cougar Home Game

November 12th, 2005

I woke up about five hours after going to bed. I decided it was time to get up and get ready to head to Ben’s place for the pre-game activities. Ben gave me a call and let me know things were underway.

I went to Rosauers for some lunch and then headed off to Pullman. I got my ticket from my office and got my warm clothing from my truck. I drove towards Ben apartment and found a place to park really close. I walked to his place from there and went inside. There were several people there playing games and watching TV.

Ben poured some rum in my pop. We played a card drinking game for a little bit, then people moved on to playing with Ben’s plastic BB guns. He shot me with one and I shot him back. It was a lot of fun. I also got a beer to go down after the hard A. But I had to stop drinking early on because I was going to be on call after the game and needed time for the alcohol to work through the system.

We had some dinner at the apartment next door with someone who was going to be coming to the game with us. I headed up early with some other people. They were sitting in assigned seats in section two. I went to section twenty-seven and went to the top row. I was there until kick off. I called Ben and found out where he was sitting. He was in the end zone so I went down there to be with him, Ryan, and Mike. It was a good game, as have been all the games this season so far.

Ben was pretty drunk and he kept hold onto me and he would hug me a lot. He is one of those people who likes to touch. Towards the end of the game Ben and his girlfriend left to go back to the apartment. Mike and I went near the tunnel where some reserves seats are for the marketing people. We sat there because he knows the people. They were neat seats. But as the second half wore on Oregon scored a lot of points and took a lead. The Cougs tied it up with a field goal, but needed a defensive stop. Oregon however drove the field and scored a game winning field goal with four seconds to go.

I walked back to my truck and went to my office where I got into my uniform for the fire department. I went to the deuce and waited for rescue to get back. Then I found out I was going to be on the engine. I left a little after midnight and got some pizza then I went to my office and played some ESPN poker. I did that for about two hours and I was falling asleep. So I went to sleep only to be called out about seven minutes later. It was a delta call. I did not go on it, but I had to go to the station and stand by. I slept on the couch until the guys got back. Then I went back to my office.

Around five in the morning we got a call for a fire in a backyard that someone was trying to put out. I was unsure if we were supposed to go on it, so I went to the station. We ended up going, even though it was an open burn, something reserves don’t go on. When we got to the scene we were asked to come up and help. The fire was out, but we had to break it apart and make sure it was extinguished. I used the trash hook and pulled the plastic pallets that they were burning. It was probably not the smartest thing someone has done in the world. They had run out of wood and decided to keep the fire going with something and they had the plastic pallets right there. We spent a while pouring water from their garden hose on it.

Finally we pulled the trash line and put about two hundred gallons and foam on the fire area to make sure it would not rekindle. As we left around seven in the morning, it was starting to snow. Michael, Kyle, and I met up at Dissmores and got some hot cocoa. I went to my office and changed back into street clothes and headed to Colfax where I would go to bed.

Pullman High moves on

November 11th, 2005

Aside from getting a couple bugs finished and checked in, I was on call for the fire department. I also was going to work the Pullman High football game. Nick, Ben, and I met up around six-thirty and headed up to the field. The game started around seven o’clock.

Pullman came out and made the presence known. They scored, scored, and scored some more. They only allowed one touchdown the whole game. That is pretty typical for them this year. They do not give many points up. With this win they move to the second around of the state playoffs.

After the call we headed back to the station to park rescue. The rest of the evening I was on call. We now go on alpha calls so that adds some to our call volume. Tonight we got several calls and they were all alphas and bravos. They were spaced out in such a way that we spent nearly the whole evening going on calls and I only got about two hours of sleep.

One call we got as we were backing the rescue into the bay, just after the previous call. It was for someone who was passed out on the grass at an apartment complex. We were there first. He was cold and wet and very drunk. We transported him to the hospital. I spoke with some of the cops who were there before I ran off to the hospital to get my crew on rescue.

The final call came in around five in the morning. I decided to just stay up after it and head back to Colfax when six o’clock rolled around. I figured I would go to bed there until it was time to get up and hang with Ben.

Royal Moscow Circus on Ice

November 10th, 2005

I started by going to PRH for a TB test that all EMS providers have to take yearly. I got there when Meow was there. We walked out together and chatted for a while about his new house. Then I went to the CUB for my radio show. I grabbed a bite to eat and then went to the studio. Tom Forbes of Palousitics was going to be my guest.

Tom write a political blog and covers a lot of subjects that affect Pullman. A big one is Wal-Mart. We spent the whole show talking about the recent election, Wal-Mart, PARD, BREO, other political issues, and Cougar Football. It was a good show and Tom and I agreed on a lot of things.

Following the show I went to my office and started to get some work done. I got a couple bugs completed and checked in, but I also was working on one that was kicking my butt. I could not figure out how to fix it. After working on it until almost five-thirty, I decided to give up for the evening and head to the fire station. I was working the Royal Moscow Circus on Ice at Beasley.

When I signed up I did not know it was some ice skating show. I did not really want to do it. But I signed up for it. We got to Beasley about an hour and a half before show time. I decided to watch the opening act and see what it was all about. I was pleasantly surprised. It was really good. The opening act had a few ten-six-sevens. They had some abs that were rock solid. Through out the show I was impressed with the shows of strength these guys had. It was amazing the muscle control and what they did.

When it was done I was happy that I was there and recommended it to Nick and Russell to go see. Brian and I went to station one to drop off the equipment then we went back to the deuce to drop off the van. I headed home and watched some TV before going to bed.

First time since July Twenty-Fourth

November 9th, 2005

Something happened at the deuce that has not happened in almost five months. No calls at all. Not a single call for service. That is a real rarity down at the deuce since it added full-timers. After doing rig checks and getting checked off on ambulance thirty-one I hung out down there and watched some TV. I was mainly waiting around for SouthPark. Following SouthPark we watched Mind Freak. Then I went to the office.

I was looking up information about online gaming. I had heard about it and I was curious to find out some more. A guy I work with told me about a website his brother-in-law runs. I went there and did some reading on it.

What will the commute be like

November 8th, 2005

I was a little worried about the commute I faced after work tonight, but today was a day to deal with things at work first. There was a meeting to discuss entry of rate sheets for pricing customers. The way it is done now is very labor intensive and it takes a long time for people who have a lot of rate sheets. I was shown some of the rate sheets and it is clear this is going to be no easy way to get a more automated entry system unless people start to make rate sheets more uniform. Some of them would be easy to do, some would be impossible because of the formatting that is used to set them up. It is clear they are meant to look nice when printed and they are not meant to be used to upload to databases.

I also spent some time working on bugs like normal. I would like to get the remaining bugs knocked out by the end of the month if I can. I got a new showstopper assigned to me. After some work investigating it, I found the problem with it was something to do with a missing DLL and not code. So I need to figure out how to get the DLL to copy to the correct location.

After I got done working I loaded up my truck, got some gas and hit the road. It was a pretty smooth commute. Even in the pass where the speed limit drops to thirty-five miles per hour around the rock slide area went quickly with very few cars on the road. I had almost no traffic to deal with the whole way.

I went to the jail when I got to Colfax. I hung out in there for about an hour chatting with the guys. I went home a little before midnight.

An average day the office

November 7th, 2005

I went into the office after having not been there in almost three weeks. It was a pretty average day there. I worked on some bugs mainly. It seems that is all I do there. Someday we will start to build some new stuff, but for the most part we are doing a lot of fixes on things that do not work.

After I headed home for the night, the commute was pretty light. I got to my house and played with Amber, had some dinner and watched some TV. I guess you could say SSDD.

Watching the Boys

November 6th, 2005

When I got up my mom told me that pass was closed because huge boulders fell on the roadway again. They were discovered at about three in the morning. So I made it by about two hours. If I had waited like I planed I would have had to go way out of the way to get home and battle the hundreds of dad’s coming back from Dad’s Weekend.

I headed to Apollo to get the boys from Jon. They were up doing some litter clean up with Brian’s boys. I took them to Jon’s house. We played a couple poker tournaments while we waited for Lisa to get home.

When she did I took off and went home myself. I hung out there for the rest of the day. I did not do much of anything for the rest of the day other than watching some football games and then watching my Sunday night TV shows.

WSU Football… SSDD

November 5th, 2005

I left my stuff on Rescue last night because I figured I would go to any call between the morning and game time, plus I was going to be going to the game on Rescue. But I was able to sleep in due to the lack of calls. I got up and went down to the station around eleven o’clock.

I met up with Michael and we loaded our gear and headed to station one. There was a big breakfast and the typical pre-game meeting. Unlike in times past Rescue was slated to get up there two hours before game time. I drove us up there and we got into position. I wore my sweatshirt at first, but as time went on, I put on my turnout coat and hat and gloves. It was chilly for sure.

The Cougs let Arizona State get a pretty good lead on them, but the Cougs battled back. With about three minutes to go in the fourth quarter the Cougs had a fourth down and four. They were on the five yard line. They kicked the game tying fieldgoal. But Arizona State jumped offsides. So the result of the penalty would give the Cougs a fourth and one or three points if they decline it. Harrison to that point hand more than two hundred yards rushing. We needed the points. The defense was not going to stop Arizona State. The defense has given up five hundred yards rushing.

Doba decided to go for it. Took the points off the board and only needed one yard. Harrison was stuffed and the Cougs lost the game by three points. I supported the decision at the time and I still support it. I like that they were aggressive.

After the game Michael and I were going to go to the hospital and drop off a blanket that was used by someone. It took a while to navigate the campus with all the people. After dropping off the blanket we had to stop by station one and then I was going to head to Seattle. We were at Crestview and Grand when a Delta call went out on Fountain. It was right up the street from us, so we hit the lights and went to the call. We beat everyone else on scene. So that slowed down my response to Seattle.

I debated on whether to wait until the morning because of the snow that was falling and my nearly bald tires. I decided to go. It was not that bad. Even in the pass I just kept the speed down and make good time. I got back to my mom’s house at about one in the morning.

Slow day at the fire department

November 4th, 2005

I got a few of my bugs completed and turned in. Actually only two of them. But I am working away on them. I am going to try to get as many or all of them completed before the end of November if I can.

I was on call at the fire department. I came down for rig checks. A call came out and we went in route only to be cancelled en route. So we turned around in the driveway and parked the rig. I talked to Andy a little bit about his job offer with Seattle FD. Tonight was his last night. We did get one call that was pretty big, but for the most part it was quiet.

The called was for a guy who had fellen from about ten feet up and hit his head on the sidewalk. He was bleeding pretty badly and it was a PUHA situation. Rescue got on scene and helped package the guy and sent him off. Then Josh and I cleaned up the sidewalk. We first put Red-Z on the blood. Then we scooped as much as we could. But there was a fair amount of blood left, so we called the engine to see if they could come and spray it down.

At first we were told to use some bottled water. But that did not do anything to help. So we told the engine it did not do anything. They came by from the hospital and we hooked up a pony line and sprayed it down. There was still some left the water pressure would not get, but for the most part it was taken care of. A cop asked to use the shovel and get the rest.

We went to the hospital and got Andy, who went with the ambulance. Then we went to station one to get the shovel decontaminated and to get some more Red-Z for the rescue.

A few hours later we were dispatched for a guy who was really drunk in the big parking lot next to the tennis courts. We transported him to the hospital. That was it for calls on this dad’s weekend at WSU.

Big poker tournament in Oregon

November 3rd, 2005

I got up this morning and zoomed off to Pendleton Oregon for a poker tournament. I got turned around in Walla Walla and it caused the difference of being on time and being late. Thankfully they were taking entries late. I could not find Bobby who had my entry fee, so I pulled out the money from my ATM account and I figured I would get it from him after I found him.

I made it through the first couple rounds and won a few small pots and one decent pot. Then we had a fifteen minute break. One guy sitting across from my came up at the break and introduced himself as Ryan Franklin. Not the baseball player, but someone who knew me from back in ninety-four living in Stephenson.

Once the break was done I got to playing. The blinds were going up and I needed to make some money or it would be eaten up by the blinds. I got dealt a pair of sevens so I raised. Someone else went all in, and I had about six hundred bucks left, so I called. He flipped over pocket aces. He ended up winning sending me home. I stopped and talked to a couple of the guys who had played in the Zeppoz tournament with me, who had also won a buy-in. One guy was already out and one guy was doing pretty well. I was early enough I thought I could do the Pullman High football game.

I called Phil and found out one seat was available. I claimed it and made my way back to Pullman. It was just under a three hour drive from Pendleton to Pullman. I got my uniform on and went to the fire station. Shortly after arriving we got a call for an overdose. We went on that, then got ready for the football game. It was rainy and ugly outside. We wear a few layers of clothes for protection. Pullman High was winning the whole game. In fact they only let up two first downs in the whole game. Pullman came away undefeated for the season. It was a nice season for them.

After the game Meow, John, and I played some cards at my office. We shared a half-rack and played for a couple hours. It was fun to play cards with John again and for a chance to hang out with Meow outside of the fire department.

Coroner’s Meeting

November 2nd, 2005

Tonight was the coroners meeting. It had been postponed to today. I was also on call at the fire department. I could not find anyone to cover for me so I told that to Chuck and he said I could just go.

We talked about the recent cases we have had. We also went through clothing. We are going to get a couple shirts, polo’s, a hat, a knit hat, and a coat. All of them with the coroner logo I designed. I also need to create some ideas for business cards. I have a few ideas, but nothing on paper yet. I want them to look sharp.

I am pretty excited to see my handiwork appearing on the coroners office stuff. I made ID cards for us.

I went back to Pullman after the meeting and I was on call. But it was a pretty quiet night over all. Not really a lot to speak of. I did play some online poker before going to sleep.

OTEP Training in Colfax

November 1st, 2005

After work I went to Colfax for OTEP training. It was on preventing diseases. We talked about HIV, HBV, HCV, and some of the other fun ones. Carl, Tim, Jim, and I played poker for about an hour and a half. It was not my night, I donated money to them for most of it.